Teacher Interviews

Teacher Interview Timeline

We conducted teacher interviews on this project at three timepoints:

1. During the fall of 2016 (when most students were in 8th grade).
2. During the fall of 2017 (when most students were in 9th grade).
3. During the fall of 2018 (when most students were in 10th grade).

Information about each of these interview timepoints is presented below.

8th Grade Teacher Interview Description

Purpose:
Math performance for this group of 500+ middle school students is at least two grade levels behind and growing worse each year. But three years of paper and pencil surveys of student attitudes toward math and evaluations of their math abilities yielded highly positive and unrealistic perceptions.  Surveys of the students’ math teachers indicated that teachers had recalibrated their expectations of these students.  In an attempt to develop a deeper understanding of the perceptions of both teachers and students, we implemented student focus groups and teacher interviews in the fall of 2016, when most students were in the 8^th grade.

Creating the Protocol and Training Staff:
Staff adapted relevant questions from the work of Wilhem, Munter & Jackson (2014), using the Visions for High-Quality Mathematics Instruction (VHQMI) rubric, and questions about teachers’ views of students’ mathematical capabilities. We asked teachers the following questions:

• What is the role of a high quality math teacher? How would that teacher behave or interact with a class of students?
• If you were visiting a high quality math class, what would the class discussion look or sound like?
• If you were visiting a high quality math class, what kinds of tasks or activities would you expect to see?
• When your students don’t learn math as expected, what do you find are typically the reasons?

5 pilot teacher interview sessions were conducted and audio/video recorded.

A teacher interview script was created, including a brief introduction of the project to share with each teacher.

Two and a half days of training/practice were provided to staff. Training focused on understanding the questions, learning to keep teachers on topic, and asking good follow-up and clarifying questions.

Interviews were transcribed by the facilitator using the audio recorder after the session.

Teachers were compensated for their participation.

Teacher Data:

• We conducted 104 individual teacher interviews. We restricted them to teachers who lived in-county only. Our total teacher sample (in and out of county) was 142, so our interviews reflect 73% of the total 2016-2017 teacher sample. Participating teachers were spread across 47 schools (36 public, 11 charter).
• Staff is presently coding interview data based on both answers to the questions above and other unprompted themes that came up during each interview.

9th Grade Teacher Interview Description

Creating the Protocol and Training Staff:

Building off the work done during the fall of 2016, the 9th grade teacher interviews also included several of the adapted questions from Wilhem, Munter & Jackson’s (2014) Visions for High-Quality Mathematics Instruction (VHQMI) rubric. In addition, we asked questions about students’ transition from middle school math to high school math. The questions asked during the 9th grade teacher interviews are as follows:

• What math courses do you teach?
• What is the role of a high quality math teacher? How would that teacher behave or interact with a class of students?
• If you were visiting a high quality math class, what would the class discussion look or sound like?
• When your students don’t learn math as expected, what do you typically find are the reasons?
• As a teacher, how do you address those reasons?
• What support do you think students need to successfully transition from middle school math to high school math?
• Does the curriculum you use do a good job of supporting that transition?
  • IF YES: How?
  • IF NO: Why not?

A teacher interview script was created, including a brief introduction of the project to share with each teacher.

Two and a half days of training/practice were provided to staff. Training focused on understanding the questions, learning to keep teachers on topic, and asking good follow-up and clarifying questions.

Interviews were transcribed by the facilitator using the audio recorder after the session.

Teachers were compensated for their participation.

Teacher Data:

• We restricted our teacher sample for this year to only include high school math teachers (both in- and out-of-district).
• Among 118 teachers who were asked for an interview, 115 (97.5%) interviews were completed. Of the 115 completed interviews, we decided to drop data for 1 teacher who lived out-of-state and taught a virtual math class.
• Staff is presently coding interview data based on both answers to the questions above and other unprompted themes that came up during each interview.

10th Grade Teacher Interview Description

Creating the Protocol and Training Staff:

For the 10th grade interviews, we were most interested in learning about participating high schools’ career academies. Teachers were asked the following questions:

• What courses do you teach?
• What is the role of a high quality math teacher? How would that teacher behave or interact with a class of students?
• If you were visiting a high quality math class, what would the class discussion look like?
• Now, what would that class discussion sound like?
• When your students don’t learn math as expected, what do you typically find are the reasons?
• As a teacher, how do you address those reasons?
• What academy do you align your math courses with?
• Do you think students benefit from being a part of an academy?
• Have you had professional development/training to help you adapt your math instruction to fit the career academy model?
  • IF YES: How do you feel about the amount of Professional Development/Training that you have received?
  • IF NO: What kind of professional development do you think would help you adapt your math instruction to fit the career academy model?
• Is it your responsibility to make adaptations between your math curriculum and the academies?
  • IF YES: How do you make those adaptations?
  • IF NO: Whose responsibility is it and how is the curriculum adapted to the students?

A teacher interview script was created, including a brief introduction of the project to share with each teacher.

One day of training was provided to staff. Training focused on understanding the questions, learning to keep teachers on topic, and asking good follow-up and clarifying questions.

Interviews were transcribed by the facilitator using the audio recorder after the session.

Teachers were compensated for their participation.

Teacher Data:

• We restricted our teacher interview sample for this year to only include teachers who worked in-district at regular public schools.
• Among 111 teachers who were asked for an interview, 94 (84.7%) interviews were completed. Unfortunately, due to a glitch with the audio recorder, data were lost for 1 completed interview, leaving 93 total interviews for coding.
• Of the coded interviews, teachers were spread across the following types of schools:

• Staff is presently coding interview data based on both answers to the questions above and other unprompted themes that came up during each interview.