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    The Impact of the Lead Teacher Professional Learning Community within the Rice University Mathematics Leadership Institute

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    Now in its fourth year, Rice Universityā€™s Mathematics Leadership Institute (MLI) has developed over sixty high school mathematics Lead Teachers. We focus on how membership in MLI has impacted participant teachersā€™ professional lives. The Lead Teacher community that emerged during MLlā€™s ļ¬rst Summer Leadership Institute embodies the characteristics of a sustaining and coherent knowledge community where teachers are able to share their secret ā€œstories of practice in safe places . . . in order to make their personal practical knowledge explicit to themselves and to othersā€ [1]. This article includes stories of individual teachers who refused to sacriļ¬ce hours of instructional time for mandated curriculum testing, who encouraged and supported a large group of MLI teachers to participate in a grueling advanced certiļ¬cation program, and who challenged the local administrationā€™s expectation to compromise personal professional standards. These stories may not have emerged in their particular ways had these teachers and their supporting co-manager not been members of this coherent and sustained knowledge community. This knowledge community has enabled the achievement of MLI goals with respect to teachersā€™ increased mathematics content knowledge, leadership development, and student achievement. We also include focus group comments and quantitative data
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