What is R.E.A.L.?

There are 5 main components to the ARCHES ACCESS toolkit:

Teachers gain additional skills and resources to help provide instruction that makes the content accessible and engaging to students. These tools can be used in creating tasks and assessments at higher levels of rigor and cognitive demand.

Instructional Technology Tools - Professional development will focus first on helping teachers’ access instructional technology tools effectively. This professional development component will provide directed collaboration opportunities for teachers to explore new and innovative technologies that can be integrated into their math curriculum to increase student achievement. This integration will be aligned with project-based lesson development and include tools like engineering and design applications as well as online math resources.

3. Alignment & Asessment

CCSS Content Professional Development Built Upon Teacher/Student Assessment Measures – Use of MDTP: The Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project will provide its diagnostic assessments to the ACCESS project in order to assess:

• Student growth in learning

• Student readiness on course topics by identifying content and skill gaps;

• Readiness for the next course or grade level and placement of students in courses; and

• Professional content learning for teachers.

The data collected from MDTP readiness assessments in the fall will help determine teachers' professional learning needs. The MDTP Director will facilitate and train teachers to understand the results, content gaps, and misconceptions as well as address pedagogical needs of teachers to address student gaps that persist. Data from the MDTP assessments will be used by teachers and coaches to plan and create problem- and project-based lesson activities that address student learning needs in skills and content.

Coherence and articulation of CCSS

Understanding application of skills, assessment content and depth of knowledge of the state assessment.

4. Life Long Learning: College and Career Exploration

STEM College and Career Awareness Curriculum (CAC) aligned to CCSS Math Standards: CAC bridges classroom math to real-world math and prepares students for local college preparation and employment opportunities, especially STEM-focused careers.

The foundation for ACCESS’s CAC is research indicating that learning mathematics in context increases student motivation and interest. The CAC’s emphasis on applying STEM content to college readiness facilitates a higher degree of student-centered teaching, advanced skill application, and higher order thinking. Such items are promising with regard to increasing academic attainment of students who are academically under-performing or who are marginalized because of cultural differences.

5. Implementation Support

Coaching, Collaboration and Implementation Support: The ACCESS project utilizes the Responsive Teaching Cycle (RTC), a structured form of teacher collaboration that was developed by Dr. Ivan Cheng, a professional development provider for the project. The Responsive Teaching Cycle process helps examine instructional practice, use of effective strategies, student understanding, and mathematical thinking. There is a deliberate and practical approach to making the content and delivery accessible for students in the very next class session.

Professional development for the four main components of the ACCESS project will be provided through intensive and follow-up training. The support for teachers will occur through a summer institute and with follow-up reflective coaching. Each year, the professional development plan will include approximately 40 hours dependent upon elements selected with up to 30 hours of coaching support.

Teachers will receive support in advance as well as just-in-time as they transition to teaching the CCSS-Math that require a deeper understanding of key concepts than previous standards. The test blueprint from the CCSS-aligned assessments from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) serves as a powerful guide for prioritizing the content that will be emphasized in professional development activities. Thus, the content focus for each year will address those topics that have the most impact on understanding concepts that span across grades 6-8 and that serve as crucial foundations for high school mathematics, regardless of which pathway (traditional or integrated) is implemented at the high school. Professional development will build across three years in order for teachers to further develop the content knowledge needed for them to develop CCSS-aligned lessons.