Math 3 Honors Cohort Case Study 2017-2018 Cara Joyce Master Teaching Fellow

The Dilemma: Motivating Factors

1.  Lack of representation by students of color in Honors/AP classes

Last year my AP students and I completed a statistical analysis of students at MHS and found that there is strong evidence that there IS a difference between the population racial distribution at MHS and the racial distribution of students who take less than 3 honors/AP classes. This is evidence to suggest that the racial breakdown of the sub group of students that take less than 3 honors/AP classes DOES NOT represent the the overall racial breakdowns of the school.

The Dilemma: Motivating Factors

1.  Lack of representation by students of color in Honors/AP classes

The Dilemma: Motivating Factors

2.  Students moving out of Honors into CP math classes or not finding success in Honors math classes ○  This year I was contacted by administrators and guidance counselors with concerns

about the number of kids who were not finding success in their Honors math class and want to move to CP.

○  I began the year with 2 students who were in Honors classes last year and either failed or were recommended for CP for this year. I also had 2 students who were recommended to take Honors this year but were too scared to do it. Three of these students were students of color.

○  Throughout the 2017-18 school year, 4 students have moved to my CP class because they were not successful in honors. One of these students was a student of color.

The Dilemma: Motivating Factors

3.  Improving successfulness for students who move from CP to Honors math classes ○  Because of the lack of success by students in Honors classes, 35% of my Math 2

CP class is composed of students that based on my experience, would be a better fit in an Honors class.

○  It is easy to recommend these students to take Math 3 Honors next year but it is not as easy to ensure their success.

○  Helping students of color find success in their earlier years in their Honors classes might increase the representation of students of color in Honors and AP math classes in their later years.

My Goal

I want to create a comprehensive plan for the 2018-2019 school year that could be implemented as a pilot program

that might help students in my CP Math 2 class find success as they take Math 3 Honors.

Observations, Interviews & Analysis of Student Work

To help me build a plan that would maximize student success I collected information about the students I had identified as possible participants in my pilot program.

This information included:

1.  Classroom videos of students collaborating on high level tasks. 2.  Interviews with Honors teachers at MHS about indicators of success. 3.  Examination of student work on “Spicy” tasks.

1. Classroom Videos: Fall 2017 Observations: Early in the year I noticed that the focus students...

●  tended to work autonomously and did not collaborate as much as other students in my class.

●  were more compliant than they were active participators in the group.

●  wrote in volume more often than they did in depth.

●  had the “right answers” to questions but did not always articulate thoroughly their process or justification of strategy.

1. Classroom Videos: Spring 2018 Observations: Later in the year I noticed that the focus students...

●  worked more collaboratively than in earlier videos.

●  utilized the thoughts and opinions of their peers more.

●  wrote more succinctly but with more relevant explanation.

●  were able to articulate their process with more detail but did not show much improvement in the justification of their strategy.

●  showed more command over mathematical vocabulary.

2. Interviews

●  I interviewed 3 honors/AP teachers (Math 2, Math 3, AB Calculus) on video and two additional teachers in writing (Math 2, BC Calculus).

●  These interviews encompass most of our honors/AP classes with the exception of PreCalculus and AP Statistics.

2. Interviews There are various reasons for each of the questions asked. ●  One motivating factor for the questions is my administrative team. They have

reached out to me as the Math Teacher Leader because they feel more kids this year are asking to move out of honors during the school year (questions 1, 3 and 4).

●  Also, my principal wants more information from each department around prerequisites (question 5).

●  I personally teach Math 2 CP and have several students that were moved down from honors last year to this year, or were moved down during this school year ( all questions).

●  Also, I have students that I think should take a chance and move to honors but are too scared to do it (question 4).

2. Interviews 1.  Level changes during the school year -

a.  What criteria do you use if you make a recommendation to move a student from honors to CP during the school year?

b.  Who do you include in the decision making? 2.  Level changes between years -

a.  What criteria do you use if you make a recommendation to move a student from honors to CP during the recommendation process between years?

b.  Who do you include in the decision making? 3.  Patterns-

a.  Do you see any common/semi-common characteristics/traits/behaviors among students that are moved out of honors?

4.  “Good’ honors students - a.  What characteristics/traits/behaviors indicate success in honors? b.  If a student were going to move from CP to honors, what would they need to do/be like?

5.  Prerequisites - a.  Do you believe in these? Should they exist for your course? b.  What would you use as prerequisites (exit exam, test grades, overall grade, work ethic, participation etc)?

2. Interviews

Answers

1.  Level Changes during the school year:

Some teachers stated that they don’t often do this and others said they will make this recommendation if students are scoring low on tests and quizzes, fail to complete assignments and do not come after school for extra help. Issues with attendance also factor into teachers making this change. Most teachers agree that they include the student, school administration/counselors and parents in this decision.

2. Interviews

Answers

2.  Level Changes between years:

Most of the reasons for answering question 1 were cited here again as reasons for making the change between years. Some teachers subscribe to a strict cutoff for their yearly average and others base it on test averages. Most teachers only confer with students when making this change.

2. Interviews

Answers

3.  Patterns:

Many teachers cited attendance issues as a pattern that would predict movement out of honors. Overwhelmingly teachers citing lack of producing work (classwork and/or homework) and low test scores as predictors of movement out of honors. Additionally, unwillingness to stay after school for extra help was also a common pattern among these students.

2. Interviews

Answers

4.  Honors teachers describe “Good” Honors students as students that: ●  display good work ethic ●  work independently ●  have strong basic math skills. ●  score high on tests/quizzes and other assessments ●  subscribe to compliance behaviors (ie complete work, ask questions, do test

corrections) ●  have good attendance

2. Interviews

Answers

5.  Prerequisites:

Teachers differed on their opinions around prerequisites mostly because of the fact that they teach different Honors courses and felt that it depends a lot on what course it is. Many expressed interest in a numerical prerequisite from the course before in the form of an overall grade requirement or a final exam requirement. Some expressed interest in an attendance percentage requirement and again many felt that work ethic should be considered in some way.

3. Analysis of Student Work

Background:

Modeling Tasks/WwC - The math department at MHS has a department goal around modeling tasks and Writing with Colors. Modeling Tasks ask students a question but do not tell them how to model their reasoning. Students get to decide how to tackle the problem and then articulate and apply their strategy. Some students answered the problem graphically, others algebraically etc. Writing with Colors is a revision strategy that our students use to improve their response. For more information about it (if interested) see this Directions page. We use the following Rubric for scoring these responses.

3. Analysis of Student Work

Background:

Mild/Medium/Spicy - we use a structure of scaffolding called Mild, Medium and Spicy (K.Scheitlin created). It stems from the notion that on different days you may “feel” like you want different levels of spice. When we create tasks we start usually with the Spicy task which is usually a high level task with a good amount of cognitive complexity. Then we consider the task and add some supports to it to make the Medium and then more supports for the Mild. This way the task retains its authenticity but we manage the entry to the task for different students. The group of focus students I have identified for this case study always work on the Spicy version of the task. The Spicy version is the version that the Honors classes completed as well. Here is a link to all versions of the task.

3. Analysis of Student Work QuadraticFunctionsModelingTask:

Spicy:Anewclothingcompanywantstosellmoreoftheirleastpopularitem,shirts.They8iguredoutthattheymustpricetheirshirtsbetween$0and$30,orelsetheywillnotsellanyshirts.Thecompanysoldtheshirtsat$10eachforoneweek,andsold200shirtsaday.Theynextweek,theysoldtheshirtsat$22each,andsold176shirtsaday.Thethirdweek,theysoldtheshirtsat$7each,andsold161shirts.Theyrealizedthemoreexpensiveeachshirtis,thelesstheywillsell.But,ifeachshirtistoocheap,theyalsowillnotsellmanyshirts.Whatshouldthecompanypricetheshirtsatsothattheysellthemostshirtsperday?

3. Analysis of Student Work Rough Draft:

3. Analysis of Student Work Final Draft:

3. Analysis of Student Work

Conclusions:

●  In examining the student work you can see that the focus students utilized the Writing with Colors strategy to improve their writing. They included more depth and detail as well as more unit specific vocabulary. There was a mistake in the use of the word “line” but two members of this group are ESL 2 students so it is possible it is just a misuse not a misunderstanding.

●  The process the focus students utilized was presented and described and resulted in the correct answer.

●  They related the graph and equation to their solution but did not necessarily justify their strategy.

Pilot Plan

Part 1: Quarter 4 of the 2017-18 school year:

1.  Continue to require that the focus students complete Spicy tasks. 2.  Continue to examine these tasks and record observations and draw

conclusions. 3.  Reach out to all caregivers of the focus students to include them in the plan. 4.  Share the information I have obtained from interviewing Honors teachers with

the focus students. 5.  Track the data that Honors teachers have deemed important (attendance,

work completion, assessment scores, coming for extra help). Their teacher the next year may want this evidence.

Pilot Plan

Part 2: Summer of 2018:

1.  Recruit the focus students to join our Math Summer Enrichment program. Scholarship any students that can’t afford the program. Students will get to preview Math 3 Honors (material, assessments, independent learning opportunities etc).

2.  Monitor the progress of the focus students and plan interventions accordingly as needed.

Pilot Plan

Part 3: School year 2018-19

1.  Cohort the focus students so that they all take Math 3 Honors together or so that they can at least take it with 1-2 of the other focus students.

2.  Find a Math 3 Honors teacher that is interested in this pilot and willing to do “extra” to help the focus students be successful. This would hopefully include preventing them from moving down to Math 2 CP.

3.  Continue to monitor their progress and help plan/provide interventions as needed to help maintain success.

4.  Track the data that Honors teachers have deemed important (attendance, work completion, assessment scores, coming for extra help).

Final Thoughts

I asked the focus students about what they hope this pilot program leads to and these are some of their answers:

“I hope it makes it so that kids do better in honors classes and that they don’t have to move to CP. CP isn’t challenging enough for some kids.”

“I want to see more students from other countries and stuff in Honors.”

“I want Honors to be less scary and that if kids want to try it and they believe in themselves that the teachers and the school do too and that they can really do it.”