I worked as an educational consultant to recommend a mathematics curriculum for
New School in Watsonville, California. New School, a Community Day High School
located in Watsonville, California, is in the process of redefining its goals
for students. The school, founded to offer intensive socio-emotional support
and an accelerated credit recovery program, has grown from 20 students to 70
students over the last 15 years. For many years academic instruction took a
back seat to counseling and therapeutic interventions. The school's principal
and district supervisor retired in December 2008, spurring an examination of
the school's academic structure.
I delivered a report that:
Contains an analysis of New
School’s student performance in mathematics for the last three school years
Reviews the current curricular resources
Examines math classes at alternative schools in the same district
This formed the basis of specific curricular and pedagogical recommendations
for New School.
Link to Standard
Data collection was the logical starting point for this project. Although my time line for completion was short, I recognized the importance of gaining a
comprehensive understanding of the learners, their past performance, the environment,
and specific learning material's effectiveness. Dr. Bober, my client, and
I worked closely to develop a data collection plan that considered the numerous
factors supporting a curriculum recommendation. My recommendation was informed
entirely by the data that I collected.
Type
of Data Collection
Data
Source
Relevance
to Report
Literature Review
Report
from the American Educational Research Association
No Child Left Behind Legislation
Findings
from report on upgrading mathematics instruction for parallel population in
CA
Legislative implications of student performance
Performance Analysis
New
School's School Accountability Report (3 years)
Longitudinal
student state test data
Cause Analysis
Interview
and survey of New School faculty and staff
Identify
and delineate performance factors relating to students skills, knowledge,
motivation, and environment
Environmental Scan
Observation,
interview, and survey of alternative high school math teachers
Comparative
data, identification of curricular elements and best practices
Results from two
curriculum pilots
Rapid
pilot of two mathematics curriculum's resources and teacher supports
Preliminary
evaluation of readily available curriculum resources
Challenges
and Opportunities Several challenges arose during the development of my report. I am the
school's only math teacher, forcing me to wear two hats simultaneously
throughout the project. Bias can affect reporting when the researcher is
one of the subjects. I attempted to maintain objectivity throughout the
project and keep my role as math teacher separate from the role of
consultant. A tight turnaround time line for completion made it necessary for me to gather data
quickly. Given more time, I would conduct a broader literature review, conduct
the environmental scan described above with a much larger sample population,
and formally evaluate the curriculum's pilot.
The project afforded the opportunity to learn more about my school site, form
collaborative relationships with teachers in my district, and test curriculum
with my students. I also gained insight into the legislation affecting
school funding and my school's historical performance on standardized
tests. Finally, I gained real-world practice using the ARDDIE model to
structure my work.
Professional and Personal Growth
I have a tentative personality and consider myself a "behind the
scene" kind of worker. This project forced me out out my comfort zone
because I had to actively seek out other math teachers then request survey
completion, personal interviews, and classroom observations; The investigative
work in the project boosted my soft people skills and now I am much more
comfortable initiating contact with individuals. Working through the
planning for data collection taught me to consider the different sources that
would strengthen my findings. I learned the importance of a well constructed
survey and that I should schedule ample time to the refinement of the
instrument. Feedback from my client revealed the aspects of the work that were
most important to her, lending insight into the mind of the client. Our
country is shifting instructional paradigms to accommodate a post-industrial
economy. In this project I gained skills and practice that would allow me
to collect and analyze data to support the restructure of a learning environment with emerging needs.
References
Gamoran, A, Porter, A.C.,
Smithson, J. & White, P.A. (1997). Upgrading High School Mathematics
Instruction: Improving Learning Opportunities for Low-Achieving, Low-Income
Youth. American Educational Research Association., Retrieved on April 19, 2009,
from American
Educational Research Association.
