Elementary mathematics specialists are teacher leaders who are responsible for supporting effective PK–6 mathematics instruction and student learning. The Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics, the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in a 2010 joint position paper on Elementary Mathematics Specialists (EMSs), all advocate for the use of EMSs to support the teaching and learning of mathematics. The specific roles and expectations of EMSs will vary according to the needs of each setting, “but their expertise and successful experience at the elementary level is critical” (p 1). Elementary Mathematics Specialists: Developing, Refining, and Examining Programs that Support Mathematics Teaching and Learning is AMTE’s latest resource supporting the important work of EMSs. It has five sections related to the preparation and professional development of EMSs: (a) Overview and Current State of Affairs; (b) Models of EMS Program Development & Delivery; (c) Supporting EMSs in the Field; (d) The Mathematics Specialist Research; and (e) Future Directions. The book provides support to EMS practitioners, program providers/developers, and researchers seeking to answer important questions about how to prepare Mathematics Specialists, support them in the field, and research their effectiveness.

Placing mathematics specialists in elementary schools is a recent development that is gaining momentum as schools move to more rigorous standards, including the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Working with teachers to improve schoolwide mathematics performance, the mathematics specialist is unique among the specialists at elementary schools today. In this handbook: Vignettes flesh out the elementary mathematics specialist’s many responsibilities. Experienced specialists offer tips on gaining teachers’ trust—and access to their classrooms. Special guidance highlights effective collaboration between the principal and the specialist. The transition from classroom teacher to elementary mathematics specialist is challenging, but the principal can smooth the specialist’s path by reassuring teachers that the new specialist is there to support them, not judge them. In the authors’ words, “The mathematics specialist, when introduced to the faculty in the right way, becomes a soft place where the teacher can fall.”

Packed with effective instructional strategies, this book explores why certain K-5 students struggle with math and provides a framework for helping these learners succeed. The authors present empirically validated practices for supporting students with disabilities and others experiencing difficulties in specific areas of math, including problem solving, early numeracy, whole-number operations, fractions, geometry, and algebra. Concrete examples, easy-to-implement lesson-planning ideas, and connections to state standards, in particular the Common Core standards, enhance the book's utility. Also provided is invaluable guidance on planning and delivering multi-tiered instruction and intervention.

Studies of teachers in the U.S. often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. Yet, these studies give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by recent reforms in mathematics education. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics describes the nature and development of the knowledge that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such knowledge seems more common in China than in the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts. The anniversary edition of this bestselling volume includes the original studies that compare U.S and Chinese elementary school teachers’ mathematical understanding and offers a powerful framework for grasping the mathematical content necessary to understand and develop the thinking of school children. Highlighting notable changes in the field and the author’s work, this new edition includes an updated preface, introduction, and key journal articles that frame and contextualize this seminal work.

How to build productive relationships in math education I wasn’t taught this way. I can’t help my child! These are common refrains from today’s parents and guardians, who are often overwhelmed, confused, worried, and frustrated about how to best support their children with what they see as the "new math." The problem has been compounded by the shift to more distance learning in response to a global pandemic. Partnering With Parents in Elementary School Math provides educators with long overdue guidance on how to productively partner and communicate with families about their children’s mathematics learning. It includes reproducible surveys, letters, and planning documents that can be used to improve the home-school relationship, which in turn helps students, parents, teachers, and education leaders alike. Readers will find guidance on how to: · Understand and empathize with what fuels parents’ anxieties and concerns · Align as a school and set parents’ expectations about what math instruction their children will experience and how it will help them · Communicate clearly and productively with parents about their students’ progress, strengths, and needs in math · Run informative and fun family events · support homework · Coach parents to portray a productive disposition about math in front of their children Educators, families, and students are best served when proactive, productive, and healthy relationships have been developed with each other and with the realities of today′s math education. This guide shows how these relationships can be built.

Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods is the product of collaborations among over 40 mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) who teach mathematics methods courses for prospective PreK?12 teachers in many different institutional contexts and structures. Each chapter unpacks ways in which MTEs use theoretical perspectives to inform their construction of goals, activities designed to address those goals, facilitation of activities, and ways in which MTEs make sense of experiences prospective teachers have as a result. The book is organized in seven sections that highlight how the theoretical perspective of the instructor impacts scholarly inquiry and practice. The final section provides insight as we look backward to reflect, and forward with excitement, moving with the strength of the variation we found in our stories and the feeling of solidarity that results in our understandings of purposes for and insight into teaching mathematics methods. This book can serve as a resource for MTEs as they discuss and construct scholarly practices and as they undertake scholarly inquiry as a means to systematically examine their practice.

What is the role of the mathematics specialist? What is deep subject knowledge in mathematics? What sort of pedagogical knowledge does a mathematics specialist need? How can you best support your colleagues to improve mathematics teaching and learning? Becoming a Primary Mathematics Specialist Teacher helps you explore the role of the specialist in promoting positive attitudes towards mathematics and developing the teaching and learning of mathematics in your primary school. Illustrated throughout with classroom-based examples and referenced to relevant research, it is designed to support your development as a reflective practitioner who can confidently review and develop practice in your own classroom, as well as challenge and move the whole school forward through collaborative professional development. Essential topics explored include: The nature of the role of the primary mathematics specialist Understanding how attitudes to mathematics evolve, and why it is crucial to challenge and change negativity What we mean by deep subject knowledge in primary mathematics Pedagogical knowledge of how mathematics is taught and learned The skills of coaching and mentoring to support teachers and teaching assistants Unpicking the principles of progression for high quality teaching in all years groups The key features of deep subject knowledge and pedagogy in three areas of the curriculum: multiplication, time and data handling. Becoming a Primary Mathematics Specialist Teacher is an essential source of guidance and ideas for all primary school teachers aiming to achieve Mathematics Specialist status or already taking this role, those studying primary mathematics as a specialism and at masters level, and for all primary mathematics co-ordinators.