Improving Mathematics Teacher Practice and Student Learning through Professional Development

We propose to study how to provide, on a large scale, the professional development and continuing support teachers need to improve student achievement in mathematics. Over five years of a longitudinal study, we will examine how the use of specific research-based instructional strategies in the classroom— supported by professional development and highly rated curriculum materials—relate to lasting improvements in student learning. An experimental study in Years 4 and 5 will test the feasibility of delivering professional development and ongoing support cost-effectively on a large scale. The University of Delaware and Texas A&M University, working in partnership with Project 2061 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will address Focus Area II of the IERI program solicitation: Transition to Increasingly Complex Science and Mathematics Learning. The research questions for this proposal are designed to study the interactions of teaching practices, curriculum materials, and professional development to understand how they can be optimized to improve student learning. (See letters of support in Appendix A.)