Challenges to Evaluating a Collaborative, Dual Enrollment Program Designed to Address Teacher Shortages in Jackson, MS

• In Event: Count Me In: An HBCU P-20 Research-Practice Partnership to Build Math Teacher Pathways

Abstract

As is often the case when designing unique educational programming and effectively evaluating that programming over several years, it can be difficult getting educational theory and evaluation practice to neatly align. The multi-component, multi-institutional Count Me In: Future Teachers of Mathematics Middle College Program (Jackson Middle College - JMC) is a case study in testing that alignment. The objective of this proposed session is to share the many “challenges and lessons learned” from evaluating an ambitious dual enrollment initiative with multiple components, layers, participants, and timeframes.

The JMC program aims to address persistent teacher shortages in Mississippi—especially in mathematics—by creating a new, community-rooted pathway into math education. Key challenges in evaluating the JMC collaboration include assessing the evolving roles and responsibilities of a four-year HBCU, a local public school district, independent math education contractors, and families and community groups; tracking student progress across three dual-enrollment cohorts over multiple years; evaluating innovative math instructional strategies grounded in community-based approaches; and structuring longitudinal follow-up for participants who go on to teach in historically under-resourced districts.

This session will present: (1) the original structure and operational plan for the JMC program; (2) the development and evolution of a context-responsive evaluation framework; (3) preliminary findings from the first three years of program implementation; and (4) a reflective discussion of how the evaluation plan has adapted to the complex and shifting nature of multi-institutional educational reform work.
The scholarly significance of this session lies in its contribution to our collective understanding of how to evaluate sustained, partnership-based educational innovations aimed at addressing workforce shortages in critical fields like mathematics education. This work also opens significant opportunities for undergraduate and graduate research. The JMC program, alongside the work of the Southern Initiative Algebra Project (SIAP), offers a living laboratory for studying the intersections of dual enrollment, teacher preparation, community engagement, and the historically rooted inequities in math education across the South. Future research could explore the long-term impacts of such initiatives, conduct in-depth case studies of student-teacher development, or contribute to historical analyses of Black mathematics education leadership in Mississippi and the broader Deep South.
Ultimately, this work calls for "unforgetting" the community-led struggles for educational justice and reimagining futures where students in underserved areas are not just recipients of reform, but co-constructors of a new educational narrative—one grounded in equity, excellence, and sustainability.

Author

• Sam Mozee, Jackson State University