In this article we examine induction policies and practices for new alternatively certified mathematics teachers in the country's largest urban school district, New York City. Our focus is on the support system for such teachers as it is legislated and as it is enacted. This includes the induction and general supports (e.g., mentoring, coaching, networks) that are available to mathematics teachers in the New York City Teaching Fellows Program (NYCTF). Data sources include a survey of one entire cohort of Fellows (N=167), at WEST VIRGINA UNIV on March 11, 2015 eus.sagepub.com Downloaded from Foote et al. 397as well as more in depth interviews and written reflections from 12 case study Fellows. Results indicate that the supports, while as espoused seem adequate, as delivered are inconsistent and in many cases inadequate. A key finding is that many teachers found that informal relationships, usually within their local school settings, provided more effective support to help them through their first years of teaching mathematics. This research has implications for the induction of alternatively certified teachers and more generally of all new teachers particularly those in urban schools.

Supporting student success in entry-level mathematics courses at the undergraduate level has and continues to be a challenge. Recently we have seen an increased reliance on technological supports including software to supplement more traditional in-class instruction. In this paper, we explore the effects on student performance of the use of a computer software program to supplement instruction in an entry-level mathematics course at the undergraduate level, specifically, a pre-calculus course. Relying on data from multiple sections of the course over various semesters, we compare student performance in those classes utilizing the software against those in which it was not used. Quantitative analysis of the data then leads us to conclusions about the effectiveness of the software as well as recommendations for future iterations of the course and others like it.

Employing data from the National Center of Educational Statistics' High School Longitudinal Study and utilizing critical race theory and intersectionality as theoretical frameworks, this article interrogates the relationship between mathematics identity and math success for a nationwide sample of Black secondary school students. More specifically, hierarchical regression modeling is employed to examine the relative impact of math identity, demographic variables, and school/parent social capital variables on the math grade point averages of this sample. The article ends with a discussion of specific steps for teaching mathematics that put the identity of those from traditionally marginalized communities at the center of mathematics instruction. Thus making experiences, histories, culture, and abilities essential elements of students' learning, that are to be supported and built upon.

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In this article, the author reports on a study that explored, in part, the developing identities of seven New York City public high school mathematics teachers as teachers of mathematics and agents of change. Meeting regularly as a community of practice, the teachers and author/researcher discussed issues of teaching mathematics for social justice; explored activities and lessons around social justice; and created a unit of study that attempted to meet high school level mathematics standards, while addressing a social justice issue affecting the lives of urban students. The author reports on the mathematics teachers’ growing awareness of and concerns about infusing issues of social justice into their teaching as well as the teachers’ evolving conceptions of what it might mean to teach mathematics in an urban school, of the nature of mathematics itself, and of what their roles as educators might include.