Math lessons add up

Districts see improvements after implementing ‘everyday’ approach to mathematics

Ed Mahon

As 11 Bellefonte third-grade teachers prepared their first math lessons of the year, Shari Reed helped them figure out how to fit all the material into one hour, checked that they had calculators in their classrooms, and told them how high to hang their number lines.

View larger

She also offered a warning. “What we have to be really careful with is, we can’t lose parent

Shari Reed, elementary math coordinator for the Bellefonte Area School District, left, goes over course plans with Bellefonte elementary teachers.

support,” Reed, the district’s elementary math coordinator, told the teachers who were gathered in Bellefonte Area Middle School’s music room for an August planning session. “So this is a negotiation year.”

That negotiation is one that more school districts across the country and county have been undertaking in recent years as they introduce a math curriculum based on a way of thinking foreign to parents, students and teachers.

Everyday Mathematics is taught to more than 2.78 million students in more than 175,000 classrooms, according to the publisher. Implemented in Bald Eagle in 2007-08, the program is also being expanded this year to second and third grades in Bellefonte and introduced in all Philipsburg- Osceola elementary schools.

The program shares an origin and underlying philosophy with “Investigations in Numbers, Data and Space,” the curriculum that was a point of contention in State College schools last spring.

While they differ in approach and the research that supports them, critics say both programs can be confusing and lead to a reliance on calculators.

Proponents argue that an emphasis on conceptual understanding over memorization of traditional algorithms leads to a deeper understanding. The program’s developer, the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, says calculators aren’t used for all exercises, and that they have been shown to improve number sense, conceptual development and visualization.

Patty Eckenroth, who piloted Everyday Math at Benner Elementary School last year, said it’s changed the way she teaches, turning her into more of a facilitator. She likes that approach better and — for the first time in her career — likes teaching math but acknowledges that it’s a challenge.

“Sometimes you go home tired. Not from the teaching, but from shifting ... the way you thought about math,” said Eckenroth, who’s an instructional coach for Everyday Math this year.

Structured approach

The federal Department of Education’s “What Works Clearinghouse” lists Everyday Math as one of two math programs with enough data to prove it’s had a positive impact on student achievement. On average, performance increases by 6 percentile points, the research found.

Both Investigations and Everyday Mathematics originated from standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the 1980s. But curriculum experts say Everyday Math has a more structured approach, while Investigations places greater emphasis on students developing their own problem-solving strategies.

Everyday Math also differs from Investigations in its spiral approach, in which core topics — such as fractions, time and money — are introduced, then revisited, so that students continually build those skills.

During the Bellefonte work session, Reed told the Bellefonte educators not to get bogged down in revisiting a component — which could prevent them from finishing a lesson — if a student doesn’t master it in the first pass.

“It’s going to keep re-hitting it,” said Reed, who taught the program in the Pittsburgh public schools in the 1990s.

At the start of the 2008-09 school year, Lincoln public schools, located near Boston, switched from Investigations to Everyday Math.

“It strikes a balance between inquiry and fluency. That was right for our district at this time,” said Assistant Superintendent Mary L. Sterling, who said she considers both to be good programs.

When Everyday Math was introduced to classrooms last year, her district employed more math specialists and focused on ensuring the program was being taught the same across the district.

“The biggest difference is Investigations wasn’t supported the same way Everyday Math was,” she said. “What makes a program work is the implementation.”

Reaching parents

In addition to professional development, Bellefonte and Bald Eagle have hosted parent math nights for parents. Philipsburg-Osceola has its first one scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at North Lincoln Hill Elementary. The districts also send out letters to parents, and are using an online service that gives parents access to the algorithms and math games taught in class.

“If the student plays games at home, it can track the work, so that when the teacher pulls up that child’s report, they can see how they were doing at home also,” said Tracy Boone, Bald Eagle’s math director.

When educators adopt a new curriculum, they have to prepare for an implementation dip as the teachers work to master the program — a prospect that’s daunting with yearly Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams in place.

Mary Beth Eyet, math coordinator in Philipsburg- Osceola, said it’s her job to make the transition in her district as smooth as possible. Other educators have told her it takes about three years before students and teachers fully master the program.

“It’s the success that the students have that convinces the teacher,” said Eyet.

‘Hardships’ pay off

At one of Bellefonte’s professional development sessions, teachers prepared their materials for the year, coloring in spaces on prop thermometers, laminating number graphs and taping together a number line that included negative digits. The last item would have to hang within a yardstick’s reach of students, so that it could be used as a reference tool.

Brett Witmer was working on a chart that students could use to record sunrise and sunset times throughout the year. Witmer was a second-and third-grade teacher at Tyrone Area Elementary School when Everyday Math was introduced there in 2006-07. He said that district went “through some hardships on the front end of implementation” but he became convinced of the benefits.

“I always tell parents ... it just creates such better thinking,” said Witmer. “It just arms them with the skills to say, like, ‘Hey, I’m a problem solver.’ ”

Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.