Designing Schools and Districts to
Support Mathematics Teachers’
Ongoing Learning
Paul Cobb, Thomas Smith, Kara,
Jackson, Erin Henrick, et al.
Project Overview
• What does it take to support mathematics
teachers’ development of ambitious forms of
instruction on a large scale?
• Four large urban districts
– Middle school + inquiry oriented instruction
• What does it take to support a high-quality
implementation of CMP2?
– Long-term goal: Theory of action for district-wide
instructional improvement in mathematics
Project Overview
• October: Document districts’ improvement
strategies
– Interview district leaders
• January – March: Document how districts’
strategies are actually playing out in schools
and classrooms
– 6-10 middle-grades schools in each district
30 mathematics teachers
Project Overview
• Interviews - teachers, coaches, school leaders, and
district leaders
• On-line survey - teachers, coaches, school leaders
• LMT – teachers and coaches
• Video-recordings of two consecutive mathematics
lessons
• Video-recordings of pull-out teacher professional
development
• Audio-recordings of teacher collaborative planning
meetings
• On-line network survey – all mathematics teachers
Project Overview
• February – April: Analyze the interviews to
assess and explain how improvement
strategies are playing out
• May: Present feedback report to districts
– Actionable recommendations
• Co-designers with district leaders
– Design experiment
– Formal hypothesis testing
Coherent Instructional System
• Explicit goals for students’ mathematical learning
• Goals for teachers’ learning – concrete instructional practices
• Instructional materials, pacing guides, curriculum frameworks,
etc. designed to support teachers’ development of the above
practices
• Pull-out teacher PD that focuses on the specific practices, is
organized around the above materials, and is sustained over
time
• Teacher collaborative time that centers on practices that have
been the focus of work in pull-out PD
• Assessments that inform:
– Ongoing improvement of mainstream instruction
– Identification of students who are currently struggling and require
additional support
Teacher Networks
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Doing mathematics problems together with discussion of different solution strategies
Discussing different ways students are likely to solve tasks
Discussing why some students didn’t learn as expected in a lesson in order to plan for future
instruction
Analyzing examples of student work in order to adjust instruction
Analyzing examples of student work to understand the different ways that students solve
problems
Discussing how to make use of student solution strategies in whole class mathematical
discussions
Discussing pacing
Analyzing student work to see if students “got it”
Discussing what materials to sue for a lesson
After a lesson, sharing whether students “got it”
Sharing materials or activities
Updating one another on a student or students’ progress in mathematics
Other (please specify)
Selection of Colleagues
• Teacher networks are emergent phenomena
• Districts can develop policies to influence the
conditions in which networks emerge
• Regularly scheduled time for collaboration
Selection of Colleagues
• Future analyses:
– Formal role, grade level, physical proximity,
gender, race/ethnicity, peer’s expertise
– Measures of expertise: IQA, LMT, HQMI, SMC
• What influences depth of interactions about
instruction?
Influence of Interactions on
Knowledge and Practice
• Interactions with colleagues whose MKT deeper
supports significant improvements in own MKT
• Interactions with colleagues whose instructional
practices are more sophisticated supports
significant improvements in own practices
• Future analyses:
– Relationship between types of interactions and forms
of expertise
Mathematics Coaches
• Mathematics coach in each middle school
– Half-time release from teaching
• Only slightly more advanced than the teachers
they are expected to support
– Extensive professional development
– CMP2 + Cognitive Coaching
Mathematics Coaches
• Extent to which teachers turn to the coach for
advice influenced by:
– Perception of coach’s experience as a teacher
– Regularly scheduled time to for the coach to work
with groups of teachers
Mathematics Coaching
– Coach’s relationship with principal
• Could describe coach’s role in assisting teachers in
detail
• Attend collaborative planning meetings
• Extensive observations of teachers’ instruction
– Shared responsibility for instructional
improvement
School Leaders
• A wide range of views on what school leaders
need to know and be able to do:
– MKT, student mathematical learning, high-quality
mathematics instruction, teacher learning
• Coach mathematics teachers
– General principles of high-quality inquiry-oriented
instruction
• Observe and provide feedback
School Leaders
• Interviews – vision of high-quality
mathematics instruction
– Form rather than function views
– Consistent with teachers’ reports of the feedback
they receive from school leaders
• Extensive professional development
– Focused on general, content-free characteristics of
high-quality instruction
School Leaders
• 3 half-day sessions
– Distinguish between high and low cognitive
demand mathematics tasks
– Distinguish between high- and low- quality class
discussions
– Collaborate with district mathematics coaches to
develop school plans for supporting teachers’
learning
District Leaders
• Common agenda for mathematics teaching
and learning across district central office units
– Curriculum and Instruction, and Leadership
District Leaders
• Instructional management
– Increase student achievement in mathematics
• Instructional improvement
– Improve quality of mathematics teachers’
instructional practices