PUBLICATIONS

September 2019

The Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) is a networked improvement community (NIC) of researchers, teachers, and instructional leaders from New England who use improvement science principles to increase the number of students who are actively and
deeply engaged in algebra content. The BMTN’s third year of implementation occurred during the 2018–19 school year. Key findings include:

1. High rates of teacher participation in intensive program. Similar to the first two BMTN cohorts, teachers in the third cohort devoted about 100 hours to individual, small group, and whole group network activities, both in-person and virtually.
2. The network met its aim of increasing deep student engagement. The BMTN set out to increase the number of students deeply engaged in algebra by 2,019 by the year 2019. A cumulative total of 2,074 students reported deep engagement in spring 2019,
exceeding the aim.
3. Teachers continued to learn about studentcentered instruction. BMTN continued to test and refine student-centered instructional routines and learned more about specific approaches for promoting deep student engagement in the math processes of making connections, creating justifications, and problem solving.
4. Network-created resources can support spread of student-centered instructional routines and improvement processes. The network created rubrics, training videos, and a task library to support network teachers in learning about and engaging in continuous improvement of instruction. These resources helped to spread learning to teachers within and outside of the network.