Collective Pedagogical Teacher Culture and Mathematics Achievement

Abstract

Scholars have not adequately assessed how organizational cultures in schools differentially influence students’ mathematics achievement by race and socioeconomic status (SES). We focus on what we term collective pedagogical teacher culture, highlighting the role of professional communities and teacher collaboration in influencing mathematics achievement. Using cross-classified growth models, we analyze data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and illustrate that schools where teachers perceive the presence of professional communities and teacher collaboration foster greater mathematics achievement throughout elementary school. Furthermore, achievement gaps by race and socioeconomic status are lessened in schools with professional communities and teacher collaboration.

A Multilevel Analysis of the Impact of Teachers’ Beliefs and Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching on Students’ Mathematics Achievement

“…Moreover, Hemmings and Kay (2010) showed that student achievement on seventh grade mathematics tests was positively correlated with student achievement on tenth grade mathematics tests. Crosnoe et al (2010), Georges (2009), and Moller et al (2013) explained that the differences in prior achievement among students is deeply rooted in the differences in their ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Given the significant predictive value of prior achievement in student achievement outcomes, it is important to control for prior math achievement in studies involving students' achievement outcomes .…”

Teachers' inquiry stance: Collaboration through data analysis in a professional learning community

“…Goddard, Goddard, and Tschannen-Moran (2007) examined the results of PLCs on student achievement and found that after controlling for student characteristics and school contextual characteristics, teacher collaboration was positively related to student achievement in both math and reading at the elementary level (p. 891). Moller et al found similar results in their study focusing on achievement gaps linked to student socio-economic status (Moller et al, 2013). Research shows strong connections between student achievement gains and effective peer interaction, particularly for new teachers or for teachers who are the weakest of their peer group (Jackson & Bruegmann, 2009;.…”

“…Studies have attempted to quantify the effectiveness of the PLC process by measuring changes in student achievement scores after teachers have worked in a PLC (Aylsworth, 2012;Y. Goddard, 2007;Moller, Mickelson, Stearns, Banerjee, & Bottia, 2013;Zito, 2011). Other studies have used qualitative methods to evaluate the effectiveness of the PLC itself, or how aspects of the PLC process such as leadership influence the effectiveness of a PLC (Horn, 2005(Horn, , 2010Sayers, 2013;Stollar, 2014).…”

School and Teacher Effects

“…Following the development of this sociological version of the effective schools literature, sociologists have moved toward more direct assessments of interventions that target teacher performance. In some cases, the connections to the effective schools literature are overt (e.g., Gamoran et al 2003;Moller, Mickelson, Stearns et al 2013) while for others the attention is less direct (e.g., Hallinan 2008;Jennings and DiPrete 2010). Overall, the effective schools literature remains influential within sociology, and it is an important piece of the foundation on which a prevailing consensus would now appear to rest, and which we detail in the next section.…”