Curriculum & Instruction (CUIN) assistant professor Imani Goffney served as the Principal Investigator for the Validation of the Mathematical Quality and Equity (MQE) Observational Rubric Workshop, held at the Hilton Americas Hotel in Houston, Texas. The indicators on the MQE observational rubric she developed represent principal constructs of mathematics teaching practices that promote equity.  Funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) (Award #1222843), Goffney invited a group of mathematics education experts to Houston to participate in a series of research activities to ensure that her observational rubric is valid and reliable for use by other researchers. Workshop activities were informed through the expertise of Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies (DELPS) associate professor, Catherine Horn, who serves as a senior researcher and evaluator on the project. Horn helped by running analyses throughout the workshop to determine if inter-rater reliability was achieved through the research activities.

Goffney’s MQE Rubric is an instrument designed to measure pre-service teachers’ ability to notice and identify features of equitable mathematics instruction when observing teaching. The central activities for this workshop included discussions to get feedback from participants about the constructs and dimensions represented in the MQE observational rubric, as well as to identify the correct responses with which to compare the participants’ responses that enables the Mathematical Knowledge for Equitable Teaching (MKET) research team to develop a Master Coding document for analyzing the data the project has collected.  The MKET research team includes, Goffney, CUIN department chair Jennifer Chauvot, Horn and graduate student Monica Gonzalez.

Research experts from top research universities such as Wisconsin, Stanford, Michigan, Maryland, Michigan State and Virginia, attended the workshop.  “This workshop was incredibly valuable for me as a researcher and as an early career scholar,” said Goffney. “In addition to the significant research support they provided, they also helped give me feedback about the ways in which I was working to incorporate this into our teacher preparation program.” 

Goffney served as the Principal Investigator for this workshop and on the related MQE Teaching research project, also funded by NSF.  She designed the study (with assistance from Horn), and wrote the proposal for federal funding, and invited participants.  Goffney was also responsible for administering the workshop which included creating the agenda of work and managing all of the research, administrative and logistical details of the workshop. “Although this was a tremendous amount of work, time and effort to conduct this workshop, it was well worth it based on the benefit to our project” she said.

“The MQE workshop was an amazing opportunity to collaborate with other colleagues and to think deeply about what it means to teach mathematics equitably in K-12 classrooms,” said Rebecca Quander assistant professor, University of Houston-Downtown. “Dr. Goffney and colleagues did a wonderful job of pushing us to clearly articulate what we mean when we talk about quality mathematics teaching.”

“The CUIN department is extremely proud of Goffney’s research efforts and the amount of work she has put into the MQE project,” said Chauvot.  “It’s precisely this type of research that shines the light on how the College of Education is contributing to the university’s Tier One status, and how research can have an impact on our programs.”

Two of the participants came early to the workshop to meet with faculty and students.  Gloria Ladson-Billings, Distinguished Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction and Kellner Family Professor in Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin met with CUIN associate professors Mimi Lee and Nicole Andrews, who serve as directors of the new CUIN Ph.D. in Urban Education program. Ladson-Billings gave them expert advice and guidance about program structures, course content, student recruitment, and more.   Jennifer Langer-Osuna, faculty at Stanford University, held a workshop for UH College of Education graduate students to help them learn more about writing proposals for the Spencer Foundation.  

“Attending Dr. Goffney’s MQE workshop was tremendously insightful and beneficial for me as graduate student, said Amber Willis, Ph.D. student, School of Education, University of Michigan.  “I was able to get first-hand experience in the nuances of creating codes, scoring codes and achieving inter-rater reliability.  I’ve read over the past two years numerous methods sections in empirical studies and this workshop brought those methods sections to life for me.

"Anytime you can have bright minds in the field discussing equity and education the field is moving forward," said Charles Wilkes, Ph.D. student, School of Education, University of Michigan. "One of the highlights of the workshop is the thought process required to design observation protocols as well as how to train coders." 

It is unique for such an event, with such a combination of very senior and early career scholars to work collaboratively, for one purpose— to provide feedback about the validity and reliability of the MQE Observational Rubric.   “These types of workshops are very important for research universities and I was happy to contribute to UH’s efforts in producing and participating in Tier One research,” said Goffney.

This workshop supports high quality research activities that ensure that UH researchers conduct reliable and valid investigations for federally funded projects.  The workshop also supports initiatives to spread the word to researchers at top tier universities (such as Stanford, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, University of Virginia) about high quality research being conducted here at the University of Houston.