Change Leaders for Improving Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation

The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) is a national networked improvement community (NIC) seeking to transform secondary mathematics teacher preparation, centering principles of equity and inclusion. Using a NIC-within-a-NIC structure, local NICs are composed of at least one university-based secondary mathematics teacher preparation program and one K-12 school district. NIC members also work in a number of cross-cutting research action clusters to help generate, test, and propagate transformation strategies. MTEP members include faculty and administrators in both Colleges of Education and Mathematics Departments; high school teachers, administrators, and other school district personnel; and other involved personnel such as state mathematics leaders. MTEP was launched in 2012 to transform secondary mathematics teacher preparation using a first iteration of the NIC design: improvement science methods married with a networked design. The MTEP NIC was guided by national recommendations, particularly the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators' 2017 Standards for the Preparation of Teachers of Mathematics, which present "a set of comprehensive standards describing a national vision for the initial preparation of all teachers Pre-K–12 who teach mathematics" (p. xiv), including an integrated focus on access and equity that builds candidates' equitable use of effective mathematics teaching practices. We have a current grant whose focus is to scale up and study our NIC, and thus will share some of our strategies for managing a longitudinal change project. In this new effort, we are putting more supports in place for local NICs, including targeted change leader professional development and change coaches. In this 10-minute presentation, we will share a concise overview of MTEP, and spend most of our time discussing how we are developing and supporting change leaders to lead local transformation efforts.