Systems for Instructional Improvement

Paul Cobb is a research professor at Vanderbilt University. He is the principal investigator of the MIST study. He received his doctorate in mathematics from The University of Georgia. He has taught courses in elementary mathematics teaching, design research methodology, and the school and district setting of mathematics teaching and learning. His research focuses on improving the quality of mathematics teaching and student learning on a large scale, and on issues of equity in students' access to significant mathematical ideas.Kara Jackson is an associate professor of mathematics education at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her doctorate in Education, Culture, and Society with an emphasis in mathematics education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Dr. Jackson is a co-principal investigator of MIST. Her research focuses on specifying forms of practice that support all learners to participate in rigorous mathematics and how to organize educational contexts to support teachers to develop such practices.Erin Henrick is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. She is the project manager and is a co-principal investigator on the MIST project, and received her doctorate in Education, Leadership, and Policy from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Henrick's research interests include district-level design research, researcher practitioner partnerships that support improvements in the quality of teaching, and school and district supports to foster instructional improvement.Dr. Thomas M. Smith is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, and is a co-principal investigator of the MIST project. He earned his doctorate in education theory and policy from the Pennsylvania State University. Previously he was associate professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University. His research focuses on school and district instructional improvement in mathematics, and on research practitioner partnerships.