School District Models: Mathematics Specialists, Coaches & Resource Teachers


District (Click name of district to view model)
   

School District: Frederick County Public Schools

Contact and Title: Nelson Palmer (nelson.palmer@fcps.org)

Contact's Phone:
301-644-5057

District Address: Frederick County Public Schools 7630 Hayward Rd. Frederick, MD 21702

Title of Specialist Position: Mathematics Teacher Specialist

Number of Specialists in District: 10

Level(s): PreK-5

Number of Elementary Schools Impacted: 36

Duties of Specialists:

  • Mentoring and Supporting Tenured and Nontenured teachers – 50%
  • Co-planning & Co-teaching – 15%
  • Overseeing Data Discussions About Student Achievement – 10%
  • Developing Countywide Resources (Including Countywide PD) – 20%
  • Working with Community and Families – 5%

Approximate Number of Students Impacted: 18,200

Summary of Program:
Each math teacher specialist is assigned to support 3 or 4 elementary schools. Professional development and support is determined at the school level and varies year-to-year based on the needs of the school. Schools which have been identified as high-need receive an increased percentage of the teacher specialists time.

In addition to providing direct support to schools, each teacher specialist works on and/or leads a wide range of systemwide committees including differentiation, intervention, special education, etc.

The teacher specialists lead curriculum development workshops during the summer and take responsibility for publishing resource materials used in the FCPS.

Program Impact and Research:

Achievement Data
Over the last five years, individual schools have continually shown improvement in their overall scores on the Maryland School Assessments (MSA) for grades 3-5. Challenges still exist with some student groups. We are continuing to focus on the achievement of minority populations and our students who receive free and reduced meals and special education services.

During the 2008-09 school year, 34 of our 36 schools met the AMO for mathematics. AYP for individual student groups was met through the confidence interval at several schools. We will continue to focus our efforts on these student groups.

Advanced scores on the MSA continue to rise but at a very slow rate and gaps are not closing for sub-populations. Thus, raising the rigor in all classes is an additional focus.

Teacher Data
Data that currently exists is anecdotal. As we implement Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, teachers are demonstrating increased levels of content knowledge and pedagogy, as well as excitement for teaching mathematics.

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School District: Howard County Public Schools

Contact and Title: Kay B. Sammons (kay_sammons@hcpss.org), Coordinator of Elementary Mathematics

Contact's Phone:
410-313-6624

District Address: Howard County Public Schools, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City, MD 21042

Title of Specialist Position: Math Support Teacher

Number of Specialists in District: 16

Level(s): PreK-5

Number of Elementary Schools Impacted: 16

Duties of Specialists:

  • Mentoring and Supporting Tenured and Non-tenured teachers – 50%
  • Co-teaching – 15%
  • Overseeing Data Discussions about Student Achievement – 10%
  • Developing Countywide Resources including Countywide PD – 15%
  • Working with Community and Families – 5%
  • Assessing Individual Students – 5%

Approximate Number of Students Impacted: 4,750

Summary of Program: The concept of providing math support teachers in specific elementary schools evolved out of the need to provide on site professional development for teachers in mathematics content and pedagogy. Their main role is work with teachers to implement the best practices for mathematics instruction.

Program Impact and Research:

Achievement Data
Over the last five years, individual schools have continually shown improvement in their overall scores on the Maryland State Assessments (MSA) for grades 3-5. Challenges still exist with some student groups. We are continuing to focus on the achievement of our students who receive free and reduced meals and special education students.
During the 2008-09 school year, fourteen of the sixteen schools who have Mathematics Support Teachers met the AMO for mathematics. AYP for individual student groups was met through the confidence interval at several schools. We will continue to focus our efforts on these student groups.

Teacher Data
Teachers from the schools served by Mathematics Support Teachers were surveyed at the end of the 2008-09 school year using a pilot questionnaire. The majority of teachers surveyed felt that the Mathematics Support Teacher provided them with professional development and resources that helped them teach mathematics. A deeper analysis of the survey data will be completed during the 2009-2010 school year.

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School District: Lodge Grass & Pryor

Contact and Title: David Stringfield (dvdstrngfld@aol.com)

Contact's Phone:
406-223-9824

District Address: Lodge Grass Public Schools Lodge Grass, Montana 59057

Title of Specialist Position: Instructional Coach

Number of Specialists in District: 1

Level(s): K-12

Number of Elementary Schools Impacted: 5

Duties of Specialists:

  • Leading Curriculum Teams - 30%
  • Modeling Lessons - 10%
  • Coaching Teachers - 30%
  • Assessing Students - 10%
  • Evaluating Program - 20%

Approximate Number of Students Impacted: 120

Summary of Program: Implement individual teachers' professional growth plans, teacher collaboration, curriculum alignment projects, increasing student engagement and meeting improvement plan goals.

Program Impact and Research:

Achievement Data
Mathematics - All students proficient and advanced, May 2009, 40%.

Teacher Data
Not available (Teacher data being compiled)

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School District: Riverside Local Schools

Contact and Title: Karen LeScoezec (pa_lescoezec@lgca.org)

Contact's Phone:
440-639-5234

District Address: Riverside Local Schools, 845 Madison Avenue Elementary Painesville, Ohio 44077

Title of Specialist Position: Mathematics Coordinator

Number of Specialists in District: 3

Level(s): K-5

Number of Elementary Schools Impacted: 6

Duties of Specialists:

  • Offering inservices & sharing of best practices 45%
  • Modeling lessons in classrooms 5%
  • Making new intervention programs (BOOST for kindergarteners and Extreme Team for 4th and 5th graders) 20%
  • Informing and working with parents through newsletters, Family Math Nights, and websites 15%
  • Coordinating district assessments and analyzing data 15%
Approximate Number of Students Impacted: 1,100

Summary of Program: Within our 6 elementary schools, we are coordinating our efforts. Karen obtained her Masters as a math specialist and has taught 10th-7th grade as a classroom teacher. She developed and ran an intervention program at the high school before taking this position 10 years ago.

Program Impact and Research:

Achievement Data
93% of the kindergarteners who were identified at the beginning of the year as being below benchmark, were at benchmark by the end of the year. Common math district assessments are given at 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades and curriculum map is completed for all grades to build coherency.

Teacher Data
Students enjoy lessons prepared and delivered by [the school's Mathematics Coordinator]. She is called the "mathlady". Teachers are having students take more responsiblility for their learning by her suggestion of incorporating "I Can" statements. Attendance at Family Math/Science Nights continues to grow. It now is housed at the campus.

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School District: Spotsylvania County Public Schools

Contact and Title: Dr. Jackie Getgood (jgetgood@scs.k12.va.us)

Contact's Phone:
540-834-2500, extension 1114

District Address: Spotsylvania County Public Schools, 8020 Riverstone Drive Fredericksburg, VA 22407

Title of Specialist Position: Mathematics Sepcialists

Number of Specialists in District: 10

Level(s): K-5, 6-8

Number of Elementary Schools Impacted: 23

Duties of Specialists:

  • Collaboratively planning with teachers - 40%
  • Model lessons - 30%
  • Co-teaching - 10%
  • Presenting teacher workshops - 10%
  • Presenting at family math workshops - 5%
  • Attending specialist meetings - 5%

Approximate Number of Students Impacted: 14,000

Summary of Program: The purpose of establishing a mathematics specialist cadre in Spotsylvania County Schools is to provide on site professional development for teachers in mathematics content and pedagogy. There is a strong need for this embedded PD due to the amount of mathematics content filtering down to the elementary school. The mathematics specialist primary responsiblity is to work with teachers to implement the best practices for mathematics instruction. They serve as a coach, as a data analyzer, as a workshop presenter, as a co-teacher, and as a viable member of the school leadership team. Our specialists typically service 2 schools but this year, four of them also support 3 schools. Our specialists have all taken the required coursework establish through various grants in the state of Virginia. We have taken part in UVA, VCU, and UMD research on mathematics specialists.
We first implemented this program (with 3 specialists) in school year 2004-05.

Program Impact and Research:

Achievement Data
Over the last five years, individual schools have continually shown improvement in their overall scores on the Virginia Standards of Learning State Assessments (SOL tests) for grades 3-5 and grade 8. Challenges still exist with some student groups and especially with grades 6 and 7. We are continuing to focus on the achievement of our students who receive free and reduced meals and special education students (SWD and ECD).

During the 2008-09 school year, fifteen of the seventeen elementary schools who have Mathematics Specialists met the AMO for mathematics and four out of our seven middle schools made the AMO. We will continue to focus our efforts on these student groups of SWD and ECD.

The UMD and VCU has produced research related to the mathematics specialist program in the state of Virginia over the past 5 years.

Teacher Data
Teachers from the schools served by Mathematics Specialists were surveyed at the end of the second year of implementation using a survey administered by our Program Evaluation department (See link to survey results). The majority of teachers surveyed felt that the Mathematics Specialist program is effective and needed, and that the specialists provided them with professional development and resources that helped them teach mathematics. A deeper analysis of the survey data will be completed in the near future.

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