Amy Getz

Overview

Amy Getz (she/her) is a national leader in the mathematics pathways and development education reform movements. Her work focuses on using systemic change to improve opportunities for students who are often marginalized by educational systems. She draws upon her broad experience as a high school teacher, college instructor, and curriculum developer and her work with states and systems on policy and change management.   

Getz works on projects focused on large-scale change, including collaborations with funders to inform funding strategies and projects that provided technical assistance to states through the Strong Start to Finish Network. In 2024, she launched new work to improve postsecondary pathways for multilingual learners of English in 48 Texas community colleges in partnership with the Texas Success Center. 

Before coming to WestEd, Getz was the founding director of a mathematics program at Fort Lewis College in Colorado that was credited with raising the freshman retention rate and closing equity gaps in student outcomes. She led a professional learning program for mathematics educators across 14 rural school districts. Getz spent 11 years at the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin as one of the original architects of the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways (DCMP) initiative and worked with more than a dozen states to implement modernized mathematics pathways. Getz was also the Project Director for the first phase of the Dana Center’s Launch Years initiative. 

Education

• MA in secondary counseling, Adams State University 
• BA in English and Theatre, Fort Lewis College 

Select Publications

Getz, A., Keadle, V., & Lopez, G. (2023). Translating opportunity: Improving postsecondary pathways for multilingual learners of English. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/resources/translating-opportunity-improving-postsecondary-pathways-for-multilingual-learners-of-english/ 

Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin. (2020). Launch years: A new vision for the transition from high school to postsecondary mathematics. Austin, TX. (co-author).  https://www.utdanacenter.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/Launch-Years-A-New-Vision-report-March-2020.pdf  

Getz, A., Connie, R., Hartzler, R., & Leahy, F. (2019). Understanding the problem: The need to expand access to quantitative reasoning courses. In Shifting contexts, stable core: Advancing quantitative literacy in higher education. The Mathematical Association of America.

Recent Media Appearances

• 5 strategies for better supporting multilingual learners, Inside Higher Ed, February 2024.
• College completion most influenced by who’s teaching and how, Inside Higher Ed, September 2023.