Collaborative Research: Project AIM-NEXT: All Included in Mathematics New Extensions

Building on two prior NSF-funded projects, the All Included in Mathematics K-2 New Extensions professional learning program will develop and research the impact of an augmented model for mathematics professional development on K-2 student learning through the addition of supports for coaches and leaders to the existing professional development model . The project is designing a web-based, district-led professional development implementation, focusing on improving mathematics discourse practices in K-2 classrooms, with particular attention to emergent multilingual learners.

Earlier research on the program demonstrated impacts on K-2 teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This project will examine whether additional components, specifically coaching and leadership support, augment the impacts of the PD on teachers and teaching in ways that produce detectable changes in student mathematics learning when measured with proximal assessment instruments.

The project will also strengthen attention to equity, supporting teachers’ noticing of both dominant and critical components of mathematics teaching and learning. The project partnership between university faculty, education researchers, and prior facilitators and participants from school districts will develop and field test the additional coach and leadership components.

The overarching purpose of the project is to strengthen and examine the connections between PD and student learning in the context of supporting K-2 teachers. The research questions ask about the mathematical knowledge and key efficacious, equity-focused practices coaches use in their work with teachers, the extent to which they are used with integrity, and the extent to which they improve over time.

The research will also look at what school administrators need to know and do to support high-quality mathematics instruction and bring the ideas of the project into practice. In addition, the study is examining the impact on teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and mathematics discourse practices, and on students’ mathematics learning, with attention to emergent multilingual learners.

The study is an experimental design in which school teams are randomly assigned to the newly-developed professional development condition or a condition with the prior iteration of the professional development. Data will be collected to understand the impacts of the augmented model and will include videorecording of coaching cycles, interviews with leaders, measures of teacher knowledge, observations of classroom teaching, and student achievement scores.

The final products of the project will include a set of empirically-tested and evidence-based hybrid programs with professional learning materials for use with different audiences and tools to support their work: (1) Professional Development for teachers, (2) Facilitator Preparation for PD leaders, (3) Coach Preparation for instructional coaches, and (4) AIM-Leadership Preparation for school administrators. All these materials will be designed for scale and available for use in any district across the nation and beyond to transform teachers' instruction and the mathematical understanding of each and every K-2 student.

The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.