Milton+Francis



 **The Low Performance in Mathematics effect on Adequate Yearly Progress**  **at**  **The High School for Teaching and the Professions.**

**Problem Summary** Since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002, all schools are held accountable for the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) of their students in different subject areas. The High School for Teaching and the Professions has not been performing as expected in mathematics. The performance of the students has been dismal, as the school did not meet the NCLB AYP in mathematics recently.

**Background of Organization** The High School for Teaching and the Professions (HSTnP) is an example of the ‘small school concept’ that came out of the mayoral control of schools in New York City. “In June 2002, New York State transferred full control of the New York City school system to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with authority to appoint the schools chancellor and its entire school board” (American Enterprise Institute – AEI, 2008, p. 2). This educational institution is located in the borough of The Bronx and is in the largest school district in the nation, New York City School District, in the state of New York. The school is one of five ‘small’ high schools that is housed on the Walton Educational Campus, named after the founding school, Walton High School that was closed in 2008. HSTnP, the first school to have started in the building, came into existence in September 2002. The school was born out of the Pre-Teaching Academy program of the former Walton High School. This new high school caters for the grade 9-12 population of both boys and girls. Interestingly, the now closed Walton High School started in 1923 as an all-girl school, but in 1977 opened its doors for boys. In addition to the physical location at 2780 Reservoir Avenue, HSTnP is also located at [|http://hstnp.newvisionsk12.org]

The average performance of the students in most of the subjects at HSTnP is low. Mathematics is one of the two subjects considered by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002 in measuring the progress of a school. The other is English Language Arts. The low performance in mathematics has had a serious impact on the school’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), a requirement of the United States federal government NCLB Act. National Education Association – NEA (2010) said, “A school that fails to make AYP for two consecutive years is labeled ‘in need of improvement’. They continued, “Those that receive federal Title I funds -- funds allocated to schools that serve a requisite number of low-income students -- face sanctions that increase over time”. Therefore, measures need to be taken to address the performance expeditiously or the school may subsequently close.

**Stakeholders and Decision-Makers** The key personnel at HSTnP that can give details of the problem are the principal of the institution and the six members of the mathematics department. This seven-member panel to be interviewed during the intervention are as follows: Gary Prince (Principal and former mathematics teacher), Sharon Ball (Algebra 1 and Geometry), Suzanne Donahue (Geometry), Kyriaki Kiprios (Geometry and S.A.T. mathematics), Nicholas Marincel (Algebra 1), William Pape (Algebra 1 and Algebra 2), and Mark Spooner (Special Education mathematics). The students of mathematics are also a part of the stakeholder group, as they are the ones that serve to benefit the most from this intervention.

**Organizational History and Background** As was reiterated earlier, HSTnP had its inception in the Fall Semester of 2002, opening its doors to both boys and girls between the ages of 14- and 19- years. Unlike some small high schools that were opened during that period, HSTnP was privileged to have remained at its original location, the Walton Educational Campus, since its inception. There is not much history that surrounds the school, besides the retirement of its founding principal, Maxine Johnson-Harris in August 2009. She was succeeded by the current principal, Gary Prince, who was the Assistant Principal – Supervision in the former Walton High School.

The school visualizes itself as a community composed of life-long learners who are enthusiastic, persistent, innovative, creative, supportive, and respectful of each other’s values and beliefs, and active in ensuring the success of others in the school community. The vision statement continues by saying, “We see a school-wide learning community that, through a shared leadership, builds students’ confidence in their own ability to learn, to be responsible, to be accountable and to take control of the direction of their own lives in order to become active and productive citizens in their school, community, and society”. The statement of mission of the HSTnP is to encourage all members of the school community to become independent thinkers, not simply gleaners of information, so they can choose wisely the course of their lives.

**Performance and Performance Gap** The problem that affects the school is the dismal performance of students in mathematics and its direct impact on the AYP of the NCLB Act of 2002. The present level of performance then had a performance index (PI) of 149, while the desired level was 156, with a safe harbor target of 154 (NYS report card for HSTnP, 2008-2009, p. 10). Neither was achieved, thereby creating a performance gap in mathematics for the school.

**Cause Analysis** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Chevalier (2007) said, “Research has shown that about 85 percent of performance problems are related to the work environment while only 15 percent are related to the individual” (p. 101). This problem of dismal performance in mathematics by the students is a cause for concern. The continued operation of the school is dependent on the closure of the gap created by this problem. That is, if the school is to remain open then this problem must be addressed. In a brief communication with the members of the mathematics department, a blame game scenario arose. The teachers in the department blame the teachers of the feeder schools from which the students came. They said that the foundation in mathematics was not properly established, and so many of the students arrived at the HSTnP with poor grades. Ip so facto (be that as it may), the students are now a part of HSTnP, and therefore, a remedy must be applied to fix the situation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">However, before applying a remedy, other causes were identified by the teachers in the department. They unanimously agreed that they did nothing to bring the students up to the high school level of mathematics; instead, they said that they merely concentrated on teaching the high school mathematics curriculum. Most of this teaching is being done the traditional way, as many of the teachers do not apply 21st century technology to their lesson planning. The traditional way is simply the ‘chalk and talk’ method of imparting the knowledge of mathematics to the students. Another cause was the lack of group work in many of the mathematics classes. Most of the teachers are traditional, thinking that each student should learn the discipline by himself or herself. They tend to compare their way of learning to the students, saying that they worked independently when they were in school, and so they see no reason why their students cannot do the same.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">On the contrary, from observation, the students learning of the discipline was not aligned to the methods used by many of the teachers. After communicating with some of the students, their way of learning is different from that of their teachers. Some students indicated that they preferred to work together in understanding the subject, because they think that mathematics is a ‘hard’ subject to grasp. They also said that the teachers did not make the subject as fun-loving as when they were in middle school or elementary school. By fun-loving, they mean using games to help them to understand the concepts of the discipline.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Chevalier (2007) statement about the percent of performance problems appears to be correct, as the teaching of mathematics (environment of the students) seems to be the dominant force in the teaching-learning situation at the HSTnP. The 85 percent that he spoke about relates to the student’s environment, of which the teacher is a dominant force. The 15 percent relates to the students themselves, as they tried to make use of the opportunity or lack thereof, supplied to them by their learning environment in order to achieve and perform in mathematics in the school. With this vast amount of differences between teachers and students in the learning environment, the desired level of outcome, stated earlier, could not have been achieved, thereby creating a gap in the performance of mathematics in the school. The next step in the processing of achieving the desired outcome is to assess these causes so as to remedy the situation.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Intervention Strategies ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At a low-cost of $5,000 to spend, a quick-fix strategy for an immediate solution would be put in place to try and solve the problem at hand. A series of short term in-house professional development (PD) training sessions for the members of the mathematics department would be staged. These PD sessions would be conducted by experts in the field of mathematics who have a vetted interest in mathematics improvement among students and in particular, students in high school. They would train the teachers in the skills of using low-tech materials to improve mathematics performance among the students. These skills would involve the use of printed materials and manipulative. The printed materials would consist of workbooks, quizzes, and tests. The manipulative would be teacher-made and student-made, as well as commercially made mathematics manipulative. These manipulative and the printed materials, along with the student textbook, would serve as the basis for these PD sessions, as these would be the materials that would be used in the classroom to try and alleviate the problem.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At cost of $25,000, tackling the problem over a longer period would be done. PD sessions would be staged but on a long term basis. These could be held in-house, but some would have been staged off site. Most of these sessions would utilize technology, especially hardware and software that relate to mathematics. These sessions would also be conducted by technology experts, especially those who are versed in the use of the mathematics technology and mathematics software. An example of the mathematics hardware that would be used is the graphing calculator. The latest version of this technology gadget would be a part of the PD sessions. An example of software that would be used is the Geometer Sketch Pad. The teachers would be shown the intricacies of using the latest version of the graphing calculator, as well as how to use the Geometer Sketch Pad to help students to boost their mathematics performance. The use of this tool and software would decrease the amount of time taken to do things manually during assessment. An important part of assessment.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At a high cost of $50,000, trying to eradicate the problem of poor mathematics performance among the students, which cannot be fully removed, would involve the use of more technology, than if it were at a medium cost. This technology would go beyond the use of the graphing calculator and the Geometer Sketch pad. PD sessions would be staged as needed. These infrequent PD sessions would be conducted initially by experts with knowledge of the technology gadgets, but would soon become the responsibility of a member of the department who would show a deep desire of understanding how the technology works. The school would acquire three (3) interactive white boards (smartboard) and three personal computers (PCs) for the three mathematics classrooms. In addition, three (3) computer carts, each consisting of 24 laptops would also been bought. The use of interactive mathematics websites and the creation of mathematics blogs and wikis would be the emphasis of the infrequent PD sessions. Hopefully, the students would be intrigued with the use of mathematics in everyday life, so that overall improvement would occur, removing the performance gap once and for all. However, this would have been in a utopian society, as there will always be students who will not be performing at the prescribed mathematical standard.

**Appendix**

The Walton Educational Campus, formerly Walton High School, currently house The High School for Teaching and The Professions. []

**Reference**

// Chevalier ////, R. (2007). A manager’s guide to improving workplace performance. New York, NY: AMACOM bo//oks


 * Hess, F. (2008): //Assessing the case for mayoral control of urban school.// **//American Enterprise Institute** (AEI), Aug. 2008; n. 4; p. 1- 8. **//** Retrieved from Education Outlook [] **

High School for Teaching and the Professions school portal. Retrieved from []


 * National Education Association (2010). NCLB’s AYP requirements. Retrieved from [] **

New York State Report Card. Accountability and Overview Report 2008-2009.Retrieved from [|https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb-rc/2009/26/AOR-2009- 321000011433.pdf]

New York State Report Card. Accountability and Overview Report 2009-2010. Retrieved from [|https://www.nystart.gov/publicweb- external/2010statewideAOR.pdf]

NYC GEOG DIST #10. HS-TEACHING AND PROFESSIONS SCHOOL Improvement (year 1) - Comprehensive Secondary-Level English Language Arts Secondary-Level Mathematics [|http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/accountability/designations/2010/Nov/Schools- newlyidentified-improvement-status.pdf]

The Student Handbook. Retrieved from [|http://hstnp.newvisionsk12.org/download.axd?file=d1b098f3-a5dc-4928-b3b9- 17c2d8511268&dnldType=Resource]

Comment from Carol