OrangeMath

CMC-S 2016 Partial Review

Two sessions potentially will affect Newport-Mesa.

First, Desmos’ Classes are actually interactive activity slides. A teacher selects or makes an activity, gives it a class code and students log in during class. Acting like a normal, not heroic, teacher, Michael Fenton of Desmos managed a class of several hundred students conversing and challenging each other in efficiently completing truly engaging multimedia problems like determining the cost of Lego toys by starting with guesses and employing equations to see how close a student can get with iterations and equations.

Yesterday’s Desmos is not today’s. Using exceptional course design principles, the of the Common Core rigor can be met. Rigor means: demonstrating fluency and conceptual understanding in flexibly addressing applications. Desmos’s activities deliver rigor in practice. It may be wise for a small team teachers to pursue this avenue.

Second, the CDE sponsored a Math Readiness Challenge - basically a gift to universities to develop 4th year HS math courses. Lillian Metlitzky of Cal Poly and UC San Bernardino elected to develop an MWRC counterpart to ERWC. Don’t worry about the acronyms. In a nutshell, too many high school graduates have to take remedial math in/before college. The MWRC would allow students who don’t score high enough on the SBAC to skip remediation if they pass a special senior math class.

The class Prof Metlitsky designed is the most playful and rigorous math course you will every see: a collection of math games and puzzles that force students to work together and find the underlying math in different ways. For example, what is greater: cosine pi/5 or 1 - (sin pi/5)^2?  This isn’t a calculator question. It isn’t remediation, but for students who earned Cs and Bs in Math 123. Substantial PD and an appropriate(!) teacher (a math ninja) would be needed for this potentially valuable course.

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Other sessions offered value. Jason Zimba, one of the three writers of the Common Core, demonstrated the teaching of number operations through grade 5 so that Algebra would be supported later. He insists that “Remainder” should not be used in division. Instead: 29=4x7+1, not 29/4=7R1. Also, he believes most math games lack rigor.

Chuck Biehl of Numb3rs fame showed how discrete math (eg Traveling Salesperson problem and Euler Circuits) creates enthusiastic math reasoning. Zimba commented that these activities are merely supplemental. College Readiness is about Algebra.

CMC-S Exhibits Review - Nov 2016

Several observations lightly contradict previous posts. So it goes.

Supplements

Some supplements fill in gaps, others support “compliance” with SBAC. In other words, if you have a great curriculum, that isn’t focused on test prep, then some practice with SBAC provides “claim insurance.”

• Mastery Education semi-adaptively provides SBAC questions to students online three times per week.
  
• Nextgen Math provides a simple system for a teacher to select SBAC questions to show on Whiteboards or assign as online work. The “test effectiveness” of lessons is immediately shown as a result, which is important when unconventional approaches are used to obtain better learning.

Texts

• With each school using different and several decade-old pre-calculus texts, it may be wise to update and standardize. Kendall-Hunt’s Precalculus differentiates itself in two ways. First, it offers optional interactive activities, which makes it flow from our IMP approach more naturally. Admittedly, most pre-calc teachers believe that conventional approaches are more appropriate for a true college prep class, that’s why the activities are optional. Surprisingly, these lessons work very well when a teacher is absent and substitutes cannot teach a standard lesson. Second, Kendall-Hunt can custom print a text for a district’s particular curriculum. National Geographic’s Pre-Calc and new Calculus for AP textbooks have QR codes accessing online help on almost every problem page. This is an obvious, low-cost, tech-embedded solution. Consider a top student on a bus to an athletic event. Using her phone she can complete work.
  
• The Statistics 1AB (M0364/M0365) text is over 10 years old. The new 3rd edition of Statistics and Probability with Applications is a substantial update. It strives harder to separate itself from AP Statistics texts. IMHO it would be appropriate to replace 1st edition texts with the 3rd edition.
• If the one-year HMH 7-11 Go Math pilot gives only average “meh” results, then an alternative pilot could start. With improvements to its middle school texts arriving next Spring, 6-11 or 7-11 Carnegie Learning should be considered. IMP would complement it well. Obviously other systems would work such as CMP, Springboard, UCLA MathLinks and Eureka. Happily, this decision is outside of my pay grade.
• If the online component of a text is inadequate, but the text is acceptable, then ACT’s Open Ed at 2$/student for all subjects, including 300 NGSS simulations, may suffice as an alternative that would suit all teachers.

Quick Background on Textbooks

By far the most influential text of the past two decades is first edition Singapore Primary Math. Singapore Math was derived from German text(s). It’s influence in the USA is found in “Math in Focus” and Eureka Math, among others. 

Pure Common Core Math compliance may not be wise. For example, money math isn’t taught in CCM, but coins are great manipulatives that matter to children. Also, Singapore Math introduces multiplication in 1st grade as repeated addition. Try arguing against that. Lastly, the most debugged curriculum is Japanese Sansu Math. It completely ignores the Common Core, but requires intense teacher involvement.

Software

• If Newport-Mesa was only using UCI IMP and didn’t want a supplemental textbook, then the maturing Learnzillion could complete the curriculum. This isn’t advocating, but the product serves as a base for comparison to conventional curriculum. OpenEd or Gooru are competitors, but would require more effort to make a complete curriculum.
  
• Canfigureit continues its “claim-based” approach to Geometry proofs - a very Common Core approach. It should have easy-to-manage classroom features in early 2017.
• Wootmath for 3-7 is maturing. It’s interactive problems include built-in instruction and many classroom management tools. It is well-worth deeper use.

Quick Background on Software

With its superb adaptive design, ALEKS ranks with ST Math as the finest math software, if used in adaptive or sequential mode. For example, two products used in Newport-Mesa are Sokikom and Frontrow Math. If a teacher wants to assign particular sections for work, Frontrow works well, but if a teacher simply says work your way through it, Sokikom’s higher engagement delivers better learning results. Still, Frontrow may be more suitable for organizational teaching, which is what we do.

This complicates textbook software evaluation. IMHO assignment-based math software doesn’t work as well as “work your way through it” software. Use math software as a “parallel” curriculum, not just as online worksheets with feedback.

Calculators

This may seem to be a dull and old topic, but it is still alive. If all 7th through Math 2 students used a 13$ Casio ES-300 Plus with a natural display and uncommon functions like “Remainder” or “Factors,” students could work in conceptual math more effectively and consistently.

The TI-84 rules the market, but for $100 from Bach (ask for it), the test-compliant HP Prime with a touch screen and classroom wireless for easy transmission of data and student screens (eg basketball shots for student tracing of parabola) offers high value. It’s possible that in the Spring Casio may offer a new, test-compliant model that actually may change what advanced math teachers want to use.

Of course, graphing calculators are obsolete. Online software like Desmos is far superior, but the SAT, ACT, and AP have rules….

NCTM Review - Math Interventions

The extreme remediation needed in math by many continuation and special education students is somewhat off-the-charts. Most support programs focus on two grade levels behind, not eight!  As a result, conventional elementary math programs often have components that are appropriate for high school instruction.

First, a middle school intervention program, also employed by several high schools in LAUSD, is TransMath. After a placement assessment, students take one, two or three years of 120 lessons each to become ready for Integrated Math 1 or Algebra 1. The authors of TransMath determined an “inner core” of the Common Core that requires mastery. Each lesson starts with 15 minutes of direct instruction before activities are attempted individually and within groups. Problems are subtle. For example, “Jose ate 2/5 of a bag of peanuts, then later, 1/3 of the remaining peanuts. What fraction of a bag was left?”

EMPower Plus also serves as a competent worksheet-based intervention product targeted toward older students. The Bridges intervention described below doesn’t fit as a standalone system.

Second, three elementary programs stood out. Each had strengths.

JumpMath is a Canadian program tuned for the US Common Core. It tries to allow growth in small steps so not to tax the working memory of children.

Sansu Math is a Japanese elementary program, newly translated and imported by the people who brought the Singapore Math to the US. Sansu, refined by lesson study over several decades and emphasizes Teaching through Problem Solving, expects that teachers will continuously employ lesson study while teaching. In short, Sansu is a superb refined curriculum that requires dedicated teachers or possibly math specialists.

Bridges in Mathematics combined with Bridges Intervention was initiated two decades ago with NSF money. It embeds RTI as a routine activity. EdReports states that it exceptionally well aligned with the Common Core and balances conceptual and fluency coherently. During California’s CST years, it made no impact. If any district starts fresh, this would likely be a top choice.

Third, the curriculum making the most headway is EngageNY and Eureka. It’s free and exceedingly tightly coordinated with the Common Core. What the three competitors listed above claim is that ONLY Common Core grade level standards are allowed in EngageNY.

Only including grade level standards seems smart, but evolved programs also include topics that support the learning progression. To put it differently, if one believes that the Common Core is the greatest and most coherent elementary system from the start and that no revision is necessary, then EngageNY makes sense. However, the inclusion of a few other areas to supplement instruction; such as symmetry introduced a year earlier than in the Common Core, may be wise within a curriculum.

Women Overtake Men in Math

Sometimes changes are in your face, yet are hard to see. At NCTM 2016 in San Francisco, several new advanced math products were introduced. The majority of them were by women.

Expii, predominantly designed by mathematical scientists from Carnegie Mellon, have Dr. Michelle Reicher Newstadt as a key designer and programmer.

Expii offers the most dynamic online math support system. CK-12, OpenEd, Gooru, and Learnzillion are either alternatives or complements. The need for textbooks is in steep decline. Expii is one reason why: coherent, concise, updated, and free. Elegant.

CueThink’s innovative approach for students to identify consciously their approach to solving problems, using Polya’s structure, adds coherence to the mischief of thought.

Ms. Sheela Sethuraman designed and launched the company. It takes fearlessness to launch a new product defining a new math software segment. Some ELA software, like ThinkCERCA, also offers structural support.

While several companies, such as Desmos, are struggling to lock down their online or smartphone calculator, Ms. Mallory Dyer simply did it. Her small company GraphLock blocks surfing on smartphones, while only allowing the use of a graphing calculator app on big tests like the SAT, ACT, AP, and IB (if the College Board and IB approve).

Texas Instruments has protected this market with its expensive TI-84 and nSpire. As has Casio with its easier-to-use PRIZM. These products should be apps. Ms. Dyer is driving a big change affecting millions.

Ms. Lee Kyu Ha, CEO of WeDu Communications, a South Korean company, introduced a thoughtful, correlated series of comic-book math texts. Her no-nonsense demeanor belies her ability and talent to reach more students. 

iMathgination, founded by Dr Yana Mohanty, delivers Geometiles, a sophisticated manipulative that covers grades 3-12, providing not only conventional planar and solid shapes, but also tools to show scaling, etc.. 

Director of Special Projects, American Institute of Mathematics, Dr. Brianna Donaldson, performed outreach for Math Teachers’ Circles. She plays a mean game of four-dimensional SET. If only for a few moments, I held my own! No brag, just fact. It’s hard for old men to keep up.

While not youngsters, these women aren’t old. They aren’t up and coming either. They’re here and in all areas of math education. There are many others; including Neeru Khosla, founder of CK-12, Samantha Booth founder of Harvard’s MQI, Jo Anna Bailey owner of Mathodes, Carolyn Carhart-Quezada, VP at Cignition, and Natasha Desai, CanFigureIt. No pigeonholes.

EdSurge - Riverside - Jan 2016

Delivering a structure or reference backbone to the UC Irvine Math Project is difficult. Textbook programs like Springboard may provide the best support, but online sources like Gooru or LearnZillion may serve as an interactive alternative for parents and students at a much lower cost. In this field, exhibiting at EdSurge was OpenEd:

1. Assessments licensed by Pearson, Houghton Mifflin, Iowa …
2. Content is curated, not crowd-sourced
3. Freemium model (more assessments = $2,400/school)

A school district would select a small number of online references and quizzes for each unit, teachers could add to the selection, and students or parents would use search to find supplemental resources or alternative lessons. OpenEd covers almost all school courses.

Uniting Common Core goals and traditional rigor, Canfigureit is an exceptional geometry-proof only program. All teachers teaching Geometry with proofs should employ this free software immediately. The teacher interface and reporting are still new, but the student software side is well-tuned.

While somewhat ugly, Tilton’s Algebra (a very, very small company) is delivering Math 8/HS Math 1/Algebra for teaching procedural math in a Common Core-style with social interaction. It’s currently free and of value to explore, if only to see what could work or what is doomed in delivering the least exciting aspect of math. Showing how a problem is directly solved isn’t the point, but getting students to see how to correct themselves is. Please contact me for login and free license.

Preptoon is delightfully focused for elementary and early middle school problem-solving math. It’s authors combined an animation tool with a Zaption-like tool to create story problems. Starting at the 40-second mark on the home page video, the simple design of the program can be seen. Its price is very low.

For extended, district-sponsored home schooling, an Android tablet K5 math curriculum from Japan, RISU, at $300/student/year, may be wise to have available. 

Technology allows advancement in school instructional design.

Kiddom revisits the expensive Clever solution to data integration and, luckily, it integrates with Haiku. Kiddom allows assignments and assessments made in Khan, iXL, … and others to be collated in it and then exported to an LMS like Haiku or SIS. It is still in its early stages. The market leader, Clever has a high per-integration price. For example, if I understand correctly: Khan to Illuminate, Illuminate to Aeries would be separate charges and charged to every district under Clever, but not Kiddom.

Eduspire offers “FlexTime Manager” and “e-Hallpass.” Some schools in the US offer a period each day or week for both student-chosen work and remediation. Teachers offer topics and students schedule themselves. If a teacher wants a student for remediation, this choice is immediately locked and overrides a student’s choice. Reviewing the software suggests an approach to teaching similar to the 20% time some teachers or companies like Google employ.

A teacher-sponsored Digital Media Club for digital storytelling starting with free resources from CreatorUp would be an example of a flextime activity.

An elementary “creativity” LMS Drawp allows safe, easy collaboration on student work especially in science with writing. It would leverage NGSS elementary efforts. The bilingual Elesapiens, from Spain, is somewhat similar in engagement.

For elementary schools, Classroom Composer addresses the ugly problem of selecting what teacher gets what student for the start of the next school year. Instead of the common approach of using cards and laying them on a floor, it works online. This tool may only be used once per year, but a school would probably adore it.

Under NGSS Chemistry, instructional time is reduced. The game Collisions would support students needing or wanting more information.

The Taiwanese company Bonio sells PaGamO, a gaming LMS, similar to the game of Risk. Assuming an instructor writes a good course, students conquer land by getting questions right. Currently, a dental school and a Calculus gaming site use the software.

With most students having Internet access, making sure all do may be fiscally responsible. T-Mobile discussed it’s home hotspot plan with Riverside USD for both home and bus Wi-Fi starting at $13/month per student.

Kyte Learning provides online professional development on how to use common online educational software, such as Padlet or Desmos or Google Apps. During the few days of district PD each year, the advantages of using a particular tool could be shown, but the more mundane “how-to-use” could be delivered when convenient for the teacher, not during the district PD time.

eSS - Costa Mesa - Dec 2015

The annual eLearning Strategies Symposium is organized by Brian Bridges of Stanislaus CDE and formerly the director of California’s, sadly discontinued, CLRN. His rolodex is deep. This small conference of 280 people (designed for 400) offered exceptional breadth and depth. The following speakers offered the most information. They all approach the great tech challenge - increasing both feedback and institutional efficiency simultaneously - differently. Please see the conclusion.

Dr. Chris Haskell of Boise State University described the Game Labs LMS. His team has developed entire worlds for instruction (Having NPCs, Non-Participating Characters, and an interesting world, such as a spaceship the size of Manhattan helps!). His research suggests that twice as much content, simultaneously combined with interactive group work, is readily imbibed by students who learn while gaming. Absolutely astonishing work. For example, students can take screenshots as they travel, and create “comic books” of their learning for their portfolio.

Catlin Tucker, during her closing address, suggested that the elementary station rotation model works well in her block-scheduled high school class. Small groups talk and present in her one computer room. Ms Tucker may be the most astonishing teacher using tech. I’ve listened to her three times. She has organized TED EdCamps and her graduates have presented at the TED national conference. She has incorporated Jimmy Fallon’s WordSneaks into her classes and her students are lobbying to get her on his show. Excitement and rigor reign. The secret key to her success is INTENTIONALLY NOT TO USE 1:1 instruction. Her students share their Smartphones and research in teams of two and three. Students don’t chatter with they hover over a little screen together.

Will Kimbley of TICAL and Teach Interactive focused on using Google Forms and its add-ons for efficient instruction and assessment. For example, he uses flubaroo to issue grades to students (Alice Keeler would disagree - just use your regular gradebook). In the transition to the new Google Forms, make sure to use the “running person” and temporarily return to the old version to add the following add-ons: choice eliminator, formlimiter and g(Math). In short, Forms allows an adaptive assessment system with great power.

Alice Keeler went deep on using Google Apps and Google Classroom. She ranks as one of the best in increasing both feedback and efficiency in using online tools:

Google Apps

• Use 8.5 x 11 inch sheets cut in quarters for classwork. Students can photograph them and post in Google Slides. Great for Homework. 
  
• Use shortened link for outside or shared work (Google Slides).
  
• Install all google apps on phones. People can work anywhere.   
  
• Expect chaos in sharing and commenting at first.
  
• Peer edit by sharing folders in Google Drive.
  
• Use Google Search smartly in Google Drive.
• Drive search example: owner:me after:2015-09-15 is:starred
• Use the Snagit extension in Chrome. Grab 20 second videos and save as *.gifs. These embed in Google Docs cleanly - like images.
  
• Late or Redo: Leave a comment.  Add email address in Comment for students to reply quickly on why they are struggling. This may help in dealing with NMUSD’s decision not to use Google email.
  

Google Classroom

• All docs are shared. Place comments in them.
• Don’t turn off Classroom Comments. Students learn, but delete!
  
• Don’t answer questions quickly. Let students help each other or search.
  
• Number Google Classroom assignments for easy reference.
  
• Do not Grade in Google Classroom (double entry)
  
• Don’t do announcements, make everything an assignment.
  
• Put detailed Directions in the first link of an assignment.
• In the assignment description, place quick directions, like “Get paper.”
• Make one main classroom and sub-classes for groups. 
  
• Don’t be roster-based. Integration isn’t critical.
• Let students enter class codes to join a class.
  
• Try not to use Due Dates. They add stress, and aren’t great for Mastery Learning.  Only the End of Semester matters.
  
• Have IT “whitelist” outside domains for added members to Classrooms.
  
• Reusing a Post can cause issues. Don’t add NEW COPIES.
• No parent login in Google Classroom. They must work with children.

In conclusion, Ms Tucker and others have found that students sharing one Google Slides document create exceptional group work while allowing teachers high efficiency in commenting/grading on one document. Compare this with Haiku’s beta of its competitor to Canvas’s Speedgrader. This is a highly efficient way to grade individual papers. Teachers love it. On the other hand, it works after students complete their work. This reduces the number one advantage of modern classroom teachers - interacting and giving feedback! Google Drive inherently allows frequent feedback for mastery learning, but it generally takes more time by the teacher who frequently comments. This is hard, but it is worth noting that better teachers employ Google Apps more and strive to improve their skills.

CA STEM - Anaheim - Oct 2015

Danielle Lopez and Summer Keller presented Popular Arts in the STEM Classroom to an SRO crowd extending into the hallways. Dennis Ashendorf delivered STEM in a Continuation Math Classroom to approximately 80 educators. Nancy Christensen, Peter Selby, Patrick de Vusser and several other teachers also attended. 3,000 attendees had their choice of 35 simultaneous sessions every hour and a half.

Peter was searching for a year long engineering program that would be appropriate for non-PLTW high schools with a-g approval. He listened to Cheryl Farmer, Program Director of the five-year-old Engineer Your World developed by the University of Texas, detail a program that may meet the needs of CdM’s and Harbor’s students at a cost of $3,000 per year per school; excluding $15 per student in locally-procured supplies. The $8,500 per school start up costs that also cover two weeks of PD in Austin, including travel, will be covered by the NSF for up to 100 additional schools. Furthermore, 3 UT credits can be awarded for a fee. Effectively, this is an AP class meeting UC “g” requirements. A second year course option is available, but not required. It is data focused.

Keynote speakers are easy to ignore, but Dr Stuart Sumida of CSU San Bernardino stunned everyone with the role of paleontology in both video games and animated/digital movies. Lucasfilm and other companies require that developers attend his flight school. His efforts in bringing the shape and movement realities of herbivores and omnivores to film combined with his role in fighting female body stereotypes astounded everyone. For example, the physical depiction of the hero in Horizon Zero Dawn (go to the 2:50 mark) may rank as the most realistic female hero in video games. If you ever want a speaker to amaze an education crowd, be happy to pay for Dr. Sumida. As he says: “There’s always a horse.”

Eric Carbonnier of HMC Architects, responsible for the Mesa Enclave design, and representatives of Perris Elementary District described the new STEM Clearwater school and its focus on water. Apparently, this will be an exceptional STEM with outdoor access elementary school. HMC coordinated two other talks. STEM is affecting classroom design.

Several NGSS-compatible science/STEM programs for elementary school, including STEMscopes from Rice University/Accelerate Learning and IQWST from Activate Learning, were displayed. An unusual building block system from Solana Beach Rokenbok allegedly works for K-8.

For strong Physics or Astronomy classes, Ardusat has launched a satellite-powered web platform that enables K-12 students to remotely control and run experiments–in space. It’s About Time offers a year-long curriculum for a high school Astronomy class.

The Silicon Valley Education Foundation is looking to extend its 19-day summer math intervention program for rising 7th-10th grade students in Orange County.

Resellers of VEX RDS and VEX iQ robotic components, such as iDesign, offer pricing equivalent to VEX Direct without shipping charges. 

Before entering the “Maker World” of Arduino, a simple introduction to electronics is needed. Kithub, CircuitScribe, littleBits (and Cubit) fill this void to some extent.

Hulaloop, a talented three person company, displayed Pythonroom, a competitor to Codecademy with a light LMS. Easy and free to implement; however, it doesn’t appear to have useful feedback for errors. Students can move on with low quality work.

On Pensions - Newport-Mesa Board Meeting - 11 June 2015

What a great day. Seeing wonderful people like Celia “KeeHeeVix,” love that name, rewarded is a blessing.

Yes, teachers are working harder, and hopefully, have earned an appropriate raise, but just as importantly, the district must maintain resources and flexibility for the future.

While it’s best for our administrators and me to maximize our salaries over benefits because it maximizes our pensions, that’s the opposite situation for you as elected officials. The long term effects of mandatory, state pension payments constrain future student services and will reduce compensation for new employees.

As a traditional government employee, I look for job security and benefits, not the highest salary possible. Yes, I want as much compensation as I can wrangle, but you can counter with packages that give you financial flexibility. Benefits can be reduced during difficult times, but pension payments cannot.

For over two decades, I’ve focused on the crushing effects of pension structures. My son Jacob, a CdM graduate, even works for Senator Moorlach. Pensions handcuff you and frequently distort work. Morale will suffer, if our current negotiations are seen not just as rewarding our 1% at the expense of the 99%, but also as directly hurting our weaker 50%.

Please redirect your negotiators to consider your need for long-term financial flexibility in overall compensation more strongly. Maximizing salaries hurts education.

On Marketing - Newport-Mesa Board Meeting - 26 May 2015

Good evening, President Fluor, distinguished trustees and Dr. Navarro. My name is Arthur Ashendorf and I live in Costa Mesa.

Your efforts in developing academies within our zones deserve great praise. The academies don’t just provide a deep focus over time for disciplined learning, but address the desires of parents which protect our district from interlopers.

You’ve taken advantage of the lull in test-driven school rankings to develop independent, multiple measures. Newport-Mesa cannot win a test numbers game. Along with our academies, we need to publicize your multiple measures by emphasizing the Four As of Student Success as stated by your principals Dr Gogel and Ms Scott:

1. Arts
   
2. Athletics
   
3. Activities
4. Academics

Let’s consider how the Four As excite parents in just one example:

Our prowess in athletics is under appreciated. It shows in small sports. CdM produces more Ivy League heptathletes than any other school in the country. With athletic background accounting for 25% of Ivy League admits, this resonates.

Helping parents see how their children fit and progress within the four As, starting in elementary school, would create the Newport-Plan, similar to the Kalamazoo College’s K-Plan. This would be worthy to emphasize.

Second, students sense differently. Their awareness of good schools hovers around the research-based Big Six:

1. At least one teacher made me excited about learning.
   
2. My teachers cared about me as a person.
   
3. I had a mentor who encouraged me to pursue my goals and dreams.
   
4. I worked on a project that took a semester or more to complete.
   
5. I had an internship or job that allowed me to apply what I was learning in the classroom.
   
6. I was extremely active in extracurricular activities and organizations while I attended school.

Within the Big Six you can see senior projects and community service, but engagement matters. My son still recalls Eastbluff’s inquiries. Students recall value and achievement.

Lastly, don’t be afraid of making missteps. For example, if one of the academies doesn’t flourish, replace it with a science Core Knowledge/Great Books or Cambridge focus. With communication, voters appreciate organizations that can adjust. With these efforts, we will raise the value of our cities and frustrate our opponents and competitors. Test results won’t do that for us.

In short, press forward with publicizing progress on the Four As and the Big Six. Our families will love you for your work.

Interview with Trevor Packer

Trevor Packer, Senior Vice President, Advanced Placement and College Readiness at The College Board, spoke at OCDE’s Equipping an Emerging Generation on May 19, 2015. He politely and energetically responded to the following questions (answers are from my notes - not recorded):

Q. Our students often take AP Calculus AB as juniors and AP Calculus BC as seniors. We crunch Math 7 & 8 so that students can take HS Math 1/Algebra 1 in eighth grade. Is this a smart sequence?

A. We deplore the rush into AP Calculus: the AP test with the greatest number of 1s is Calculus. As a rule, it’s best to take all Common Core math courses before taking Calculus as a senior. Also, Calculus AB and AP Statistics provides a far stronger combination than taking AB and BC.

Q. Because of the pressure to take AP, could the prerequisite for AP Statistics, (a document that needs upgrading for Common Core), HS Math 3/Algebra 2, be acceptably modified to “HS Math 3/Algebra 2 serves as a prerequisite that can also be taken concurrently?” This would allow the Common Core sequence to be followed and two AP math courses taken.

A. Definitely worth examining. I’ll contact the AP Statistics group.

Q. The University of California doesn’t give a GPA boost for AP courses taken in ninth grade. As a result, high schools discourage ninth graders from taking AP classes. Is this reasonable?

A. I was unaware of this State of California position. Most states do not have this rule. Our most popular ninth grade course is AP Human Geography. For students, spacing courses over four years is better than compressing them into three. California high schools can encourage ninth graders into taking an AP class.

Q. The new AP assessments incorporate both content and skills in questions, not just content. This can be seen as Common Core 1.5. Do you intend on adjusting your pre-AP curriculum Springboard to support your new AP courses?

A. We've rewritten Springboard specifically for California and its SBAC approach. It’s undergoing the approval process now and should be available next year. We intend on releasing it for the entire country after California approves it.

Q. Does NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) flow into AP well?

A. We’re working on extending our Springboard pre-AP curriculum to include Science and History, not just Math and ELA. It’s still too early see how tightly NGSS and AP work together, but obviously Springboard must support NGSS.

EdSurge LA - 25 April 2015

• Mr Elmer
  While the company name is silly, its main product “Hall Monitor” tantalizes: virtual hall passes. If a student wants to go to the rest room, counselor or office, the teacher presses the student’s name in the app and his destination. His name then moves into an “Active Students” box with elapsed time, that all staff sees, such as a security officer. Staff can see where every student is at all times. Reports on total time a student is out of the classroom are generated easily. An improvement in the app, would be adding the logic of “selected students cannot be in the hallways simultaneously,” which may hinder illegal student business; in particular drug sales.
• Solvy
  Intelligently designed online homework math program. Not for flipped classes, but for those desiring students to work with standard math problems. There is no need to cover homework in class. Better than others in the space. Parents would appreciate it.
• Autodesk 123D Circuits
  Teaching electronics “good enough” for the maker world is greatly enhanced by using this Autodesk product with hands-on “electronic inks,” graphical schematics and TinkerCAD integration through Project Ignite.
• Autodesk TinkerCAD
  TinkerCAD is an easier-to-use 3D program than Autodesk Inventor that runs fully online. As a result, it is slow on many computers, but
• Nepris
  Moderated interviews with professionals, which allows bringing guest speakers into classrooms at lower cost and more frequently. Great for CTE programs.
• Cashtivity
  A student organizational tool for planning and entrepreneurial projects: tools for a modern Junior Achievement. Also useful as a followup for classes that used stock market games. An Econ or Business teacher should explore this.
• GlassLabs
  Games, Learning & Assessment - GlassLabs is an aggregator of games adapted to classroom use such as SimCityEDU. This allows districts a one-stop for payments and classroom management. MinecraftEDU isn’t currently in the stable.
• Choosito
  Choosito! serves as a curated search engine combined with reading difficulty sorting for schools. Its results were more than adequate for K8 and higher and it was easy to use. Also, teachers can create a selected list of sites for student searches, if further limiting is desired. Google search may be inappropriate.
• ThemeSpark
  Many lesson planning tools are available. This program uses intelligently designed flows with differentiation builtin.
• Scrible
  Easy-to-use student research webtool. Many programs are in this space, but this is the friendliest. Google Drive/Research is the elephant in the room. Scrible is worth examining. May allow more students to write with evidence.
• Curriculet vs Actively Learn
  Both programs use current articles in online newspapers for students to read and comment upon inline. Curriculet blocks student-to-student comment and review, while Actively Learn, like StudySync, encourages it. Learning is better with viewable student comments, but moderation (eg time) is also then necessary.
• ToDo Math
  The K2 space is problematic in online use. ST Math, Symphony Math are other programs in this area. iPad app with online access.
• GradeSLAM
  GradeSlam distinguishes itself from other online tutoring providers by background checking its tutors. The site worked well, has capable management and prices were $25-$50 per hour or less, billed per minute. Coding is flexible for advanced uses.
  
• Otus
  Otus competes with the two major newer LMSs, Canvas and Schoollogy, and the older PowerSchool LMS primarily. Like Schoollogy, it’s free, but a district analytics platform has a price. Superb interface and excellent in mobile.
  

Near Real-Time Math Tests

During finals, teachers need to grade quickly. In the days of multiple-choice answers, this was easy. Today the stress for compatibility with SBAC-style questions and the need to assess higher order depth of knowledge; while coping daily with interactive teaching, renders authentic assessment problematic. Time is squeezed for writing a set of fair, thoughtful questions. Assessment comprises a weak link in implementing Common Core Math.

Remember, SBAC results aren’t immediate and CAHSEE scores (multiple-choice!) take four months; expecting teachers to grade involved questions correctly while rushing to report grades borders on wishful thinking, but getting to near real-time is possible.

Initial Solution

1. Continue offering a district multiple choice test, 20-50 questions, on the designated class exam day. Most of the questions would be procedural and online or scannable for Illuminate integration. This exam need not be long. It helps maintain student involvement from SBAC to the end of the school year.
2. In the calendar window, between the conclusion of SBAC and finals, classes receive 1-4 constructed response questions, graded with rubrics, randomly selected from any unit of the course. One question for 20 minutes during class time, once per week, may suffice for teachers and students; as they become acclimated.
3. A small team from the Math Committee combined with compensated, volunteer teachers is needed to write questions and rubrics during the next two months. It would be advisable for 20 extended questions to be generated to minimize cheating or limit the effectiveness of student conversation.

Initial Implementation

1. Write questions with attention to the California-only standards that SBAC doesn’t cover. This is especially critical for the Enhanced courses.
   
2. For initial consistency, one teacher may accept grading one question across class sections. With repetition, teachers can calibrate themselves by grading the same question and seeing if their scores under rubrics agree.
3. Students that miss an “exam window,” should have time to complete one extended question on the day of the final. Few students will want to miss a day, if they have to make it up after a final.
   

Comments

1. Higher order questions need not be overly involved. For example, instead of asking “Factor x^2 + 11x + 24,” asking “Find all of the possible, integer coefficients of x^2 + ___ x +24” forces a slightly more cogent response.
2. If computerized testing is used, a lockdown browser is mandatory and no phones should be allowed during any testing.
3. The constructed response approach can be considered similar to the Praxis Math Teacher Qualification Exam where four problems were given per hour. Since adaptive testing isn’t really feasible, an approach of 4-5 problems from ANY area covered in the course, randomly chosen will deliver a reasonably valid summative exam. It forces content mastery.

Experiments

1. Add a team-question to the extended response questions. Communicating is a math practice.
2. Check if the 50-question Edgenuity online final correlates with the district exam in student results order. Yes, students may be unfamiliar with the style of question and interface, but that’s not necessarily a hindrance under the Common Core. Also, Edgenuity may serve as an alternative assessment if students miss scheduled finals. It’s effectively free.
3. Explore the value, if any, in using web tools, designed for the Common Core, such as Edulastic, or general tools like Google Forms with gMath and Autocrat for adaptive testing including Elementary.
4. Determine what data the SIS needs for student records, and what tests need to provide.