Hey, Coach, can I get a little help here?

Four new Change Coaches will begin working with MTEP teams in the spring. (From left: Diane Barrett, Stephanie Casey, Basil Conway and Cyndi Edgington.)
Four new Change Coaches will begin working with MTEP teams in the spring. (From left: Diane Barrett, Stephanie Casey, Basil Conway and Cyndi Edgington.)

One of the innovative features of the MTEP 2.0 project is its use of change coaches. Many projects have change agents, who lead the efforts to change and improve, but who do change agents turn to for help? That’s where change coaches come in!

First, some quick background. MTEP 2.0 is organized into program networked improvement communities (NICs) of university faculty, K–12 partners, and others collaborating to improve their local secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs. Each of the program NICs has a designated change agent to lead their improvement efforts. In many cases, several program NICs work together as a team NIC to coordinate work in a given geographic area. For example, the North Carolina MTEP team includes 12 program NICs from across the state. Each team also has a designated team change agent. A change coach has been assigned to work with all the change agents for each team.

So, what does a change coach actually do? They communicate with the change agents from their assigned team(s) on a monthly basis and respond to any questions that the team has in between. They review the team’s work and suggest useful resources, strategies, or actions the team NIC might consider. Finally, they collaborate with the other change coaches to discuss how they can as a group best support the MTEP 2.0 community.

We are very pleased to welcome four new change coaches (pictured right) who will begin working with teams in the spring:

  • Diane Barrett, University of Hawaii at Hilo
  • Stephanie Casey, Eastern Michigan University
  • Basil Conway, Columbus State University
  • Cyndi Edgington, North Carolina State University

They join the existing set of changes coaches who originally helped to organize MTEP 2.0:

  • Dana Franz, Mississippi State University
  • Brian Lawler, Kennesaw State University
  • Alyson Lischka, Middle Tennessee State University
  • W. Gary Martin, Auburn University
  • Margaret Mohr-Schroeder, University of Kentucky
  • Wendy Smith, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Marilyn Strutchens, Auburn University

Do you need a little help in figuring out some puzzling situation your MTEP 2.0 team or program NIC is facing? Just give your change coach a call!