Call for supplemental documents to support the implementation of AMTE’s Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics

"If the quality of education for every child is to be improved, the education of teachers needs to be taken seriously." (Tatto and Senk, 2011)

The Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics (SPTM) elaborate what beginning teachers of mathematics must know and be able to do as well as the dispositions they must have to increase equity, access, and opportunities for the mathematical success of each of their future students. The SPTM includes a set of comprehensive standards describing a national vision for the initial preparation of all Pre-K–12 teachers who teach mathematics. The standards are aspirational, supporting the development of a well-prepared beginning teacher rather than describing minimal levels of competency that beginning teachers need to meet. They address teacher candidate knowledge, skills and dispositions; program characteristics to develop teacher candidate knowledge, skills and dispositions; and the assessment of and for mathematics teacher preparation programs.

The SPTM provide some guidance regarding how programs should structure learning experiences for candidates to support the development of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions described in this aspirational vision. However, the AMTE Standards Dissemination Task Force recognizes that more examples and support materials would advance mathematics teacher educators in their work to implement the SPTM. For this reason, we put forward the following call for materials related to aspects of the SPTM that will support mathematics teacher educators in implementing activities and tasks related to the standards in mathematics content or methods courses.

Description of Requested Materials

For the fall of 2017, the Standards Dissemination Task Force of AMTE issues a call for materials related to one or more of the Candidate Standards and Indicators (see Chapter 2, standards C.1-C.4 and associated indicators).

Materials should include all of the following:

  • annotated tasks or activities from content or methods courses that align specifically with one or more of the standards or indicators (including field-based tasks);
  • descriptions of and/or samples of blinded teacher candidate work that highlights the outcomes from the use of the tasks or activities, or a detailed aggregated summary of student work;
  • written narrative or narrated slides or other facilitation materials providing context for the administration of the tasks or activities, including standards alignment, how the task(s) were situated within the course, what the learning goals for the task(s) were, and recommendations for implementations across varied higher education contexts.

Materials can be for one or more grade bands (see Chapters 4-7) or general, and can be for implementation in either mathematics content or methods courses.

Materials will be reviewed by the AMTE Publications Review Committee in consultation with members of the Standards Dissemination Task Force. These materials will be made available as a member benefit on the AMTE website.  Authors who are asked to develop materials will be credited for their scholarly work within the materials, on the AMTE website, and in upcoming AMTE communications.

Letter of Intent

A brief letter of intent describing the proposed materials is required.  Feedback on the letter will provide authors with an assessment of how well the materials fit the goals of the call for supplemental materials. The letter should ensure that reviewers understand how the proposed materials are specific to the preparation of mathematics teachers.

Letters of intent should include:

  • a brief description of the materials intended to be developed;
  • a description of which standards and indicators are met by the materials and in what ways;
  • information on the nature and type of implementation that is available (type of course, number of students, nature of work available for inclusion, etc.).
  • a description of the intended analysis of student work proposed for inclusion that includes sufficient detail such that material users could replicate the same or a similar analysis themselves;

Please limit your letter to no more than 2 pages, single-spaced, 12 point font, 1” margins.
Send your letters of intent to Mike Steele (steelem@uwm.edu).  Please include two copies of the letter, one that is blinded for the review process.

Timeline

Notification, feedback, and materials development will occur on the following timeline:

Timeframe

Proposal Team’s Task

Review Team’s Actions

October 1, 2017

Prepare a letter of intent that addresses the criteria above.

Review and briefly respond to the letter of intent, inviting submissions or declining the proposal for the current call cycle

November 1, 2017

Proposal team is notified of review outcome and, if invited, begins developing materials

A member of the Task Force will be assigned as liaison to development teams to address questions that may arise

February 1, 2018

Materials due to the review team
(unless otherwise negotiated)

Task Force liaison will coordinate the review of the materials and communicate any requested changes

March 1, 2018

Finalized materials will be due (unless otherwise negotiated)

AMTE will post materials and disseminate their availability to AMTE members only

Criteria for Acceptance

Acceptance of materials for publication by AMTE will be based on the following criteria:

  • To what extent do the materials support the targeted standard?
  • Are the materials focused on teachers of mathematics in contrast to general teacher preparation?
  • Is there sufficient support for teacher educators who wish to use the materials?

Future Opportunities

Future calls will address the Program Standards (P.1-P.5) and the Assessment Standards
(AF.1-AF.5, AC.1-AC.3, AP.1-AP.4). We anticipate repeating and/or revising the call for Candidate standards materials again in early 2018.

Questions

If you have any questions about this call, please contact one of the following individuals: