PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The national trend in the United
States is to provide newer teachers with mentors. On-the-job nurturing and
support by mentors can accelerate success and effectiveness among beginning
teachers as well as prevent some of them from dropping out of the teaching
profession, according to a report by the Educational Policy Analysis. The report
called “Looking at the Process of Mentoring for Beginning Teachers,” included
findings from a 50-state survey of beginning teacher programs instituted from
1983 to 1992. The summary addresses fiscal, policy and certification issues.
Thomsen and Gustafson (1997)
points out that an effective mentoring experience leads to beginning teachers’
increased satisfaction and competence in teaching, consequently, professional
growth of mentored teachers outpaces non-mentored ones (Spuhler & Zetler, 1994).
This, in turn, increases the retention level of new teachers. Before selecting
mentors for first-year teachers, the principal and/or selection committee should
first look at the process of mentoring. The mentoring process includes the
relationship of beginning teacher and mentor, the necessary knowledge and skills
of mentors, and an accountability system to ensure success.
Martin Luther King Middle School
in the Trenton Public School District plans to utilize the expertise of the
District Math Consultant and the Mercer County Educational Technology Training
Center (ETTC) mentors to foster a love of math and reveal the ease of the math
process when used with computers and technology. We are excited by the authentic
hands-on experiences the Matrix Grant can provide, and we look forward to
sharing our students’ successes within our real and virtual communities.
SCHOOL
AND DISTRICT TRANSITIONS:
As the
public school system is located in the state’s capital, the district is home to
two high schools, 4 middle schools, and 18 elementary schools. One of the
changes is that more of the elementary schools are expanding into middle school
grades. The district has been reconfiguring the schools with different grade
levels in order to accommodate its major construction projects. The district’s
Office of Accountability and Assessment has also suggested in its data
collection that its middle school students who are housed in extended elementary
schools are performing better on state test scores than students who are in
middle schools with no elementary grades.
M. L. King
teachers are trying to help middle school students achieve state math mandates
in the midst of an evolving academic environment which includes:
·
A new district-wide math curriculum, namely Connected Math in the
Middle School. This Connected Math program is a highly recommended by the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. It is a hands-on investigative,
inquiry-based program that promotes students’ discovery and deeper understanding
of math concepts and strategies.
·
New state technology standards,
·
Re-organized district math leadership,
·
New school board policies that address academic performance
·
A staggering 88 % of sixth graders and 82 % of seventh graders who
failed state Terra Nova math test scores in 2002-03.
·
Only 24% of students at M.L. King received a math grade of A or B.
·
Economically disadvantaged families facing the digital divide with
no computer at home and/or no internet access. About 77 % of M.L. King students
are at the poverty level, as determined by the free and reduced lunch status
report for the 2002-03 school year.
·
Budget crunches that prevent major increases in access to
technology and professional development
·
District-wide construction projects
·
A new math facilitator position was created to address the math
deficiencies
In a district-wide survey, 60% of
middle school teachers and 31% of elementary school teachers surveyed said the
district is not providing strong leadership to improve student achievement in
their schools. In the survey, 28 % of M. L. King staff felt they did not
receive adequate professional development for the changes introduced in their
school (compared to 21% district-wide). Another 12 % of M. L. King staff said
they were neutral and 59 % felt professional development for the changes
introduced were adequate.
NO CHILD
LEFT BEHIND: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
The No Child
Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) mandates that the total school and all subgroups
(race/ethnicity, total school, gender, socioeconomic status, Limited English
Proficiency, disabled and migrant) meet the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP).
King’s state tests, GEPA and Terra Nova, indicate a great need for student
improvement in math, especially in the Terra Nova areas of measurement,
geometry, algebra, problem solving and communication. Terra Nova test scores in
spring 2003 have indicated that only 20% of the sixth graders and 36 % of
seventh graders were proficient in math.
It is evident that in order to
meet the requirements of NCLB, additional strategies, techniques, and programs
must be implemented. The fact that M. L. King has already targeted math as an
area of critical concern reveals the need for the Matrix grant. The district
recently hired a full-time math consultant to address the students’ deficiencies
and implement an improvement plan to meet AYP mandates. The Math Consultant
provides weekly assistance to the math teachers at King.
A comprehensive system that uses
technology effectively in grades six, seven, and eight to improve student
academic achievement by 5 % in mathematics is implemented and will be supported
by the ETTC’s professional development mentoring program to all teachers and
students that are part of the Matrix grant.
LOTI ASSESSMENT TOOL:
In fall of 2003, M. L. King staff
completed the Levels of Technology Integration (LOTI) survey, an on-line
assessment tool to evaluate the teacher’s ability to integrate technology into
the curriculum. LOTI provides a scoring rubric of 0 as the lowest tier and six
as the highest possible level of technology integration.
LOTI
survey data will be analyzed and evaluated for planning and revision of the
program activities by the Math Consultant, Matrix Coordinator, ETTC staff, and
key stakeholders in the grant partnership. According to their LOTI
results from 2003-04, 44% of M. L. King School scored in lower LOTI tiers (0-2).
LOTI recommendations on how to
get to level two include providing a balanced mix of technology training,
including a summer technology boot camp, mentoring and modeling, application
training, and after-school training. The District currently follows this LOTI
model for its ACE grant training at Monument and will have a similar set-up for
the Matrix grant. This model allows for ongoing, sustained and intensive, high
quality professional development to teachers, principals, school facilitators,
and other school personnel. We will also follow this LOTI model for the Matrix
Grant. We will also compare the schools’ LOTI levels in 2004-05 against those
from in 2003-04.
The
district’s Ace and Star-W grant required participating school staff to take the
LOTI survey. The district then provided matching funding to open up the LOTI
survey to all of its schools. This district wide LOTI assessment provided the
district with tools to develop the 2004-07 technology plan for the district, as
required by the New Jersey Department of Education. To ensure that Matrix grant
activities are aligned to the district technology and curriculum goals, we have
selected the District’s Technology Director to serve as the Matrix Project
Director.
Another
reason the Matrix grant is needed at M. L. King School is because the ALEM Whole
School Reform model does not include a technology component. Given that the ALEM
model does not have a technology component, King will partner with the Math
Consultant and Mercer ETTC, a grant funded program created by the New Jersey
Department of Education, to infuse technology into the district’s new math
curriculum through in-class support known as “mentoring and modeling.”
ETTC MENTORING AND MODELING:
Matrix staff will commit at least
25 % of grant funds for ongoing professional development to further the use of
infusing technology into the math curriculum. We will purchase wireless laptops
and use them for mentoring and modeling training, summer training, Family Fun
Days, after school training, and other Matrix professional development
activities.
Under the direction of the
Mathematics Consultant and the Matrix Coordinator, the ETTC Mentor will
collaborate with the math teachers to identify the technology and develop
student projects that best support the Connected Math curriculum. In addition,
the mentor will provide weekly in-classroom mentoring and modeling, lesson
planning, and group training throughout the year to the participating teachers.
Each classroom teacher will receive two hours per week of training. They will
receive one hour of in-class mentoring and modeling per week and one hour of
individual, small group, or large group instruction to support this program.
These sessions support the mentoring and modeling projects and skills needed to
effectively integrate the technology. As these teachers feel more comfortable
with the software applications, it will enhance their ability to integrate their
newly acquired technology skills into the math curriculum. The mentor will help
the teacher post their projects and lesson plans onto the Matrix website.
One example of group training is
on First in Math 24Game. We will purchase 24 Game to support classroom exercises
in Connected Math, the district’s new math curriculum. The ETTC mentor will
instruct teachers and students on how the program can assist students with the
reinforcement of the basic computation and provide the foundation for
mathematics skills which require higher order thinking skills. Other examples
of Math curriculum activities include creating hotlists of websites to improve
student computation, creating multimedia presentations to teach concepts, and
multimedia quizzes to assess student knowledge.
Matrix grant activities will
enhance the current induction program for novice teachers through strategic
improvements, including an intensive training program for veteran teachers who
serve as mentors to new teachers. Research is clear that the support of
mentoring is a key component in helping newcomers to the classroom move from
theory to practice. The best teacher preparation programs can only go so far in
readying students for the classroom. Novice teachers need on-the-job support and
coaching. In order to assure quality support for novice teachers, mentor
teachers need training to help them understand their role and how to realize the
greatest results with new teachers.
SHARING PROJECTS AND MATRIX
WEBSITE:
A Matrix
project web site will be established to disseminate teacher-created multimedia
and web-based projects that support New Jersey’s mathematics standards, lesson
plans, impact of the program on student academic achievement, and other
grant-related information.
The Matrix
website will have math curriculum links such as Drexel University’s Math Forum,
NJ Pep, the ETTC Curriculum web page, and links to other NJDOE Matrix webpages.
The Matrix web site will describe the three-year program. Excerpts of the grant
narrative and quarterly reports will be included on the grant website. The web
site will be reviewed by an assistive technology vendor to determine ways to
make the website more accessible for all users.
Participating teachers will
design multimedia projects that showcase what was learned from the math
consultant and mentoring on a Matrix website, which will be linked from the
widely-used Trenton Public Schools’ website. The Math Consultant, Matrix
Coordinator, and Project Coordinator will share the program’s activities and/or
quarterly reports during in-district and out-of-district meetings and
trainings. Also, the ETTC will share sample Matrix projects with other
districts and non-publics at its County and state-wide meetings.
NON-PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
The
non-public schools will receive subscriptions to 24 Game in order to increase
their students’ math skills and mathematical thinking and strategy skills. We
will invite them to the 24 Game training sessions, as well as offer the
opportunity to observe the M.L. King students using the 24 Game software. The
non-public schools will also be informed of the mentoring and modeling schedule,
the after school trainings, and the small and large group trainings so they can
observe, participate, and/or receive training and technical assistance.
EVALUATION:
The Trenton Public School
District will be actively involved with the project from the onset to ensure
that implementation occurs in its schools for the purpose of complying with
state regulation for whole school reform and the mandates concerning infusing
technology to meet the Core Curriculum Standards. To accomplish this objective,
the Trenton Director of Technology will share projects with the district
technology facilitators.
The Matrix Coordinator and/or
Project Director will hold a group meeting with all 6, 7, and 8th
graders in the first quarter to explain the grant activities, select
participating teachers, and compile a summary of thematic units each teacher
will be working on. We will then review their LOTI test scores and develop a
plan on how to implement technology into the existing curriculum and thematic
units.
The Matrix Program Activity Plan
will be revised as necessary to ensure that the implementation of the plan is
effective and shows evidence that the objectives for whole school reform and the
infusion of technology to address the New Jersey Core Curriculum Standards have
been met and are improving student achievement in mathematics. Some of the
evaluation strategies are:
