ISU researcher’s math monitoring measures go national
Online professional development system will allow teachers nationwide to assess and address students’ algebra ailments
Anne Foegen, associate professor in curriculum and instruction, presents one of many assessment quizzes she designed. The quizzes will be made available to teachers nationwide to monitor students' progress in algebra with greater accuracy, so teachers can focus on meeting each student’s particular learning needs.
By
Steve Adams
Math - algebra in particular - may not be the favorite subject of students, but according to Anne Foegen, associate professor in curriculum and instruction, students’ success in the subject is vital to their future.
“Algebra often serves a gatekeeper function,” Foegen said. “For many students, algebra is the point where they get stuck – but if students can’t get through algebra, they’re going to struggle in the advanced mathematics that is needed to get a college degree and has been linked to higher-paying jobs.”
But Foegen is working to make algebra a gatekeeper no more through a grant supporting her Professional Development for Algebra Progress Monitoring project (PD-APM), which aims to help all students – and especially those with or at risk for disabilities – succeed in the subject.
The three-year project is funded by a grant of nearly $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Educational Sciences. As the principal investigator for the project, Foegen is working with a team of researchers from Iowa State University and Clemson University, totals nearly $1.5 million. Together, the collaborators will develop an online multimedia professional development model that will provide teachers with knowledge and skills necessary to use ISU-developed measures of algebra progress to monitor their students’ improvement.
The progress monitoring measures were developed and tested by Foegen and Jeanette Olson, project coordinator, through Algebra Assessment and Instruction: Meeting Standards (AAIMS), a U.S. Department of Education grant that ran from 2004 to 2007. The measures consist of quizzes used to take students’ ‘academic temperature,’ letting teachers know which students – and areas of algebra concepts – need more attention. A dozen versions of the quizzes exist so that students’ competencies and improvement can be measured repeatedly over time. Foegen said positive feedback from pilot tests of these assessments played a large role in securing the PD-APM grant.
“Since the AAIMS project ended, we have had a lot of interest from general and special education teachers around the country who wanted to use the assessment measures,” Foegen said. “We have been providing on-site training workshops for teachers in several states. With this grant, we will make the assessments more available to all teachers by allowing them to access the measures after completing online activities in which they demonstrate that they are scoring students accurately and interpreting the data correctly.”
Before the professional development content is put online, it will be refined, said Foegen. In the first year of the grant, work will focus on shifting the existing face-to-face training workshop to an online format so that teachers nationwide can receive instruction more quickly and efficiently. Then, the researchers will develop online tools that teachers can use to manage their students’ progress monitoring data and analyze student responses to develop more effective instructional methods.
Across each of the phases of the project, Iowa State students who are preparing to become special education teachers or math teachers will test the online materials to identify any glitches. Following these pilot tests, four cohorts of special education and general education teachers in Iowa and South Carolina will complete the online training and use the web-based scoring and data management tools, and provide feedback for further refining the professional development package.
Though she acknowledged that the process is a long one, Foegen said the final result of PD-APM will be well worth the time and effort.
“If the tools that we are using to assess students’ competencies can give us early information about which students are struggling and in what areas, we can get a system of support to them before they get discouraged and frustrated,” Foegen said. “Students will be more likely to persevere, higher math will be more accessible to them, and they will have more opportunity to go to college and get higher-paying jobs.”
Math For All
Foegen said math - especially algebra - can often act as a gatekeeper for students, particularly those with learning disabilities. Without advanced math skills, students are limited in their ability to get a college degree and access to higher-paying jobs.
With her new assessment methods, Foegen aims to make math accessible for all. A dozen quizzes were created to measure student competency over different algebra concepts. With continuous measurement and feedback from teachers, students can improve their abilities and understanding of the study.
“If the tools that we are using to assess students’ competencies can give us early information about which students are struggling and in what areas, we can get a system of support to them before they get discouraged and frustrated,” Foegen said. “Students will be more likely to persevere, higher math will be more accessible to them, and they will have more opportunity to go to college and get higher-paying jobs.”
