October 2024 Update
Including serious concerns about MATH in the elementary grades.
At the second Family Council meeting of this school year, representatives from each ACPS school (here’s the list) came together to dig into ACPS mathematics instruction at the elementary grades. Keep reading for details, but first…
Just the Facts.
Here’s the quick version, plus more below and in our Meeting Minutes:
Major opportunity gaps exist in elementary math… students who are Black, Hispanic, English Learners, from lower-income families or with disabilities are building a much weaker math foundation than peers in schools across Virginia.
Why? The curriculum program ACPS has been using for 20+ years isn’t working for everyone. Instructional time for math has been cut way back. Teachers are using a patchwork of materials to meet Virginia standards, and are stretched massively thin.
The “good” news – a new math program will be selected later this year from a state-approved list that should work better for all kids. And, ACPS leaders are paying much closer attention to the needs of schools serving kids from less-privileged backgrounds. But… implementing another brand-new program on top of reading is going to be rough on our teachers.
So… stay tuned for more on elementary math coming from Family Council. We’re worried & know you are too. In the meantime, each month we submit your questions… here’s what we received as September QnA from ACPS.
Our November meeting will focus on Behavior & Discipline with a focus on disruptions to instruction, which was one of the top-rated topics of interest in our family survey. Submit YOUR comments and questions using this Nov Google Form.
Survey says… math is a problem.
In our spring 2024 Family Council survey, you told us that your kids are struggling with elementary math. Here’s the full Survey Comments plus more received in Public Comment, for example:
“There is a population of students that continue to not improve in reading and math (at the minimum). Yet they continue to get pushed to the next grade, to the next teacher. Those students, along with our EL students do not get the supports that they need to reach grade level, let alone excel.”
“Both kids are struggling in math and we as parents don't understand the 'new' math at all and can barely help.”
“Elementary school kids need a lot of repetition of the fundamentals. It seems that in Elementary school we rush through math lessons on paper, seldomly playing fun games!”
“I believe that too much screen time is a concern and children need more direct math instruction from their teachers.”
“I feel my high achieving students aren’t being challenged at all and the lessons are taught down to the lowest level. My 2nd grade daughter seems to have learned no math and regressed during the year, so it seems what is being done in elementary math is ineffective.”
So many concerns! First, let’s take a look at the data… it is math after all.
Averages can be deceiving.
If you look at the ACPS math test scores on average, they’re, well… average. Our 3rd graders as a whole are about up to the average for students across the state. Here’s what we saw from Mr. Craig Dommer, ACPS Executive Director of Curriculum, Assessment & Instruction (full slides) who did say that nobody in ACPS is content with being just average:
What does this not show? There are major opportunity gaps… students who are Black, Hispanic, English-Learners, from Economically-Disadvantaged families, or have Disabilities are doing much worse and it’s a long-standing problem. For example:
Why do we name this an “opportunity” gap? Because there is absolutely no valid reason kids who are Black should be doing worse in math. Our school system has been failing way too many kids for way too long by not giving the opportunity to learn.
The thing is… we know it’s possible to do better, because there are many schools in Virginia who are doing it. Hang in there with one last graph, please.
Wait a second… only about a third of our Black 3rd graders passed the math SOL test?! That’s supposed to show a basic level of proficiency in math. That’s about half the pass rate for all ACPS 3rd graders. And compared to their peers across the state (other Black 3rd graders), ours are much lower.
In fact, if you take all elementary schools in the Commonwealth and line them up from best to worst for their 3rd grade math scores, ACPS has multiple schools at the bottom of the lineup, especially for kids who most depend on schools for instruction.
Why?! What is going on here?
(Deep breaths, try to explain this calmly, I’m telling myself amidst so much fury and outrage.) Math is important, and as a community and society we need ALL kids to excel mathematically. A moment of inspiration before we share what we heard:
The math curriculum ACPS uses in elementary schools is Investigations. The Bellwether audit team called it “high-quality” but credible researchers seem to think it’s lukewarm at best (“potentially positive effects” but also potentially negative). Regardless, the state of Virginia will not be approving it because, as ACPS teachers pointed out, it is not fully-aligned to state standards:
Here’s what we received in a follow-up email from Mr. Dommer (see end of Minutes):
“We have not achieved deep implementation with our current resource, Investigations, due to a variety of factors including not enough buy-in, lagging comprehensive professional support for teachers and building leaders, and not enough parental engagement with the program.”
In plain talk, many teachers found that it didn’t work for them. Especially for kids who enter school without already having learned some math. Especially in the “urban ring” schools. ACPS adopted this math program 20 years ago and has provided limited training in recent years. They had the data to show it wasn’t working. And they kept using it anyway. Not surprisingly, teachers have been “picking and choosing” and supplementing with materials they’ve found… which is a lot of work for every teacher!
We are relieved that ACPS is now “shining a light on gap groups”, but wow, we wish it had happened a lot sooner.
Change is Coming.
Virginia adopted new math Standards of Learning, and is currently reviewing instructional materials that align. When the list is available from the state, ACPS will organize an adoption committee to review approved materials. Stay tuned at our Facebook page for more info as it becomes available.
This school year is clearly a hodgepodge, with new pacing guides valiantly pieced together over the summer to meet sped-up state timelines, combining pieces from Investigations with other materials pulled in. The SOL tests will focus on where the old & new standards overlap. And this is all happening at the same time a brand-new reading program is getting started. Our poor teachers!
Our Minutes include explanations about “mathematizing” and what high-quality math instruction should include. Hint: yes, practice actually does matter. And, it’s still about actively engaging kids in conceptual understanding but also “cognitively demanding tasks”. Check out the TNTP-created “Vision of Strong Instruction in Mathematics”, which would be great to see enacted in classrooms.
That’s a LOT and we’ve just scratched the surface for elementary math. We will be submitting many follow-up questions, including intervention for so many kids who are behind in math & the lack of math interventionists, coaches with math expertise to support our teachers, ST-Math outcomes, and more.
Family Council has developed an advocacy process over the past year while we’ll continue to refine (see website). We’ll be busy over the next few weeks working together to determine if we want to advocate for changes in math and if so, creating a statement and sending out for an internal consensus vote before we share.
We’ll leave you with the Virginia PTA explanation of advocacy to ponder:
Advocacy is sharing a story or experience that your child, school or community is dealing with and turning it into an action item, or a request, for a new policy, protocol or process, change in staffing or funding, improved training opportunity, enhanced communication, or modification to state or federal legislation and regulations.
We look forward to having you join us in our learning journey, and if you feel compelled, in advocating for change on behalf of our community’s kids. You can leave comments below… we are parents & community members just like you.
This is such helpful information in providing context and validating my family's experience with math. Thank you for your hard work and for summarizing it so thoroughly!