by Marilyn Strutchens, W. Gary Martin, and Lizzy Harkey, MTEP 2.0 Network Expansion Subhub members
More often than not, mathematics education organizations, school systems, and collegiate faculty-led funded projects work on similar transformative efforts at the same time in isolation without convening to understand what others are doing and how they could leverage each other’s work. Through the Network Expansion Subhub, the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) 2.0 is trying to make inroads toward changing this predicament for those entities working toward transforming secondary mathematics teacher education. We believe that bringing members from different parts of the mathematics education ecosystem—like school systems, collegiate faculty-led funded projects, and national, state, and local organizations—together can help us collectively redesign secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs based on MTEP’s Updated Guiding Principles for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation and address the significant national shortage of well-prepared secondary mathematics teachers through a coordinated research, development, and implementation effort.
The partnership takes a comprehensive approach to tackling this challenge of convening community colleges, universities, and university systems, as well as K-12 schools, state departments of education, and other education-focused organizations. Further, it aims to support the improvement of secondary mathematics education programs; promote partnerships among all sectors throughout the teacher development process, with a focus on promoting program transformation; develop and coordinate a networked research and development agenda; serve as a clearinghouse for model programs and practices; and advocate for change at university, state and national levels.
Organizations that have similar goals to MTEP 2.0 have been invited to become partners to expand the mutual impact of our work. In March 2025, the Network Expansion Subhub created four working subgroups to discuss and plan actionable steps to address major issues related to secondary mathematics education, including data science in mathematics education, collaboration between physics and mathematics teacher education, recruitment and retention of teachers, and reimagining teacher preparation.
The data science in mathematics education working subgroup includes representatives from the following entities: Data Science for Everyone, ESTEEM: Enhancing Data Science and Statistics Teacher Education with E-Modules, Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics, National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and MTEP 2.0. Members of this working subgroup focus on the need for practicing teachers to receive professional learning opportunities related to teaching statistics and data science in mathematics classrooms. Also, its members are discussing how to provide mathematics teacher educators, statisticians, and mathematicians with the tools and resources needed to prepare teacher candidates to implement instructional approaches that enable students to develop the knowledge and skills that Bargagliotti et al. (2020) highlight in the Pre-K-12 Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education II (GAISE II):
- The importance of asking questions throughout the statistical problem-solving process (formulating a statistical investigative question, collecting or considering data, analyzing data, and interpreting results), and how this process remains at the forefront of statistical reasoning for all studies involving data
- The consideration of different data and variable types, the importance of carefully planning how to collect data or how to consider data to help answer statistical investigative questions, and the process of collecting, cleaning, interrogating, and analyzing the data
- The inclusion of multivariate thinking throughout all Pre-K–12 educational levels
- The role of probabilistic thinking in quantifying randomness throughout all levels
- The recognition that modern statistical practice is intertwined with technology, and the importance of incorporating technology as feasible
The enhanced importance of clearly and accurately communicating statistical information - The role of assessment at the school level, especially items that measure conceptual understanding and require statistical reasoning involving the statistical problem-solving process. (p. 2)
Members of the working subgroup focused on the collaboration between physics and mathematics teacher education include representatives from PhysTEC and MTEP 2.0. They have been discussing the challenges related to such collaborations, including building bridges between colleges of sciences and education. The working subgroup has suggested creating room in secondary mathematics education programs for physics undergraduates who are interested in teaching (and vice versa) and breaking down current barriers to physics education certification. The team has also proposed physics pedagogy courses as a bonus for pre-service mathematics teachers to market themselves in school systems needing both mathematics and physics teachers.
The recruitment and retention of teachers working subgroup is composed of representatives of the Southern Regional Education Board, Knowles Teacher Initiative, and MTEP 2.0. This group has been discussing the need for stronger partnerships between universities’ and colleges’ secondary mathematics teacher education programs and entities concerned about mathematics education, such as schools, district mathematics supervisors and curriculum specialists, university field placement offices, state supervisors of mathematics, and colleges of mathematics and statistics. The subgroup has also been considering barriers to the recruitment and retention of teachers and possible strategies for overcoming the obstacles. In addition, this group is also thinking about policy issues and other rules and regulations that might be causing students not to major in secondary mathematics education.
Finally, the reimagining teacher preparation working subgroup members include representatives from MTEP 2.0 and its advisory board. This group has been thinking about a variety of issues including the need for more mathematical content knowledge for teachers at the undergraduate level, more professional development geared toward engaging instructional practices for faculty members who teach content courses for teachers, and how to include AI and other technological tools in mathematics teaching and learning in ways that enhance students’ thinking rather than leading the students to see the tools as answer retrievers. Furthermore, this group is thinking about how to make teaching as a profession more attractive to possible teacher candidates in the current landscape.
If you are interested in the issues and action steps of the MTEP 2.0 Network Expansion Subhub and its working subgroups, you are welcome to attend the two Zoom meetings we have scheduled for this summer from 12-1 p.m. CDT on June 25 and July 28. Please contact Marilyn Strutchens strutme@auburn.edu or Lizzy Harkey ekb0054@auburn.edu to register for the events, and they will share the Zoom links with you.
References
Bargagliotti, A., Franklin, C., Arnold, P., Gould, R., Johnson, S., Perez, L., & Spangler, D.A. (2020.) Pre-K–12 guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education II (GAISE II): A framework for statistics and data science education. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. https://www.nctm.org/gaiseII/