New Boston College Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship Program

Developing Exemplary Mathematics Teacher Leaders for High-Need Schools: Content, Equity and Leadership

NSF Award Number: DUE-1950222

We are pleased to announce that Boston College will offer a new round of Noyce Master Teaching Fellowships (MTF) for outstanding secondary math teachers from high-need school districts. The purpose of these Fellowships is to support teachers who have exhibited excellent skills and knowledge in becoming highly qualified instructional leaders and mentors. Master Teaching Fellows in this program will become 1) more knowledgeable in mathematics, 2) better prepared to enact equitable pedagogy in their mathematics classrooms and 3) ready to provide mentorship and instructional leadership in their own schools and districts. This program is organized by Boston College Faculty members in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development and the Mathematics Department, and will be carried out in partnership with the Education Development Center (EDC). The project is supported by the National Science Foundation and by Boston College. (See full NSF award information here.)

Requirements

Applicants to this BC Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship must:

• agree to a 5 year commitment to the fellowship (September 2020 - August 2025)
• have master's degree in mathematics, education, or a related field
• have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics or a related area with an overall GPA of at least 3.0
• have a professional MA license (preferred, though teachers with initial licenses will be considered provided that they work towards and obtain professional licenses by the end of the program with support of coursework)
• be a United States citizen, national, or permanent resident alien
• teach secondary mathematics in a high-need school in the greater Boston area
• have deep knowledge of mathematics content that is relevant to secondary teaching, and of the Massachusetts state standards for Mathematics
• be recognized for excellence in teaching by their school or district administrators

Benefits

Each Boston College Noyce Master Teaching Fellow will:

• receive a stipend of $13,500/year for five years, plus one no-cost course/year at Boston College

• develop mathematical expertise through coursework and seminars

• develop practical tools of equitable pedagogy

• develop experience as instructional leaders and mentors

• participate in the professional learning community built around this project

• receive financial support to attend mathematics education conferences or workshops.

Activities

Collaborating with professionals at Education Development Center, the MTF program will provide activities that concentrate on helping the teachers develop mathematical expertise and tools to promote equitable pedagogy in schools, and become highly qualified instructional leaders and mentors. These include:

FOCUS ON CONTENT AND EQUITY

• Mathematical Practice Seminar –This seminar is the core of the professional learning community and includes MTF, math educators, mathematicians and math graduate students. It will occur monthly over the course of each school year for a total of seven meetings, each approximately 3 hours long (dinner included). The content of these practice seminars will center on high school mathematics topics that are traditionally challenging to learn and to teach, considered through the lens of the MA Curriculum Standards for Mathematics, including both the Standards for Mathematical Practice and the relevant content standards. There will also be time to consider connections to equitable classroom practices and the mentoring and leadership aspects of the program.

• Summer Equity, Mentoring and Leadership Institute (EDC) – In each of the four summers of Years 2 to 5, each master teaching fellow will engage in a 4-day professional learning experience at the EDC Intensive Summer Institute. The primary components of the summer work are: rich experiences doing math in ways that reflect how mathematicians do their work, MathEquity^TM discussions, and examining equity through the lens of opportunity gaps. The summer work will provide teachers practical tools, theoretical perspectives and inquiry practices that will inform their work throughout the school year.

COURSEWORK AND COLLOQUIUM SERIES

• Mathematics Education Colloquium Series - This colloquium series, organized by Boston College, will offer four talks per year from national mathematicians and mathematics education leaders on topics of interest to teachers and other educators. Through this colloquium series, MTF will learn about the latest research in curriculum development and mathematics education. Each colloquium will be scheduled after school and will be followed by a Mathematical Practice seminar.

• Graduate Coursework – Master teaching fellows will take one pre-approved 3 credit graduate course at Boston College in each year of the program (for a total of 15 credits) to strengthen their knowledge of mathematical content and pedagogy in a targeted fashion. The graduate courses in education and in math will directly support MTFs as they assume leadership roles in their schools and districts, equipping them with a bigger picture.

PATHWAY TO TEACHER LEADERSHIP

• One-on-One Mentoring by Mathematicians and former Master Teacher Alumni – Mathematician mentors from Boston College and master teachers from our previous Noyce project will support MTFs with regular meetings, classroom visits and pre- and post-visit conversations. This provides MTF opportunities to engage with faculty and colleagues in discussions about math teaching to enhance and refine their content knowledge and pedagogy, as well as to prepare to become a mentor themselves.

• Mentoring a beginning math teacher - In the summer of Year 1, MTFs will complete a credit-bearing online offering from Boston College’s Pathways to Professional Development which has a specific focus on mentoring and the induction of new teachers. This will help prepare MTFs for mentoring a beginning math teacher (a “mentee”) in their own districts in Years 2 and 3. In these years MTFs will visit their mentee’s classes, co-plan lessons tasks and have regular meetings, which will include developing high cognitive demand math tasks. They will also regularly meet with the project team to discuss the progress of their mentee and to continue to learn about the clinical component of mentoring.

• Professional development and pre-service leadership opportunities - In Years 3 and 4, as MTFs become more confident in their leadership and mentoring skills, they will be asked to act as learning facilitators, designing and organizing professional activities to promote improved teaching and learning among their colleagues. This will begin with leading activities at the Mathematical Practice Seminars and will be supported by the summer institute organized by EDC. The culmination of the program will be each MTF’s individual Capstone project, a leadership initiative to be enacted in their school or district which addresses equity and high-quality mathematics instruction. MTFs may also contribute to the pre-service education program at Boston College by participating in our math or math education courses as guest instructors or as developers of course materials.

Application

Applicants must submit their application to Prof. Albert at Lillie.albert@bc.edu

The application package includes:

• the completed application form (download from here) ADD LINK to the Master Teacher Application pdf

• transcripts indicating a bachelor’s degree in mathematics or a related area, with an overall GPA of at least 3.0

• a resume

• two letters of recommendation

• a two-page personal narrative about your mathematics education experiences.

Application Deadline: Applications completed by July 1st, 2020 will be given full consideration.

Notification

• Applicants will be notified after mid-July if they are selected for an interview.

• Fellowship awardees will be notified by August 2020.

• The program begins in September 2020.

Contact

For more information please contact:

Lillie Albert, Associate Professor

Lynch School of Education, Boston College

Lillie.albert@bc.edu

Juliana Belding, Associate Professor of the Practice

Math Department, Boston College

beldingj@bc.edu

C-K Cheung, Associate Professor

Math Department, Boston College

cheungc@bc.edu

Sol Friedberg, James P. McIntyre Professor

Math Department, Boston College

friedber@bc.edu