1. A Research-Practice Partnership to Develop District Capacity: Learning With & From Each Other
Hilda Borko, Stanford GSE
Janet Carlson, Stanford GSE
Emma Treviño, San Francisco Unified School District
AERA 2018
Our presentation today focuses on a RPP between Stanford GSE and the STEM department of SFUSD
Two of us will represent this work: Hilda and Janet. Emma worked with us to prepare the presentation, but was unable to attend AERA this year.
We’re focusing on one of Karen’s framing ideas: Learning with and from each other

2. Overview of the Session
The Research-Practice Partnership
Unpacking Practice
Unpacking the Research
Looking at the Partnership – Learning With and From Each Other
I want to give you a brief overview of the session:
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We’ll first describe the research-practice partnership
People – who has been involved
Brief history – how the work started
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We’ll then share what each team brought to the partnership work by unpacking the Practice and Research sides of this RPP
and close by sharing what we’ve learned with and from each other to date.
Unpacking Practice
Vision and mission
Curriculum
Dimensions of Teaching and Learning
PD Structure
Schools
Unpacking the Research
Models
Data collection
Feedback loops [PD (school sites & TLs), STEM Leadership (C&I), Coherence (district level)]
Looking at the Partnership – Learning With and From
In phases: Initial learnings, embedded learnings, anticipated learnings

3. Research-Practice Partnership Team
Stanford Team
Hilda Borko & Janet Carlson, PIs
Ben Domingue, faculty
Florencia Gomez Zaccarelli, post doctoral scholar
Rebecca Deutscher, project manager
Kelly Boles, David Lang, Michael Jarry-Shore, Suki Jones Mozenter, Anthony Muro Villa III, doctoral students
Alissa Fong, Susan Million, academic staff
Molly Simpson, research assistant
SFUSD Team
Jim Ryan, STEM Director
Lizzy Hull Barnes, Mathematics Program Administrator
Emma Treviño, Math Program Manager
Alisa Brown, Mathematics Content Specialist
6 Middle Grades Math Coaches
17 Mathematics Teacher Leaders
University/District Partnership Coordinator
Laura Wentworth
The grant supporting much of this work is situated in the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching at the GSE at Stanford.
We have a number of people collaborating on the project to design and lead PD and to collect and analyze data. This slide gives you a sense of the current mix of people and positions involved in this complex work
The column on the left lists the faculty, post doc, staff, and PhD students at CSET who are working on all aspects of the project including the preparation-- both leading the Leadership Preparation sessions for Teacher Leaders, and conducting the research component
and the district personnel (district- and school-level) include the STEM director and district math team, math coaches, and site-based math teacher leaders
the partnership coordinator who works between Stanford and SFUSD

4. THE RESEARCH-PRACTICE
PARTNERSHIP
Research
Practice
To contextualize where we are today, it helps to know a bit of the history of this work:
The Stanford Team first approached the Stanford/SFUSD Partnership Coordinator and the school district STEM leaders in the summer of 2013 to discuss the possibility of submitting a proposal to the NSF to build district capacity to conduct mathematics professional development to support the District’s reform efforts.
CSET could bring to this partnership models of professional development and PD leader preparation that we had previously developed.
With this in mind we suggested a design-based implementation research (DBIR) project in which we would collaborate with SFUSD to adapt these models to align with district needs and priorities.
The STEM leaders thought that the project would fit well with their current work to develop and implement a new middle school math curriculum for the district. We worked collaboratively on the proposal, which was submitted to NSF in December 2013 and funded in January 2015.

5. RPP Goals
Use a DBIR approach to develop and test a large-scale, system-level PD program aligned with the SFUSD Vision for teaching and learning mathematics
Build capacity in SFUSD to conduct site- based PD
Refine theories of teacher and leader learning
In planning the proposal, we identified the following Partnership goals:
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Using a DBIR approach, develop and test a large-scale, system-level PD program aligned with the SFUSD Vision
Building capacity in SFUSD to conduct site-based PD
Refining theories of teacher and leader learning
These goals have stayed relevant throughout the project.
[PROBABLY READ THIS]
Our approach in this partnership is to be responsive in service to these goals. We recognized that in the course of 4 years there will be many changes, some of which we can anticipate and many of which we cannot, and that to address these goals would require a process of making early adaptations, and then making some decisions collaboratively as we learned what was working and what needed additional attention.
In our presentation today we’ll illustrate how, in learning from and with each other,
we made initial adaptations, and
developed other adaptations based on embedded learnings
and finally, we’ll describe some areas in which we anticipate learning from each other in the coming year.

6. Stanford Together SFUSD Unpacking Practice New curriculum
Dimensions of teaching and learning
Leadership structures
PD structures
This slide depicts the key elements the district brought to the Partnership: their Mission statement and strategic plan for achieving it, new mathematics core curriculum, and vision of classroom learning and teaching
When we began the Partnership work, SFUSD had just rolled out a new task-based mathematics curriculum for grades K-8 and developed an overall plan for mathematics PD designed by the C&I Mathematics Department that was aligned with the Mission statement
Then came the Dimensions of Teaching and Learning for all grades, all content areas that SFUSD has built on premise that achieving their Vision would require many shifts in instructional practices
During this short presentation, we will briefly share the vision and then elaborate on the two structures – the curriculum and the dimensions.

7. SFUSD’S Vision 2025
Mission statement. Every day we provide each and every student the quality instruction and equitable support required to thrive in the 21st century.
The district’s five-year strategic plan to bring this mission to life places access and equity, student achievement, and accountability at the forefront of every child’s education. The ideas and actions in the plan focus on one central idea: every child has the right to be well-educated.

8. SFUSD Math Department Vision
All students will make sense of rigorous mathematics in ways that are creative, interactive, and relevant in heterogeneous classrooms.
This is the mathematics department’s vision or goals to address the mission statement

9. SFUSD’s Task-Based Mathematics Curriculum
Entry Task
Apprentice Task
Expert Task
Milestone Task
Lesson Series 1
Lesson Series 2
Lesson Series 3
The SFUSD math curriculum is a task-based curriculum that uses a pattern of entry, apprentice, expert, and milestone tasks for each unit.

10. SFUSD’s Dimensions of Teaching and Learning
Agency, Authority and Identity
Uses of Assessment
Access to Content
SFUSD developed three Dimensions of teaching and learning to help implement their mission statement: AAI, Access to Content, and Use of Assessment
All dimensions have sets of indicators for students and for teachers
The dimensions are supposed to be used for all content areas
The dimensions were developed and rolled out during the first school year we worked with Teacher Leaders.

11. Stanford Together SFUSD Unpacking Research PSC PD model
TLP leader preparation model
Data collection and analysis
Stanford brought to the Partnership
The PSC model of mathematics PD
And TLP model of teacher leadership development
And during the project, we have had primary responsibility for collecting data and conducting ongoing analyses to provide feedback into the system.

12. The Problem-Solving Cycle (1 Semester)
Solve Problem and Develop Lesson Plans
Teach and Videorecord the Problem
Video-Based Discussion of Student Thinking and Instruction
Video-Based Discussion of Instruction and Student Thinking
This is a graphic representation of the PD model, which we call the Problem-Solving Cycle (or PSC)
Set of 3 workshops focused on teaching with problems or tasks
Workshop 1: Solve the selected PSC problem and develop lesson plans
Teach the problem and have the lesson video-recorded
Workshops 2 and 3 use video-clips from the teachers’ lessons to discuss features of learning and teaching
Workshop 2: foregrounds students’ participation
initially designed to focus on students’ mathematical thinking and reasoning; for the partnership, we added AAI
Workshop 3: foregrounds instructional practices for teaching with problems/tasks.
Each cycle: 1 semester

13. Teacher Leadership Preparation Model
Summer Institute
Conduct Introduction to PSC
Teacher Leader Preparation Session 1
Conduct PSC Workshop 1: Mathematics and Planning
Teacher Leader Preparation Session 2
Conduct PSC Workshop 2: Video Analysis
Teacher Leader Preparation Session 3
Conduct PSC Workshop 3: Video Analysis
This slide depicts our model for working with teacher leaders – the Teacher Leadership Preparation (TLP) model
Each year of support begins with a Summer leadership academy in which we work on particularly challenging aspects of facilitation
We they hold a series of Teacher Leader Preparation Sessions throughout the year that focus on preparing to conduct the Problem-Solving Cycle workshops

14. Stanford Together SFUSD Learning With and From Each Other PSC PD model
TLP leader preparation model
Data collection and analysis
Testing models
Refining models
Building capacity
Contributions to theory & practice
New curriculum
Dimensions of teaching and learning
Leadership structures
PD structures
JANET
The work that we’re doing together addresses the RPP goals we identified:
testing the PD and leadership preparation models,
refining the models,
and sharing what we’re learning by giving presentations and workshops to various audiences of practitioners

15. Building District Capacity
Preparation & Planning
Stanford Team
SFUSD Math Dept.
Teacher Leaders
This work is happening in a variety of places
A Leadership team from CSET and C&I-Math Department meets periodically to review progress, findings, and challenges  realign as needed
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PD Facilitators/Math Educators from CSET and SFUSD STEM team meet regularly to plan and facilitate TLP sessions.
TLs conduct PSC workshops at their sites. The research team video records the workshops, which informs refinements in the next TLP session.
By working in all these levels of the system, we are making steady progress toward the goal of building capacity. Part of this progress is marked by the openness with which the Partnership is naming the issues that impede the forward momentum and working on those issues.

16. Using Responsiveness to Learn
Initial Learning
Embedded Learning
Anticipated Learning
The learning on this project is characterized by being responsive to the conditions, challenges, and new initiatives that emerged during the project. We’ve begun to characterize the sets of learning into those that informed initial adaptations, those that were and are deeply embedded in the work as we are doing it, and the ones yet to come, but are beginning to take shape.

17. Initial Adaptations Based on the Starting Points
Initial Learning
New Curriculum
PSC tasks drawn from the SFUSD curriculum
Dimensions of Teaching & Learning
Video clips highlighting Dimensions of Teaching & Learning
PSC Model
As a reminder,
Two of the key elements that SFUSD brought to our work together were the:
Task-based curriculum
Dimensions of Teaching and Learning
And two key elements that CSET brought were
PSC Model of PD
TLP model of leadership preparation
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To bring these two previously independent sets of elements together, we made several adaptations to the models during the initial planning phase…
Mathematics content focus based on SFUSD Core Curriculum (one problem per grade level)
Focus of selection of video clips and video analysis are based on SFUSD’s Dimensions of Teaching and Learning (and department goals)
Used ideas from the Dimensions to guide the development of focus questions for video-based discussions
Focus questions about Dimensions of Teaching & Learning
TLP Model

18. Adaptations Based on Embedded Learning
Curriculum
Embedded Learning
Time for
“doing the math”
Dimensions
Video clips highlighting agency, authority, & identity
Leadership
PD Structures
Focus questions about agency, authority, & identity
PSC Model
We piloted the initial adaptations in 2015 with 5 teacher leaders from 2 different schools. At that time the Stanford team was designing and conducting the majority of the PD with the TLs and debriefing with the district math leaders, including an instructional coach.
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We examined TL feedback after each session, conversations during the debriefing sessions and our observations of TLs in their classrooms and leading site-based workshops and made several additional adaptations based on what we were learning as we were embedded in doing the work:
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Given the newness of the curriculum for both the teachers and teacher leaders, we realized that we needed to spend more time in the TLP meetings, and the TLs needed to spend more time in the PSC workshops, “doing the math” – this was one of the early places the district folks took a lead
We also saw that ideas in the “Agency, Authority, Identity” Dimension were unfamiliar to many TLs and Ts, so
We spent more time unpacking these concepts in the sessions
We also intentionally selected video clips to highlight AAI and developed focus questions to facilitate the VBDs
Given the lack of leadership experience of the TLs we focused on leadership development by:
Being very intentional about modeling the VBDs
And debriefing facilitation – both debriefing the facilitators (“pulling back the curtain”) and having the TLs reflect on the facilitation they had experienced
Modeled video-based discussions
TLP Model
Debriefing facilitation after a video-based discussion
Ongoing Analysis

19. Potential Adaptations Based on Anticipated Learning
Instruction using math tasks
Curriculum
Dimensions
Site-based capacity to reflect on learning and teaching
Leadership
Coaches that support the math vision
PD Structures
As we move into year 4 of this project we are aiming for embedded systemic change.
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In a recent meeting with the project leadership from Stanford and SFUSD, we collectively identified a number of goals we all wanted the work of the RPP to accomplish. These included
Enactment of the district vision of task-based, learner-centered math instruction in all middle school classrooms
Capacity at the participating schools to run their own PSC workshops
Increasing the capacity of the coaches to support the departmental vision for teaching and learning
Strengthening capacity within the math department to lead PD to develop TLs
Analyzing data in order to make contributions to the field regarding capacity building within an RPP
PSC Model
District capacity to develop teacher leaders
TLP Model
Contributions to theories about developing capacity
Ongoing Analysis

20. Funding the Partnership
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No DRL Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.
Notes:
This work would not be possible without the support of the National Science Foundation.

21. Thank you!
Contact information:
To learn more about the PSC and MLP models:
(under construction)
Borko, H., Jacobs, J., Koellner, K., & Swackhamer, L. (2015). Mathematics professional development: Improving teaching using the Problem-Solving Cycle and Leadership Preparation models. New York: Teachers College Press.
Borko, H., Carlson, J., Mangram, C., Anderson, R., Fong, A. Million, S., Mozenter, S., & Villa, A. M. (2017). The role of video-based discussion in model for preparing professional development leaders. International Journal of STEM Education, 4(1). doi: /s