Investigating the Effect of Professional Development, Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching, and Instruction on Student Outcomes

To meet College and Career-Ready standards in mathematics, classroom instruction must change dramatically.  As in past reform efforts, many look to professional development as a major force to propel this transformation, yet not enough is known about mathematics professional development programs that operate at scale in the United States. In this project, we evaluated one such program by randomly assigning 105 teachers to either an “as is” control group or to receive professional development designed to a) improve mathematical knowledge for teaching and b) help teachers revise their instruction to be more cognitively demanding and student-centered. We found positive impacts on teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, but no effects on teaching or student outcomes, suggesting that a modest increment in mathematical knowledge may not by itself be sufficient to improve instruction or student outcomes.