Mathematics Achievement With Teachers of High-Need Urban Populations (MATH-UP): An Urban Teacher Residency Program Situated in South Bronx Elementary Schools

• In Event: Lessons Learned From Urban Teacher Residencies

Abstract

The Holmes Group (1986, 1990, & 1995) popularized the notion that school-university partnerships can lead to simultaneous reform of public schools and teacher education. Over the past twenty-five years, urban school districts have worked with local universities to develop professional development schools. In these schools, pre-service candidates are exposed to a culture that includes ongoing professional development and active involvement of university personnel.

The teacher residency model may be seen as a next step in the evolution of urban teacher preparation, one that is a systemic response to a recommendation made by the NCATE Blue Ribbon Panel (2010) and echoed most recently in the AACTE PEDS report (2013) that teacher education programs need to “think more critically, creatively, and collaboratively about how to support the learning outcomes of both PK-12 classroom students and the teachers training to serve those learner’s needs” (Robinson, 2013).

The overarching goal of Mathematics Achievement with Teachers of High-need Urban Populations (MATH-UP), a federally and state funded residency project, is to transform both an elementary urban teacher preparation graduate program and high needs, low-performing Bronx schools. To achieve that end, Lehman College (City University of New York), a public, Hispanic-Serving Institution, forged a partnership with five South Bronx elementary schools, Educational Testing Service, Research for Better Schools, and a local cable network. MATH-UP involves both a course of study leading to a masters degree offered by the School of Education and a clinical residency in which candidates work in tandem with cooperating teachers who are active participants in school-based professional learning communities and engage in ongoing professional development in the areas of mathematics content and pedagogy, formative assessment, and mentoring.

Embedded in the MATH-UP logic model is collaboration, a theme that is foregrounded in reports on urban teacher residency programs (see Berry, Montgomery, Curtis, Hernandez, Wurtzel & Snyder, 2008; Papay, West, Fullerton, & Kane, 2011): co-developed orientation and in-service sessions for program participants, “critical friend” review of program evaluation data to enhance effectiveness, professional learning communities and co-teaching in college and K-6 classrooms. While there is growing consensus around the claim that collaboration is an essential ingredient in teacher residencies (Gardiner & Kamm, 2010), there are obstacles that reduce the likelihood that a collaborative culture will develop or sustain itself within schools or the academy, let alone between schools and higher education institutions.

Time comes up either implicitly or explicitly as a variable that can facilitate or impede collaboration. How can we find the time to form the relationships that lead to honest, productive communication among mentors and mentees, college faculty and practitioners, and teachers within a school? What is the connection between time and perceived benefits of collaboration (personal and/or collective)? We are looking at the perceived cost/benefit ratios of various aspects of the MATH UP model as the project enters its final stage and we grapple with issues of sustainability.

Authors

• Harriet R. Fayne, Lehman College - CUNY

• Arlene Weinstein, Lehman College - CUNY