2017 WMC PRESENTATION

IMPROVING MATH ACT SCORESACT-ALIGNED BY DESIGN - SMALL SCHOOL UPDATE

SCOTT ANDERSON

HS MATH TEACHER

JUDA, WISCONSIN

sa@judaschool.com608 934 5251 ext 255twitter/blog: 21stmathteacher

WHERE IT STARTED….

Aligned by Design Workshop - Summer of 2010 in Monona Grove.

UW-System's Growth Agenda – 09/10 School Year

WHERE IT HAS GONE….

Data Driven Curriculum decisions

Curriculum - Fewer, Clearer, Higher

Problem Based Learning – STEM!!!

Eliminating College Remediation

OUTLINE

Review Aligned by Design

Discuss the “required adjustments” for a small school

Review Initial Targeted Goals & Program

Discuss goals & Continuous Improvement progression

Discuss Current Program (20% of class represents 60%+ of grade)

Review Results to date

Where it is going….

Curriculum Expanding

Flipping

Questions

ACT

STANDARDS

Consistent

Simple

Direct

Targeted skills

of Aligned By Design

Fewer, Clearer, Higher

http://www.act.org/standard/planact/math/index.html

ALIGNED BY DESIGN

FEWER, CLEARER, HIGHER

Aligning assessment, curriculum and instruction (pretty exciting)

Deconstructing the ACT standards (not too exciting but required)

CurriculumAssessment

Instruction

HOW WE ASSESS MATTERS!

The typical math assessment:

Focuses on algorithms

Skills assessed in isolation (no context)

Partial credit awarded (Partial Learning Rewarded)

Clustering of questions (many of same type)

COURSE DESIGN & ALIGNMENT

Aligned by Design is based on certain things only a

large school could do.....

THE “I HAVE BEEN SENT TO A WORKSHOP I

CANNOT USE” POINT….

Saw a student centered system based upon data

driven decisions. But kept seeing a entire curriculum

always created by a team of math teachers.

Also discovered that there was going to be nothing to

"steal."

REALITY BITES

So Aligned by Design was all good, but how does a school of a few, or just one math instructor do it?

So I asked and I will never forget his answer to my question “Ok – you have a big staff, can easily divide up tasks. How do you do this in a much smaller school, say one HS teacher in the district?” His reply “I don’t know how you could do this.”

In many ways that answer was correct. As a smaller district you don't have the resources: staff, time, money to make a large shift as discussed....

This presentation tells you what I do now….

ROI (RETURN ON INVESTMENT)

So looked at the ideas and tried to decide which were

scalable and low work & high return for my students!

Conceptual understanding was key, but could not

make an entire curriculum shift.

Hershey HS had made a huge improvement in their

ACT score in 4 years, so it felt like there was some

way to use Aligned By Design in a continuous

improvement matter.

INITIAL GOALS – FALL 2010

Goals:

To increase mastery of topics measured by Aligned

By Design assessments

To increase ACT math composite by 0.5 points/year

from ~21.5 to ~22.5 (~4.5% increase) in first 2 years

Stay within current curriculum and basic syllabus!

GOALS SET, HOW TO PROCEED?

How many times have you heard a student say

this after the ACT, or any other power test....

“I knew them, but I just could not

remember how to do them.“

The worst part is they usually don't even realize

what they missed....

ACT EXAMPLE

Look at the following problem

-2 + 6 - |3| - (-2)2

A. 3 B. 11 C. 5 D. -3 E. 1

-2 + 6 - |3| -

(-2)2

4 - 3

- 4

1 - 4

-3

NON - MASTERED TOPICS….

There are 2 common mistakes our “I knew them”

students make.

- |3| - (-3) 3

&

- (-2)2

- (-4) 4

THE ACT ALLOWS FOR THESE ERRORS

those distractors are there

ACT EXAMPLE

Look at the following problem

-2 + 6 - |3| - (-2)

A. 3 B. 11 C. 5 D. -3 E. 1

-2 + 6 - |3| - (-2)2

4 - 3 + 4

1 +

4

5

-2 + 6 - |3| - (-2)2

4 + 3 -

4

7 -

4

3

RESULTS OF EXAMPLE!

Small mistakes are huge ACT score killers.

Indicative of real conceptual problems

So my silent answer to

"I knew them, but...“

became

"You saw it before but never really learned it"

KNOWING THE “TRUE” ALIGNED BY

DESIGN SYSTEM WOULD NOT FIT….

So figured the high return item was to set up a

system where students really know the low band

standards - really have the foundation.

Don’t screw up the easy….

Need to make the students understand that they

owned the learning

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Student accountability

Recursive materials (cause if you don’t use it, you lose it)

All or nothing mentality (no partial credit)

Only could take 30-40 minutes per week!

So per the conference – Developed context based

assessments (quizzes) based on the ACT standards.

ACT SKILL

CHECK

Context Quiz

based on ACT

Standards & Bands

PHILOSOPHY

Believe we grade academic mastery (not behavior, not responsibility, not time – have strong belief that my mission is to teach all students, not just the willing)

Wanted students to master topics and removed the constraint of time as much as possible.

Since time isn't a constraint I had to be ready to offer multiple opportunities to show mastery – re-quizzes....

Re-quizzes were often

Personally had a hard time accepting no partial credit.

DEMONSTRATING MASTERY

The quizzes were suppose to be summative, they

ended up formative....

Initially thought only re-quizzing missed problems

was needed, no need in showing mastery again on

correct items.....

Unless everything isn't mastered....

MEASUREMENT TOWARDS GOALS

SPRING 2010

Results on subsequent quizzes were not showing

improvement. Both missed problems and problems

done correctly were missed at nearly the same rate as

initial quizzes.

How I was quizzing was the problem…

HOW YOU ASSESS REALLY MATTERS!

How you re-quiz is important as how you quiz!

Must avoid “Pump and Dump“

Pump & Dump is the school skill where students only

learn something long enough to reproduce once on an

assessment.

The entire quiz must be retaken....

CONSTRAINTS

Problem: It takes a lot of time to put problems in

context – especially for re-quizzes

Solution: Using a worksheet generator for quizzes,

traded context for multiple re-quizzes....

TRADED CONTEXT

FOR ABILITY TO

REQUIZ

Quiz created on KUTA

Side note: Working on a program based

upon ACT standards (using access)

that generates context quizzes.

QUIZ FINDINGS

On partial credit = partial learning

A Non Believer turned to Believer!

Now embracing recursive quizzes and no partial

credit, but

What about accountability?

STUDENT

ACCOUNTABILITY

Expectation to understand & mastery topics both

conceptually and application.

You will know when it is working – students ask to learn

problems they struggle with.

Scoring of work supports mastery.

GRADES REPRESENT LEARNING

Total points system (Weekly example)

100 point test

Homework 6 points (Community Expectation),

Quizzes (2) 150 points (30 problems – 5 points per),

Projects – 25 to 40 points.

By Percentage

Quiz ~55%

Test ~34%

Project ~10%

Homework ~1%

GRADING SCALE NOTES

Scale/percentages are not as important as the

emphasis on conceptual understanding and

performance; that is critical.

Juda uses a general scale based on total points; that

allows flexibility – BUT at least 85% or greater is

from from summative assessment.

Goal is to continue to lower homework to

approximately 1%

(Coupled to a special homework policy and project

requirements).

RESULTS

So is it working?

Year Math ACT

Average

Benchmark Scores (≥22)

2018 21.14 41%

2017 23.06 50%

2016 20.73 47%

2015 23.55 64%

2014 22.89 68%

2013 22.53 58%

2012 23.00 67%

2011 22.33 56%

2010 21.72 50%

2009 18.64 18%

15.00

17.00

19.00

21.00

23.00

25.00

27.00

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

AC

T A

vg

Sco

re

Year

ACT scores Composite & Math

Composite

Math

Linear (Math)

15.00

17.00

19.00

21.00

23.00

25.00

27.00

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

AC

T A

vg

Sco

re

Year

ACT scores Composite & Math

Math

State Average 20.42016 data

R² = 0.3214

15.00

17.00

19.00

21.00

23.00

25.00

27.00

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

AC

T A

vg

Sco

re

Year

ACT scores Composite & Math – Survey Yes

Composite

Math

Linear (Math)

15.00

17.00

19.00

21.00

23.00

25.00

27.00

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

AC

T A

vg

Sco

re

Year

ACT scores Composite & Math – Survey Yes

Composite

Math

Linear (Math)

15.00

17.00

19.00

21.00

23.00

25.00

27.00

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

AC

T A

vg

Sco

re

Year

ACT scores Composite & Math

Composite

Math

Linear (Math)

20.00

20.50

21.00

21.50

22.00

22.50

23.00

23.50

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

3 Year Math ACT Average – Survey Yes

3 Year Math Average

Linear (3 Year Math Average)

20.00

20.50

21.00

21.50

22.00

22.50

23.00

23.50

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

3 Year Math Average – All Students

3 Year Math Average

Linear (3 Year Math Average)

R² = 0.3165

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

Pe

rce

nt

Year

Juda - Scores at or above ACT Math Benchmark (<= 22)

National Average

R² = 0.4612

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

Pe

rce

nt

Year

Juda - Scores at or above ACT Math Benchmark (<= 22) –

Survey Yes

National Average

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Pe

rce

nt

of

Gra

de

Year

Quarter Letter Grade versus Year

A

B

C

D

F

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Pe

rce

nt

of

Gra

de

Year

A Grade versus Year

RESULTS

So is it working?

Year Math ACT

Avg. Survey

Benchmark (≥22) Survey

2018 21.1 22.2 41% 50%

2017 23.1 25.4 50% 69%

2016 20.7 22.9 47% 70%

2015 23.55 64%

2014 22.89 68%

2013 22.53 58%

2012 23.00 67%

2011 22.33 56%

2010 21.72 50%

2009 18.64 18%

18.00

19.00

20.00

21.00

22.00

23.00

24.00

25.00

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Ma

th A

CT

sco

re

Year

3 Year ACT Math Moving Avg - All Test Takers

18.00

19.00

20.00

21.00

22.00

23.00

24.00

25.00

2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Ma

th A

CT

sco

re

Year

3 Year ACT Math Moving Avg Survey - Yes

WHAT IT ISN’T….

Not Curriculum

Not a cure for gaps or missing skills Sure identifies them though…

Not a lot of time – even though a high

portion of the grade

QUIZZING IS NOT TEACHING….

WHERE IT IS GOING…. Continue to focus on raising the top scores, set goals for

students who take upper level courses to score > 26 on the math ACT

Measuring end product – HS graduate’s skills

Post HS surveys

EMPT (UW-system, Early Math Placement Test) – also CAPP Placement Testing (Algebra 2 & PreCalc)

Using MAPS data to put 2015/2016 ACT Scores into a context

Context

Problem Solving & Math Practices

Flipped

New Curriculum (BIG IDEAS)

QUESTIONS2016 ACT PRESENTATION

IMPROVING MATH ACT SCORESACT-ALIGNED BY DESIGN - SMALL SCHOOL UPDATE

SCOTT ANDERSON

HS MATH TEACHER

JUDA, WISCONSIN

sa@judaschool.com608 934 5251 ext 255twitter/blog: 21stmathteacher