The West Texas Middle School Math Partnership
The West Texas Middle School Math Partnership's primary goal is to improve the mathematics performance and mathematics appreciation of middle grades students in West Texas by developing teacher leaders who have a deep understanding of the elementary mathematics taught in the middle grades, of special pedagogy knowledge required to teach mathematics to diverse student populations, and of the ability to employ proven strategies for enhancing the mathematics self-efficacy of diverse student populations. The partnership team uses four components to support these principles: (1) Summer courses are taught with graduate credit awarded to in-service teachers. (2) A virtual community of middle school mathematics teachers and mentors is used to maintain a supportive environment for the participants throughout the academic year. (3) Regional conferences are held at each university campus for participants and their administrators. (4) Case portfolios and training modules are created and used for professional development of both in-service and pre-service teachers.
The theoretical framework for the project is based on extensive research in self-efficacy theory and case-based learning. The research associated with this project has far reaching ramifications as a result of studying the relationship between student achievement and self-efficacy and teacher cultural sensitivity, competence and self-efficacy as well as factors affecting Hispanic student learning.
This partnership is led by Texas Tech University and has core university partners of Angelo State University, Sul Ross State University, and University of Texas at Permian Basin, as well as core school partners of Lubbock Independent School District, and Texas Education Service Center Regions 15, 17, and 18. They directly impact 150 middle level mathematics teachers and hundreds of pre-service mathematics teachers. Nearly 50,000 students, the majority being Hispanic, in middle grades could eventually be impacted annually in the three service center regions. Institutional transformation and sustainability are enabled by the creation of specialized clinical faculty positions in the higher education partners, systemic changes in the preparation of new math teachers at the four partner universities, and the continuing professional development of practicing math teachers.
