Creating 15 School-based Communities of Practice for Mathematics Teachers in the City of Modi'in and the Surrounding Area as Part of Efforts to Increase the Rate of Five Unit Graduates to 25% by 2019
Clinical professions develop from within practice, through documentation and joint analysis by the practitioners. To encourage such collaboration between teachers of mathematics and the sciences, the Trump Foundation is supporting the development of routine student-centered professional learning communities (PLCs). These communities are now spreading all over the country, mostly on a regional basis, gathering teachers of the same subject area from different schools.
Now we are turning our attention towards creating teachers’ communities in schools. In a typical secondary school, there can be between 5-20 mathematics teachers. The department head is a senior teacher, who meets with the other mathematics teachers on a weekly basis. Traditionally, the meetings are dedicated to dividing the work, setting schedules, disseminating new regulations and procedures and tackling other administrative matters.
In theory, mathematics departments in schools could serve as a platform for clinical collaboration, however in practice they rarely engage in pedagogy, in teaching and learning or in the formulation of shared instructional systems. Our challenge is therefore to help mathematics departments in schools grow into a professional community that is committed to student-centered teaching expertise, to clinical practice and to promoting excellence.
To do so, the foundation is now approaching several organizations, one of which is the Israel Center for Excellence through Education, a long-term partner of the foundation. Based on the recommendation of the Education Ministry, they are proposing a program in the city of Modi’in and the surrounding area, to train 30 mathematics teacher leaders from 15 junior high schools, in order to develop the mathematics departments in their schools.
Since 2013, Modi’in has invested large efforts in vastly increasing the rate of five-unit mathematics graduates, positioning them as one of the most successful cities in Israel, with a rate of 20.7% in 2016 (up from 13.7% in 2013), and a goal of reaching 25% by 2019. Together with the Education Ministry, they have been investing in high schools, creating joint goals and measurements, tracking data, working on school routines, integrating regional and district programs such as the teacher communities, adding supplementary teaching hours, and programs to encourage female students to persevere.
Despite this success, the city understands that it needs now to invest specifically in junior high schools in order to expand the pipeline of students and to address the unique circumstances of teaching in junior high school. They have recognized that junior high school teachers have different knowledge, confidence and work routines to high school teachers, and sometimes even feel threatened by them. One of the tools for doing so is strengthening the mathematics department heads and changing the way in which they lead the mathematics teachers in their schools.
Therefore, the Israel Center for Excellence, in collaboration with the municipality, the district and the Ministry, plans to join the city-wide effort and help increase the percentage of students that study high-level mathematics in 9th grade. Currently 44% of students study at advanced level in junior high school and the goal is to reach 60% in the next two years and to prepare them appropriately, so that the potential for the 5-units track increases.
The proposed program will bring together 30 teacher leaders in a two-year program to develop their school departments to work as a clinical learning community, by focusing on three goals:
The 30 teacher leaders will form a municipal community that will meet once every two weeks for four hours, and will lead school-based communities that will meet on a weekly basis, for one hour in the first year and two hours a week in the second year. Throughout the program, the pairs of teachers will receive school-based instructional coaching from the Center for Excellence four times per year. The city will work with the school principals to support and encourage the growth of the school-based communities.
In addition, The Center for Excellence will provide online support and instructional coaching to help with specific challenges and preparation in real time. An evaluation study will assess the impact of the program on its three aforementioned goals.