MVP

Math teachers and leaders across the district were unsatisfied with the traditional curriculum and levels of learning in math. Teachers were frustrated with the amount of reteaching they had to do each year to ensure students had learned the curriculum of the year before. Math was seen as the memorization of procedures that students would apply to problems in repetition. This is not mathematics. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics published 7 Effective Teaching Practices in Math Classrooms as a part of their Principles to Actions publication. Maine 207 math teachers and leaders looked at these practices and believed that math instruction following these practices would improve learning and the experience for our students. We then set off to look for a curriculum that the district could use as a base for the change and improvement we wanted to see in our teaching. We wanted our teaching to better align to these practices and would allow students to engage in a productive struggle. We wanted our students to learn how to apply mathematical principles to solve problems that don't exist yet. We looked at both traditional and integrated curricula that centered on the Common Core State Standards and decided that integrated math with the Mathematics Vision Project (MVP) gave us a good starting point for the changes we wanted to see. The resources are free to students, highly rated, and used in many states across the US. Integrated Math is a system used world-wide that arranges the curriculum in an order that allows students to see the connectedness of math. Instead of grouping the curriculum into Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2, integrated systems group the topics as they naturally are needed to solve problems. MVP provides a number of modules that will offer real-world problems that will lead students to question what they know and will allow students to dive deep into investigations into mathematical ideas. Teachers will pose questions and look for both examples and non-examples which will have the students' understanding of the math. Students will learn how to apply these understandings to novel situations to solve problems. This is math and we are excited about the transition. Student who would have normally taken Algebra 1 in the 2019-20 school year will instead take Math 1. These students will then take Math 2 and Math 3 in the following years before taking a more traditional 4th year elective like Precalculus, Calculus, or Statistics. See the links to the right for flow charts and more information.

I often hear from parents who were unsuccessful in mathematics in their schooling and they want to know how to support their students. First know that the change in curriculum should help. Your students will not be taught in the same manner that did not work for their parents. Students will be expected to engage in class discussions and explorations. We will be expecting students to question and be comfortable with failing forward and with a productive struggle as they learn. We strongly believe in the principles of questioning from Dan Meyer, the fun that should occur when exploring math like described by Dan Finkel, and number talks and grow mindset of Jo Boaler. We hope parents support their students through their math experience with positive encouragement to keep going and to ask questions. Ask your students what they asked in class and what question did they explore and struggle with during class. Ask them about what discovery helped change when they thought they knew. Homework assignments are separated into READY (a review of background knowledge that will prepare the student for upcoming classwork), SET (an opportunity to solidify skills learned in class), and GO (a review of previous concept from the class) problems to help reinforce and prepare your students for their math class. Teachers have office hours before school for individual help and we continue to have math teachers in Tutor U (A206) every period of the day for drop-in help.

We have also decided that the grading in these new integrated math classes should align better with best practices. We have developed a standards-based grading (SBG) system similar to what is being used in other top high schools in the area that will lead our school to a competency based education down the road. Without getting too detailed, your student will be given feedback often on how they are doing in each proficiency indicator. Feedback on each indicator should be given after each module assessment and informally throughout each unit. This information will be used to determine an overall performance level in each indicator which should be seen as the usual and most consistent level of performance. These scores will help determine the scores or grades for each of the three competencies and the competency grades will determine an overall grade in the course.

A rubric has been developed for each module assessment that will also be used throughout the unit to help define performance levels. Instead of grading each question for points, teachers will instead look at the overall performance on each proficiency indicator and determine a numerical score on the rubric to share with the student. Most if not all of the proficiency indicators will have a rubric grade on each assessment. The levels on the rubric are shown below. Students who have shown limited or no evidence of understanding any proficiency indicator will be encouraged to seek additional assistance or may be referred to our MTSS program. These students should retake the assessment. The final exam times will be used as additional time to reassess areas of weakness.

Another shift in our culture is getting away from tracking students. Students will be grouped only by which class they are next ready to take. We have developed an additional math course for Math 1 students who may need additional support. These students are in Math 1 classes along with this additional class called Foundations of Problem Solving (FPS). The goals of this class include developing executive skills and confidence required fro Math 1, filling gaps in skills required for upcoming Math 1 modules, and reinforcing the newly acquired skills and understandings from completed Math 1 modules. The main goal is simple: Help students to be successful in Math 1. With that in mind, we determined that completion of FPS will earn the student a full math credit and the grade of the course will be the student's Math 1 grade. Students who are either not using the supports of FPS or who are determined to not need the supports of FPS will be removed from the class.

MVP: https://www.mathematicsvisionproject.org/secondary-mathematics-i.html

MVP Overview: https://www.mathematicsvisionproject.org/mvp-overview-presentation.html

MVP Help Videos: https://www.rsgsupport.org/programs/test-math-i-module-1