Summers County teachers leading improvement of mathematics teaching and learning as part of statewide network

HINTON W.Va. (Hinton News) – Mathematics teachers from Summers County Comprehensive High School have collaborated over the past year to improve mathematics teaching and learning as part of the statewide “Mountaineer Mathematics Master Teachers” (M3T) network. As part of the network, the teachers from Summers County work as a M3T “local improvement team,” focused on a shared problem faced across their mathematics classrooms, testing a shared solution, and working with other educators across the state to think about the impact and next steps.

“It has been wonderful to bring in people from the county to be part of this work with me. Bringing people from our local schools into this network of wonderful teachers across the state helps us better help our students. All of us is greater than any of us,” said Ellen Holt, a mathematics teacher at Summers County Comprehensive High School and one of 39 “M3T Fellows” from 26 county school districts across the state who facilitates the team’s work.

This year, more than 100 middle and high school mathematics teachers, in addition to the Fellows, have participated in the network through local improvement teams, impacting the experiences of more than 7,000 students to engage with mathematics more meaningfully in classrooms.

The M3T project network began in 2020 thanks to a six-year, $3 million grant to West Virginia University from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, with additional support from the West Virginia Department of Education. The M3T project builds on previous efforts to support secondary mathematics instructional improvement that started in Pocahontas County over a decade ago, with an additional focus on promoting opportunities for teachers to assume leadership roles in that work.

The Summers County team has worked for the past year to address student perceptions of relevance in their mathematics classrooms. Guided by the M3T network’s approach to improvement, the team has tested the use of 3-Act Tasks, which improved student perceptions of how math is relevant to their everyday lives. From pre- and post-survey questions, student perceptions of how different mathematics topics were relevant to the real world improved over the course of the 2-week cycle.

Across the M3T network, other teams have focused on problems such as students’ perseverance with mathematics, students’ willingness to share their mathematical thinking in class, and the need for students to develop mathematical language. The entire M3T network also started the year with a focus on the teaching and learning of data and statistics—a growing area of focus in the mathematics curriculum.

Those efforts have had an impact on both teachers and students across the state. Teachers participating in the M3T network report that the work is professionally worthwhile, valuable, and impactful at a far higher rate than West Virginia teachers rate available professional development. Participating teachers in M3T also report a higher likelihood of staying in the teaching profession for longer. In a recent analysis of middle schools with M3T Local Improvement Teams operating for two consecutive years, student pass rates on state assessments have increased at a higher rate than the state average, nearly doubling in the 8th grade.

“I have learned a lot. Two specific areas that working with this group has helped me in would have to be collaboration, allowing me to learn from others as well as share my ideas with other people,” said Jacob Persiani, a mathematics teacher from Summers County Comprehensive High School, and a participant in the group. “It has also shown me that there’s always room for improvement as a teacher, we are never perfect in being the best for our students as there is always room to grow for them,”

While the M3T project grant supports the activity of Holt as a Fellow, Summers County Schools has supported the work of the local improvement team, providing time and resources for the group to meet. Both Holt and Persiani work at Summers County Comprehensive High School, where they have an opportunity to co-teach together daily.

“When I look at the positive impact that M3T has had, I look at its indirect impact on students. That indirect impact is the impact it has had on their teacher. Since joining M3T, Ms Holt has been able to expand her practice and leadership in the area of Mathematics. This has given her a new level of passion for the subject and supporting student achievement.”, said Kevin Green, principal of Summers County Comprehensive High School. “As we all know, a passionate and dedicated educator is the primary key to student achievement, and M3T has truly given Ms. Holt a vehicle to explore and develop her passion."

In addition to their work as a team and their interactions with other educators across the M3T network, the teachers will be sharing their progress through a poster presentation at the annual conference of the West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, held in March. Holt also led a session at the WVCTM conference on preparing for the new digital SAT and has led other professional development sessions within Summers County Schools. M3T Fellows have also been part of presentations at national conferences focused on mathematics education, teacher leadership, and improvement in education.

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