Improving Rural Middle Grades Mathematics Instruction Through a Statewide Teacher-Researcher Alliance

This project establishes a statewide teacher-researcher alliance of mathematics teachers and teacher leaders in Idaho, who will work with teacher educators at two universities with expertise in professional development and school-based research. The research focuses on two research-based strategies for improving students’ mathematics achievement. The first, Explicit Attention to Concepts, draws students’ attention specifically to the meaning of mathematical ideas while making connections between different ways to represent the content. The second, Students’ Opportunities to Struggle, helps students make sense of graspable new concepts through supported problem solving with peers, highlighting ways to overcome confusion, stimulate personal sense-making, build perseverance, and promote openness to challenge. The work builds on prior investigations of how the two instructional strategies can be sequenced to promote student learning in middle grades mathematics, and an experimental research design will be used to compare outcomes of two promising professional development models for supporting rural teachers’ adoption and adaptation of instructional strategies for their classrooms.

The project has five key features for building scientific understanding of effective mathematics instruction in rural settings. First, the project brings together rural teachers to foster authentic community around shared work of improving student learning. Second, professional learning and instructional support for teachers promote adoption and implementation of effective instructional practices in the crucial settings of grades 6-8 mathematics classrooms. Third, the project centers shared responsibility and autonomy through a statewide teacher-researcher alliance structure. Fourth, the project studies two high quality math professional development structures at scale for rural teachers: at-a-distance professional development facilitated by a centralized specialist, and in-person professional development facilitated by a local teacher-leader. Finally, the nested mixed methods research design compares the two professional development approaches across a range of outcomes including teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices, as well as growth in their students’ engagement and learning in mathematics. The experiment includes randomized assignment of middle grades mathematics teachers (N = 90 teachers, 20,000 students) to professional development conditions, with control procedures for sampling, quality of professional development, and cycles of classroom-based instructional improvement. Dissemination will reach local, state, and national teacher education communities, and materials and findings will support future adoption of assets-based, teacher-centered research and development partnerships.