Beyond the Networked Improvement Community: Designing PLCs to Spread Learning from the Better Math Teaching Network

From 2016 to 2021, the Better Math Teaching Network (BMTN) aimed to transform high school mathematics teaching in New England. Researchers and teachers worked together to make high school Algebra I classes more student centered. The BMTN was piloted with a group of nine teachers during the 2015-2016 school year and added teachers the following three years. In all, a total of 63 teachers engaged in the BMTN. Selected from a pool of volunteers that applied to join the network, participating teachers worked in urban, suburban, and rural contexts and taught at least one Algebra I course to 9th grade students. They engaged collaboratively to continuously improve their teaching, enhancing learning for thousands of high school math students throughout New England. Each year, BMTN teachers tested self-identified strategies for making their classrooms more student centered. Their testing was guided by the network's definition of Deep Engagement in Algebra (DEA): connect, justify, and solve. Using learning gleaned from the network, the BMTN hub launched a professional learning community (PLC) in another school district. Involvement in the BMTN has changed teacher practice for all 63 teachers directly involved in the network. Beyond the network participants, many of the routines, tools, and practices will be used in their local contexts in a variety of ways. The BMTN hub's formalized effort to support BMTN teachers in spreading the learning of the network into local contexts (through PLCs) yielded effects on the instructional practices of local teachers in schools, districts, and states throughout New England as well as insight into how networked improvement communities (NICs) might organize for scale.