Close the opportunity gap by providing small group math instruction for our highest need students in order to accelerate their academic growth.

2014 Results and Characteristics of High Growth Implementations, Post 1 of 2

2014 Results and Characteristics of High Growth Implementations, Post 1 of 2

By Tim Johnson, Director of Denver Math Fellows

 

Sharing our 2014 results for the first year of our district wide expansion in about 40 schools. Some bright spots and definitely areas to expand impact. I’ll start with the highlights and follow up with a second post on our adjustments and areas of growth.

 

See below for grade level growth and achievement (This data represents results for 1,231 4th graders, 1,074 6th graders and 1,193 8th graders).

 

1. Huge growth for 6th graders participating in the program. 64 median growth percentile (MGP) for cohort of students in program compared to 49 MGP the previous year for the same cohort of students (+15).

 

Grade Level Growth

 

2. Large increase in percent of students scoring proficient or advanced at 4th grade with an increase of 9 percentage points for the same cohort of students from 2013 to 2014.

Grade Level Achievement

We also saw substantial movement of at least one proficiency level–for the most part the movement was from the lowest achievement band to partially proficient:

Percent of students moving up at least one proficiency band 4th Grade 24%
6th Grade 19%
8th Grade 13%

School level highlights, high growth implementations (65 MGP or above is considered high growth):

School Name Number of Students Served MGP of Students Served
Skinner MS 59 82
Place Bridge Academy K8 128 76.5
Hamilton MS 99 76
Merrill MS 99 75
Howell MS – 6th Grade 60 74
Greenlee ES 49 73
Columbian ES 37 72
Smith ES 53 72
Kepner MS – 6th Grade 148 71
Florida Pitt Waller K8 120 69.5
Beach Court ES 50 69
Columbine ES 23 69
Henry MS 83 68
Swansea ES 73 67
Hill MS – 6th Grade 76 65
Lake MS – 6th Grade 57 65
MLK 6-12 – 8th Grade 175 65

Some common characteristics of high growth implementations:

  1. Fellows were incorporated into school team and math teachers were encouraged to collaborate with fellows to meet the needs of shared students
  2. Fellow coordinators built mission aligned teams, provided opportunities for choice and fellow leadership within program parameters
  3. Instruction: Provided targeted support based on student need and intentional support of grade level content
  4. Culture: Sense of urgency, high expectations for all students, intentional pacing

Stay tuned for second post on areas we are working to improve and our expand impact…