SPRINGFIELD  – A new way to teach math is showing positive results at a pilot program at the Chestnut Accelerated Middle School: Talented & Gifted (TAG).
    School Superintendent Daniel Warwick and TAG Principal Colleen O’ Connor presented a status report on “Teach to One: Math” (TTO) on March 3.

TAG is part of the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership that allows individual principals greater freedom to custom a curriculum specifically for their students.

Chris Gabrielli, the CEO of the Empowerment Zone, said the Empowerment Zone is “setting conditions so schools can determine their own paths.”

O’Connor said that although TAG is for high achieving students there is still a wide range of students. TTO addresses the fact that one teacher is assigned to 20 students who are learning math at various levels.

O’Connor described TTO has a “radically different way” of teaching math. At the end of every class students receive an “exit ticket” that shows where they are in their progress. The program assigns each student to one of nine instructional approaches every day based on the previous day’s assessment. The model was found to deliver 1.5 years of learning in a school year.

“It’s going very well,” O’ Connor said, noting growth in math is “up tremendously.”

Warwick said, “Students need a strong foundation in math to be ready for high school and college. By working with New Classrooms, we’re providing students with that foundation by giving our teachers the tools to make personalizing math a reality. When they use Teach to One: Math, teachers can spend more time working together and collaborating. Meanwhile, students can engage in challenging lessons created to address their specific needs.”

Math teacher Chalais Carter explained TTO puts students into groups within the class. Each student can work traditionally with a teacher or in the small group and there is one math class three days a week and two classes two days a week. Once a student has passes a four to five question assessment, they can continue to the next unit, she explained.

Seventh graders Tandy Brownell and Ashley Judkins both said through the new program students learn at their own pace.

O’Connor explained to Reminder Publications the sixth through eighth grades at TAG started the new program in August 2016. A donation from The Empowerment Zone made the program a reality and O’Connor said the costs for TTO will be part of the school’s budget for the next fiscal year.

She said one aspect of the program that she called “the most important” is it allows the student to fill in any learning gaps from previous grades.

O’Connor said her students will see more traditional means of teaching math when they go to high school, which she called “a challenge,” but she believes that most of the TAG graduates will be in advanced placement courses.

Mayor Domenic Sarno noted that Gov. Charlie Baker has seen the Empowerment Zone model as a “shining light” and hopes other school districts will see it as a model.