The Valley Breeze

School districts work together to impove math instruction

By PATRICIA A. RUSSELL, Valley Breeze Staff Writer

LINCOLN - At a time when most school districts are grappling with how to improve math achievement, school officials in Cumberland, Lincoln and Woonsocket say they are excited to team up in a partnership of three to five years that will support students and teachers and serve as a model for the state.

An annual $850,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education will bring together one urban and two suburban school districts to work collaboratively to improve the teaching of mathematics and increase student achievement in mathematics.

According to Mary Ann Snider, director of Instruction Assessment and Accountability with the state's Department of Education, school administrators, principals and teachers at each level - elementary, middle and high school - will work intensively with a staff of researchers and education professionals from the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Historically, the center, founded in 1991, has worked with under-served populations and provides direct service to school districts.

Snider said R.I.D.E. was impressed with the work the Dana Center had done previously with the Providence school district. "We liked their approach," she said.

According to Snider, the state's Department of Education asked the Dana Center to work with all the state's school districts to increase instructional coherence at all levels of the system by aligning curriculum, instruction and assessment to each other and to the state standards.

Snider said R.I.D.E. began talks with the Dana Center after NECAP scores at the high school level were low statewide. Officials at all levels, including Gov. Donald Carcieri, were wondering: What's going on in our public school classrooms?

That's when it was decided that every district needed to complete a study of how mathematics is taught at each level and then develop a common set of skills that students need to learn, she said.

"We need a curriculum so students can pass tests," said Snider. "Teachers need a really clear idea of what a curriculum is.

"While teachers get a lot of professional development in one year, it's not always clear if they are getting consistent messages," she said, adding that each person who gives professional development may present different "twists."

The idea is not to "re-invent the wheel" but to come up with "a model curriculum." If teachers get mixed messages, then the teacher "ends up doing it his or her way."

While all school districts were invited to participate with the Dana Center study, some school districts said they were not ready to participate in an intensive study.

Only Cumberland, Lincoln and Woonsocket school districts were ready to take up the challenge.

"This is the first time this has ever happened," said Lincoln Superintendent of Schools Georgia Fortunato, adding that "It's an important step in education that everyone is on the same page." From administrators on down, everyone will know what is expected to be taught at each grade level, she said.

For students, it means continuity.

"What is taught in West Warwick (at each grade level) will be the same in Cumberland or Lincoln, Woonsocket or Smithfield," Fortunato said, adding that there should not be a "vast difference in instruction" from one classroom to another or from one district to another.

According to Melinda Smith, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment in Lincoln, "While test scores for Lincoln schools have exceeded the state standards, we've not seen as much growth as we'd like to in some subgroups."

Smith would like to share strategy ideas with other teachers, particularly in Woonsocket where she said test scores are below the state standards at some levels but "they do a better job of moving such groups faster than we do."

Smith said the folks at the Dana Center have had a "great deal of experience turning urban districts around."

"That's been their thrust," said Fortunato.

Smith also noted that students' progress in math will be checked more frequently. She said "benchmark assessments in math" will be put in place.

Cumberland Superintendent Donna Morelle said she is "particularly pleased" to do professional development training that includes the collaboration of teachers at all three districts on behalf of all students in town. "This is a really good program that will have a tremendous outcome," Morelle said.

With the financial picture the way it is, this grant "couldn't have come at a better time for Cumberland," said Sue Carney, assistant superintendent.

Linda Filomeno, director of literacy and professional development in the Woonsocket school district, said working with the Dana Center would help increase a teacher's "comfort level with mathematics" and guarantee that what's taught at each grade level builds on the next.

Snider pointed out that the three school districts have not only taken on an "intensive time commitment" but a financial one, too.

While the federal grant will cover the costs associated with the Dana Center, it will be up to each school district to pay for the substitute teachers that will be needed when teachers are engaged in training and must leave the classroom.

School officials say that some 30 to 40 teachers in each of their districts would participate at various times. Lincoln officials say that professional development money is already earmarked and does not come out of their school budget.

Carney said she's hoping the money would come from the state's Department of Education that typically provides funds to school districts for professional development, though they did not for the 2008-09 school year.

She hopes R.I.D.E. will provide funds for professional development for the 2009-10 school year, she said. If not, she said it could come out of the "internal budget."

Carney said Cumberland would need "about $14,000 to $16,000" to cover the cost of hiring substitute teachers.

All curriculum work done in the study will be made public - "hopefully" online, said Snider.

Ultimately, when the math study is completed, this model can be used in other content areas, she said.

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