Beyond No Child Left Behind: DO THE MATH!
Team learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations…. When teams are truly learning, not only are they producing extraordinary results, but the individual members are growing more rapidly than could have occurred otherwise….
Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline (September, 1994)
BACKGROUND
Teamwork counts. Christa McAuliffe was a part of a team. She knew that it took coordination, shared expertise and dedication to work toward extraordinary goals. And, even though she was a history teacher, she could do the essential math that it took to be an astronaut. Unlike Christa, many teachers in low performing urban schools do not work in teams, do not have the experience, knowledge or skills necessary to teach to mathematics well, and consequently, cannot support students to "do the math" necessary to attain extraordinary goals--demonstrate a high level of achievement in mathematics.
Knowledge counts. Recently, national attention has been focused on sustained quality professional development for teacher learning. Few statewide models exist, however, that provide concrete, ongoing, school level assistance to teachers learning to work together to support strong mathematics programs. Local districts may support grade level teams but the focus is far more likely to be on reading instruction than on mathematics. Also, teacher participation data collected on a recent California initiative, Professional Development for Reading and Mathematics, designed to improve teachers’ use of standards-based textbooks, indicates that reading workshops were attended at a rate 4 times greater than mathematics. In addition, an evaluation of these types of intensive professional development institutes reveals that while the initial 40 hours of instruction was well implemented, planned on-site follow up was difficult to sustain (WestEd, 2001).
Poverty counts. In 1,500 of California poorest schools between 25-33% of the teachers are in their first or second year of teaching. (Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, 2002). Though well-supported, high quality new teacher programs exist in California, support is focused on individual teacher needs and licensure requirements. Research indicates that experience and teamwork improve student achievement, yet veterans in our poorest low performing schools often report high stress and reform fatigue. Without sustained and structured support for professional development, veterans say they are challenged to provide the leadership necessary for continuous support of newcomers. It can be argued that high turnover is, in itself, a determinant of instability; however it is the responsibility of the State Education Agency (SEA) to develop and employ effective professional growth models for these teachers while simultaneously working to stabilize the workforce.
Time counts. Though reading and mathematics are considered the key academic skills for elementary students, less time is allotted for mathematics instruction. State adopted frameworks suggest 2-2.5 hours per day for elementary reading/language arts instruction but 50-60 minutes for mathematics instruction. No matter how we calculate, the support to improve learning opportunities for teachers and students to "do the math"--in our most challenged schools--just doesn't compute.
We believe that grade level teams provide a way to build a model of sustainable professional development to improve mathematics programs in low performing schools. Teachers working together to understand what grade-level mathematics is and is not, and diagnosing student performance in relation to grade-level expectations, is essential to improvement. We will construct our state pilot around these goals in the most challenging urban settings so that the results may be useful to policy makers in our state and others that mirror California's situation.
PROJECT GOALS AND OUTCOMES
Goal 1: To develop a model of sustained professional development and support for grade level teacher teams that is situated at the school site and uses a continuous growth approach to mathematics program professional development based on identified teacher and student learning needs. To develop this model in Title 1/low performing schools.
- Project outcome: A model of grade level team professional development for mathematics teaching and learning that is developed by teachers themselves, and is replicable and supportable in Title 1 schools/low performing high priority schools.
- Teacher outcome: Increased teacher knowledge of math content and increased use of effective mathematics teaching strategies.
- Student outcome: Increased mathematics achievement based on students' identified needs related to state adopted mathematics standards.
Goal 2: To promote grade level team leadership, communication, and accountability for a quality mathematics program that consistently shares evidence of student progress with team partners and identified key stakeholders, such as parents and after school programs.
- Project outcome: Increased school level support for teacher leadership and grade-level mathematics program planning. A strategic shift in human and material resources available to focus on the teacher team identified needs for professional development.
- Teacher outcome: Accelerated learning for new teachers by ongoing team communication and support for identified learner needs. Increased knowledge of successful teamwork and team planning.
- Student outcome: Increased communication and support for students’ opportunities to learn grade-level mathematics.
Goal 3: To build on and integrate key components of existing professional development programs that meet the definition of high quality professional development according to No Child Left Behind Act. (2001, IX, A, Sec. 9101.)
- Project outcome: Accelerated development of a professional learning model that may be effective and communicated to a larger statewide audience.
- Project outcome: Consistent application across subject matter and grade levels of high quality professional development at the school site.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In cooperation with a state leadership team composed of 6 members from the California Department of Education, California State University Dominguez Hills, and the Los Angeles Unified School District "G", South Los Angeles, mini-grants will be awarded to grade level teams who agree to the "Do the Math" pilot project commitments.
The project will support six teams of teachers in grades 3-5 to design and participate in the professional learning necessary to build a quality mathematics programs in Title 1/low performing schools. These grade levels were selected because the teaching necessary to meet mathematics content standards is reasonably complex and often challenging to teachers’ own understanding of core concepts. It is anticipated that two school sites will participate with three grade level teams at each site. This will allow a comparison across two different sites to examine school and team level variables. We selected District G to support the development of models in Title 1/low performing schools because demographic data shows that this district represents a microcosm of the complexity of urban schools throughout the United States.
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Criteria for Professional Development Proposals
for Grade Level Teams
Successful mini-grants will be awarded to 3-5th grade teams of teachers in Title 1/low performing schools who develop a team plan and explain how they will keep the Project commitments below: |
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Team commitments:
- Agree to plan and teach the full grade level curriculum during the school year to all children for 50 minutes a day (state minimum).
- Agree to identify/adapt a diagnostic report based on state content standards for every student and share a computer generated report in a "user friendly" style with parents and other identified learning partners on a monthly basis.
- Identify additional time, local resources, and/or programs beyond the minimum instructional time allotment, for remediation and intervention work based on student's diagnostic reports.
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Team pilot plans shall include:
- A thorough assessment of team level needs.
- Team developed professional development plans with formally structured time for grade level team planning, reviewing and reporting student progress, and planning instructional strategies to support student needs.
- The adoption and/or development of an ongoing process for the assessment and communication of student progress to identified key partners.
- Regular team reviews of upcoming mathematics content to deepen the teams understanding of state mathematics content standards and key concepts to be presented.
- Integration of other professional development efforts to support team members, such as new teacher Induction activities.
- Development of in-depth knowledge of resources available for state adopted mathematics curriculum at grade level.
- Classroom visitations of team members and grade-level content experts.
- Assessment of resources available to achieve team goals from the district, local school and community contexts.
- Team budget to include one-time assistance to support project goals.
- Participation in statewide activities and project evaluation.
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Mini-grants will be awarded to teams (to be used at their discretion) whose commitments match project Goals 1 and 2 and that wisely allocate resources to assist the team’s work. In September, SEA project staff will collaborate with local administrators to invite interested grade level teams to the project and provide technical assistance for completing the mini-grant writing process. This process will include specific guidance to teams on the attributes of high quality professional development as defined in NCLB (2001, IX, A, Sec. 9101) and successful approaches to grade level team work culled from national examples. Qualified readers from the SEA and District G will review proposals, and awards will be made within one week of the submission date in late September.
Each grade-level group will design its own professional development program based on identified teacher and student needs. With the support of the SEA state and local support team, teams will participate in ongoing grade level team activities as set out in their plan and attend three project-wide networking activities designed to share and exchange ideas and to give teams an opportunity to report on progress-to-date against benchmarks identified in their plans. In May, the final session of project team meetings will focus on formative assessment of pilot success. Teams will reflect on their work, share pilots "wins and flops" and include student achievement data to illustrate attainment of goals. A summary of team findings and recommendations will be utilized as a component of the evaluation report.
The state and local support team will be responsible for: a) technical assistance to local teams from mini-grant development through project completion, b) network meetings of project teams, c) monitoring of local implementation activities, d) formative and summative evaluation of team progress toward stated goals and e) a final report evaluating the effectiveness of individual grade-level team project designs (Goals 1 and 2) and of the six pilots as a group in meeting Goal 1-3.
The state and local support team will consist of six individuals representative of the SEA, collaborating schools, classroom teachers and a local state university. The team's resources include a SEA professional development consultant, a SEA policy consultant, local math educators/coaches, a local team facilitator, teacher educators, and a project evaluator. This team ensures the expertise, authority and resources necessary to support project success.
PROJECT EVALUATION AND DISSEMINATION
The goal of our project evaluation will be to understand the essential components of sustainable, high quality professional development programs for grade level mathematics teaching in Title I/low performing schools. The project report will distill the essential elements and most effective structural designs for grade-level mathematics professional development through evaluations of implementation at pilot sites. The SEA will disseminate results on the SEA website for professional learning, at statewide and state-sponsored mathematics events, at national conferences where possible, and provide technical assistance for professional developers to understand the model.
The evaluation will contain both formative and summative components. The major evaluation questions will be aligned with project goals and instruments will be designed to assess the outcomes. To assess on-going progress, team plans will be collected and reviewed against documented records of activities. For instance, lesson plans may be utilized to assess teacher progress at grade level and to review understandings of what grade-level mathematics pedagogy has been identified. The evaluator will visit each site and attend team meetings, attend network meetings and state team meetings. At each network meeting there will be a structured formative assessment to summarize progress toward team, teacher and student outcomes, followed by a progress report to the SEA. A final report will consider student data trends including results on curriculum embedded and statewide assessments in mathematics. The summative evaluation will include findings related to: the success of each grade level team in implementing the intended design; the effectiveness of each team’s work by examining student outcomes, pre- and post project teacher understandings of effective standards-based mathematics instruction; and an examination of school level organizational factors, including staff qualifications and characteristics, that influenced team and design outcomes. Recommendations on the viability and replicability of team designs will be provided.
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TEAM MEMBERS
Carol Smith
McAuliffe Educator Explorer Professional Development Program Coordinator
Jean E. Treiman
Consultant
UNIVERSITY PARTNERS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, DOMINGUEZ HILLS
Carol Nakayama
California Mathematics Project
Lecturer – Teacher Education Department
Deandra L. Newton
Assistant Professor
PROJECT EVALUATOR
Margaret G. Olebe
Director
Weiss Institute for Research in Urban Literacy
School of Education
California State University, Dominguez Hills
SCHOOL DISTRICT PARTNER
Los Angeles Unified District G
Dale Petrulis
Professional Development Director, District G
Mathematics Coaches: Project coach/facilitator for network meetings
CALIFORNIA PROJECT CONTACT INFORMATION
Carol T. Smith
California Department of Education
voice: 916-319-0412
e-mail: csmith@cde.ca.gov
