Advancing professional development of transformative elementary mathematics specialists

The National Science Foundation's Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings awarded $2,132,239 to the University of Alabama on September 15, 2025, under the STEM Education (CFDA 47.076) program to implement the Advancing Professional Development of Transformative Elementary Mathematics Specialists (TEMS) project. The initiative directly addresses the need for improved elementary mathematics education by preparing and supporting 60 elementary mathematics specialists (EMSs) who serve as highly effective mathematics teachers and teacher leaders. The program delivers research-informed professional development designed to enable EMSs to provide high-quality coaching to teacher candidates and novice teachers while developing ambitious, responsive mathematics instruction practices within their schools. Additionally, the project produces refined program resources and materials for dissemination to other elementary mathematics specialist program designers, contributing to the broader knowledge base on specialist preparation models.

The project incorporates both formative and summative evaluation components through sub-awardee Empirical Education Inc., which provides independent evaluation services and formative evaluation best practices coaching. The formative research supports networked improvement communities in identifying measurable improvement aims and testing change ideas focused on translating professional learning into classroom practices and integrating specialists' work within schools. A school-randomized experiment design underpins the summative evaluation to assess program effectiveness. The project operates through August 31, 2029, enabling iterative refinement of the professional development model and evidence-based improvements to maximize the transformative impact of elementary mathematics specialists in their educational settings.

Abstract

Advancing professional development of transformative elementary mathematics specialists (tems) addresses the critical need for improved mathematics education of elementary teachers and their students. The project will achieve this goal by preparing and supporting 60 elementary mathematics specialists (emss) who are highly effective mathematics teachers and teacher leaders. The program provides these emss with professional development grounded in research-informed practices and focuses on refinement of an existing program. The project aims to develop ambitious, responsive mathematics instruction and to provide high-quality coaching to teacher candidates and novice teachers. With a renewed call for mathematics specialists to be in every elementary school, they need specialized research-based preparation to be transformative and impactful in their settings. The program aims to make needed contributions to the knowledge base on elementary mathematics specialist preparation through evaluating the effectiveness of the professional development program and iteratively leveraging informed advice and evidence-based feedback to improve the model. Dissemination of the refined program resources is a critical component and will include sharing materials for other elementary mathematics specialist program designers. The research and evaluation will include both formative and summative components. The formative research will help support networked improvement communities to identify measurable improvement aims and key drivers of intended change. The research team will test and refine change ideas, focusing on supporting emss in translating their learning into classroom practices, coaching teacher candidates or novice teachers, and integrating and scaling elementary mathematics specialists' work within individual schools. The summative evaluation will use a school-randomized experiment to evaluate the causal effect on teacher and student outcomes. Researchers will randomly assign 30 schools to either the tems group or a waitlist control condition. On average, two teachers of grades 3-5 in each school, and their 50-60 students, will participate. The evaluation will focus on refining the program logic model, assessing fidelity of implementation (FOI), measuring elementary mathematics specialists' effects on student and teacher outcomes, and supporting sustainability and scale-up in the post-experiment period. The research team will address the following questions: (1) what are the key components of tems and the corresponding FOI thresholds?; (2) do the program development team and participants meet the FOI thresholds during the experiment? How does the program affect teachers' mathematical content knowledge, instructional practices, mathematics pedagogical beliefs, coaching practices and beliefs, and teacher leadership?; (3) do teacher, class, and student characteristics moderate impacts on teacher and student outcomes?; (4) do impacts on intermediate teacher outcomes mediate subsequent impacts on student achievement?; and (5) does impact on student achievement persist with a new student cohort 1 year after delivering the mathematics courses? Among treatment schools after the experiment, to what extent does the program scale in terms of sustainability, spread, depth, and ownership? This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.