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Producing highly skilled elementary mathematics teachers capable of facilitating mathematics learning in ways aligned with The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), is a common objective of teacher preparation programs (National Governors Association & Chief Council of State School Officers, 2010). After decades of effort, Brown (2003) argues, teachers continue to teach in the way they were taught; thus, they disregard mathematics standards. As Abell, Appleton, and Hanuscin (2010) note, students’ preexisting ideas relevant to the nature of learning and teaching stem from experiences in their schooling, life, and formal classes. Specifically, related to mathematics, these experiences often reflect the difficulty in learning mathematics, fear of mathematics, and consequently, a dislike for the subject (Abell et al., 2010; Wilson, 2014). These preconceived beliefs influence how preservice teachers (PSTs) perceive subject matter. Beliefs also impact the decisions they make about teaching and learning mathematics. In this exploratory descriptive case-study I investigated in what ways three PSTs describe their experiences as K-12 mathematics learners, how the PSTs perceive their abilities to teach mathematics prior to participating in an introductory elementary mathematics methods course, how the PSTs perceive their abilities to teach mathematics after participating in an introductory elementary mathematics methods course, and what catalysts, relative to their experiences, do the PSTs consider noteworthy in the development of their beliefs and concurrent pedagogy about teaching mathematics to elementary students. I utilized constant comparative methods (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Strauss, 1987; Miles and Huberman, 1984) to analyze the data and identify overarching themes related to the goals of the study.

This paper provides a history of the standardized testing and accountability movement, the curriculum standards attached to the accountability movement, and the attempted shift to common core. Student poverty and its impact on student achievement the focus of this paper. Recognizing the impact of poverty on student achievement as measured by standardized tests the authors question the explicit practices of teacher preparation programs in preparing teacher candidates to work with students of poverty.

Due to teacher shortages at the study site, teaching positions in the state that is the focus of this study are filled by alternate route (AR) teachers, who earned bachelor degrees in the fields that were not related to education and received teacher certification through alternative teacher education programs. Because there is limited information about the preparation and performance of AR teachers at the site of this study, the purpose of this sequential mixed methods project study was to explore AR teachers' preparation and their effect on student learning as measured by Northwest Evaluation Association's Measures of Academic Progress/Discovery Education Assessments. Guided by Mezirow's experiential learning theory and Dewey's educational philosophy, this project study investigated the relationship between the alternate route teachers' field experiences and years of experience, and teachers' effect on student learning. Data collection included a survey of 36 K-12 AR teachers selected through convenience sampling, document analysis of their student assessment scores, and 6 structured interviews with purposefully selected high performing AR teachers. Data were triangulated and cross-analyzed. Findings indicated that when AR teachers engage in field experiences prior to teaching, their students have higher levels of achievement as evidenced in their assessment scores. There was no correlation between AR teachers' years of teaching experience and their student assessment scores. Analysis of AR teachers' interview responses revealed a need for professional development, which was then created to address those needs. This study may contribute to social change by offering the targeted professional development of AR teachers and improving the design of AR preparation programs to better influence student learning.

I It was unclear how the teacher education curriculum at a regional university in the south central region of the United States developed mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) in prospective elementary teachers. Understanding how MKT develops during teacher training is important because MKT has been linked to student achievement. The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to examine how prospective elementary teachers' MKT developed while enrolled in a math and science strategies course. Guided by Ball et al.'s MKT framework and Silverman and Thompson's development of this framework, this study investigated changes in prospective teachers' MKT levels and teacher candidates' perceptions of instructional tasks that assisted in the development of MKT during the course. During the quantitative phase, teacher candidates (N = 30) completed the Number Concepts and Operations assessment as a pre- and posttest. Paired t test results showed no significant changes in candidates' MKT levels. During the qualitative phase, volunteers were interviewed about their perceptions of how the course influenced their development of MKT. Thematic analyses revealed that teacher candidates recognized instruction that developed MKT, perceived the strategies course to have little to no influence on MKT, and felt unprepared to teach math. Findings were used to develop a revised curriculum plan for developing prospective teachers' MKT. The findings may lead to positive social change in the form of curriculum revisions aimed at developing teacher candidates' MKT to improve future instruction. The project may be shared with other colleges to improve curriculum with the goal of improving the quality of math instruction statewide.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / One in five children in schools today are from immigrant families and speak a language other than English. Research reveals many teachers in urban schools feel inadequately prepared to meet the unique needs of these students. Teachers lack research- based knowledge about culturally relevant teaching and differentiated instructional strategies that benefit all learners. They do not understand issues such as ethnicity, poverty, racism, cultural and linguistic identities, and immigration. Few studies have described the nature of the learning experiences of English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrants in urban high schools. Using identity, sociocultural, and self-efficacy conceptual frameworks (relevant immigrant pedagogy), this qualitative case study focused on classroom interactions and instructional efforts of two teachers in an English 10 class in an urban high school. The researcher observed class activities, took field notes, interviewed teachers and students, collected instructional planning documents, and photographed student artifacts and interactions. One teacher in the classroom had an English as a Second Language (ESL) certification and extensive professional development to increase her competency as a teacher of immigrants. The other teacher had English Language Arts certification. Findings indicated that relevant immigrant pedagogy was an expansive instructional framework which transformed ELLs and immigrants to grow in their construction of self and identity, self-efficacy, sociocultural consciousness, and academic rigor within a period of five months despite the prescriptive curriculum from vii the district in a restricted environment. The urban teachers displayed skills, zeal, and commitment to building a community of learners of all ability levels in class and bridged the gaps between immigrants and non-immigrants. All students grew together in their learning and socio emotional experiences and became advocates and helpers for one another, not competitors. The conclusions suggest that it is possible to improve the educational programs for immigrant students and English Language Learners through well-developed research-based instruction, and proposes a model for effective urban teacher education.

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Metalinguistic awareness (MA) in the context of the present study is the ability to deconstruct and analyze a language's intricate systems, and by doing so, better understand how these systems work. More specifically for the present study, the investigation focused on preservice teachers' MA in relation to grammar and its importance for their future students' understanding of language. Language is at the core of any content area in students' academic lives and it will continue to permeate all aspects of their studies at all ages. As such, language-related issues should be at the front and center of preservice teachers' preparation. The present study, a quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest (Shadish, Cook & Campbell, 2002) investigated the metalinguistic awareness of preservice teachers who were enrolled in a face-to-face, undergraduate applied linguistics course at an urban research university in the United States. The metalinguistic awareness in the scope of the present study was directly related to the grammar knowledge of participants, and it was measured by an adapted instrument called ALAT. The results of the current study demonstrate that overall increase of MA is feasible (as attested by the results from research question 1). Nevertheless, further investigations (research questions 2, 3, 4, and 5) demonstrated that teachers' levels of metalinguistic awareness vary significantly. These results echoed previous findings that demonstrated that preservice teachers are not language-knowledgeable enough to deal with myriad issues that involve language, both in relation to students who are native speakers of English and also concerning ELs (Kolln & Hancock, 2005; Nutta et al., 2012; Pappamihiell, 2007). Preservice teachers' lack higher level metalinguistic awareness, as evidenced by their limited ability to explain grammar errors and use proper metalanguage while doing so. The main implication of the present study lies in the recommendation that more can and should be done in order to ensure that preservice teachers are receiving the appropriate amount of language-oriented preparation during their college years. The present study offers a confirmatory perspective to previous research findings which found that preservice teachers are not knowledgeable enough in relation to language. Previous studies also pointed out to this lack of preparation as a generator of feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in preservice teachers while foreseeing their future students' language struggles. Nonetheless, the present study also demonstrates that improvement can be achieved in regard to MA teacher preparedness in relatively little amount of time, especially for recognition of grammatical items such as parts of speech and parts of sentence. However, the findings demonstrate that more time is needed to ensure better results for complex grammar analyses such as explanation of grammatical errors.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study was designed to determine, from the perspective of beginning teachers, the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic affected their intentions to remain in teaching. There were two additional goals in conducting the study: (a) to determine the key practices, supports, or events that played a role in impacting teachers' intentions to remain in teaching during a crisis; and (b) to determine the key practices, supports, or events teachers believe the district or school could do that might further impact their intention to remain in teaching during a crisis. In Phase 1, a survey was administered to teachers who began employment in the studied district in academic years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. In Phase 2, a semi-structured focus group interview was conducted with volunteer participants who had taken the survey to develop a deeper understanding of the patterns observed from the survey responses. While this study was designed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teachers' intentions to remain in teaching, a statistically significant result was not identified. This study identified practices, supports, and events that impacted beginning teacher retention, focusing on what was effective, ineffective, and could have been added to increase effectiveness. Beginning teachers self-identified that mentorship within their subject and grade level, salary and benefit increases, and supportive cultures were helpful in retention. In contrast, strategies deemed ineffective included a lack of preparation for the challenges that they faced and impractical professional development. Beginning teachers explained that retention might have been increased if school leaders allowed greater opportunities for networking, as well as a greater focus on training teachers in technology and software systems for classroom use.