Algebra Tutors, Professional Learning, New Curriculum All Support PED’s ‘Math Identity’ Initiative

PED News:

SANTA FE — The New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) is organizing a 150-member Math Tutoring Corps, rolling out new professional learning for math teachers, and offering them designed-for-New Mexico math curricula as the first steps in a yearlong initiative to show students how they will use math throughout their lives. 

Those and other efforts will support the department’s yearlong “Math Is Me” initiative to convey this simple message to every New Mexican: “We all do math every day and therefore should see ourselves as math capable.”

“One of our big goals for this school year is to demystify math by showing students at every grade level that math is part of our everyday lives, and they are mastering it step-by-step,” PED Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said. “Whether it’s measuring ingredients, calculating tax on a purchase or counting change, we’re doing math. That’s the message we want parents, grandparents and caregivers to absorb this year along with our K-12 students. We are all mathematicians.”

Math Tutoring Corps

Many students who have done well in math previously see their grades drop when they hit algebra, which introduces new concepts in combination with previous math skills. The Public Education Department is addressing that by assembling a 150-member Math Tutoring Corps with a goal of tutoring 500 Algebra I students across New Mexico in the spring semester.

New Mexico teachers – current and retired – are invited to apply here. Applicants do not need to be highly qualified in math or teach secondary math but should have an interest in math instruction and hold a valid New Mexico teaching license. Those selected will be paid $50 per hour, not to exceed $4,000. 

Tutors will receive training virtually in September and October. Virtual tutoring will begin in January and conclude in April. Each tutor will be assigned three to four students for 45-minute tutoring sessions three times a week after school and on weekend mornings.

Professional Learning for Teachers

The Public Education Department is offering math teachers a six-part professional development series this fall called “Fostering Positive Math Identities,” which meshes perfectly with the department’s yearlong “Math Is Me” initiative.

Math Is Me developed from emerging research about the importance of how students perceive their own ability to do math. The goal is to break down stubborn myths that girls and some racial minorities are not good at math while boys and other racial minorities are – myths that strongly influence academic performance and contribute to gender and racial disparities in assessments of math proficiency.

The Public Education Department partnered with Teaching Lab, an educational non-profit, to create the virtual training series to help New Mexico educators in grades 6-12 connect their work to equitable math instruction. 

Educators will participate in the sessions as part of a school-based team to maximize the impact on their school. Ideally, teams will consist of one school administrator or instructional coach, one school instructional leader and at least 80 percent of the school’s teachers who are responsible for math instruction.

“The goal is to help teachers support their students by bringing in their home language and culture to make math more alive,” Shafiq Chaudhary said, director of the department’s Math and Science Bureau. 

Two other professional development opportunities are available this fall for school math teaching teams:

  • Math Foundations: This training will help teachers in grades 4-5 help students develop early numeracy, with a focus on base 10, operations and algebraic thinking; and
  • Focus on Algebra: This training for teachers in grades 6-9 will focus on ratios, proportions and expressions and equations.

New Math Curricula

While the “Math Is Me” initiative intends to build appreciation for math at every age and level, the new Pathway2Careers toolkit and curricula focus specifically on middle and high school students by connecting their schoolwork with their futures. 

As students advance through Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II, Pathway2Careers presents each new math concept in the context of a high-value career in New Mexico. Teachers can use the resources to supplement existing textbooks or as a stand-alone curriculum for each.

What distinguishes Pathway2Careers from traditional math curricula is the application of math concepts to more than 100 careers.  As students work through lessons, they gain career exposure through detailed career spotlights. 

The Public Education Department and partner NS4ED developed Pathway2Careers as part of a five-year, $11.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop a collection of mathematics resources that support career readiness efforts in middle and high school math classes. 

“What’s innovative about this approach is how it embeds career exploration into core academic lessons by transforming math lessons to make the math procedures relevant to real world careers,” Elaine Perea said, director of the Public Education Department’s College and Career Readiness Bureau. “It also uses labor market data to support career exploration and enhance students’ understanding of good jobs in their communities.”

Pathway 2 Careers was recently added to New Mexico’s list of High-Quality Instructional Materials.

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