About MTEP 2.0
The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) is a networked improvement community (NIC) of secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs across the country – working collaboratively to redesign secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs based on its Updated Guiding Principles for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation and the Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics.
First organized in 2011, MTEP has produced a substantial body of knowledge addressing common problems of practice in secondary mathematics teacher preparation.
In 2020, a new iteration of the network titled MTEP 2.0 was launched, with a focus on supporting the efforts of local secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs to transform their efforts using the NIC design. Local teams include a broad range of stakeholders in their improvement efforts, including mathematics teacher educators, mathematicians, K-12 school partners, and others with a stake in well-prepared mathematics teachers.
A grant from the National Science Foundation titled Collaborative Research: Using Networked Improvement Communities to Scale Up Program Transformation for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation (NIC-Transform Scale Up; DUE-2141737, 2141730), was awarded in October 2022 to scale up and study the emerging MTEP 2.0 network. MTEP 2.0 currently consists of 19 teams encompassing 44 programs across the nation.
MTEP 2.0 Membership
MTEP 2.0 is a national network of 19 teams encompassing 44 programs and their partners, including mathematics teacher educators, mathematicians, K-12 school partners, and others with a stake in well-prepared mathematics teachers.
Design of MTEP 2.0
MTEP 2.0 uses a networked improvement community (NIC) design, championed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, at multiple levels, from guiding local improvement efforts to guiding cross-team collaborations to guiding the network as a whole. A description of the overall MTEP 2.0 design, organized by key features of a NIC, follows:
- NICs are guided by a common aim: By 2025, 65 MTEP 2.0 programs (including 11 under-resourced institutions and/or minority-serving institutions) will be actively engaged in an explicit, localized, prioritized improvement process towards alignment with the AMTE Standards and MTEP Guiding Principles in order to increase the number of well-prepared beginning secondary mathematics teachers, foregrounding issues of equity and access both in the objectives and practices of the programs.
- NICs are guided by a deep understanding of the problem and underlying system. The driver diagram in this section illustrates MTEP 2.0’s theory of action in achieving its aims.
- NICs engage in improvement efforts disciplined by the rigor of improvement science. Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles are used to guide the development, testing, and refinement of interventions.
- NICs are networked to accelerate progress across varied educational contexts.
How to Get Involved
Universities and their partners interested in becoming an MTEP 2.0 Team should contact Wendy Smith, leader of the Administrative Hub.
Organizations and other institutions interested in working with MTEP 2.0 on policy issues and other concerns related to Secondary Mathematics Teacher education should contact Marilyn Strutchens, leader of the Outreach Hub.
Faculty members interested in learning about the work of one of MTEP’s Research Action Clusters should see the following section, Learning From and With MTEP, on this webpage.
Learning from and with MTEP
Past Findings from MTEP
Work in the early years of MTEP was structured around Research Action Clusters (RACs), which focused on developing knowledge related to particular challenges in the preparation of secondary mathematics teachers.
- CERAC (Clinical Experiences RAC) - knowledge generated related to clinical experiences
- MATH (Marketing to Attract Teacher Hopefuls) RAC - knowledge generated related to recruitment including a Recruitment Guide
- MODULE(S2) (Mathematics of Doing, Understanding, Learning, and Educating for Secondary Schools) RAC - knowledge generated related to content courses for secondary prospective mathematics teachers such as Algebra, Geometry, Mathematical Modeling, and Statistics
- Active Learning Mathematics - knowledge generated related to reform (towards active learning) in lower division mathematics courses, including an Open Canvas site [link] and related NSF project, SEMINAL (Student Engagement in Mathematics through an Institutional Network for Active Learning)
Publications
- Tenth Annual MTEP Conference Proceedings, 2021-2022
- Ninth Annual MTEP Conference Proceedings, 2020
- Eighth Annual MTEP Conference Proceedings, 2019
- Seventh Annual MTEP Conference Proceedings, 2018
- Sixth Annual MTEP Conference Proceedings, 2017
- Fifth Annual MTEP Conference Proceedings, 2016
- Martin, W. G., Lawler, B. R., Lischka, A. E., & Smith, W. M. (Eds.). (2020). The mathematics teacher education partnership: The power of a networked improvement community to transform secondary mathematics teacher preparation. IAP.
Future Research for MTEP 2.0
MTEP 2.0 is committed to learning about how the networked improvement community structure can support, accelerate, and sustain secondary mathematics teacher preparation program transformation efforts locally, regionally, and nationally toward a goal of achieving more inclusive and equity-oriented teacher preparation programs that align with the AMTE Standards for the Preparation of Teachers of Mathematics.
We seek to understand both how to support transformation and how to overcome challenges to transformation across varied contexts with attention to the networked improvement communities as entities and the change agents that work within them.