Big Ideas

• Our current educational system is based on the myth of the average student. The division between general education and special education is due to that myth.  All students are diverse regardless of “disabilities.” This stance then requires us to understand students’ areas of variance, including disabilities, as well as their individual variances.

• To increase achievement for all students, especially our students with disabilities, we must first examine our mindsets, beliefs and systems.  “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” Therefore our system has been designed to get poor results for our students with disabilities and we must change our system if we want to improve our support.

• Through the use of UDL, focusing on cultivating mathematical mindsets through sensemaking opportunities, we will provide growth opportunities for all students that helps them become expert learners.

• Barriers to learning are in the environment, not the student.  By utilizing the principles of UDL as well as focusing on individual learner needs, we can create learning environments that include high quality tasks with low floors and high ceilings so that all students can achieve.

• Administrator support at all levels is critical to foster not only changes within first instruction but also system change that will foster collaboration between general education and special education teachers / departments.  Administrators should analyze initiative alignment, foster implementation capacity and develop a leadership style that accounts for the feelings of loss, incompetence and disloyalty that comes with change.

• It is through recursive Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles that we can improve instruction and change our educational system to better serve our students.

Unit 1: Why Are We Here? The Case for Improving Math Outcomes for All Students (Course 1)

This unit is designed to provide the “why” for doing the work of providing high quality math instruction and supports for all students so that they can achieve at high levels, and to lay the groundwork for the  units and activities that follow. 

Unit 3: Universal Design for Learning, Mathematical Mindset, and Shifts in Practice  (Course 2)

This mounit dule is designed to lay the groundwork for the Math Integrating Into Practice units with embedded pedagogy and the foundational concepts that support using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a proactive lesson planning framework to create a learning environment that supports all learners.

Unit 5: Administrative Leadership in Supporting Effective Change (Admin only)  (Course 3)

This unit is designed to guide administrators in using strategies for effective administrative leadership which support change in instructional practices and improved math outcomes for students. 

• Series A (Grades K-3 Place Value / Number Sense),  

• Series B (Grades 3-6 fractions), and 

• Series C (Grades 6-8 rates and proportions)

Each Series includes the following Units:

• • Course ABC-1: Engagement in Mathematics

  • Course ABC-2: Representation in Mathematics

  • Course ABC-3: Action and Expression in Mathematics

These series are designed to provide participants with an opportunity engage in mathematics lessons which incorporate the philosophy and pedagogy found in the Building Foundational Knowledge units while focusing on the UDL pillar of (Engagement, Representation, Action and Expression) and expanding and deepening their understanding of grade level content.