The Impact of Elementary Mathematics Specialist Teachers and Departmentalized Assignment on Student Achievement (Poster 8)

• In Event: The Work of Elementary Mathematics Specialists: Findings From the STEAM Project

Abstract

Purpose: In this poster we share quantitative results from one of the primary research questions of the BLINDED project: What is the effect of EMS certification status and a departmentalized teaching assignment on student achievement, as measured by the state mandated annual assessment? We used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to account for the nested data structure (students nested within teachers/schools), and the analysis included 45 4th and 5th grade teachers and more than 1600 students.

Theoretical Framework. Our theoretical perspective is grounded in the idea that the primary driver of learning is the quality and quantity of opportunities to learn that are provided by the teacher (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007; National Research Council, 2001). In order to provide high-quality opportunities to learn (i.e., those that are more likely to lead to robust, sustained, and meaningful learning), teachers need a special kind of expertise that is specific to the content they are teaching and specific to the demands of teaching (Hill et al., 2008). Programs for Elementary Mathematics Specialists (McGatha & Rigelman, 2017) that work to develop this expertise, in terms of both knowledge and beliefs. Our conjectures were that 1) graduates of such a program would teach in ways that significantly improved student achievement (in comparison to their peers), and that 2) having a departmentalized teaching assignment would provide more opportunities to focus on mathematics teaching and this might also significantly impact student achievement in mathematics.

Methods. This study applied a quasi-experimental design. First, we used factor analyses to construct variables for characterizing beliefs and instructional practice, and we used the Learning Mathematics for Teaching instrument (Schilling et al., 2007) to measure teacher knowledge. We used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) (Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) to examine the relationship between EMS status and departmentalization and student achievement, controlling for a number of plausible confounding variables at the student and teacher/school levels. We then considered several post-treatment variables (beliefs, knowledge, practice). After examining the HLM results, we used mediation analysis to determine if there were any indirect effects of EMS status on student achievement, using post-treatment variables that were related to student achievement as mediating variables.

Results. Our initial model revealed no direct effects of EMS status or departmentalization on student achievement. There were also no direct effects of LMT scores, our four beliefs/attitudes factors, or observation ratings on student achievement. Separating grades 4 and 5 teachers, we found a direct effect of LMT scores and the “confidence” attitude for the 5th grade teachers. Next, since previous analyses had shown direct effects of EMS status on both LMT scores and the confidence attitude, we looked for indirect effects of EMS status on student achievement. The analysis revealed a significant mediation effect between average LMT scores and student achievement for 5th grade (B = 0.15, p <.05). That is, EMS status significantly predicted higher LMT scores, and higher LMT scores significantly predicted student achievement. In sum, these results illustrated the importance of EMS teachers' role and their teaching knowledge to help improve students' achievement.

Authors

• Corey M. Webel, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Hyejin Shim, Laureate Institute for Brain Research