Dive Brief:
- When rolling out a new math curriculum, the year before launch — or “Year 0” — is more important than the launch year itself, according to a new case study from the National Math Improvement Project that examines how both New York City Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia handled pre-implementation planning.
- New York’s NYC Solves Initiative has rolled out to several hundred due to high demand. Philadelphia, meanwhile, made a district-wide investment in high-quality instructional materials with a phased rollout, boosting math scores on the state assessment — especially among marginalized groups.
- The case study chronicles how both districts built the foundations of their efforts during Year 0 through teacher buy-in, feedback loops, family engagement, aligned professional development, and communities of practice across schools.
Dive Insight:
New York began its NYC Solves efforts with Algebra I in 260 high schools, adopted a phased approach centered on educator prep, built space for providing that learning, and enabled the system to test, refine and build buy-in before scaling up, the case study says.
NYC Solves mirrored an earlier literacy effort called New York City Reads while adopting a shift toward “more thinking about building students’ sense-making and conceptual understanding,” said Hillary Rinaldi, director of NMIP.
“It’s also the first time New York has narrowed which curriculum is in place across their schools. There is certainly teacher and school autonomy” in how best to implement it, Rinaldi said, but “the goal was about addressing those longstanding challenges of very fragmented materials and varied instructional practices.”
Likewise, Philadelphia brought together system leaders, teachers, families and community members to select upgraded instructional resources that best supported rigorous and equitable instruction, planning also to deploy in phases.
During the pre-implementation work, Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington undertook “listening and learning tours” across the district that included focus groups to better understand what students, families and teachers wanted in terms of high-quality math resources, keeping in mind that the district has a very transient population, said Nyshawana Francis-Thompson, the district's chief of curriculum and instruction.
“It has to be a people-centered process, interacting with stakeholders to understand their needs,” she said.
Key to Year 0 is the investment in professional learning for teachers who are internalizing the new curriculum to carry out the lessons with fidelity and meet specific student needs, along with instructional leaders, coaches, and administrators who are supporting and reinforcing coherence across the work, Rinaldi said.
“We’re focused on building a math mindset,” she said. “Each of the districts has taken a different approach to what that means. All of them are working on change management to make sure every student feels like they can be successful in mathematics.”
Philadelphia has seen gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress of 7 percentage points and higher across the board, Francis-Thompson said.
“You continue to see students achieving, even as we know we have more work to do,” she said, adding that the work the district is doing is fueling discussion on how to achieve continuous improvement.
Aside from New York City Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia, the six districts participating in NMIP include Chicago Public Schools, Houston Independent School District, Los Angeles Unified School District and Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
Francis-Thompson said that the opportunity for Philadelphia to interact with the five other districts, which collectively serve nearly 2.5 million students, as part of NMIP has boosted the ability to be innovative and thoughtful.
“It’s more than just the buying of the materials. That’s the foundation,” she said. “How do you go about implementing those materials? What is happening in classrooms with teachers and students? We are being very intentional about making adjustments based on the needs of our students.”
NMIP has catalyzed the work of its districts and others, Rinaldi added.
“We are making progress, and we are proud of our gains,” she said. “Other districts can do this, too, regardless of their size, regardless of their state or the demographics of their students. There are lessons that can be learned to ensure more students are meeting outcomes and seeing successes.”
