Sustainable Systems for Diverse Student Populations Resulting in Math Proficiency for All

Dr. Baretta Wilson • Cahn Fellow 2022

Building sustainable programs to increase math proficiency for diverse learners requires positive relationships, while creating and coordinating various systems of support within the classroom and schoolwide interventions. It is essential for today’s educational leaders to develop systems that motivate and build capacity in underserved populations, thus inspiring them to be mindful global citizens able to apply mathematical concepts to everyday life. We challenged our stakeholders by questioning how we are leveraging technology and tutoring to provide individualized support, with the goal of overcoming barriers that impact student learning. 

Dynamics are ever-changing with educational policy, and schools must address the gap in mathematical proficiency rates. Where does building mathematical proficiency, independence, and self-efficacy need to happen for the student to want to take the risk of learning? Our systematic model embraces and empowers classroom teachers to incorporate state standards aligned to district grade-level expectations, allowing all learners to soar high and have a clear path toward understanding math concepts needed in today’s global society. Collectively providing guidance and support to an understanding of the progress monitoring data, and through break-out sessions and self-driven learning, including the examination of the data, the ongoing professional development curriculum, the research-based pedagogy used in the tutoring groups. Students will become active listeners in the math class and become mathematicians who apply what they are learning to what is going on in their life right now.

“It is clear that the chief end of mathematical study must be to make the students think.” – John Wesley Young