Teacher PD for Grades 3-8 Algebra Readiness

NEW from NCTM—Professional Development for the whole year!

Kick things off in Baltimore, August 9–11, 2011!

Experience professional development over the whole school year by participating in NCTM’s new event dedicated to algebra readiness for grades 3-8. Kick off this Institute in Baltimore where you’ll participate in activities and network with peers from across the country, then reinforce what you learn by participating in online interactive workshops and discussion groups over the school year.

A $1,400 value for as LOW as $350. Space is limited; register by July 22. On-site registration will NOT be available.

Attention all high school math teachers!!!!!!

Looking for a structured way to plan for and implement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics in High School?

• Want to embed the formative assessment process in your daily instructional practice?
• Want to motivate and involve more of your students in their learning process?

Register to attend the six-day series

Formative Assessment Process for High School Mathematics

This six-day series is based on Stiggins’ Five Keys to Quality Formative Assessment.
Participants will apply what they learn between the 2-day sessions and bring products and processes to share and improve. Focus areas/topics are:
June 1-2, 2011: Formative Assessment Process defined, the 5 Keys, CCSS-M and Learning Targets, Sharing Learning Targets with Students
November 10-11, 2011: Assessment Maps, Matching Learning Targets with Assessment Methods, Assessment Resources, Student Engagement I
February 2-3, 2012: Analysis Strategies, Assessment Evaluation and Refinement Strategies, Student Engagement II, Sustainability Strategies and Resources

Outcomes for participants are

• Understand that formative assessment is a process not a product
• Understand the components of a quality formative assessment system
• Use the CCSS-M to refine/develop learning targets
• Use Stiggins’ 5 Keys to build assessment maps for instructional units
• Develop/choose formative assessment strategies that provide quality feedback for the teacher and student
• Create/identify standards-based common summative (final) and formative assessments (interim, benchmark) for a unit of study
• Develop analysis, communication, and student engagement strategies
• Establish collaborative practices for sharing assessment processes, products, and results
• Develop plans for sustainability and growth

NEW Common Core Math resource: Illustrative Math

The Illustrative Mathematics Project will provide guidance to states, assessment consortia, testing companies, and curriculum developers by illustrating the range and types of mathematical work that students will experience in a faithful implementation of the Common Core State Standards, and by publishing other tools that support implementation of the standards.

Upon completion, the Project will provide a process for submitting, discussing, reviewing, and publishing mathematical tasks. Each task will be aligned to individual Common Core standards. The process and the tasks have not yet been posted.

However, the standards themselves are online. You can view both the standards for mathematical content and practice in a dynamic way. And, you can search the standards for mathematical content either by grade level or by Domain/Conceptual Category.

NOTE: This website will only work if you are using one of the following browsers

• Macintosh
  • Firefox 4
  • Chrome 11
  • Safari 5
• Windows
  • Firefox 4
  • Chrome 11

Supporting math learning through true problem solving exercies: Webinar

Register for Carnegie Learning's Webinar:

Supporting Math Learning Through True Problem Solving Exercises

Register for a COMPLEMENTARY math webinar that will focus on how real math problems differ from typical exercises, how to closely 'read' the math standards and ward off typical bad habits of local assessment, and how to design local curriculum to ensure that Standards and local goals are met.

	Designing Math Curricula with True Problem Solving Capabilities for the Common Core State Standards around Mathematics May 4, 2011 at 3:30 P.M. EST Presenter: Grant Wiggins, President of Authentic Education

Please visit the Carnegie Learning website to register
www.carnegielearning.com/webinars

Looking for money...

...to fund mathematics work and/or implement the Common Core for Math in your school? Then check out

The Mathematics Education Trust

Supporting Teachers ... Reaching Students ... Building Futures

The Mathematics Education Trust (MET) channels the generosity of contributors through the creation and funding of grants, awards, honors, and other projects that support the improvement of mathematics teaching and learning.

Apply for grants to support things like:

• in-school inservice (PD) for teaching and learning mathematics
  
• graduate school
• classroom research

and much, much more.

Connections to the Common Core
As schools begin to plan for implementing the Common Core for Math, part of that preparation requires that we identify funding sources. Several of the MET grants will provide the money you need to pay for teachers and administrators to attend PD either through KRESA's math program OR for a math consultant to come to your school to do in-house training.

Hurry! Upcoming deadlines are May 6, June 1, and November 11

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.