Slaying The Algebra I Dragon in a Large Urban High School

Marlene Roddy • Cahn Fellow 2023

Trust, psychological safety, a sense of belonging, and respect for one another are key to successful collaboration on a team that leads to improved student performance results. Following two years of impressive growth by James Martin High School students in our state tested Algebra I classes, we were starting the 2023 school year with a new team of teachers in this content area. Of the six teachers who would be teaching Algebra I, only two had taught it on our campus the year before and that was their first year at Martin. The enthusiasm of teachers “new to the profession” as well as teachers who were “new to the campus” created a false notion that this excitement would lead to a bonding and willingness to share ideas and strategies as well as an openness to listen and then implement teaching strategies that worked successfully.

What we discovered is that Slaying the Algebra I Dragon in a Large Urban School requires a great deal of team building with new personnel prior to setting up targeted improvement goals and analyzing data. Teams that work exude confidence. They are familiar with each other’s working styles, they are comfortable sharing their ideas, they are willing to try strategies that have worked, and they know, respect and trust one another.

Building a team “while flying the aircraft” is often the predicament a new team encounters in the teaching world. The time needed for traditional planning and execution is not available. Recognizing that district/campus improvement goals are built around the concept that teams are cohesive, collaborative, and highly functioning requires that our first task must focus on creating that team. This realization shifted our work and our approach by mid-February 2024, and we started the work of building an Algebra I team that had all these qualities.