Field Sites

“SERP field sites are structured as a set of three closely connected, and partially overlapping, groups: The Core Group, The Design Team, and the Research Team.”

San Francisco Field Siteback

Current Research Collaborations

  • How do we prepare math teacher leaders in a professional development (PD) model that is both sustainable in building local capacity and scalable on a long-term basis, beyond the support by the original developers?

    Despite the importance of mathematics professional development (PD), few PD programs have been implemented on a large scale, and little attention has been paid to investigating the factors that make a program scalable and sustainable. This SERP collaboration led by the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching (CSET) at Stanford University builds on prior math PD work in Colorado. This design research project will contribute to theory and practice in this area by developing and studying the Problem-Solving Cycle (PSC) for preparing leaders to facilitate mathematics PD in the local context of San Francisco Unified middle schools.

    This partnership in San Francisco will contribute to theory and practice in two domains: (a) preparing leaders to provide mathematics PD; and (b) implementing sustainable, scalable mathematics PD in urban settings with particular attention to mutual adaptation processes required between PD models and local organizational and cultural/linguistic contexts.

    This work supports the development of the Standards for Mathematical Practice as stated in the Common Core State Standards in students.

      1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

      2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

      3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

      4. Model with mathematics.

      5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

      6. Attend to precision.

      7. Look for and make use of structure.

      8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

    More information about the Problem-Solving Cycle (PSC)

    Timeline: August 2010 to June 2013

    District co-developers:
    Jeanne D’Arcy, Supervisor, Mathematics and Science
    Kirstin Hernandez, Instructional Support Specialist, Superintendent Zone-Mission
    Jeannie Pon, Assistant Superintendent for Middle Schools
    Ricki Tai, Instructional Support Specialist, Middle School Mathematics

    Math Teacher Leaders:
    Anna Gin, Denman Middle School
    John Spicer, Denman Middle School
    Harini Aravamudhan, Everett Middle School
    Chanmony Prak, Hoover Middle School
    Thad Austin, Hoover Middle School
    Theresa Heckathorne, Marina Middle School
    Shauna Poong, Marina Middle School
    Steven Mattice, Roosevelt Middle School
    Chris Robinson, Roosevelt Middle School
    Jay Laviolette, Visitacion Valley Middle School
    Ryan Mountford, Visitacion Valley Middle School

    Researcher co-developers:
    Hilda Borko, Professor of Education, Stanford University
    Tina Cheuk, Assistant Director, SERP
    Phil Daro, Site Director, SERP
    Emily Davis, Clinical Associate, CSET, Stanford University
    Yan Liu, Assistant Director, SERP
    Charmaine Mangram, Graduate student, Stanford University
    Susan O’Hara, Executive Director, CSET, Stanford University
    Jeff Zwiers, Clinical Associate, CSET, Stanford University