Challenges: The quality of  exams is aligned to the instructional topics but does not align to end of year exams in terms of structure and rigor. When this happens,  exams are not reliable for assessing mastery on state standards. There is a gap between how students are assessed in class and the end of year state exam. 

Service/Solution by Math Mini-Lessons: Assessments created at the beginning of the school year will influence execution of lessons. Teachers will be provided assessments with clear targets to meet the standards and high expectations of the school. Math Mini-Lessons provides Pre-Tests and Post Summative Assessments for classroom teachers aligned to New York State Exams to maintain grade level content and rigor. The Pre-Tests assess prerequisite skills aligned to Next Generation Standards allowing teachers to identify and address gaps intentionally throughout the unit. Teachers and Administrators have an opportunity to collect valid Mastery Data throughout the year to assess student mastery, track growth over time, and respond to student needs.

Teachers will…

• Understand the end of unit targets on state exams
• Provide grade level appropriate assessments  aligned to end of year exams 
• Know where students are at the start of the lesson using pretests 
• Measure student growth and effectiveness of instruction 

Administrators will

• Be confident that assessments are aligned to end of year exams and have the ability to monitor progress
• Use data to identify struggling students earlier and provide academic interventions

Challenges: Time Management/lack of prep time for quality planning. The truth is there will never be enough time and attention for planning. Many teachers prioritize the creation of materials over thorough planning due to lack of time. Most time is spent preparing for whole group instructions and reacting to student needs at the moment. The quality of lesson plans vary widely as some lessons may lack specific learning targets, do not effectively align the end of class assessments and check for understandings to learning targets, do not plan for differentiation or did not provide adequate purposeful practice for students. Teacher attrition added additional challenges as staff did not always have the capacity plan for classes with vacancies. 

Service/Solution by Math Mini-Lessons: Math Mini-Lessons provides a full scope and sequence including an overview of over  100 lessons. Teachers are provided with the key components of the lesson for internalization. Lessons are intentionally designed for the Gradual Release Model but can be adjusted for an inquiry based model. Instead of spending time creating materials from scratch or searching for aligned problems, they can spend planning time anticipating student barriers and preparing for intentional Tiered 2 and 3 instruction. The overview of lessons  are structured so the majority of instructional time is devoted to student purposeful practice as teachers prepare to provide feedback using high order questions, ICT models and/or small group intervention planned by teachers.

Teachers will…

• spend less time looking for or creating lesson plans and practice problems. 
• focus their planning on anticipating student responses and planning intentional support(s) for students. 
• have clear look fors (CFS) in student work connected to mastery of the learning target
• have the opportunity to engage in professional development for executing data driven lessons.
• will be responsible for creating Do Nows to respond to ETs or for spiral reviews

Challenge: Time Management and lack of capacity. Wide range in quality of student materials and handouts created by teachers. Teacher-created student practice problems are not consistently aligned to learning targets. Not enough practice for students to master math skills.

Service/Solution by Math Mini-Lessons: Included with each lesson are the guided notes for students including purposeful practice problems and formative assessments; a mid-lesson CFU teachers can use for small group instruction and to assess student self awareness of skills. The end of lesson assessment/Exit Ticket is also provided and is aligned to the model and mid-lesson assessment. Teachers are provided with google slides for each lesson as well as a formative link for computer based materials. 

Teachers will…

• Have multiple problems aligned to the objective for students’ practice. 
• Have access to all formatives and can assign to formatives to their classes (hybrid model)
• Guided notes are available for students to actively engage during the mini-lesson as well as make their thinking visible using systems. 
• Using formative students can engage in a self paced or teacher paced lesson with instant feedback. Teachers get real time data that is captured on the platform instead of collecting handouts. End of Lesson Assessment  is tagged to Next Gen Standard.

Challenges: Pacing issues during lessons often means students receive fewer opportunities to practice during lessons and teachers frequently fall behind in their scope and sequence. Teachers may not have the content knowledge to deliver concise, precise instruction. Lack of student retention of information. They may not remember details from the teacher model due to lack of clarity of instruction, engagement or absences. 

Service/Solution by Math Mini-Lessons: Each lesson includes a short animated video with explicit modeling and a breakdown of the problem based on the criteria for success. Students will have access to video content. The video links can be shared at anypoint for students. Instructional videos can be provided in advance in a Flipped Classroom Model for students who need more time to process. Students can access video instructions for review with their notes or shared with parents who want to support learning at home. All videos will be available in Spanish in August of 2024-25. Videos are available on Vimeo and YouTube links. 

Teachers can

• provide access to instructional video for pre-work, assigned to absent students or remote learning
• use instructional videos to internalize the lesson delivery prior to teaching the lesson. 
• content and pedagogical resource for teachers who are developing their content knowledge in mathematics. 

Students 

• have access to instructional content throughout the year. This is invaluable for students with disrupted attendance. A QR code is added to each handout with a link to video for preview before class or review weeks later. 
• can watch videos at their own pace in class or at home 
• can create study habits by reviewing instructional videos for studying. 
• Optional: September 2024 ELL students will have access to content in Spanish

Challenges: Teachers and instructional leads unable to analyze data in a timely manner or effectively monitor progress for their course. 

Service/Solution by Math Mini-Lessons: Sample Spreadsheets with editable formulas are provided for teachers or administrators to evaluate student performance throughout the year capturing summative assessments and interim assessments. Data can be filtered to see performance of subgroups as well. Time can be scheduled for development of data teams or instructional coaches to develop teacher competence in data analysis. Schools that have a license with GoFormative can capture all data for class and assessments on the platform which provides student performance charts and standard progress by class or grade.

Teachers will…

• individually reflect on daily and summative student data
• increase awareness of subgroups 

Administrators 

• review data on student and teacher performance 
• Support teachers on data reflection and responding to data in 6 week cycles.