Does math matter?

A new study has found that early math skills predict later academic success. In fact, math skills in K-5 were a stronger predictor than reading skills, attention skills or social skills. In a finding that flies in the face of earlier research, study author Greg Duncan found that behavior problems at that early stage were not associated with later performance in math or reading.
In a separate study, Duncan and a colleague have found that students with persistent math problems in K-5 were much less likely than their peers to graduate from high school or attend college.
Duncan has plans for the next round of research. “The next level of research should focus on why math skills – which combine conceptual and procedural competencies – are the most powerful predictor of subsequent achievement and attainment,” he said in a press release. “Experimental evaluations of early math programs that focus on particular skills and track children’s reading and math performance throughout elementary school could help identify missing causal links between early skills and later success.”
If we knew more about those links, we might do a better job of putting struggling students on a path to success later on.
Source

Advice for Governor Rick Snyder from Ed Trust-Midwest

DETROIT, MICH. (April 27, 2011) —Today, Gov. Rick Snyder moved to make students a higher priority and to ensure that all of Michigan’s classrooms are staffed by high-quality teachers. We applaud his recognition of the importance of teachers to our students, but urge him to take further steps to ensure that his proposals are smartly implemented. Students must remain a top priority as the state pursues the governor’s ideas, such as performance bonuses and charter school expansion.

The Education Trust-Midwest has advocated rigorously for Gov. Snyder to enact dramatic teacher quality reforms. The Snyder administration has paid attention, and is proposing revamping Michigan tenure law and teacher lay-off policies. Today, the governor proposed to award tenure based on three years of effective teacher performance. He also pushed for teaching performance to trump seniority in school lay-off and placement decisions.

“Every Michigan student deserves an effective teacher,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of The Education Trust-Midwest, Michigan’s only state-wide education policy and advocacy organization that advocates first and foremost on behalf of students. “We urge the legislature to quickly pass the legislative reforms that Gov. Snyder is proposing—and to do so while respecting teachers’ bargaining rights. Tenure should be modernized, not gutted.”

Snyder also proposes giving districts bonuses on top of per-pupil funding based on district performance and “growth.” He did not clarify whether such bonus funding would come out of state per-pupil school funding.

“The question is, how will districts be required to measure such growth and performance?” Arellano said. “Tenure and other teacher quality reforms—as well as any smart performance bonuses—rely upon robust evaluation systems that reliably measure student growth and teacher performance. Such systems don’t currently exist now in Michigan, which must be addressed.”
In particular, the legislature must change our state assessment timing; define what effective teaching looks like; and develop rigorous evaluation standards and a state-wide evaluation model for all districts. Presently, Michigan’s state assessment is administered in the fall, which means it measures the learning that has occurred under two different teachers – one in the previous school year and one in the new school year. That is not a good way to measure the impact of individual teachers.

Instead, Michigan needs to move its fall assessment to the spring, which would allow it to more accurately assess what students have learned over the course of the school year and give the governor an opportunity to reward a much more reliable picture of student growth and school performance.

The state also needs to develop a state-wide model and standards for teacher evaluation. Unless it does so, districts will use whatever evaluation that they want and set any standard they choose. Districts would have incentive to set their bars low so that their students and teachers look like they are performing well.

“Without thoughtful reform of both teacher evaluation and accountability system, Michigan parents will have no idea how well their students are doing and how good their teachers really are,” Arellano said. “Other states, such as Colorado, are taking months to create a smart, state-wide evaluation system. If we’re serious about improving our schools, we need to do this as well—and right now.”

Other Ed Trust-Midwest positions on Gov. Snyder’s proposals:

• Snyder: Giving bonuses to schools based on district performance.

Arellano: “We urge his administration to re-think this approach. Students would be punished for their districts’ low performance under such a system, especially in our low-income communities. Snyder should replicate what other leading states are doing, which is to reward schools with bonuses based on individual school performance.”

• Snyder: Lifting the cap on charter schools in some areas.

Arellano: “We all know our charter schools in places like Detroit are performing just as tragically and poorly, on average, as our traditional public schools. Only the highest-quality operators should be allowed to open schools or expand. The criteria for such selection should be made public. Parents and students deserve honest information.”

• Snyder: Requiring one year of growth for one year of instruction.

Arellano: “The bar must be set higher. African American and Hispanic children across the state are behind in reading, math and other basic skills. Schools need to help these students catch up—and it’s the state’s job to ensure they do so.”

• Snyder: Improving all of our schools through greater accountability.

Arellano: “We support accountability and high standards. However, accountability alone does not improve schools. We need to hear more from the Snyder administration about its plans to improve all of our schools, especially our low-performers. These schools have had very little state support—and often have been restricted from improving. Our minority and poor children need better schools right now.”
Contact info:

Amber Arellano, (734) 277-5084, aarellano@edtrustmidwest.org
Donnell Green, (248) 854-5297, dgreen@edtrustmidwest.org

Expressions and Equations: Another Common Core Learning Progression Released

The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics were built on progressions: narrative documents describing the progression of a topic across a number of grade levels. These documents were spliced together and then sliced into grade level standards. The Progressions Project is organizing the writing of final versions of the progressions documents for the K–12 Common Core State Standards. The work will be undertaken by members of the original work team of the progressions and also by mathematicians and educators not involved in the initial writing.

JUST RELEASED! The second DRAFT version of a progression has been released: Expressions and Equations. The project organizers welcome your feedback. Expressions and Equations tracks how these concepts articulate through grades 6-8 mathematics under the Common Core

Why should we examine and use this document?

1. We can all move towards greater coherence and focus by planning units and assessments in vertical teams. So, now we have a tool that helps us to examine how mathematical topics progress. We can use this tool to help ensure that all of our students progress coherently through Number and Operations in Base Ten in all grades K-5.
2. This document is in draft form. The authors are asking for math-educator feedback and input on this document. Your feedback will be used to shape the final version of this document (a document that will be used in at least 44 states in the US). Leave your comments in the discussion thread at the site above.

Hey, what about us?
Currently The Progressions Project has initial drafts for progressions on Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base Ten, Fractions, Geometry, Measurement and Data, and Statistics and Probability, and is having these reviewed. Stay tuned to Minds-on-Mathematics for the announcement that that other drafts have been released.

This week Governor Rick Snyder is expected to lay out his education agenda in a major speech to policymakers and Michigan parents and students. In an op-ed in The Detroit Free Press, Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, urges Governor Snyder and the state legislature to choose the path of smart education reform that will truly benefit children and not be sucked into the poisonous, combative politics that are dividing Americans in other states.

While governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, and elsewhere have attacked teachers collective-bargaining rights and marginalized the societal importance of teachers spurring understandable backlashes, Michigan's new governor and state legislature need to know that they can advance bold education reforms without following these divisive models.

Learn more about Ed Trust-Midwest's goals for Governor Snyder, read Arellano's recent piece in The Detroit News.

Response to Intervention in Mathematics

Russell Gersten, COI-Math Director and Director of the Instructional Research Group, presented at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Annual Meeting & Exposition in Indianapolis, IN, in April 2011. He described the evidence base for RTI in mathematics and suggested strategies for successful implementation and the pivotal role mathematics teachers can and should play in RTI.

Math Practice Standards PD in May

The Common Core State Standards for Math (CCSS-M) include TWO sets of standards:

• Mathematical CONTENT standards
• Mathematical PRACTICE standards

The Standards for Mathematical Practice describe the mathematical “habits of mind” that teachers, at all
levels, should develop in their students. These practices rest on important “processes and proficiencies”
with longstanding importance in mathematics education. Therefore, we cannot successfully implement the CCSS-M without focusing teaching and learning on fostering these 8 Practice standards.

Register to attend to this one-day workshop on May 20, Envisioning the Common Core Practice Standards, to kick-start your instruction for the 2011-12 school year and to answer the following questions:
1. What are the math practice standards? And, what do they REALLY mean?
2. What do each of the practice standards LOOK like, when implemented with fidelity?
3. Which mathematical TASKS can help foster the practice standards within my students?

HURRY spot are filling quickly!

MINDSET: 4th year math course registration NOW open

MINDSET is a 4th year mathematics program for teaching and learning that is applications-based & problem-driven. It is designed for ALL STUDENTS beyond algebra 2 and covers a wide range of career options.
Join us for a one or two week PAID TEACHER TRAINING SESSION at Kalamazoo RESA, taught by the book creators and teachers already using the materials

Register to attend one or both weeks of training. If you want to be trained in the entire course, you need to register and attend both weeks.
Week 1: July 1-21
Week 2: July 25-28

A short list of Common Core Implementation Resources

Curious about national efforts toward implementing the Common Core State Standards for Math? Check out this short list of essential resources that are being developed and soon to be released.

One set of resources, in particular, helps school in communicating with parents as we transition to the common core in our classrooms.

Others help teachers to select and use meaningful mathematics tasks designed to further students' conceptual understanding and their ability to exhibit the Mathematical Practice Standards.

Number and Operations in Base Ten Common Core Learning Progression RELEASED

The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics were built on progressions: narrative documents describing the progression of a topic across a number of grade levels. These documents were spliced together and then sliced into grade level standards. The Progressions Project is organizing the writing of final versions of the progressions documents for the K–12 Common Core State Standards. The work will be undertaken by members of the original work team of the progressions and also by mathematicians and educators not involved in the initial writing.

JUST RELEASED! The first DRAFT version of a progression has been released. Number and Operations in Base Ten tracks the conceptual and procedural development of numbers and operations from grades K-5.

Why should we examine and use this document?

1. We can all move towards greater coherence and focus by planning units and assessments in vertical teams. So, now we have a tool that helps us to examine how mathematical topics progress. We can use this tool to help ensure that all of our students progress coherently through Number and Operations in Base Ten in all grades K-5.
2. This document is in draft form. The authors are asking for math-educator feedback and input on this document. Your feedback will be used to shape the final version of this document (a document that will be used in at least 44 states in the US). Leave your comments in the discussion thread at the site above.

Hey, what about us?
Currently The Progressions Project has initial drafts for progressions on Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Number and Operations in Base Ten, Fractions, Geometry, Measurement and Data, and Statistics and Probability, and is having these reviewed. Stay tuned to Minds-on-Mathematics for the announcement that that other drafts have been released.

Gates-funded opportunity for grades 6-9 mathematics

The Bill and Melinda Gates Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) initiative is funding a 2-year initiative to explore the following questions:

• If you give teachers and students a tool and application to do something that they are currently doing . . . but offer them a better way to make use of the results of these activities (in this case homework assignments), will they take advantage?
  
• AND if they do, does it make a difference?

The project emphasis is based on a free, web-hosted application that moves from a "paper and pencil based homework assignments" model to "online assignments" model that gives the teacher immediate real time feedback as soon as the device that went home to do the assignment checks back into the system when returning to school each day.
The application already has the "student homework/activities" problem sets input into the system for many major math textbooks and the project is willing to invest to input others as required to scale the project.
For example the teacher assigns page 45, problems 1-30 (odd numbers only) for homework. Students "download" the assignment onto their device in class - maybe even begin working on their homework in class. The student finishes the homework "offline" on their device at home. The next morning when the devices have internet access, the teacher sees immediately that 95% of the students got problems 1-20 correct, but 50% had major issues with problems 21-30. S/he knows right where to begin with class instruction, no time spent with large group review of what the vast majority have mastered. Teacher can then plan to work in small group with the %5 experiencing issues with problems 1-20 to determine remediation needed there as well.
The project would offer the schools free training (Train-the-Trainer model for a school team) and free access to the system for participation, there are no funds for schools to purchase equipment.

What's the catch?

• The school must have in place or be willing to implement with their own funds a one-to-one initiative where their middle school students are allowed to take their computing devices home with them. (The initial group of New England math teachers targeted is in Maine where they have the MLTI effort in place state wide.)
• The students do not need to have Internet access at home.
• These devices could be laptops, netbooks, iPod Touch, or iPads - I am not sure about other tablet platforms - but since it is web-based, this is highly likely.

If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity or want to apply to participate, please email Cyndi Dunlap with the following information:

1) Could your school meet the "one-to-one device to take home" threshold with current inventory and policies in place to participate in Year 1?

2) If so, does this project sound of interest to you?

3) If not, would you actively pursue meeting the equipment and take home policy thresholds, so that you could participate in Year 2?

Michigan's new assessment system

Michigan is one of the governing states of the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), one of two multistate consortia awarded funding from the U.S. Department of Education to develop an assessment system based on the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS). To achieve the goal that all students leave high school ready for college and career, SBAC is committed to ensuring that assessment and instruction embody the CCSS and that all students, regardless of disability, language, or subgroup status, have the opportunity to learn this valued content and show what they know
and can do.
With strong support from participating states, institutions of higher education, and industry, SBAC will develop a balanced set of measures and tools, each designed to serve specific purposes. Together, these components will provide student data throughout the academic year that will inform instruction, guide interventions, help target professional development, and ensure an accurate measure of each student’s progress toward career and college readiness.

• Check out SBAC's Summary of Core Components to learn more about Michigan's new assessment system to be implemented starting 2014.
• Learn about SBAC's interim goals, accomplishments, and current action items in their April 2011 Quarterly Report
  

What are the Department of Education's priorities?

On Friday, April 15, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the 2011 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) annual meeting. The nation's number one advocate for education summarized the Department of Education's priorities and its blueprint for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), as well as the need for programs like Race to the Top.
Curious about these priorities and how they will affect your district and school in the next several years? Watch the Secretary's presentation to find out more (you'll have to scroll down a bit).

Flatland: The Movie - the power of storytelling in math (especially geometry)

Flatland, a classic novel from 1884, is a story about A. Square, an inhabitant of a two-dimensional world who visits other dimensions. On Wednesday, April 13, Jeffrey Travis, director of the IMAX 3-D movie Flatland: The Movie kicked off the 2011 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) annual meeting by showing clips from the movie and discussing the power of storytelling in mathematics and in geometry in particular.
You won't be equipped with the 3D glasses that conference attendees wore during the presentation, but you can still watch and enjoy the mathematical connections that Jeffrey Travis makes within the world of Flatland.