MPCSD adopting new math curriculum for 2019-20 school year

The Mt. Pleasant Community School District is adopting a new math curriculum that is more comprehensive for teachers and works on gradual release of responsibility for students.

The curriculum, Ready Classroom Mathematics, will be implemented for the 2019-2020 school year, with professional development in the curriculum being offered for teachers before the school year begins.

Katie Gavin, director of instruction with the Mt. Pleasant Community School District (MPCSD), said that six years ago, students were in the top third in math with the Area Education Agencies (AEA). Today, the MPCSD has fallen to the bottom third.

'Why is that? The more we grappled through that, the more we found it's because our kids had a well-intentioned curriculum that's eroded and fallen apart,” Gavin said.

Gavin is optimistic that the Ready Classroom Mathematics curriculum will give students the foundational skills they need for higher level math in the future.

The previous math curriculum was a 2012 copyright. Shortly after the district purchased that curriculum, Common Core for math was released, Gavin said.

In addition, some kindergarten teachers were using math support purchased out of a different program. Elementary school teachers were using training they took through the University of Iowa to be more rigorous in their math curriculum.

'Teachers are looking to put more and better things in front of their students,” Gavin said.

With such different styles of teaching and curricula being used it 'starts to fall apart” when students were funneled into the same middle school and high school, Gavin said.

That led Gavin to seriously look in to what math curricula were available to the MPCSD.

Before choosing a new math program, Gavin looked at the top rated curricula by Ed Reports, an online program that evaluates educational materials based on curriculum, coherence and usability.

Then, Gavin had one teacher from each grade level and teachers with the talented and gifted program, special education, an English Language Learner teacher and instructional coaches review the programs. They reviewed curricula to see if they met gradual release of responsibility, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and trauma-informed learning.

Ready Classroom Mathematics was an overwhelming yes on all three accounts, Gavin said.

Even better, Gavin said the publisher of Ready Classroom Mathmematics was ”really in tune” to feedback on Ed Reports and is releasing a 2019 series with that feedback in mind.

The new curriculum also will help teachers write IEP goals, monitor student progress and suggest lessons to support in deficit areas, Gavin said.

Teachers are expected to have teacher manuals for the 2019 Ready Classroom Mathematics in hand by June 7, so they can take the summer to review and reflect on it, Gavin said.