Growth in Teachers' Mathematics Content Knowledge for Teaching
The Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute Partnership's vision is the creation of a sustainable and generative leadership capacity within its core partner institutions to provide support for systemic mathematics reform and to meet the following goals:
1) increase mathematics achievement of all students in core partner K-12 schools;
2) close achievement gaps for underrepresented groups of students;
3) increase enrollment and success in challenging mathematics coursework that support state and national standards through coherent evidence-based programs.
The primary activity of the project is the development of a cadre of mathematics teachers as school- and district-based intellectual leaders and master teachers through a series of intensive summer institutes and follow-up academic year activities. The summer institutes combine rigorous and relevant mathematics content coursework with leadership development workshops and seminars. Academic year activities supported the ongoing development of collaborative professional learning communities of K-12 teachers, school administrators, and higher education faculty.
The guiding design principles for the OMLI Partnership activities are towards building strengths in teachers' content knowledge, leadership, and professional community.
Building strong content knowledge
The design of the Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute is driven by the recommendations of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences for the mathematical education of teachers (2001). To meet these recommendations, mathematics courses for teachers need to
help teachers "develop a deep understanding of the mathematics they will teach"
emphasize fundamental ideas of and connections with school mathematics
focus on a thorough development of basic mathematical ideas and "develop careful reasoning and mathematical "common sense" in analyzing conceptual relationships and in solving problems"
- build mathematical knowledge and "develop the habits of mind of a mathematical thinker and demonstrate flexible, interactive styles of teaching"
Fundamental to increasing students' opportunities to learn mathematics and to assuring significant improvement in students' mathematical achievement is amassing a deep and qualified pool of mathematics teachers who enjoy and understand mathematics and teaching. The central premise is that strong mathematics content knowledge is necessary to enable teachers to transform their classrooms into mathematical learning communities where student engage in high level discourse around important mathematical ideas. Teachers' content knowledge must be built in ways that connect important ideas clearly to school mathematics and using approaches that model effective instruction.
The Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute emphasizes relevant and rigorous mathematics coursework as the core of its summer institutes. Each teacher participant takes 6 mathematics content courses (representing strands of Algebra & Function, Number & Operation, Geometry, Data Analysis, Discrete Mathematics, Measurement & Change), 2 each summer in an intensive 3-week residential program for three consecutive summers. Each of the six strands were developed and team taught by a Disciplinary Content Team made up of university content faculty, mathematics education faculty, community college content faculty, and master mathematics teachers.
Building strong leadership
Strong content knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient condition for teachers to become intellectual and professional leaders in their own schools and districts. To assure high-quality mathematics instruction for all students, all mathematics teachers must engage in sustained, high quality professional development that incorporates a range of proven strategies in a coherent, long-term plan that:
Keeps students' mathematical learning and thinking at its core.
Maintains a central focus on narrowing achievement gaps while improving all students' mathematics learning.
Consistently models and increases teachers' facility with evidence-based "best practices" in mathematics teaching, learning, and leadership.
Simultaneously deepens teachers' mathematics content knowledge and their understanding of effective pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, technology, and the diverse needs of students.
Contextualizes professional development in the school structure and organization and situates teacher learning in authentic classroom practice.
Builds a culture of collaboration among teachers and administrators who engage in ongoing collegial inquiry, reflection, and instructional action based on evidence about their students' learning needs.
Involves teachers and administrators in identifying and planning for their professional development with data about student learning driving decisions and plans.
Develops broad-based and skillful local leadership capacity to assure sustainability.
Makes professional development an integral, embedded part of everyday school life through continuous inquiry and improvement.
The Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute includes a collegial leadership component as an integral part of mathematics its summer institutes. Each teacher participant takes this leadership component each summer for three consecutive summers, followed up each year by onsite visits, online activities, school and district meetings. A Collegial Leadership Support Team made up of master mathematics teachers develops the leadership component and provides academic year support.
Building a strong professional community
At the heart of attaining and sustaining such high quality professional learning by teachers are two key ideas:
(1) collaborative professional learning communities-where educators "pursue clear, shared purposes for student learning, engage in collaborative activities to achieve their purposes, and take collective responsibility for student learning" (Lieberman, 1999). Virtually every research study on the topic of school reform has found collegiality among teachers a strong indicator of implementation success and rationale for "reculturing" (Fullan, 2001, p 124) the teaching profession to create and foster purposeful learning communities. McLaughlin and Talbert (2001) found that teachers who are successful with all students teach "in schools and departments with a strong professional community engaged in making innovations that support student and teacher learning and success" (p. 34, emphasis in original). In such communities, job-embedded and self-generative professional growth occurs for teachers with all levels of experience and expertise.
(2) collegial leadership- a vision of leadership as a shared endeavor toward a shared purpose, where learning occurs collectively and leads to constructive change, and every individual has the potential, right, and responsibility to engage (Lambert, 1998). Sustainability of effective collaborative professional learning communities requires implementation of this reformed view of leadership.
The Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute Partnership Project sustains meaningful practice-based professional learning communities that transform teaching and foster system-wide student learning and high achievement in mathematics. These communities are structured to embody those characteristics suggested by research as fundamental to communities that produce high levels of teacher learning and student achievement.
