Lessons Learned from the Re-Thinking Pre-College Math (RPM) Project Dr. Bill Moore Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges 360-704-4346, bmoore@sbctc.edu Re-Thinking Pre-college Math Project

Reflecting on “Core Principles” What’s your reaction to this list of “core principles”? What, if anything, is missing from the list?

Washington Student Completion Initiative Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Washington State Legislature Focused on improving access and completions for low-income young adults in Washington state over the next three years through four separate but related projects: Open Course Library I-BEST for Developmental Education Student Achievement Initiative Re-Thinking Pre-College Math OCL: support teams of college faculty and staff over two years to digitize 43 courses for face-to-face, hybrid and/or online delivery I-BEST: develop models to extend the pathways in currently approved I-BEST programs that are at least two quarters in length SAI: provide additional incentive funds to colleges RPM: improve student completions in pre-college mathematics courses and their success in college-level math classes

Rethinking Pre-College Math: Collective Action for Student Math Success Clark College Everett Community College Highline Community College Lower Columbia College North Seattle Community College Northwest Indian College Spokane Falls Community College Welcome -introductions (teams rise by alphabetical order? Diane Troyer? Others?) -congratulations to campus teams (# of applicants; difficult decisions; “coalition”) - work in concentrated way with campus teams and in way that is “inclusive” re: other math departments throughout the state - title slide? - or, we simply start out with Bob Moses slide (no comments) then when we begin we begin with title slide (Rethinking Pre-College Math: Project Purpose and Parameters…or Maximizing Strengths for Student Success…or Collective Action for Student Success…or whatever kicker makes sense here ) Web Resources: Transition Math Project site RPM Wiki site

Core Areas of Educational Practice: Rethinking Pre-College Math How do we teach it? How do we know students have learned it? What math do we teach (and why)? Department/ Program Faculty Inquiry Groups 1. Substantive improvement requires an intentional focus on influencing the “core of educational practice”: including teachers’ attitudes and beliefs 2. Taking a collective approach—unit of change not just individual faculty but the full (or at least a critical mass) math department/precollege program. 3. People generally support and sustain work that they “own” by actively helping to design and refine in terms of implementation rather than having it imposed from outside (structured faculty inquiry). 4. Supporting the colleges in collaborating to “go to scale”: As Elmore argues with respect to issues of scaling up innovations, “Most investments in curriculum and professional development are lost because they are not actively managed.”(“Improvement of teaching at scale,” NSF Learning Network conference, January 2006) (community of practice) 5. “scaling up”--creating conditions for multiple faculty and multiple colleges to adapt and implement successful improvement strategies—involves depth of understanding of core principles, sustainability in terms of substantive change supported over time, spread both within a school or college as well as across institutions, and a fundamental shift in knowledge about and capacity for extending the reform work. (broader and deeper work over time)

Reflecting on Key Lessons from RPM What questions/comments do you have about these recommendations? How, if at all, are they related to efforts in precollege math underway at your college?

Focus on Faculty For the participating faculty, working closely with colleagues and being connected to a broader network across the state has become a norm and a valued one. Faculty now look at collaboration as the “fastest, easiest, sustainable form of professional development.” Indeed, for them, professional development, and even the practice of teaching, would now be unthinkable without collaboration. Unpacking Professional Development: Mathematics Faculty Reflections on Re-thinking Pre-college Math Rose Asera, 2013

Focus on Faculty “…Many of the changes at the colleges are now taking hold and could be a strong foundation for ongoing learning and inquiry… When teachers learn, when they take professional learning seriously, when they have support and resources, when they see learning as part of their job, they bring their learning to the classroom, and apply what they learn toward their students’ learning. And they want to keep learning.” In moving toward collective action, RPM faculty found themselves going against the grain of higher education culture. In the participating departments, faculty had to design invitations and articulate outcomes for collaboration that were strong enough to reach a wide range of colleagues, not only those inclined to collaborate. What is notable is that, to a great extent, they succeeded. Their stories illustrate changes in departmental culture to take a broader, more inclusive view of participation. Faculty in participating departments are now more likely to describe “having the right conversations” about teaching in the department. Unpacking Professional Development: Mathematics Faculty Reflections on Re-thinking Pre-college Math Rose Asera, 2013

Slides and handouts available at Questions? Slides and handouts available at http://tinyurl.com/mathconf13moore