DEVELOPING A MATHLETES

PROGRAM FOR INNER CITY

STUDENTS

Paul Penniman

Executive Director,

Resources for Inner city CHildren (RICH)1

paul@resourcesforinnercitychildren.org

202-966-4814

Innercityvisions.blogspot.com

Purpose of This Talk

•To provide a model for other math

clubs in inner city schools

•To provide ideas for math clubs in

general

•To tell a positive story about inner city

student achievement

My Background and Motivation

• Phillips Academy2

• Johns Hopkins University, BA in psychology and

mathematical sciences

• Taught for ten years at Edmund Burke School3 till 1990.

Taught math, physics, computer science. Coached tennis

and soccer.

• Private tutor from 1990-2003 exclusively, ¾ time till 2010

• Inspired by Irasema Salcido4

• Founded RICH in 2003, ¾ time till 2010

RICH’s Partner Schools

• Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for

Public Policy5—RICH involved since 2003

• Anacostia High School6—RICH involved since

2010

• Maya Angelou Public Charter School7—RICH

involved from 2003-09

RICH’s programs

• $400K cash budget, approximately

• WordSTARS ($75K)

• MATHletes ($25K)

• “Keep Up”/”Village Watch” (usually pullouts)

($125K)

• Saturday Academy ($75K)

• Attendance Task Force ($25K)

• College Prep ($25K)

• Summer Programs ($50K)

Anacostia Student and Parent Bodies

Statistics for . . .

•Percent FRPL8

•Percent who have neither parent in their lives

•Percent who have a positive relationship with their biological fathers

•ACE9 (Paul Tough10)

Impetus for the MATHlete program

•Chavez need for peer tutors

•RICH’s perception of the need for

enrichment at both Chavez and

Anacostia

•Students’ need to feel elite

•Began in 2007 at Chavez, 2010 at

Anacostia

What is a MATHlete?

How do you become one?

•MATHletes are not necessarily the top GPA type. They like math and ask good (annoying) questions. They are curious.

•MATHletes get nominated by their math teachers

•“Once a MATHlete, always a MATHlete”

•“Semper pi”

What MATHletes do

• Peer tutoring (training)

• Contest problems: *The Math League (Steve

Conrad, Dan Flegler)11

• Ken Ken12, word arithmetic, logic problems13,

pentominoes14 and other visual puzzles

• *Moody’s Math Challenge15

• Interscholastic contests *Need for division for Title I schools

• Consumption of food

More formal enrichment programs

•Systematic pullouts during the school

year, for enrichment

•Summer program

Summer MATHlete program • Selections from four chapters from Richard Brown’s “Advanced Mathematics”:16

• Combinatorics, including an examination of the Power Ball

• Matrices, including Markov Chains (North Carolina School of Mathematics and Science publication)17

• Linear Programming

• Exponents and logs, financial literacy

• Sixty hours of instruction

• Partially Subsidized by Mayor’s S.Y.E.P.

Some Anacostia MATHlete SAT data

• 100+ students expected to graduate in 2014

• Eleven students have math+reading SAT’s

higher than 800. Four were “home grown”

• Four “home grown” students have math

SAT’s 400+ (three are MATHletes, the only

summer MATHlete participants)

• Data are higher for class of 2015

Attempts to add rigor to Anacostia’s

curriculum

•Calculus—possibly not until 2015-16

•Summer pre-calculus for class of

2015?

•Summer algebra II for class of 2014

•Honors classes

RICH’s College Prep Program

•Select scholars (often MATHletes) with

high GPA’s (close to 3.0 or higher) and

taking at least one AP course

•Four boys, four girls

•SAT classes in spring->June SAT

•College trip South

•College mentoring

College funding for MATHletes

•Free Application for Federal Student

Aid (FAFSA)18

•DC Achievers Program19

•College scholarships

Where are RICH’s 2014 MATHletes going

to college?

• Six MATHletes from 2010-11

• Three attended summer program; four were invited into college prep program

• Student #1 (ACE = 5, SAT = 970, GPA = 3.0, CP = yes) North Carolina A&T

• Student #2 (ACE = 4, SAT = 810, GPA = 3.0, CP = yes) North Carolina Central

• Student #3 (ACE = 4, SAT = 760 (math = 410), GPA = 3.4, CP = yes) Morehouse

MATHletes and College p. 2

•Student #4 (ACE = 2, SAT = 690, GPA

= 3.3, CP = yes) Virginia State

•Student #5 (ACE = 2, SAT = 700, GPA

= 1.6, CP = no) Bowie State

•Student #6 (ACE = 4, SAT = 470, GPA

= 2.3, CP = no) Marshall

Next Steps for the MATHlete Program

•1. Another advisor needed to help coach and run the program

•2. More effectively communicate the program to teachers at partner schools

•3. Recruit more girls

Footnotes and links

1. Resources for Inner city CHildren,

www.resourcesforinnercitychildren.org

2. Phillips Academy, www.andover.edu

3. Edmund Burke School, www.eburke.org

4. Irasema Salcido,

http://www.washingtonian.com/packages/pol

itics-personalities/2013-washingtonians-of-

the-year/

Footnotes and Links p. 2

5. Cesar Chavez Schools,

www.chavezschools.org

6. Anacostia High School,

http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/anacostia+high+s

chool

7. Maya Angelou Schools, www.seeforever.org

8. FRPL,

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/no

tices/iegs/IEGs.htm

Footnotes and links p. 3

• 9. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, http://acestudy.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/ACE_Calculator-English.127143712.pdf

• 10. Paul Tough, “How Children Succeed,” http://books.google.com/books/about/How_Children_Succeed.html?id=0TjKe-4tD2sC

• 11. The Math League, www.mathleague.com

• 12. Ken Ken, http://www.nytimes.com/ref/crosswords/kenken.html?_r=0

• 13. George J. Summers, “Test Your Logic,” http://books.google.com/books?id=qZhXj_WP3i4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=50+logic+problems&hl=en&sa=X&ei=As8tU_iWK-SOyAHCsYGoCg&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=50%20logic%20problems&f=false

Footnotes and links p. 4

• 14. Pentominoes,

http://books.google.com/books?id=AGkrnQEACAAJ&dq=

pentominoes&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4M8tU4CDLoiqyAHT44Fg

&ved=0CFUQ6AEwAw

• 15. Moody’s Math Challenge, www.m3challenge.siam.org

• 16. Richard Brown, “Advanced Mathematics,”

http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=56

1656&SBC=KMK&kpid=9780618250370U&kenshu=296b

8deb-3a13-f9c8-9b08-00000ce94c89&mcid=XKS-7558-4-

375-GoogleShopping-PRIDREPLACE-

291&gclid=COy3sp7mpr0CFVFp7AodU2MA_Q

Footnotes and Links p. 5

• 17. North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, http://product.half.ebay.com/Matrices-by-De-North-Carolina-School-of-Science-and-Mathematics-1988-Paperback/2148881&tg=info#moredetails

• 18. FAFSA, https://fafsa.ed.gov/

• 19. DC Achievers Program, http://www.dccollegesuccessfoundation.org/dc/dc-achievers-scholarship

MATHlete appearance

•One of the MATHletes will be

available with Paul Penniman at

the Starbucks in the Hilton, one

flight up from the Grand salon and

Ballroom, from noon – 2 pm on

Friday.

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