K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Improving Teacher Knowledge and Student Performance through

Synergistic PartneringKaren Cerwin

K-12 Alliance/WestEdkcerwin@wested.org

Kevin EricksonProject Director

Terry Vendlinski, UCLA CRESTEvaluation Team

vendlins@ucla.edu

Welcome

Success in Understanding Math (CAMSP) Partners

• Coachella Valley Unified School District

• College of the Desert Community College

• California State University, San Bernardino

• WestEd/K-12 Alliance• Technical Assistance Terry Vindlinski

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

DISTRICT CONTEXT

• 92 % ESL• 87% Free and Reduced Lunch

• 60 grades 3-Algebra Treatment teachers (4 math majors)

• Comparison teachers completed LMT as part of end of year check-out

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Anecdotal Observations of Secondary Context

• Teacher self-selection included majority of teachers with less than 4 years of experience (secondary)

• Teaching assignment practices place newer teachers in highest need classes.

• Students were randomly assigned treatment or control.

• During year two of the project algebra was reduced from two periods to one

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Theory of Action

• Summer Institute (8 days)Content and Pedagogy

• School Year Institute 4 Days Lesson Study3 Afterschool Meetings

• One Cohort for three years K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Foundational Tenets of Program

• Summer institute models high quality instruction focused on understanding mathematics

• Lesson Studies focus on identifying learning goals, designing explorations of concept (s), analyzing student work, and redesigning instruction.

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Sustainability

• Teacher Leaders/Facilitators trained to continue lesson study program

• Teacher Leader /Facilitators supported by multi-year statewide trainings (9 days per year)

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Teacher Changes

• There were no significant treatment / control teacher differences on NCO LMT pre-measures

• Grade 3 – 6 Control teachers showed no significant differences after two years.

• Grade 3 – 6 teachers showed significant NCO gains

• Grade 7 – 9 teachers probably had significant NCO / gains (~ .4 SD).

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Student Results - District Benchmarks

• In grades 3 – 6, only grade 4 students showed significant pre to post gains (relative to control) on benchmark. All other trends, except Gr. 3, positive.

• Grade 7 pre-algebra, and Grade 8 algebra treatment students performed significantly better on final benchmark than control.

K-12 Alliance/WestEd ‘11

Student Results - CSTs

• In grades 3 – 6, only grade 4 students showed significantly higher CST scores (relative to control). All other trends, except Gr. 3, positive.

• In grade 4, 64.3% of treatment students scored proficient or above, while 52.3% in control score at these levels.

Student Results - CSTs

• Treatment students in 7th grade math and 8th grade Algebra significantly outperformed their peers in the control classes.

• 73% of treatment 7th grade math and 69% of 8th grade algebra students scored at or above proficient; only 38% and 25% in the respective control conditions scored at or above proficient

YEAR THREE PROGRAM ALTERATIONS

• GRADE THREE CONTENT DISCUSSIONS ON NUMBER SENSE

• USE OF STUDENT WORK PROTOCOLS TO SUSTAIN ANALYSIS OF STUDENT WORK