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Abstract Mathematics teacher leaders may play an integral role in supporting change to address inequities in STEM education. To harness this potential, there is a need to identify effective professional development models that empower and motivate mathematics teacher leaders. We examine one such model focused on developing 30 K‐12 mathematics teacher leaders to support and expand teacher leadership within Nebraska, USA. Data analysis from interviews and surveys suggest that the project's focus on building and expanding teacher leaders' professional networks and increasing access to a variety of leadership opportunities contributed to a culture that empowered and motivated teacher leaders. Using the four frames model of organizational change in STEM, we identify several cultural features that contributed to the project's impact, including a cohort model connecting like‐minded educators that supported each other's efforts to enact changes; a distributed leadership philosophy that positioned participants as leaders within the project and at the university in which the project was situated; structural supports (e.g., funding, awards) for participants to engage in leadership; and a tailored approach to support participants based on their individual goals and vision for leadership. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for developing and supporting mathematics teacher leadership. 

In this paper, we define a window code to be the portion of a Spatially-coupled low-density parity check (SC-LDPC) code seen by a single iteration of a windowed decoder. We consider the design of SC-LDPC codes for windowed decoding via optimization of the window code. In particular, because iterative decoding is optimal on codes with cycle-free graph representations, we ask fundamental questions about the construction and parameters of cycle-free window codes. We show that it is possible to have an SC-LDPC code with cycles and with cycle-free window codes. We consider the relationship between the distance of the window code and the distance of the SC-LDPC code. Further, we show that SC-LDPC codes with MDS window codes exist, and all such codes are asymptotically bad. This work gives insight into the tradeoffs between window code parameters and performance of the SC-LDPC code.