Research

Be a part of our research by joining one of our Professional Learning Communities.

Developing, Recruiting, and Empowering Alabama Mathematics Teachers, or DREAM-Math, and a successor project to MTEP, informally known as MTEP 2.0, are NSF-sponsored programs rooted in collaboration and research. These initiatives involve significant partnerships with Auburn’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics and school partners and have secured more than $6 million in NSF funding in support of research, collaboration, and program improvement.

 

Auburn University is the lead institution for the Central Alabama Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (CAMTEP), which is one of the institutional teams for MTE-Partnership – along with Tuskegee University, Alabama State University, AMSTI, and local school districts. The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-Partnership) is a partnership of institutions of higher education and K-12 schools, districts, and other organizations. The partnership has the goal of providing a coordinated research and development effort for secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs in order to meet the challenges of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and other college and career ready standards, and to embody research and best practices in the field.

This project addresses the challenges of transforming secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs to meet the Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics prepared by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and other national recommendations.

Five institutions (Auburn University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Kentucky, Mississippi State University, and California State University-Fullerton) active in the MTE-Partnership spearhead this effort to develop approaches to effectively enact program transformation, drawn from research on institutional change and MTE-Partnership resources. Each site operates as an individual network improvement community (NIC) at the institutional level, and as a part of a “NIC of NICs” incorporating work across the institutions. The project includes a particular focus on managing and sharing the knowledge the is being generated by NIC-Transform and MTE-P more broadly. Over a period of two years, these efforts will result in basic infrastructure that can be scaled up to support transformation efforts across the MTE-Partnership and create a model that can be used with the nation.

Auburn University is one of eight institutions participating in this project, whose overarching goal is to contribute to the field’s currently limited understanding of teacher leadership by thoroughly examining the influences of teacher leadership development on the persistence and professional trajectories of participants in Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Master Teaching Fellows (MTFs) projects, including Auburn University’s NSF-funded TEAM-Math Teacher Leader Academy. T-Lead will gather data related to the structure of Noyce MTF programs, the professional trajectories of participating MTFs, the school contexts in which the MTFs operate, and the leadership activities in which they engage.

Goal 1: Determine the impact of the professional development models used in the various Noyce projects on the professional identities and trajectories of participating MTFs and look for patterns in the features of those models that may be correlated with teacher persistence.

Goal 2: Explore how different contexts, networks and leadership opportunities shape the decisions of MTFs to remain in classroom roles during and after the Noyce PD program.

Goal 3: Describe the leadership opportunities in K-12 systems that engage classroom teachers as leaders, and what are sustainable, scalable models that do or could exist to provide such opportunities.

This project is led by members of the Clinical Experiences Research Action Cluster (CERAC) of the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership. The CERAC is a consortium of 27 universities and their school partners engaged in developing clinical experience models designed to build candidates’ facility with the Mathematics Teaching Practices (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014) and other equitable teaching strategies to promote secondary school students’ success in achieving college- and career-ready standards. The members of the project are designing and studying mechanisms to aid in the implementation of the following alternative clinical experience models:

  • The paired placement model, in which two prospective teachers are paired with a single mentor teacher, allowing the mentor teacher to provide purposeful coaching and mentoring and the two teacher candidates offer each other feedback, mentoring, and support (Leatham & Peterson, 2010); and
  • Co-planning and co-teaching model, which has been found to help teacher candidates gain greater pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge of students through collaboration and communication between teacher candidates and mentor teachers who plan, implement, and assess instruction together (Bacharach, Heck, & Dahlberg, 2010); and
  • Methods courses in which mentor teachers and teacher candidates experience common learning opportunities.

The CERAC is answering the following research question: How does a continuum of collaborative and student-focused clinical experiences, including co-planning/co-teaching and paired placement fieldwork models, impact pre-service teachers’ equitable implementation of the Mathematics Teaching Practices (NCTM, 2014) across institutional contexts?

Funding

The collaborative project is funding by the National Science Foundation Directorate for Education & Human Resources Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) – Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Development & Implement, I & II: Engage Student Learning Grant ID#s: 1726998, 1726362, & 1726853 – August 2017 – July 2021, $1.6 million (Auburn University, $560,586). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Project Personel

  • Auburn University
    • Marilyn Strutchens, Auburn University, PI
    • John Sutton, ResultED, Evaluator
    • Jeremy Zelkowski, University of Alabama, Consultant
  • APLU
    • Howard Gobstein, APLU, PI
    • W. Gary Martin, Auburn University, Consultant
    • Nathalie Dwyer, APLU, Administrative Assistant
  • Other Partnership Teams
    • University of South Florida, Ruthmae Sears, PI

TEAM-Math is a partnership of fifteen school districts, Auburn University, Tuskegee University and business partners, who have a common goal of improving mathematics education in East Alabama.

Our mission is to enable all students to understand, utilize, communicate, and appreciate mathematics as a tool in everyday situations in order to become life-long learners and productive citizens by Transforming East Alabama Mathematics (TEAM-Math). We meet our mission by the following:

  • Aligning the curriculum K-12
  • Ensuring consistency in teaching
  • Providing professional development
  • Improving the preparation of new teachers

Directors

W. Gary Martin, Ed.D.
Emily R. & Gerald S. Leischuck
Endowed Professor
Department of Curriculum and Teaching

Marilyn E. Strutchens, Ph.D.
Emily R. & Gerald S. Leischuck
Endowed Professor and
Mildred Cheshire Fraley Distinguished Professor
Department of Curriculum and Teaching

Contact Us

TEAM-Math
5040 Haley Center
Auburn University, AL 36849-5272
Phone: (334) 844-6881
Fax: (334) 844-0124

Launched in 2012, the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-Partnership) is comprised of 42 teams across 32 states – working collaboratively to redesign secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs based on its Guiding Principles for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educator’s Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics (AMTE, 2017). Using the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Networked Improvement Community model, the MTE-Partnership is organized into Research Action Clusters (RACs) that work to address challenges in transforming secondary mathematics teacher preparation, including (a) clinical experiences of candidates; (b) mathematical experiences of candidates (and others) in introductory mathematics courses; (c) the particular mathematical needs of future mathematics teachers; (d) recruitment and retention of candidates; and (e) retention of new graduates in the field. And finally, two working groups help bring the work of the RACs and MTE-Partnership together; one focusing on equity and social justice and the other on supporting overall program transformation.

Research

MTE-Partnership’s ongoing goal is providing a coordinated research and development effort for secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs in order to meet the challenges of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and to embody research and best practices in the field.

Outreach

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-Partnership) is a partnership of institutions of higher education and K-12 schools, districts, and other organizations. The group works collaboratively to redesign secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs.

Outreach

Participate in our outreach activities.

This project aims to serve the national need of preparing high-quality teachers of mathematics to meet the acute national shortage of secondary mathematics teachers by engaging key partners both within and outside of Auburn University in collaboratively designing a program to prepare “career changers” who already have a strong background in mathematics to pursue a career in teaching mathematics. The program will provide a streamlined entry with a particular emphasis on developing candidates’ deep knowledge of mathematics teaching and learning needed for success. Such a streamlined approach will make participation in the program more feasible for potential candidates and provide immediate assistance to high-needs school districts struggling to find qualified mathematics teachers.

Project objectives include:

  1. Building partnerships among those with a stake in ensuring an adequate supply of mathematics teachers
  2. Collaboratively building new approaches for career changers to enter the profession that are efficient, effective, and practical
  3. Beginning the course and curriculum design needed for approval by Auburn University and the State Department of Education
  4. Exploration of recruitment strategies

The Strategic Taskforce to Accelerate Mathematics Pathways (STAMP) is a group of Alabama teachers, mathematicians, teacher educators, administrators, guidance counselors, business people, and others who are working to improve the mathematical success of Alabama’s students by ensuring pathways from high school mathematics through beginning postsecondary education or entry into the workforce. STAMP is one of 32 state teams participating in the “High School to College Mathematics Pathways: Preparing Students for the Future” initiative of the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences.

The Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative, commonly referred to as AMSTI, is the Alabama Department of Education’s initiative to improve math and science education across the state. AMSTI provides students with well-trained teachers and the equipment, materials and resources needed for hands-on, activity-based math and science education. Also, teachers are supported and mentored by AMSTI site math and science specialists as they implement the training they receive as part of this program. AMSTI is the largest, most comprehensive, and most successful math and science initiation in the nation!

AMSTI-AU: AMSTI at Auburn University is sponsored by the College of Sciences and Mathematics and the College of Education. For more information contact Pamela Norris, director of AMSTI-AU, at (334)750-9525 or by email.

TEAM-Math is a partnership of fifteen school districts, Auburn University, Tuskegee University and business partners, who have a common goal of improving mathematics education in East Alabama.

Our mission is to enable all students to understand, utilize, communicate, and appreciate mathematics as a tool in everyday situations in order to become life-long learners and productive citizens by Transforming East Alabama Mathematics (TEAM-Math). We meet our mission by the following:

  • Aligning the curriculum K-12
  • Ensuring consistency in teaching
  • Providing professional development
  • Improving the preparation of new teachers

Directors

W. Gary Martin, Ed.D.
Emily R. & Gerald S. Leischuck
Endowed Professor
Department of Curriculum and Teaching

Marilyn E. Strutchens, Ph.D.
Emily R. & Gerald S. Leischuck
Endowed Professor and
Mildred Cheshire Fraley Distinguished Professor
Department of Curriculum and Teaching

Contact Us

TEAM-Math
5040 Haley Center
Auburn University, AL 36849-5272
Phone: (334) 844-6881
Fax: (334) 844-0124

Launched in 2012, the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-Partnership) is comprised of 42 teams across 32 states – working collaboratively to redesign secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs based on its Guiding Principles for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation and the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educator’s Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics (AMTE, 2017). Using the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Networked Improvement Community model, the MTE-Partnership is organized into Research Action Clusters (RACs) that work to address challenges in transforming secondary mathematics teacher preparation, including (a) clinical experiences of candidates; (b) mathematical experiences of candidates (and others) in introductory mathematics courses; (c) the particular mathematical needs of future mathematics teachers; (d) recruitment and retention of candidates; and (e) retention of new graduates in the field. And finally, two working groups help bring the work of the RACs and MTE-Partnership together; one focusing on equity and social justice and the other on supporting overall program transformation.

Research

MTE-Partnership’s ongoing goal is providing a coordinated research and development effort for secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs in order to meet the challenges of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and to embody research and best practices in the field.

Outreach

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-Partnership) is a partnership of institutions of higher education and K-12 schools, districts, and other organizations. The group works collaboratively to redesign secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs.

Last updated: 11/10/2023