Dana Center Initiatives That May Be of Interest to TMP

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Dana Center InitiativesThat May Be of Interest
to TMP

• Susan Hudson Hull
• Charles A. Dana Center, University of Texas at
  Austin
• TMP
• August, 2008

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Advanced Mathematical Decision-Making
An alternative for post-Algebra II
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How to Build a 21st Century Student
This is a story about the big public
conversation the nation is not having about
education, the one that will ultimately determine
not merely whether some fraction of our children
get "left behind" but also whether an entire
generation of kids will fail to make the grade in
the global economy because they can't think their
way through abstract problems, work in teams,
distinguish good information from bad or speak a
language other than English. Time, Dec. 18, 2006
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Profile of Successful Workers

• Top academic performance
• Creative and innovative
• Able to learn very quickly

National Center on Education and the Economy, 2007
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Todays World
Bill Gates Do we know where we're going? Are we
clear about our destination ensuring that every
student graduates from high school ready to
succeed in college, career, and life?
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What do all students need?

• Economic security
• More math and science than we thought--
• Within a well-balanced curriculum
• Options for future choices and redirections
• Appreciating the need for life-long learning
• Thinking, reasoning, communication and problem
  solving skills for versatilizing
• The opportunity to develop their potential--
  their right as citizens and human beings our
  responsibility as educators

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Preparing all students for
College
Work
Citizenship
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Ready for College and Ready for Work Same or
Different?
ACT, May 2006
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Whether planning to enter college or workforce
training programs, students need to be educated
to a comparable level of readiness in reading
and mathematicsif they are to succeed in
college-level courses without remediation and
to enter workforce training programs ready to
learn job-specific skills.
ACT, 2006
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So how much math do students need for success in
college, work, and citizenship, and what math is
it?
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What kind of math will they need?

• Moving toward national consensus...
• Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
• Curriculum Focal Points PK-8
• National Math Panel Final Report Foundations
  for Success
• College Board, Achieve, ASA, NCTM

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Recent Secondary Recommendations

• Achieve New definition of high school math
  (more statistics, flexible organization)
• College Board Standards for College Success
  (more statistics, flexible organization)
• American Statistical AssociationGAISE
  Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in
  Statistics Education (more statistics, flexible
  organization)
• NCTM
• States Washington!

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Emerging themes

• Algebra II is the new Algebra I
• But what is Algebra II?
• Statistics is (arguably) one of the most useful
  mathematical sciences
• Financial literacy is critical and lacking
• Changing world, changing student needs may call
  for changing our view of math PK-16

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Where do they get what they need?

• High school 4 x 4 (Interesting high school
  fourth-year courses)
• Two-year colleges
• Four-year institutions
• Workforce training programs

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Achieves Advocacy for Rigorous Math for All
Students

• ADP Benchmarks define the rigorous math content
  needed by all students for success in college and
  careers.
• Achieve research, augmented by that of ACT and
  College Board, shows that a 4th year of mathat
  least through Algebra IIis associated positively
  with students college readiness.

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Achieves Advocacy for Rigorous Math for All
Students

• Taking rigorous math at least through Algebra II
• Reduces the remediation rate in college
• Reduces the gap in college completion rates
  between White students and African-American and
  Latino students by half
• More than doubles a students likelihood of
  earning a college degree at a public 4-year
  institution compared to students who stop at
  geometry
• Results in students feeling better prepared for
  college and careers
• But math in the senior year is the biggest
  predictor of college success

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The intensity and quality of ones secondary
school curriculum was the strongest influence not
merely on college entrance, but more importantly,
on bachelors degree completion for students who
attended a four-year college at any time. What
you study, how much of it, how deeply, and how
intensely has a great deal to do with degree
completion. - Adelman, Toolbox Revisited,
2005
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The impact of a high quality, rigorous, high
school curriculum on degree completion is more
pronounced, positively, for African American and
Latino students than any other pre-college
academic resources indicator. - Venezia,
Betraying the College Dream, 2003
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Criteria for High-Quality Capstone Courses

• Students should solidify and increase
  mathematical knowledge and skills at and above
  the level of Algebra II or its equivalent.
• Arithmetic and algebraic processes
• Continued experience with functions
• Topics from non-traditional areas

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Criteria for High-Quality Capstone Courses

• Students should deepen and enrich the ways they
  think about math to elevate its study beyond rote
  memorization to a process of analysis and
  interpretation
• Conceptual thinking
• Justification and reasoning, in context
• Experimental thinking and inquisitiveness
• Abstraction and generalization
• Connections
• Technology applications

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Criteria for High-Quality Capstone Courses

• Students should develop an appreciation for and
  experience with a variety of applications of math
  across disciplines and in practical situations
• Focus on non-routine, interesting problems
• Emphasis on modeling and problem solving
• Problems that have multiple solution pathways
• Encouragement and nurturing of persistence

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Rubric and Rating System

• System for evaluating and comparing 4th year
  capstone courses
• Based on 15 Criteria for High-Quality Capstone
  Courses
• Use of a rating scale of 0 to 3
• Rubric on joint Achieve/Dana Center website to
  facilitate rating http//www.utdanacenter.org/k12
  mathbenchmarks/

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More than content

• MATHEMATICAL PROCESSES
• Problem solving
• Reasoning
• Connections
• Communication
• Representation

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics,
NCTM, 2000
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4 years of math for all in the U.S. Whats
happening now?

• Districts are creating their own 4th-year
  courses, often depending on teacher interest and
  capacity
• Theres no consistency across districts.
• Higher ed is most likely not involved in
  developing courses (not true in WA).
• There are few resources.
• There is little professional development.
• There are no common standards.

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Proposed Suite of High School Mathematics Courses

• Algebra I / Geometry / Algebra II
• or Integrated Math I / II / III
• Math Models with Applications (Algebra I
  pre-req before Algebra II)
• Precalculus (Alg. II pre-req)
• Proposed Course (Alg. II pre-req) Advanced
  Mathematical Decision-Making
• AP Calculus (or IB)
• AP Statistics
• Concurrent / dual enrollment

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Advanced Mathematical Decision-Making AMDM
A joint (ad)venture of the Dana Center and the
Texas Association of Supervisors of Mathematics
With partial funding from the Greater Texas
Foundation
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AMDM Audience/Purpose

• Rigorous, relevant course to follow Alg. II
• Important math not currently addressed assumes
  some fluency with Algebra I and Geometry
• To serve as a 4th-year math requirement for
  non-STEM majors and/or students who are
  workforce-training-program-intending
• Possible elective for calculus-intending students
• Coherent part of PK-12 math program

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AMDM Philosophy/Approach

• Modeling and reasoning throughout
• Range of contexts
• Strong financial strand
• Communication and presentation encouraged
• Projects, extended problems appropriate
• Appropriate technology used to extend
  mathematical understanding and allow complex
  problem solving

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AMDM Considerations

• Need for student expectations/standards
• Need for accompanying high-quality,
  comprehensive, coherent instructional materials
• Need for long-term, high-quality professional
  development and training
• Must be a coherent part of districts and states
  PK-12 programs

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AMDM What the course is NOT

• Remedial or test prep
• Computation-focused
• Naked math (math without outside context)
• Algebra III
• Algebra II louder and slower
• Another statistics course to replace AP
  Statistics
• Precalculus

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AMDM Content topics

• Analyzing information using statistical methods
  and probability
• Modeling change and mathematical relationships
• Mathematical decision making in finance and
  society
• Spatial and geometric modeling for decision
  making

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AMDM Resources Core Units

• Analyzing numerical data
• Probability
• Analyzing statistical studies
• Designing a study
• A discrete look at change
• More continuous models of change
• Spatial and geometric modeling
• Networks and graphs
• Decision making in finance
• Decision making in fair division and selection
  (supplemental unit)

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AMDM Next steps

• Dissemination of the set of student expectations
  for the course (2008)
• Materials development and online dissemination
  (2008-09)
• Professional development
• Implementation and support
• Pilot with materials 2009-2010
  Implementation 2010-2011

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Questions to Ponder...

• Do high school Algebra II and Geometry have to
  change for all students? What about 13-16?
• What if freshman college math were based on
  statistics or had a statistics alternative?
• At what point should students choose a path (or
  have it chosen for them)?
• What math and science does a student really need
  to succeed in college? in a good job?
• What if they come to higher education really
  knowing the math and science from a 4 x 4 program?

Cathy Seeley, Charles A. Dana Center
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Academic Youth Development
Shaping the Culture of Ninth-Grade Classrooms
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Districts face a crisis in Algebra I, but its
not only Algebra

• In the National Math Panel survey, 62 of
  teachers rated working with unmotivated
  students as the single most challenging aspect
  of teaching Algebra I successfully. (Foundations
  for Success, p.9)
• In a campus study of 144 students who failed
  Algebra I, only 3 failed only Algebra.

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Model of the program
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AYD key design elements

• Student audience 8th graders rising to 9th grade
  Algebra I regular students
• Teachers those who will be teaching Alg I in the
  fall
• Summer component 14 days, 4 hours per day, 2 AYD
  teachers with up to 30 students
• Fall students scheduled into Alg I courses, 5
  students per class, in AYD teachers classes
  (this will mean hand-scheduling)
• Academic year component 4-6 gatherings per
  year with students and teachers
• All resources for AYD program online through
  Agile Mind
• Districts agree to share data and learnings with
  the Dana Center AYD researchers and evaluators

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Goals of the AYD Initiative

• Three primary goals
• Improve student performance in Algebra I and all
  high school mathematics courses.
• Build a classroom culture focused on respectful
  engagement in academics.
• Increase the capacity for teaching to rigorous
  mathematics standards.

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What is Academic Youth Development?

• AYD helps students develop
• academic identities as learners who recognize,
  value, and seek out high-quality education.
• skills to enable them to help create and
  contribute to a learning community.

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Social psychology influences

• The program incorporates ideas from social
  psychology
• Effective effort Improving and getting better at
  something requires the right kind of effort.
• Attribution Success is attributed to
  task-specific causes (e.g. effort), not to global
  causes (e.g. luck or native intelligence).
• Malleable intelligence Intelligence is something
  that can be influenced and shaped through actions
  and beliefs.

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Beliefs, attitudes, and behavior

• AYD focuses on the beliefs, attitudes, and
  behavior of a cadre of emerging student allies
  algebra teachers can rely on to
• model effective engagement and academic success.
• help support and shape the Algebra I classroom
  culture for learning mathematics.
• build a strong relationship between teachers and
  students.

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AYD shapes and supports a culture in which . . .

• Engagement, participation, positive motivation,
  and risk-taking are developed and embraced.
• Students dont have to choose between being smart
  or being cool.
• Effort and persistence are recognized and valued.
• Mutual accountability is fostered and expected.

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AYD What can schools expect?

• AYD becomes an integral part of a comprehensive
  approach to improving student outcomes in math
• Bonding between teachers and students
• Changes in beliefs and attitudes
• Students will be able to articulate their own
  role in learning
• Students are increasingly able to work and learn
  together

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Supporting the Broader Vision
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Algebra Intensification
Support for double-blocked Algebra I in 9th grade
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Algebra I for students likely to struggle A
critical district concern

• Many campuses offer double-block Algebra I for
  struggling students however
• There are few, if any, resources for 90-minute
  classes
• Teachers are often inexperienced, or brand new
• Teachers are often left on their own
• Most resources dont address social or emotional
  needs of struggling students
• So, these classes have limited success.

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Transforming thinking about Algebra for
struggling students

• Multifaceted architecture of intensification that
  addresses multiple key areas simultaneouslye.g.,
  extra instructional time, attention to curriculum
  and instructional materials modified
  instructional approaches student motivation and
  social supports and teacher knowledge and
  expectations.
• Teacher support geared toward communities of
  teachers within and across schools the program
  will be conceived and built to help districts
  address this issue at scalei.e., we are
  proposing a districtwide solution to a problem
  that had previously been conceived of as a
  problem to be solved by individual math teachers
  and schools.
• Builds from effective existing materials,
  adapting them for use within a single coherent
  program framework, and will also develop new
  materials as needed.

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Algebra I Intensification

• Developing a comprehensive prgram for
  underprepared students in Algebra I
• Effective approaches and materials for teaching
  mathematics
• Latest research on
• Language development and literacy
• Motivation
• Special Ed supports
• Assessment
• Youth development
• Dana Center, University of Illinois at Chicago,
  Urban Mathematics Leadership Network, Agile Mind
• (funding from Gates and Carnegie Foundations,
  Dana Foundation, Chicago Community Trust)

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Algebra I Intensification

• Creating a coherent set of materials, including
• Complete Algebra I curriculum (Agile Mind Alg I)
  and assessment
• Opportunities for just-in-time review or
  reteaching skills students are not proficient in
• Academic Youth Development components integrated
  throughout
• Detailed and specific instructional advice for
  teachers
• Supports and protocols for reaching special needs
  students (Content Enhancement Routines from the
  University of Kansas Center for Research and
  Learning)
• Resources for leaders on how to interpret
  formative and summative data and support students
  and teachers
• Other supports

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Algebra I Intensification

• Developing 4-5 prototype units 2008-09
• Pre-piloting/co-developing with teachers from
  Austin, Chicago, Evanston, Los Angeles
• Core curriculum developed by 2009-10
• Piloting in UMLN districts (at least)

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Dana Center InitiativesThat May Be of Interest
to TMP

• What do you think?
• Are there ways to use these resources or the
  ideas from the resources to support teaching and
  learning?
• Let us know what you are thinking
• Thank you!
• Susan Hull
• shhull_at_mail.utexas.edu