W. Gary Martin

Generating a Networked Improvement Community to Improve Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation Network Leadership, Organization, and Operation

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-Partnership) was formed to address the undersupply of new secondary mathematics teachers who are well prepared to help their students attain the goals of the Common Core State Standards and other college- and career-ready standards. This national consortium of more than 90 universities and 100 school systems has been organized as a Networked Improvement Community (NIC), which combines the disciplined inquiry of improvement science with the power of networking to accelerate improvement by engaging a broad set of participants. Initiating a NIC involves a number of challenges described in the NIC Initiation Framework. This case study analyzes the MTE-Partnership’s progress in one domain of that framework: network leadership, organization, and operation. Areas of discussion include convening the network, establishing a membership framework and participation structures, building leadership and hub functions, developing a communications infrastructure, and finding necessary resources.

Improving Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation Via a Networked Improvement Community: Focus On Clinical Experiences

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership is a consortium of over 90 U.S. universities and colleges, along with partner school districts, focused on improving the initial preparation of secondary mathematics teachers. The Partnership uses a Networked Improvement Community design that incorporates improvement cycles to develop adaptable interventions across contexts, as well to scale interventions across the Partnership to support comprehensive program improvement. Rather than addressing a single dimension of a secondary mathematics program, the Partnership is undertaking parallel lines of research in multiple areas. To illustrate the power of the approach, this chapter will more deeply explore one of those lines of research related to clinical experiences: A “research action cluster” (RAC) consisting of representatives of 24 university-led teams is working to improve the clinical experiences of secondary mathematics teacher candidates. This RAC has employed improvement science methods to developed resources that support improved models for both student teaching and early field experiences, as well as professional development for mentor teachers.

Discrete Mathematics Is Essential Mathematics in a 21st Century School Curriculum

In this chapter we discuss discrete mathematics in the school curriculum. We make the case, based on many years of curriculum research and design, that discrete mathematics is essential in a modern, robust school mathematics curriculum, and that five broad problem types emerge as ways to organize the diversity of discrete mathematics contexts that are important and appropriate for the curriculum—enumeration, sequential change, relationships among a finite number of elements, information processing, and fair decision-making. In this chapter, these five problem types are briefly described and three classroom examples are provided. Subsequent chapters in this volume provide additional analysis, research, and more classroom examples.