On this year's EQAO test results, leaps were made at schools in the new numeracy program Tips, Technology, Tutors (T3), which targets applied math instruction with supports like professional learning, interactive technology, math coaches online tutoring.By ROB FAULKNER, HWDSB Staff
The recent release of test results by the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office delivered great news on a math program unique to Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board high schools.
The results were for Grade 3 and 6 reading, writing and math tests taken in 2008-09, as well as that year’s Grade 9 academic and applied math tests. Look closely, and it’s the latter results that stand out.
Traditionally, results on the Grade 9 applied math test have trailed Grade 9 academic math results as you compare the percentage students at or above the EQAO provincial standard (Level 3; a B equivalent). But new, collaborative methods are closing that gap.
Leaps were made at schools in the new numeracy program Tips, Technology, Tutors (T3). It brings a unique package of Board resources to applied math instruction, with supports that include professional learning, use of interactive technology, math coaches to help classroom teachers and online help through the onMATH program.
“You should have seen the teachers when the preliminary results came out in August. They were doing their happy dance,” Donna Hale, secondary program consultant, said of staff in the first year of T3, in 2008-09.
On the newly-released 2008-09 results for applied math, Board students made a 10 per cent leap compared to a year prior. It saw 37 per cent of the 1,365 applied-level math students who wrote the test at Level 3 or above. Ontario saw a gain of 4 per cent.
At T3 schools, applied math results were:
*Up 27 per cent at Ancaster High
*Up 24 per cent at Delta
*Up 18 per cent at Sir Allan MacNab
*Up 2 per cent at Barton
*Up 1 per cent at Westdale
It all began with a teacher’s request that her students get in-class instruction or daytime onMATH tutoring, depending on their need. Board staff agreed, adding to this the sharing of best practices and supportive technology like SMART Boards, laptops and remote keypads, which can overcome a student’s reluctance to ask questions.
Teachers also received ample training.
“We know that getting everybody into a room, filling their heads with great ideas, and then sending them back to their classroom doesn’t work. They will be inspired but, if they are unsure, they will revert back to the old ways of doing things,” Hale said of T3’s emphasis on follow up.
So, teachers met to share ideas. Later, T3 saw math facilitators freed from their classrooms and trained by provincial experts. They toured teachers through T3 classrooms to observe. The first schools in T3 – which began in fall 2008 – were Ancaster, Barton, Delta, and MacNab. Westdale joined later in 2008-09.
Largely working outside of the classroom, math facilitators Melinda Lula and Christine Chan assisted T3 teachers as required, helping with ideas and the use of technology. Last year, HWDSB added more math facilitators in its elementary and in secondary schools.
“With the document camera, I am able to borrow a sheet of paper a student is working on, take a picture of it, and display it on the whiteboard,” Chan said of one idea. It’s also handy if a teacher working on a laptop wants to share online resources they have found, snap a picture of them, and project them for the class to see and use, Lula adds.
Having web resources at their fingertips can open up new ways for teachers to explain their lessons; using online tutors, for example, may let a student hear a concept explained in a new way, Hale notes. Students are also engaged by the arrival of new technology.
“We know that technology is not the be-all and end-all in this, it’s about instruction,” said Hale, noting that an effective, T3 class might be one that sees a lot of small-group work, with students at several learning stations, using different approaches and tools.
And T3 is certainly catching on. For the 2009-10 school year, HWDSB will add another math facilitator, as well as six more schools to the T3 roster. Last year’s math teachers – who were pioneers when T3 was first rolled out – will this year become mentors to the new arrivals.
Read more on this year’s EQAO results here.
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