1. Dr. Gwenanne Salkind Fairfax County Public Schools April 1, 2017
Mason Coaching Institute for Math and Literacy Defining the Mathematics Specialist’s Role
Dr. Gwenanne Salkind
Fairfax County Public Schools
April 1, 2017

2. Goals and Outcomes
Gain an understanding of the possible roles and responsibilities of a Mathematics Specialist
Identify roles and responsibilities that make the greatest impact in student learning
Practice advocating for those roles

3. What the Research Says: Improving Student Achievement
Mathematics coaching increases student achievement
Positive impacts in 1st and 2nd years of program
Even stronger results after 4 years of program
To significantly increase student achievement, coaches need both experience and sufficient time to interact with teachers

4. What the Research Says: Improving Teacher Instructional Practice
Mathematics coaching improves teacher instructional practice including increases in
Teacher questioning
Student engagement
Teaching for understanding
Cooperative learning
Classroom discourse
Technology

5. Definitions
Mathematics Specialist – has specialized knowledge of mathematics content and pedagogy (endorsement)
Classroom Teacher – students assigned to their class
Mathematics Resource Teacher – no students assigned to them, no assigned classroom duties

6. Who are you? Mathematics Resource Teacher Classroom Teacher
Administrator
University Faculty
Other

7. Jot Thoughts What do Math Resource Teachers do?
Jot down everything you can think of (exclude non-math related things such as bus duty, recess duty, lunch, etc.)
One idea per post-it note

8. Table Group Share
Share your ideas
Put like ideas together

9. Popcorn Share Out Pop up to share an idea
Keep sharing until time run outs or all ideas have been shared

10. Roles and Responsibilities
Mathematics Coach
Mathematics Teacher
Works with Teachers
Observing Lessons
Modeling Lessons
Co-Teaching
CLTs
Facilitating PD
Preparing resources
Teaches Students
Pull-out Groups
Intervention Groups
Advanced Mathematics
Regular Math Instruction

11. Doctoral Dissertation Gwenanne Salkind George Mason University 2010
Coaches’ and Principals’ Conceptualizations of the Roles of Elementary Mathematics Coaches
Doctoral Dissertation
Gwenanne Salkind
George Mason University
2010

12. Participants 125 mathematics coaches 59 principals
5 school districts in Virginia
Suburban
From very small (2000 students) to very large (160,000 students)
Ethnically diverse populations
4 schools from Region IV, northern part of Virginia
1 school from region II, Tidewater area of VA
There are 279 elementary schools in the 5 districts

13. Math Specialist Models
Coaches’ Activity F S R N
Specialized-Teacher or Pull-Out Model
Teach children with no other teacher present
33.6
20.8
35.2
10.4
Provide remediation to individual children
33.1
30.6
26.6
9.7
Provide remediation to small groups of children
46.8
17.7
4.8
Coach Model
Work with teachers individually
60.0
29.6
8.8
1.6
Work with teachers in teams
65.6
25.6
6.4
2.4
Assist teachers in planning
61.6
30.4
5.6
Model Instruction
46.0
41.1
8.9
4.0
Co-teach lessons with teachers
47.2
32.0
17.6
3.2
Observe teachers teaching
20.3
42.3
31.7
5.7
Note. F = Frequently. S = Sometimes. R = Rarely. N = Never. By percent.
More coaches engaged in activities related to coach model than other two models.
90% Work with teachers individually
91% work with teachers in teams
92% plan with teachers
87% modeled lessons
79% co-taught
54% taught children with no other teacher present – all of these also provide small group remediation
64% provided remediation to individual children
77% provided remediation to small groups
Seems to be an overlap of coach model and pull-out model
Further analysis revealed that 20% of coaches rarely or never did any of the three teaching activities (exclusively coaching), 3% rarely or never did any of the 4 coaching activities, and 77% did both coaching and teaching.

14. The Roles of Math Coaches
Joellen Killion (2009) – 10 roles of coaches
Role I threw out – mentor new teachers, I think it’s part of deciding who to coach
Classroom supporter – coach works with teachers in classroom. Other roles overlap this role.
Coach has to decide who to support and how to support them
Next slide

15. Turn and Talk
Where should a mathematics resource teacher spend most of his/her time?
Consider Teaching Roles as well as Coaching Roles.

16. Conventional Wisdom
Coaching teachers has more impact school-wide than teaching students
Co-planning and co-teaching is better than modeling
Coach-Teacher dialogue and reflection is very important

17. Consider this…
“Coaches are frequently responsive to the needs of individual teachers. If this support is primarily marked by shared teaching or provision of instructional materials, it may not transform either instruction or teacher knowledge.” ~Campbell & Griffin (2017)
Campbell, P. F., & Griffin, M.J. Reflections on the promise and complexity of mathematics coaching. Journal of Mathematical Behavior (2017),

18. Model for Thinking about Teachers with whom Math Coaches Work
Willingness to Work with Coach
Unwilling
Willing
Mathematics Teaching
Needs
assistance 1 2
Competent 3 4
Who to support?
Novice teachers generally fit in category 2
Confer (2006) and Smith (2006) believe that working with teachers in category 4 builds momentum in a school’s culture of change.
Builds capacity – model classroom that other teachers can observe
Builds excitement and energy as they talk to their colleagues about the things they are doing with the math coach
Next slide

19. Consider this…
“If coaches work exclusively with new and/or struggling teachers in year one, the message sent is clear: Coaches are for those who don’t know or can’t do. This is exactly the opposite message we would want to send.” (West & Cameron, 2013, p. 32)
West, L. & Cameron A. (2013). Agents of change: How content focused coaching transforms teaching & learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

20. Consider this…
“Coaches need to engage teachers in fundamental dialogue about mathematical content, mathematical learning, and student understanding. It may be that this dialogue and the effectiveness of a coach’s work with individual teachers would benefit from a coach’s concurrent work with grade-level teams. When a coach leads a grade-level team through discussion of targeted goals and approaches, the coach may facilitate individual teacher learning while building collective learning.” ~Campbell & Griffin (2017)
Campbell, P. F., & Griffin, M.J. Reflections on the promise and complexity of mathematics coaching. Journal of Mathematical Behavior (2017),

21. Turn and Talk Who should a mathematics resource teacher coach? Why?
Every teacher in the school?
Novice teachers?
Teachers who need help with mathematics?
Competent and willing teachers?
The worst teachers?
The best teachers?
Teams or Individuals?

22. Scenarios Read each scenario Decide what you would do
Draft the main points you would make in a discussion with your principal

23. Thank You! Thanks for spending time with me today!
We had some awesome discussions!
Gwenanne Salkind