1. Phase Gate 4
CREATING A PRE-ALGEBRA COURSE
Samantha Haas –DoCI – STEM

2. Phase gate 4 Agenda
Data
Guiding coalition/stakeholders, and what’s going well
Organizational changes and resistance
Adjustments
Applied class learning
What risks do you see moving forward?
What needs to be done?
Required support
Questions?
Rubric discussion

3. OUR MISSION
Graduating all students as critical thinkers and self-directed learners prepared for success in college, meaningful careers, community involvement, and family life.

4. DATA: What we’re up against among all cities with naep results reported, Milwaukee’s 8th Graders are the 3rd least prepared for high school

5. OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS WHO FAIL S1 ALGEBRA (2014/15 to present)
DATA for our 9th graders
Algebra Readiness
Entering Carmen 9th grader average math PreACT: 14.9
8th grade ACT benchmark: 17
9th grade ACT benchmark: 18
College readiness benchmark: 22
Was the old model of Algebra skills effective?
The Algebra pass rate was 53%
OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS WHO FAIL S1 ALGEBRA (2014/15 to present)
Students who failed S2 of their 1st year
18/18 = 100%
Students who failed S1 of their 2nd year
10/13 = 77%
Students who transferred (still unprepared)
5/18 = 28%
14-15 Students who failed their entire second year
4/5 = 80%

6. DatA, continued
Right now, we concurrently enroll students in algebra and algebra skills.
Algebra is a course required for all students,
Algebra skills is another math period during the day that is meant to be used to bolster general math skills prerequisite to algebra.

7. State Report Card Data

8. My Proposal: Pre-Algebra + Adjustments to my A3
Counter-measure
Pre-Algebra Curriculum offered, with student and parent consent, during semester 2 to students who failed semester 1 due to skill deficiencies
Implementation Plan
Receive approval for a new math credit offering (ideally pre-algebra) during the fall /winter of school year
Rewrite the algebra placement exam by June 1, Pilot with students
Select a teacher for the pre-algebra course, preferably a teacher with background in lower level math, ideally by July 1, 2017.
Directors of Curriculum and Instruction have all incoming 9th grade students take the math placement test, ideally by July 20.
Directors of Curriculum and Instruction score all placement tests by August 1.
In our math department meetings, create a curriculum for a pre-algebra course, due by October of 2017
Get that curriculum approved for 0.5 elective credits at Carmen High School of Science and Technology by November 1, 2017
Director of Curriculum and Instruction – STEM and algebra team select students to enroll in the pre-algebra course during S2 based on S1 failure data.
Director of Curriculum and Instruction – STEM informs parents and students of the recommendation to enroll in pre-algebra with an explanation of the recommendation and acquires parental and student consent to enroll
Create course midterms and final exams, due by February 1, 2018 for approval by the Carmen Curriculum and Assessment Review Team.
Students enroll in pre-algebra and then follow the traditional math sequence of algebra, geometry, algebra 2, and (likely) integrated math
Pros
Catch students up on previous skills that are lacking
Gets at the root cause of algebra failure in a systematic way
Creates stronger students, doesn’t just look for a way to give a 4th math credit
Cons
Need to develop a new curriculum
Students will still enroll in Integrated Math for their 4th math credit, which is a poorly designed course

9. Guiding Coalition/Stakeholders and what’s going well
Since my last Phase Gate meeting, I’m grateful for the help of the following people/groups
Jenna & Janice (Algebra team) for providing me with strong rationale for a pre-algebra class (and data) and for writing the new placement test
Beth (Director of College Transition) for strategizing around math sequence to get pre-algebra approved with our Head of Schools
Amanda (Instruction and Professional Development Manager) for her help in the areas of preparation and persuasion
Janis (Principal) for her guidance with all things math, for her assistance in navigating the network, and for her ideas around the placement exam
Patricia (Head of Schools) for approving my proposal for a S2 pre-algebra course and for approving a summer skills workshop for incoming 9th graders
Dave (Algebra skills) for allowing me to pilot the new placement exam with his class and for taking notes on errors
Algebra Skills Students for agreeing to take the new placement test and for offering up suggestions for improvement

10. Organizational Changes and resistance
Pre-algebra can be a credit-bearing course on transcript, though it will not fulfill a math requirement
Mindset shift: Pre-algebra is not lowering the bar; it is providing support
Placement test improvement: we are no longer giving a version of the ACT but a test of pre-requisite math skills done without a calculator
We will be offering Pre-Algebra second semester for students who opt to not continue in algebra based on S1 performance (with parent & student informed consent)
Algebra skills will no longer exist S2
ALEKS will be used throughout 9th grade to support

11. Class learning, applied
Communication Plan & Marketing Plan helped me think about who to talk to prior to meeting with Dr. Hoben
Finance got me to gather all the data I needed to build a case for my project
The project is project management applied
Though I can’t specifically tell you anything I learned in statistics, I did make the backbone of the A3 I’m using today

12. Risks We still don’t have our algebra team finalized for the fall
We also don’t have a curriculum set for S2 pre-algebra
New placement test may not be effective (low-impact risk)
Algebra class sizes for next fall could be very high

13. What needs to be done?
Select a teacher for the pre-algebra course, preferably a teacher with background in lower level math, ideally by July 1, 2017.
Directors of Curriculum and Instruction have all incoming 9th grade students take the math placement test, ideally by July 20.
Directors of Curriculum and Instruction score all placement tests by August 1
In our math department meetings, create a curriculum for a pre-algebra course, due by October of 2017
Get that curriculum approved for 0.5 elective credits at Carmen High School of Science and Technology by November 1, 2017
Director of Curriculum and Instruction – STEM and algebra team select students to enroll in the pre-algebra course during S2 based on S1 failure data.
Director of Curriculum and Instruction – STEM informs parents and students of the recommendation to enroll in pre-algebra with an explanation of the recommendation and acquires parental and student consent to enroll
Create course midterms and final exams, due by February 1, 2018 for approval by the Carmen Curriculum and Assessment Review Team.

14. Required Support
Thanks to Janis for pushing me to get my meetings scheduled back in April!
From Janis/Liz: support as we go to South Africa, as I’ll be missing the final two days of PD. We should also get that math teacher!
From Rachel: potential feedback on project presentation and also continued feedback on reflections and portfolio work (I’m doing something silly and trying to learn to use Wordpress as I complete this portfolio)

15. Questions?
If not, get excited for my project presentation on July 15th!