Secondary Mathematics and Algebra: Design-Based Research Partnerships

• In Event: Research and the Nature of the Collaborative Partnership: Insight on What Was Learned

Abstract

Middle School Mathematics and the Institutional Setting of Teaching

The gap in achievement in mathematics between at-risk students and their more advantaged counterparts is a persistent problem of the U.S. education system. While some research-based curricula and pedagogy has demonstrated promise in supporting students from diverse backgrounds to develop conceptual understanding and procedural fluency in mathematics, scaling up instructional change across a district organization is a significant challenge. The Middle School Mathematics and the Institutional Setting of Teaching (MIST) Project is a research-practice partnership seeking to understand how large urban school districts can support the development of rigorous and equitable middle-school mathematics instruction at scale. Our presentation will describe the goals and design of this multi-year, multi-district partnership. We will provide an example of how one district responded to specific feedback from our research reports, resulting in substantial change in that school system. We will also discuss how and why our collaboration continued and evolved in some of these districts, and why it was discontinued in others. Finally, we will provide general recommendations for district-researcher partnerships based on our experienced.

AlgebraByExample

Superintendents from districts in the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) challenged the Strategic Education Research Partnership (SERP) to identify an approach to narrowing the minority student achievement gap in Algebra 1 without isolating minority students for intervention. SERP partnered with eight districts and researchers from three universities to design and rigorously test AlgebraByExample, a set of 42 Algebra 1 assignments with interleaved worked examples that target common misconceptions and errors. In a year-long random-assignment study, students who received AlgebraByExample assignments had an average seven percentage point boost on a posttest containing released items from state assessments, and students in the bottom half of the performance distribution where minority students are disproportionately concentrated had an average 10 percentage point boost on a researcher-designed assessment of conceptual understanding. AlgebraByExample can be incorporated into existing curriculum, and naturally serves as a launch point for mathematically-rich discussion.

Authors

• Brooks A. Rosenquist, Vanderbilt University

• Erin Craig Henrick, Vanderbilt University

• Tom Smith, Vanderbilt University

• Julie L. Booth, Temple University

• Suzanne Donovan, SERP Institute