Number crunching and math coaching is helping Alabama students learn more math, writes Cory Turner for NPR. In 2019, the state's average fourth-grade math score was last in the nation on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Now, Alabama has climbed to average, the only state to beat its pre-pandemic math scores.
In rural DeKalb County, where most students come from low-income families, math scores improved by the equivalent of nearly a full grade, according to the recent Education Recovery Scorecard, Turner writes.
In 2022, embarrassed by its last-in-the-nation status, lawmakers passed the Alabama Numeracy Act to fund a "math makeover," he writes. Dilhani Uswatte, an elementary principal, wrote about the statewide math initiative, which included funding for elementary math coaches, two years ago.
In DeKalb, math coordinator Julie West worked with teachers on building a curriculum "roadmap," bought math tools and toys for early-grade classrooms and coached teachers on improving lessons. The district "created small learning communities, where teachers could collaborate with their peers, try out new lesson ideas and compare notes on areas of concern," writes Turner.
West, who "has a t-shirt that proclaims, 'data or it didn't happen'," created a number-crunching culture. Teachers and administrators analyze student data "to track not only individual student performance – and to better understand when a student is struggling – but to also pick out room- and school-based patterns in student struggles," he writes. "The mantra behind DeKalb's data devotion is: You can't fix a problem you don't know exists."
Writing on AL.com, Rebecca Griesbach looked at how a math coach is making a difference at Linden Elementary in Marengo County, where nearly all students come from low-income black families.
Three years ago, only 16 percent of students tested as proficient in math. The proficiency rate has risen to 32 percent, a bit higher than the pre-pandemic level.
JoAnn Smoot-Bryant works with teachers to improve their skills and their lessons, writes Griesbach. She analyzes student data to develop more effective ways to teach.
"Teachers at Linden Elementary now use recommended programs, like iReady, as well as practice assessments modeled after the state ACAP test, to track student data early and often," she writes. "And they talk about the data at least once a week to see where students might need a little more help."