San Benito school districts look to work across grade levels
Students learn new information in the classroom every day. In
fact, a lot of what is learned at the elementary level is repeated
from year to year, but what is not often repeated are the words
used to teach those materials, especially in mathematics.
San Benito school districts look to work across grade levels
Students learn new information in the classroom every day. In fact, a lot of what is learned at the elementary level is repeated from year to year, but what is not often repeated are the words used to teach those materials, especially in mathematics.
A new program that was initiated in the East Bay may soon be fixing that problem in San Benito County and will bring acclaim to the school districts that started it.
The goal of the program, named Acclaim, is to match math curriculum from the elementary to the high school level. This is accomplished by using similar teaching methods and language around mathematical concepts from elementary school to high school. While teachers throughout the districts in San Benito County may be using different math textbooks, the language they use and the way they teach the subject will be unified.
Phil Gonsalves, presented the program on Acclaim to the Hollister School District, San Benito High School District and the North County School District boards earlier this month. He helped develop the program for the Alameda County Office of Education using some of his own experience as a middle school math teacher and incorporating strategies he learned from other teachers.
Sometimes teachers teach students how do math but they don’t explain to them why they’re doing it, Gonsalves said, so the kids don’t understand why it is important to learn math.
“Educators are great at working hard, but they’re not as great at working smart,” Gonsalves said.
Kids who grasp the concepts learn math faster and go on to higher subjects, according to Gonsalves.
“Approximately 80 percent of students who successfully complete Algebra I and Geometry by the 10th grade successfully go on to college,” Gonsalves said.
Another one of the benefits of the Acclaim program is that it comes with pre-made lesson plans, which include alternative methods for teaching lessons. Bernice Smith, principal of Maze Middle School said this could be beneficial because teachers often have to spend a lot of extra time teaching concepts.
The ultimate goal of implementing a program such as Acclaim is getting students to pass the California State Exit Exam by their sophomore year in high school and the superintendents are convinced this is the way to achieve that goal.
“The potential is here to help students understand mathematics on a fundamental level, to help them pass the exit exam so they can get into higher level courses and to open doors to college,” San Benito High School Superintendent Stan Rose said.
Rose believes increasing high school exit exam scores will come naturally with the program.
“Algebra is a gateway course,” Rose said. “When students get through it at the appropriate time, it opens more doors in their school careers.”
One-third of kids are not finishing high school, according to Hollister School District Superintendent Ron Crates. The intention is to make sure that students are learning Algebra in the 8th grade.
“We need to make sure there is a common language in mathematics,” Crates said.
Rose originally heard about the math initiative while he was working in the Alameda County School District. He had first hand experience working with the program there. The difference there was that they had one district that encompassed K-12, according to Rose.
Rose couldn’t really say how well the local high school and elementary school districts have worked together on math education in the past since he has not been with the high school district long enough.
He did say that for a program such as Acclaim to work each district needs to share information and lesson plans. The meeting with Gonsalves marked the first time in nearly 14 years that the three boards had all met together.
But does it work?
In districts where Acclaim has been implemented state standardized test scores have increased significantly. At Alameda Unified School District, the percent of 6th-graders performing at a proficient level in mathematics increased from 18 percent to 32 percent. During that same period, the number of 8th-graders taking algebra increased from 12 percent to 47 percent, according to Gonsalves.
“Our philosophy is if you teach math well, you don’t have to worry about the [California Standards Test] and the [high school exit exam]” Gonsalves said.
Closer to home, the Morgan Hill Unified School District implemented the Acclaim program last year with help from the South Bay Mathematics Collaborative.
The program was received very well by the teachers, but it is still too early to tell whether test scores have improved, according to Michael Johnson, assistant superintendent of educational services for the Morgan Hill Unified School District.
The Acclaim program is supported through grants from the California Department of Education so the program does not come with a price tag for school districts.
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached at [email protected].
