Relationship Between Growth in Student Learning in Mathematics and Characteristics of Effective Teacher Professional Development

The primary purpose of this study was to determine significant relationships between growth in student learning in mathematics and characteristics of effective teacher professional development and teacher demographics. The goal was to determine whether certain characteristics of professional development, as measured by the Characteristics of Effective Professional Development survey (Soine, 2010) would significantly predict a growth in student learning over a one-year period of time in mathematics, grades 3-8. The five characteristics measured on the instrument were: (a) Collective Participation, (b) Focus on Teachers' Content Knowledge and How Students Learn Content, (c) Coherence with Teachers' Needs and Circumstances, (d) Active Learning in Classroom, and (e) Active Learning Beyond the Classroom. An additional variable: total time spent in professional development in mathematics, was added. Two multiple regression analyses were conducted. The first analysis was to determine whether certain characteristics of professional development were predictors of student learning. The second multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine whether certain teacher demographics predicted growth in student learning. The tool used to measure growth in student learning was the Measure of Academic Progress (Northwest Evaluation Association; NWEA, 2011). There were no statistically significant relationships found (p < .01) between any of the characteristics of professional development and growth in student learning (r = .38). The variable, Grade Level was found to be a statistically significant predictor of student learning, and found that the lower the grade level the higher the growth in Measure of Academic Progress scores ( p < .003). This is the only statistically significant relationship between growth in MAP scores and the four independent variables. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine whether there are statically significant grade level differences in types of professional development activities practiced between grade level bands 3-5 and 6-8. Multiple independent t-tests were conducted to determine whether there were any significant group differences between the independent variables: the five characteristics of professional development, plus hours spent on professional development activities and the dependent variable, grade level. The two-tailed values were all between p ≥ .103 and p ≥ .968, and can conclude that there are no significant differences between the means of the two groups. Further research needs to be done to continue to explore strategies for consistently implementing effective teaching practices. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate a need to find more effective ways to measure the implementation of effective practices learned from professional development activities.