Chapter 8: Promoting Community and Core Practices in a Multisite Middle Level Mathematics Program

Middle level teacher preparation has been an overlooked endeavor for many years (Gaskill, 2002). While 46 states offer some type of middle level teaching credential, only 21 states require it for teaching in the middle grades (Gootman, 2007). In the early 2000s, Washington State adopted the middle level preparation standards as developed by the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), both with no variations. Washington revised these teacher preparation standards in 2013. With respect to mathematics, this revision focused exclusively on content knowledge, skills, and practices, with little attention to young adolescent development. This focus represented a shift from a more holistic view of teaching young adolescents towards the perspective that content is the fundamental priority. The essential attributes of educating young adolescents are discussed in This We Believe (National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2010)—developmentally responsive, challenging, empowering, and equitable—and are being backgrounded in favor of more purely content-focused teacher competencies. Therefore, numerous competencies demanded of middle level teachers were presumed to be developed in their K-8 or 5-12 certification process (e.g., Washington’s Middle Level Mathematics competency 8.0, Mathematical Instructional Methodology: “Candidates possess a deep understanding of how students learn mathematics and of the pedagogical knowledge specific to mathematics teaching and learning,” and 8.A., “Select, use and determine suitability of the available mathematics curricula, teaching materials, and other resources including manipulative for the learning of all students”) (Professional Education Standards Board, 2013). However, K-8 and 5-12 certification tended to place greater emphasis on younger children or high school age students, respectively, minimizing attention to these important middle level teacher competencies.