The Milwaukee Master Teacher Partnership

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

This Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship project will address the need for sustained, content-focused professional development for teams of secondary mathematics and science teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools. The project will include pathways for master teachers to (a) build content knowledge for teaching in focused areas of mathematics and science, (b) implement research-based best pedagogical practices to improve student learning, and (c) develop teams to design and conduct action research projects that lead to iterative cycles of professional development. The master teachers will acquire micro-credentials across three levels in content or pedagogical topic (such as the design of meaningful science lab experiences, or the teaching of statistics in high school mathematics courses), mentoring and leadership. Acknowledging that the Wisconsin Strategic Plan identifies an ongoing professional skills gap for teachers across the state and that over 60% of the school districts in Wisconsin are currently designated as high-needs districts in mathematics and science, this project will create alternative incentives for the development of master teachers, which can be adapted by school systems across the state. A unique feature of this project is that the master teachers will be encouraged to customize their own professional development throughout the micro-credentialing process, making the teachers' voice central to all of the training activities. Moreover, the credentialing processes for leadership and mentoring have been designed to require master teachers to work with other teachers in their schools or districts on action research projects. The products of these activities are expected to be modular, transportable, and replicable so that the master teachers will be able to conduct similar activities with other groups of teachers, further extending the impact of the project. Project evaluation will serve to provide documentation of the extent to which the project's core activities occur as intended, collect formative and summative feedback on the fellows' experiences with project activities, and provide research support, which may include assistance with instrument or rubric development or provision of a reliability check on coding for a sample of data.