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College of Education College of Education

Jennifer M. Lewis, Ph.D.

Jennifer M. Lewis, Ph.D.

Professor of Mathematics Education and Director of TeachDETROIT

313-577-1765

jmlewis@wayne.edu, ek4612@wayne.edu

313-577-4091 (fax)

Office Hours: By appointment.

211 College of Education

Jennifer M. Lewis, Ph.D.

Degrees and Certifications

  • PhD, Teacher education and mathematics education, 2007, University of Michigan
  • M.A., Educational psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 1985
  • B.A., Development studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1984
  • Teacher certification in elementary education; secondary English, secondary Social Studies

Responsibilities

I conduct research in mathematics teacher education, and teach courses in teacher preparation and the study of teacher preparation.  I provide professional development for Detroit teachers in public, charter, and private schools. In addition, I direct the TeachDETROIT program http://coe.wayne.edu/teach-detroit, a teacher education program designed specifically to prepare teachers for working in Detroit schools that serve children of color living in poverty.

I developed a general education mathematics course, MAE 1000: Detroit by the Numbers, which is designed to teach mathematics through data and statistics of various sectors in the city of Detroit. In this course, students visit different institutions, agencies, and businesses to learn how data informs decision-making in health care, sports, arts, social services, transportation, education, urban farming, entertainment, housing, and more. Students come to know the city of Detroit, and how mathematics tells a story, and how mathematics is relevant and useful in our everyday lives

Area of Expertise

 Teacher learning; professional development; mathematics education.

Research Interests

My work centers on how teachers learn about teaching and how they learn mathematics from and for their daily work. I study the practices that lead to equitable outcomes in mathematics learning for all children, and what it takes for teachers to carry out such instruction given the constraints and resources of routine classroom settings. One area of my research investigates high-quality mathematics teaching, and what we can learn from teachers who conduct high-quality instruction in schools for children of color living in poverty. I also study the preparation of teachers for children of color living in poverty, and the factors that contribute to teachers' retention and success. I lead a number of lesson study groups and study what this type of professional development may contribute to teacher learning as distinct from other forms of professional development. 

With Dr. Ozgun-Koca, I lead the Mathematics Education Research Group at Wayne State University. Along with our doctoral students and other faculty, we investigate issues of mathematics education across grades P-16.

I think of the courses I teach as a laboratory for studying teaching and learning. I am fortunate to teach courses that mirror my research interests and so the overlap between what and how I teach, with what and how I do research, is often quite synergistic.

Awards

  • 2019, Notable Woman in Education, Crain’s Detroit Business Award
  • 2018, Midcareer Award Nominee, Division K, American Educational Research Association
  • 2016, Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award Nominee, Wayne State University
  • 2013, Kathleen Reilly Koory Endowed Faculty Development Award Recipient, Wayne State University
  • 2014, Faculty Research Award Recipient, Wayne State University College of Education

Grants

Noyce Mathematics Fellows: TeachDETROIT, 2015 - 2020
Award: $1,427,463 - The Noyce Mathematics Cohort, TeachDETROIT will recruit and train 12 to 20 STEM majors each year at Wayne State University, with our community college partner, Henry Ford College. These candidates will become elementary and middle school math teachers in Detroit schools as part of an urban teacher residency program, and will earn the additional designation of elementary mathematics specialists. The grant also investigates the specialized knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be an excellent teacher for high-poverty children of color in Detroit schools.

Improving Proportional Reasoning Instruction through eNgineering Tasks (IMPRINT), 2013 - 2015
Award: $504,625 - This grant supported research into teachers' understanding of proportional reasoning through the use of engineering tasks for middle school students.

Detroit STEM Teaching Initiative, 2015 - 2017
Award: $85,000 - This grant supports the development of a laboratory for studying mathematics teaching and learning in Detroit schools, bringing together school administrators, experienced teachers, preservice teachers and teacher educators to investigate the role of coaching in improving instruction.

Project REALM (Realizing Equity and Achievement for Learning Mathematics, 2016 - 2018
Award: $727,636 - This project increases Detroit student achievement in mathematics by improving elementary and middle school teachers’ mathematics knowledge and pedagogical skill for teaching mathematics. Through intensive work with school leaders and teachers, Project REALM supports teachers in facilitating equitable, meaningful, transferable mathematics learning. Teachers participate in two summers of rigorous content knowledge training in mathematics; they then take part in professional learning community work in the form of “lesson study” to integrate innovative instructional practices and novel content knowledge into their teaching. Teachers' expanded content knowledge and the relationship of that knowledge to their instructional practice is studied in this project, as well as the growth of the lesson study facilitators over time.

Mathematics Enhancement for Detroit Area Teachers (MEDeATe), 2013 - 2015
Award: $239,907 - The Mathematics Enhancement for Detroit Area Teachers (MEDeATe) Project works to identify high-quality mathematics teachers in Detroit area schools, and then builds from these pockets of excellence towards systemic improvement at scale. MEDeATe begins by studying what successful teachers do in high-poverty high-needs urban schools and capitalizes on their strengths to build a cadre of outstanding mathematics teachers in the Detroit environment.

Understanding Consequential Assessment Systems of Teaching, 2012 - 2015
Award: $548,970 - This grant supports the study of 1600 school principals in a large urban school district who will create consequential ratings of teachers. The study focuses particularly on the implementation of observational evaluations and how and whether these can be deployed to improve instruction.

Community Engagement Activities

The elementary math methods class I teach, ELE 6390, meets weekly in a local school site where we work with children from Detroit public and charter schools to enrich their mathematics instruction. This is also a venue for learning to teach mathematics. We hold a Family Math Night every semester so that preservice teachers can gain experience interacting with families and caregivers in the context of conducting engaging mathematics activities for the children at the school and their families.

I am a founder and the director of TeachDETROIT, a teacher preparation program specifically designed for educators in Detroit schools. I partner with local community institutions to recruit and support future teachers.

Featured publications

Advancing transformative STEM learning: Converging perspectives from education, social science, mathematics, and engineering

Elliott, R. L., Loh, C. G., Psenka, C. G., Lewis, J. M., Kim, K. Haapalau, K. R., Neal, D., & Okudan Kremer, G.E. (2022). Advancing transformative STEM learning: Converging perspectives from education, social science, mathematics, and engineering. Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science, 26(1), 1–22. 

Keywords

STEM education
STEM framework

Society faces emerging challenges that require re-envisioning what it means to know and use science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and who are STEM scientists. We advocate for a transdisciplinary framework for participatory STEM learning based on the culmination of the authors’ designing and complemented by reviews of extant works in youth STEM learning and engagement. Data literacy, geospatial reasoning, and community science are cornerstones in our framework because of their power to leverage and integrate the four STEM disciplines. Youth with their families are authors and designers in community problem-solving using data literacy and geospatial reasoning through participatory community science to question, analyze, and design solutions empowered by their lived experiences. Through partnerships with community organizations, families, youth, and STEM practitioners, we discuss how to develop and use tools and methods to design and build better spaces for youths’ communities. Our aim is for more authentic, inclusive, and empowering learning opportunities that broaden youths’ STEM participation. 

What remains? A longitudinal study of the effects of curated field experiences for preservice mathematics teachers

 Lewis, J. M. & Nazelli, C. (2022). What remains? A longitudinal study of the effects of curated field experiences for preservice mathematics teachers. Proceedings of the 12th Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education.

Keywords

Teacher preparation
Preservice teachers
Elementary school teachers

This paper examines the long-term effects of a teacher education program that prepares preservice elementary mathematics teachers to work specifically in Detroit schools. The study was designed to better understand the degree of alignment between the program’s curated field experiences and the work graduates currently do as teachers; the aspects of program design that contributed or detracted from graduates’ understanding of culturally relevant practice in mathematics classes; and the reasons for graduates’ retention in high-poverty schools over time.

Does the choice of observation instrument matter?

Lewis, J.M., Koca, S.A., Hernandez, L., Nazelli, C., & French, K.R. (2022). Does the choice of observation instrument matter? The Mathematics Educator (30) 2, 33-63.

Keywords

Teacher evaluation
Observation instruments
Mathematics education

Does the choice of observation instrument make a difference in the feedback and ratings that teachers receive? This study explores how lessons are rated differentially across various observation instruments. To investigate this question, ten randomly selected mathematics lessons were rated using six different observation instruments. Overall scores varied little across instruments. Our analyses indicate that differences in scores can be attributed to what we call instrumental occlusion, instrumental emphasis, and element density. This article concludes with implications for the selection and use of observation instruments in school settings.

The mantle of agency: Principals’ use of teacher evaluation policy

Lewis, J. M., Reid, D. B., Bell, C. A., Jones, N., & Qi, Y. (2020). The mantle of agency: Principals’ use of teacher evaluation policy. Leadership and Policy in Schools. 

Understanding Consequential Assessment Systems for Teachers (UCAST) studied a large urban school district in the United States as it adopted a new teacher evaluation system. This project studied 1,000 principals as they were trained to use this new system, and followed them into their first three years of implementation. This article features a multiple-case case study of three of these school principals. Findings indicate principals exercise professional judgment by donning evaluation policy as a “mantle of agency” for working toward a host of aims sometimes aligned with and sometimes antithetical to stated policy. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Fostering middle school teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching via analysis of tasks and student work

Koca, S.A., Edwards, T., and Lewis, J. M. (2020). Fostering middle school teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching via analysis of tasks and student work. Mathematics Teacher Educator.

Mathematical knowledge for teaching is a complex web of knowledge domains. In this article, we share findings from an 18-month professional development project that aimed to improve middle school mathematics teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) of proportional reasoning by focusing on the critical analysis of mathematical tasks and student work. Although multiple studies have shown that professional development can contribute to teachers' MKT globally, little is known about how this knowledge grows and how specific domains of MKT can be targeted through professional development. Findings in this study show how professional development positively influenced participants' knowledge of content and teaching and knowledge of content and students, two domains of MKT, through teachers' twinned analyses of tasks and student work in proportional reasoning.

Publications

Jones, N., Bell, C., Qi, Y., Lewis, J., Kirui, D., Stickler, L., & Redash, A. (2021). Certified to evaluate: Exploring administrator accuracy and beliefs in teacher observation (Research Report No. RR-21-05). ETS. https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12316

Qi, Y., Bell, C.A., Jones, N.D., Lewis, J.M., Witherspoon, M.W., & Redash, A. (2018). Administrators' uses of teacher observation protocol in different rating contexts. ETS Research Report Series, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12205

Lenhoff, S. W., Lewis, J. M., Pogodzinski, B., & Dorigo-Jones, R. (2019). ‘Triage, transition, and transformation’: Advocacy discourse in urban school reform. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27(32), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.27.4230

Koca, S. A., Chelst, K., Edwards, T., & Lewis, J. M. (July, 2019). A framework for authentic mathematics problems. Association of Teachers of Mathematics. (pp. 17-20).

Lewis, J. M. (2019). Learning while leading lesson study. In R. Huang, A. Takahashi, & J. P. da Ponte (Eds.), Theory and practice of lesson study in mathematics: An international perspective. (pp. 633–655). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04031-4_31

Lewis, J. M. (2019). Lesson study for preservice teachers. In R. Huang, A. Takahashi, & J. P. da Ponte (Eds.), Theory and practice of lesson study in mathematics: An international perspective. (pp. 485–506). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04031-4_24

Bell, C. A., Jones, N. D., Qi, Y., & Lewis, J. M. (2018). Strategies for assessing classroom teaching: Examining administrator thinking as validity evidence. Educational Assessment, 23(4), 108–113.https://doi.org/10.1080/10627197.2018.1513788

Qi, Y., Bell, C.A., Jones, N.D., Lewis, J.M., Witherspoon, M.W., & Redash, A. (2018). Administrators' uses of teacher observation protocol in different rating contexts. ETS Research Report Series, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ets2.12205

Lewis, J. M. (2016). Learning to lead, leading to learn: How facilitators learn to lead lesson study. ZDM Mathematics Education 48, 527–540.
doi.org/10.1007/s11858-015-0753-9

Lewis, J. M., & Koca, S. O. (2016). Fostering perseverance. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 22(2), 108–113.
doi.org/10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.22.2.0108

Bell, C., Jones, N., Lewis, J., Qi, Y., Kirui, D., Stickler, L., & Liu, S. (2016). Understanding consequential assessment systems of teachers: Year 1 final report to Los Angeles Unified School District (Research Memorandum No. RM-15-12). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RM-16-12.pdf

Lewis, J. M., Fischman, D., Riggs, M. (2015). Defining, developing, and measuring “Proclivities for Teaching Mathematics.” Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, (18)5, 447–465. doi.org/10.1007/s10857-015-9321-z

Bell, C., Jones, N., Lewis, J., Qi, Y., Kirui, D., Stickler, L., & Liu, S. (2015). Understanding consequential assessment systems of teachers: Year 2 final report to Los Angeles Unified School District (Research Memorandum No. RM-15-12). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RM-15-12.pdf

Lewis, J. M., Fischman, D., Riggs, I., & Wasserman, K. (2013). Teacher learning in lesson study. The Mathematics Enthusiast, 10(3), 583–619. https://doi.org/10.54870/1551-3440.1281

Lewis, J. M., & Blunk, M. (2012). Reading between the lines: Teaching linear algebra. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 44(4), 515–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2012.716975

Learning Mathematics for Teaching Project. (2011). Measuring the mathematical quality of instruction. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 14(7), 25–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-010-9140-1

Lewis, J. M., & Ball, D. L. (2010). The role of undergraduate education in preparing teachers for practice in a diverse and unequal society. In D. Featherman, M. Hall & M. Krislov (Eds.), The next twenty-five years? Affirmative action and higher education in the United States and South Africa (pp. 244–256). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.229720

Suzuka, K., Sleep, L., Ball, D. L., Bass, H., Lewis, J. M., & Thames, M. (2009). Designing and using tasks to teach mathematical knowledge for teaching. Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Monograph 4, 7–23.

Lewis, J. M. (2008). Through the looking glass: A study of teaching. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, Monograph 14, 1–12.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30037739

Ball, D. L., Lewis, J. M., & Thames, M. (2008). Making mathematics work in school. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, Monograph, 14, 13–44. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30037740

Hill, H. C., Blunk, M., Charalambous, C., Lewis, J. M., Phelps, G. C., Sleep, L., & Ball, D. L. (2008). Mathematical knowledge for teaching and the mathematical quality of instruction: An exploratory study. Cognition and Instruction, 26(4), 430–511. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370000802177235

Hill, H. C., Sleep, L., Lewis, J. M., & Ball, D. L. (2007). Assessing teachers’ mathematical knowledge: What matters and what evidence counts. In F. Lester (Ed.), Handbook of research on mathematics education (Vol. 1, pp. 111–156). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
https://books.google.com/books?id=B_onDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA111&ots=kCfGi7BlMU&lr&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false
  

Courses taught by Jennifer M. Lewis, Ph.D.

Winter Term 2025 (future)

Fall Term 2024 (current)

Spring-Summer Term 2024

Winter Term 2024

Fall Term 2023

Spring-Summer Term 2023

Winter Term 2023

Fall Term 2022

Winter Term 2022

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