Seattle Public Schools Elementary Math Adoption – Making It a Success!

Overview of Process
Seattle Public Schools began a review of math curriculum as part of a strategy to meet the urgent need to help students master math standards. Like districts across the nation, Seattle Public Schools student achievement in math is not keeping pace with improvements in reading and writing. The intent of the review is to eventually align and integrate curriculum across all grade levels, which will provide students with clear building blocks as they move from grade to grade.

Currently, for elementary level, there is substantial variability in the content taught in classrooms, which contributes to the fact that student performance in mathematics is not at standard. There is also a lack of coherence (from grade to grade) in the curriculum and there is too much content taught at each level. Teachers need and have requested additional mathematics content knowledge, common curriculum, and central office support. An adoption will enable us to support a system-wide implementation of a single curriculum with a common focus.

The curriculum adoption process for math began in 2005, and started with a survey of all math teachers in the district. The results helped us to identify issues related to academic achievement with reference to instructional materials, instructional focus, professional development needs and alignment.

During 2005-2006 work was done to evaluate math materials at all grade levels. A middle school math adoption, CMP2, was approved by the School Board during 2006 and implemented in fall 2006. Based on work done during 2006-2007, the board is now considering adoption of “Everyday Mathematics,” supplemented by Singapore Math, as the elementary math curriculum.

Other strategies to improve student achievement in math include investment in math coaches who work one-on-one with teachers, a variety of student and family math events at schools, and on-going training for principals and teacher leaders in the use of data to guide adjustments in instruction.

Below is the timeline for our adoption work to the present:

The recommendation for Everyday Math
Criteria that drove the decision for the recommendation are that Everyday Math:

• is a research-based curriculum and a rigorous program
• provides differentiated activities for a diverse population
• materials are very deliberate and intentional about giving students experience with standard efficient algorithms
• materials help students develop understanding
• materials include daily review and practice of basic skills
• includes parent support with homework and building math literacy
• is the only curriculum listed on the “What Works Clearinghouse” site that has shown positive results
• supports the use of technology
• has very strong alignment with the GLEs, with the WASL and CMP2
• has an organizational structure that is friendly for teachers and parents

About Everyday Math
Everyday Math is a K-6 program that was developed through National Science Foundation funding (NSF). The materials develop concepts and skills over time in a wide variety of contexts. The development of this program was based on examination of successful curricula from around the world, research on how children learn mathematics and the actual use of mathematics by people in their everyday lives. It provides concrete modeling as a pathway to abstract understanding. The spiraling approach used in the curricular materials is based on the premise that students need multiple exposures to concepts over time. While Everyday Mathematics builds conceptual understanding and gives students opportunities to communicate their thinking in writing, it also has a strong and deliberate focus on basic skills and efficient algorithms.

This program is used by more districts than any other textbook program in the United States. Research results show that it has significant impact on student achievement. Everyday math is recommended as the core program for implementing mathematics in the elementary grades to be used during a 60-minute math lesson every day.

About Singapore Math
Singapore mathematics is the program used in Singapore. It is famous because Singapore is the top scoring country on most of the TIMSS assessments. The curricular materials have been credited with some of this success. This program has been modified to create a U.S. edition that uses U.S. measurements and terms.

Singapore’s textbooks foster deep understanding of mathematical concepts. The focus is on mathematical thinking with immediate application of new skills to problem solving. There are only a few topics covered each year, and these topics are introduced in great detail. In addition, understanding is enhanced through visual representation utilizing a problem solving strategy termed, “”model drawing.” In addition to the 60-minute Everyday math lesson, up to 15 minutes will be set aside each day to use supplementary materials to address computational fluency.

Implementation and Support
The plan for implementing the new math program will begin in the summer of 2007. All primary grade school teachers, English Language Development, Special Education, and Advanced Learning teachers will be required to participate in two days of initial use training. This initial use training will provide a curriculum overview, lesson planning with assessment guidance, strategies for students who are struggling with math, and homework guidance for supporting parents. The second phase of the implementation includes training math coaches and lead teachers who will work with schools to model best practices, teach upcoming math units, and work in data teams to analyze results and plan for instruction. A third component will provide follow-up training sessions that will include a focus on strengthening understanding of lessons and program components, differentiation within the curriculum, strategies for strengthening computational fluency. All principals and district leaders will be required to attend training to ensure fidelity of implementation.

Guide and Support for Parents and Guardians

• Guide for Parents/Guardians – printed and web-based materials that will guide families as they support their students in mastering math standards.
• Family Math Nights and other events – central office and school coaches will provide support to schools in hosting events where families can learn more about the math curriculum and how to help students.

Balanced Assessment
On-going assessments of student proficiency in the concepts covered in class are a critical component of any curriculum adoption. Everyday math incorporates many opportunities to conduct ongoing assessments, e.g. observing students as they work on math box problems, playing games, sharing problem strategies. Teachers will also use student journals and portfolios, group projects, reports and end of unit assessments to measure student progress. Updated May 14, 2007