Using Social Network Analysis to Understand Links Between Teacher Leader Roles and Student Achievement
The Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) system is comprised of nearly 200 elementary, middle, and secondary schools. The Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership (MMP), which just completed year five of implementation, seeks to improve mathematics education and learning across the K-12 system. The MMP involves mathematics faculty and mathematics educators in collaboration with PK-12 educators in strengthening district curricula, student assessment measures, and re-designing pre-service and in-service teacher preparation focused on the needs of an urban district.
The Partnership embraces four major goals in order to improve student achievement: (1) Comprehensive Mathematics Framework, (2) Distributed Leadership, (3) Teacher Learning Continuum, and (4) Student Learning Continuum.
For the past three years, the external evaluation team has used Social Network Analysis in selected MPS schools to increase our understanding of distributed leadership within MPS schools. The methodology enables us to map communication and collaboration networks within schools, and has been useful for isolating the relative importance of key MMP roles-namely the Math Teacher Leaders and Math Teaching Specialists-within those schools. This work has provided us with initial indicators about the value of distributed leadership in schools as it relates to student achievement in schools and the impact the MMP is having on fostering distributed leadership in MPS schools.
