Practices Worthy of Attention: A Search for Existence Proofs of Promising Practitioner Work in Secondary Mathematics

The goal of the practices worthy of attention (PWOA) project was to surface innovative practices currently in use by urban schools and districts that show promise of improving students' secondary mathematics performance. Each school and district explored has a different perspective and a unique set of practices in place to improve secondary mathematics achievement. The goal of this project was not always to discover innovations in how practitioners address similar issues, but rather to document what practitioners are doing to strengthen secondary mathematics education. Thus, although the practice highlighted might be commonplace, the specific structures and strategies being employed by the school or district to implement it are worthy of attention. A cross-case analysis of the 22 practices revealed two main categories: raising student achievement and building teacher capacity. [Originally published in the inaugural December 2008 issue of the "Journal of Urban Mathematics Education" ("JUME").]