Multiplying effect: $4.3M grant supports math teacher learning, collaboration
The University of Illinois Chicago will lead a new program to improve student math performance by helping elementary and middle school teachers acquire additional skills and practices to teach math.
The Learning to Lead in Math project, funded by a $4.3 million award from the U.S. Department of Education, will work with principals and teachers at K-8 schools in Cook County to create a teaching culture that supports professional development and collaboration on math instruction.
A team led by Alison Castro Superfine, professor and director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at UIC, will train and coach principals and teachers. The institute, a multidisciplinary group in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, designs and studies innovative environments to support learning across educational institutions.
In the new project, they will focus on increasing support for teacher learning, deepening collaboration within teacher teams and improving student performance in math, which has fallen nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Math is a particularly sensitive area for elementary and middle school teachers, who must teach multiple subjects but often lack confidence in their own math knowledge.
“There’s this element of fear and mystique that’s often associated with math, especially in elementary schools, because the teachers are not math specialists,” Castro Superfine said. “There’s a real need for trying to enhance the kinds of conversations and the work in schools that’s happening in math.”
The new study grew from a previous project that sought to improve math teaching and learning through a multilevel approach, working with teachers, schools and districts.
But the researchers learned from that project that executing the vision required more focus at the school level.

“We can’t hope to see any sustained improvement in teaching and learning across the school district unless we do things at the school level,” Castro Superfine said. “If schools are not set up as organizations that can actually support and cultivate the new things that teachers are learning in professional development, any effects of the professional development will be short lived.”
Over the next five years, the project team will work with several schools in west and south Cook County to implement the program. Professional development and coaching will be provided by the Metro Chicago Mathematics Initiative, also in UIC’s Learning Sciences Research Institute.
Along with helping principals create a culture at their schools that supports teacher learning, the project team will work with math teacher leaders to facilitate productive, collaborative teacher team meetings. They will also run group coaching sessions with both principals and teacher leaders that focus on shared leadership and improved instruction.
Evaluation of the program will measure teachers’ confidence and ability to prepare effective math lessons, as well as students’ math learning outcomes and engagement.
“We think about improvements in teaching as a sort of leading indicator,” Castro Superfine said. “If we can make improvements to teacher learning, then the improvements in student learning are going to happen.”
The research team also includes Benjamin Superfine, professor in the College of Education and senior director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs, and Shelby Cosner, a former faculty member of the UIC College of Education now at the University of Georgia.