Middle School Mathematics Teachers and Teaching Survey

Project Status: Past
Focus Area: Teacher Effectiveness
Location: National
Timeline: December 2015-June 2017
Principal Investigators: Heather Hill, Barb Gilbert (Co-PI), Dan McGinn (Co-PI)

What is the current state of mathematics education in the United States?

We suspect that mathematics teaching has changed tremendously in the last two decades, as new teaching methods, technologies and curriculum materials have appeared in classrooms. This study has been designed to understand the consequences of these changes for instruction.

In 2015-16, a first cohort of teachers participated in the survey and video components for the study. In 2016-17, a random sample of 200 U.S. middle-school mathematics teachers will video-record their classroom instruction. By comparing current and past samples of middle-school teachers and teaching, we can describe current teaching practice and understand what has changed over time. We believe the work of this study will demonstrate that teacher and teaching quality in the United States can be effectively monitored, similar to other national indicators such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), today and into the future.