Raising Math Proficiency: Our Strategy to Increase State Test Scores by 11% in One Year

Sometimes it’s nice to pull back the curtain and share a bit more about my work as a math consultant, and really a math intervention specialist, for the schools and districts I support across the US. This post contains a case study for you to view to get ideas about how to use a math consultant or get to know me and my services more to determine if I might be the right fit for your school or district. 

Meet New America School - Thornton

Meet New America School - Thornton is part of the New America School charter network, located in Thornton, Colorado outside of Denver. It is an alternative high school mainly serving students who have been kicked out of their neighborhood school or desire a more flexible school schedule (New America Schools offer night school for high school). According to data pulled from US news and world reports, the total minority enrollment is 94% and 72% of students are economically disadvantaged.

Goals

I’ve been supporting New America Schools on and off since 2018 and the Thornton campus more closely since 2023. Each year our goals remain the same, increase math scores because we know increased math scores increase graduation rates. 

Math Consultant Scope of Work

My contract had two parts:

After school collaboration/PD

The math department is small, 3 members, but six times over the 24-25 school year I led a one hour after school collaboration session with the math department. From our first meeting it was clear that teachers wanted time to collaborate and talk about upcoming lessons, a scope and sequence, and teaching resources. Each month I came with a unit plan (backwards planned from a high quality curriculum unit exam) and activities for us to do together. It’s worth noting that together we did the math and the activities that teachers were about to do with their students. We had a big focus on just in time intervention and providing access to grade level content for all students.

Instructional Coaching

For two of the three math teachers I provided one on one instructional coaching sessions, just six sessions over the entire 24-25 school year. In the meetings we discussed the challenges teachers were having and adjusted each of their personal progressions with students.

Results

The results of Colorado’s CMAS testing for the 23-24 school year revealed a 39% proficiency at NAS - Thornton. After our year of focus on just in time intervention and grade level content resources, the CMAS scores for 24-25 were 50%! That’s an 11% increase in just one school year! Not to mention 50% math proficiency for an alternative high school setting is remarkable!

Further Work

I look forward to counting the After school collaboration/PD for the 25-26 school year and continuing our focus on just in time intervention and access to grade level content!

How About You?

Could your whole department or district use this kind of support? Contact me today or download my services menu and let’s come up with a customized plan for your unique needs.