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What Adult Learners Want Us to Know About Mathematics Discourse

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What Adult Learners Want Us to Know About Mathematics Discourse

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Meaningful mathematics discourse isn’t just about what instructors do, but it’s also about how students take up the invitation to learn. For their final article in the series, “Listening to Students: How Adult Learners Make Sense of Mathematics Discourse,” which focuses on mathematics discourse in adult basic education (ABE) classrooms, Brent E. Jackson, PhD (WestEd) and Haley McNamara (WestEd), turn the spotlight on adult learners, asking them to reflect on the classroom practices that made the greatest impact on their learning. 

Using video-cued interviews, researchers invited Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) learners to watch classroom clips and share what they noticed. Their responses reveal a powerful message: students recognize, appreciate, and benefit from classrooms where discussion, collaboration, and reasoning are at the center of learning.

Three Lessons from Adult Learners

1. Explanation Enhances Understanding

Students consistently described the value of explaining their reasoning and hearing how others approached the same problem. One learner, Wyonna, appreciated being shown more than one path to a solution, noting that the approach was “teaching me more than one way how to do something.” Rather than focusing on a single correct answer, they appreciated opportunities to compare strategies, make sense of different perspectives, and learn from one another. These conversations helped transform mathematics into a shared learning experience.

2. Participation Takes Many Forms

The learners challenged a common assumption: that participation means always speaking up. Another learner, Gary, described days when listening was the more useful posture, noting that “somedays I know I wasn’t really talking too much.” Gary recognized that some days he talked a lot and other days he did not, and that simply “listening to my peers” in the discussion could be worthwhile in its own right. To them, sometimes contributing to discussion felt right; other times, listening carefully was the most productive way to learn. What mattered most was remaining intellectually engaged and recognizing that learners can  contribute to the classroom community in varied ways.

3. Community Makes Learning Possible

One of the strongest themes to emerge was the importance of belonging. Students described classrooms where respectful discussion, collaborative problem-solving, and even laughter helped create an environment where they felt comfortable taking risks. One learner, Quinn, echoed the same sense of ease, describing a class that enjoyed working in groups and an instructor who “knows our personalities” and used that knowledge to decide who to put together. They recognized that a sense of community was intentionally cultivated by their instructors through shared norms, thoughtful facilitation, and opportunities for every learner to contribute.

Why Student Voices Matter

For educators, these reflections offer an important reminder: adult learners notice the instructional moves that support their learning. Even when they’re challenged to explain their thinking or work through productive struggle, they understand the purpose behind those experiences—and they value them. The findings also reinforce the role of ANDE’s Cultivating Inclusive & Resilient Communities of Learners (CIRCL) Supports, which help build the confidence, belonging, and collaborative culture that make rich mathematical discussions possible.

This is a compelling reminder that the best way to understand the impact of our teaching is to listen to the learners themselves. Their voices affirm that when instructors create discourse-rich classrooms they are also building students’ confidence, strengthening their reasoning, and welcoming learners to be active members of a learning community.

Access the full article Listening to Students: How Adult Learners Make Sense of Mathematics Discourse to learn more. This article is the third and final installment in the ANDE mathematics discourse series, published in The Math Practitioner newsletter of the Adult Numeracy Network. To read the full newsletter, you will need to be a member of the Adult Numeracy Network.

The ANDE project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education (Award #R305N210029).

To learn more about ANDE and other research work that Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd is engaged in, sign up for our In Sum newsletter and visit the ANDE OER website.

 

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From Answer-Giver to Thinking Facilitator: How to Build Independent Learners in Math Class

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In their article “Creating Independent Learners in Mathematics Class,” published in The Math Practitioner newsletter of the Adult Numeracy Network, Brent E. Jackson, PhD (WestEd), along with Kim Mihalik and Haley McNamara (WestEd), argue that success in mathematics shouldn’t just be about getting the right answer. Instead, the focus should be on developing students into independent thinkers who can learn on their own.

This is especially important in adult basic education (ABE), where students have diverse goals, such as advancing their careers or becoming more involved in their communities. To achieve these ambitions, they need the ability to learn independently, not just memorize steps.

Why Independent Learning Matters

Independent learners don’t wait to be told what to do. They:

  • try different strategies when faced with a challenge,
  • monitor and adjust their thinking,
  • persist through uncertainty, and
  • apply what they’ve learned in new situations.

By contrast, dependent learners often rely on the teacher to carry the mental load. They may hesitate to begin tasks, seek constant reassurance, or disengage when they don’t immediately know what to do.

This isn’t a question of ability. It’s a question of opportunity. When students are consistently guided step-by-step, they may never develop the habits and confidence needed to think for themselves.

The Subtle Ways We Reinforce Dependence

Consider a common classroom interaction: a student is stuck, and the teacher steps in to help. The teacher asks a series of guiding questions, narrowing the path until the student arrives at the correct answer.

It feels supportive, and in many ways, it is. But it can also send an unintended message: You can’t do this without me.

When teachers do most of the thinking, such as breaking down problems, steering decisions, and confirming each step, students have fewer opportunities to grapple with ideas, make sense of mistakes, or build confidence in their own reasoning.

Over time, this pattern can reinforce dependence.

Shifting the Role of the Teacher

What happens when teachers step back just enough to let students step forward?

A shift in instructional approach, particularly in how teachers facilitate classroom conversations, can make a powerful difference. Three simple but impactful strategies can help:

1. Invite Student Thinking

Instead of leading students toward a specific method, ask open-ended questions:

    • What are you thinking?
    • Can you solve it differently?
    • What questions do you have about this approach?

These prompts create space for students to share their ideas, even if they’re incomplete or incorrect, and position their thinking as central to the learning process.

2. Use Wait Time Intentionally

Silence can feel uncomfortable, but it’s essential for thinking. Giving students time to process a question signals that effort matters more than speed. It also allows them to develop strategies for getting unstuck, without immediate intervention.

3. Engage with Peer Reasoning

Encourage students to interact with each other’s ideas:

    • Compare different methods
    • Ask clarifying questions
    • Agree or disagree, and explain why

When students analyze and build on others’ thinking, they deepen their own understanding and begin to see themselves as capable contributors.

The Role of Productive Struggle

One of the biggest tensions teachers face is knowing when to step in. Time is limited, and watching students struggle, especially when they’re heading in the wrong direction, can be difficult. But not all struggle is a problem.

Productive struggle is where real learning happens. When students test ideas, make mistakes, and revise their thinking, they build stronger connections and greater confidence. They also begin to trust their own ability to figure things out.

The key is not to remove struggle, but to support it. Creating a classroom culture where mistakes are normalized and effort is valued helps students stay engaged, even when the path isn’t clear.

Building a Culture of Independence

Instructional strategies alone aren’t enough. Students need an environment where they feel safe to take risks and where their contributions matter.

Approaches like the Cultivating Inclusive, Resilient Communities of Learning (CIRCL) framework emphasize:

  • A sense of belonging
  • Reduced anxiety around math
  • Encouragement of a growth mindset

When students feel supported socially and emotionally, they are more willing to participate, persist, and take ownership of their learning.

Reflection: The Starting Point for Change

Perhaps the most powerful insight is this: small shifts in teaching practice can have a big impact, but they require intentional reflection.

Recording lessons, analyzing questioning patterns, and asking “Who is doing the thinking?” can reveal habits that either support or hinder independence.

The goal isn’t to step away entirely. It’s to shift from being the primary problem-solver to a facilitator of thinking, someone who creates the conditions for students to do the cognitive work themselves.

Rethinking Success in Math Class

If we want students to succeed beyond the classroom, we need to redefine what success looks like within it. It’s not just about correct answers. It’s about confidence, persistence, and the ability to learn independently.

When educators embrace this shift, math classrooms become more than places where problems are solved—they become spaces where learners are built.

For a deeper look at classroom examples, teacher reflection, and discourse strategies in practice, read the full article. To access the full The Math Practitioner newsletter of the Adult Numeracy Network, you will need to be a member of the network.

The ANDE project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education (Award #R305N210029).

To learn more about ANDE and other research work that Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd is engaged in, sign up for our In Sum newsletter.

 

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Transforming Math Learning for Adults Through Talk: Three Routines from WestEd’s ANDE Project

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In his article “Routines to Scaffold Mathematics Discourse,” published in The Math Practitioner newsletter of the Adult Numeracy Network, Brent E. Jackson, PhD (WestEd), shares how three simple discussion routines can help both teachers and students engage more authentically with math. Integrated throughout the Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) curriculum, which is part of a course model designed to improve mathematics teaching and learning in adult basic education, these routines make math discourse—talking about reasoning, questions, and strategies—both approachable and effective for adult learners and instructors.

Why Math Talk Matters

For many adult students, math class has meant memorizing formulas and working quietly toward the “right” answer. But as Jackson explains, true learning happens when students can discuss ideas, justify their reasoning, and listen to different perspectives.

At first, both teachers and students were initially hesitant about this shift. That’s why the ANDE team built in signature routines—structured warm-ups, crafted with adult learners and instructors in mind, that give everyone a safe, low-stakes way to practice math talk. Over time, these routines helped instructors feel more confident leading discussions and learners feel more comfortable contributing their voices.

Three Signature Routines

According to Jackson, the team focused on three main strategies for classroom discussions:

  • Inviting student participation – helping start conversations, bring out different viewpoints, and encourage students to listen to one another.
  • Orienting to each other’s reasoning – empowering students to consider different ways of thinking, build on their classmates’ ideas, and engage in active listening.
  • Asking students to “revoice” – encouraging students to restate what another student said to show understanding, listen carefully, and take a more active role in the discussion.

These engagement strategies are woven into the routines, providing an encouraging environment for teachers to practice new ways of engaging in discussions. Below are example signature routines that focus on three types of discourse moves, or an action taken by an instructor to guide the classroom conversations and discussions. Each routine highlights the discourse moves of inviting, orienting, or asking. 

Signature Routine 1: Which One Doesn’t Belong?

In this routine example, students are “invited” to examine four numbers, shapes, or fractions and decide which doesn’t fit—and why. Each student “orients” themselves by discussing what they discover and engaging in active listening amongst themselves. With no single right answer, the instructor asks students to share their opinions and to “revoice” others, with the goal being to justify thinking and explore multiple perspectives.

Signature Routine 2: What Do You Notice? What Do You Wonder?

For this sample routine, students are “invited” to view a graph, table, or diagram and “orient” themselves by sharing observations and questions. This routine provides the space for students to “ask” the questions that sparks curiosity, makes room for all learners, and gives teachers insight into student understanding.

Signature Routine 3: Comparing Solved Problems

In this last example, students are “invited” to look at two solutions to the same problem—one correct, one incorrect—and “orient” their discussions on the similarities and differences. This routine not only “asks” students to rethink mistakes but also normalizes mistakes as part of learning and strengthens conceptual understanding.

“Math isn’t just about answers—it’s about ideas, community, and confidence.”

The Impact

These routines are small but powerful. They:

  • encourage participation from every student,
  • give teachers structured practice with leading discourse, and
  • move learners away from memorization and toward collaboration and sense-making.

By embedding these routines into lessons, instructors can create a culture where learners see themselves as capable mathematicians and where classroom dialogue naturally extends beyond the warm-ups.

Looking Ahead

Access Jackson’s full article to read more on improving math discussions in adult education, which is the first of a three-part series for the Adult Numeracy Network‘s The Math Practitioner newsletter. 

The next articles, which will be published in winter and spring of 2026, will offer more strategies and tools for teachers who want to encourage conversation and collaboration in their math classes. 

To read the full The Math Practitioner newsletter, you will need to be a member of the Adult Numeracy Network.

The ANDE project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education (Award #R305N210029).

To learn more about ANDE and other research work that Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd is engaged in, sign up for our In Sum newsletter.

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Expanding Access to Dual Enrollment: A New Pathway through Quantway

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Dual enrollment programs serve as a bridge for high school students to access college-level coursework, earn college credit, and gain skills and mindsets to prepare for college. Yet, these programs have historically been limited in reach, often serving a select group of high-achieving students. A newly funded partnership between Carnegie Math Pathways and Dallas College aims to change that narrative.

Carnegie Math Pathways was recently awarded a 5-year, $5.9 million Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant to collaborate with Dallas College, Dallas-area high schools, Motivate Lab, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to develop and assess an innovative adaptation of Quantway for dual enrollment.

Quantway is Carnegie Math Pathways’ research-based, college-level quantitative reasoning course. Originally designed to increase access to and outcomes in gateway college mathematics, it is now set to expand dual enrollment access by offering Dallas-area high school students with a pathway beyond the traditional Algebra course to gain early exposure to college-level math. Quantway Dual Enrollment aims to increase college readiness and attainment through a rigorous math course option that is designed to support students with non-STEM college and career goals.

“We’re excited for the opportunity to collaborate with educators, parents, and students to create a new kind of dual enrollment course that unlocks postsecondary opportunities and offers a college-level math option that is better aligned for some students goals,” said Ann Edwards, Director of Carnegie Math Pathways.

Dual Enrollment Quantway will feature many of the key elements of Carnegie Math Pathways, which have proven to have a positive effect on student learning. Students will engage with real-world applications of math relatable to high school student lives and focused on personal finance, health, technology and more. The course will also use a collaborative learning approach that promotes having students explore ideas and learn together.

The dual enrollment course will also integrate strategies and practices through a framework called Cultivating Learning Identities, Mindsets, and Readiness (CLIMR) designed specifically to foster in high school students a positive identity as math learners as well as study skills and mindsets beneficial for college-level coursework.

“We are excited to continue working together with Carnegie Math Pathways and WestEd on this new opportunity to develop an innovative course that expands college-level learning options to more of our high school students and supports their success and advancement to higher education,” said Raghunath Kanakala, Vice Provost of the School of Engineering, Technology, Mathematics, and Sciences at Dallas College.

Year 1 of the study will focus on building and pilot testing the course, the instructor resources, and professional development. This will be followed by a full roll-out of implementation alongside an impact study over two academic years. An analysis of the findings will take place in the final year. We look forward to sharing updates and learning from the project as it unfolds.

 

Stay informed on this project and other research work that Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd is engaged in by signing up for our In Sum newsletter.

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Filling a Missing Piece: Strengthening Adult Numeracy Education for the 21st Century

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Numeracy skills, or the ability to understand and calculate using simple numbers, along with digital literacy and problem-solving abilities, enable a person to engage with and make sense of the world around them. These essential skills are more critical than ever for economic mobility and healthy civic participation in today’s society. Yet, the latest global survey of adult skills presents a troubling picture for the United States. Among adults in America, these skills have declined in recent years. According to the most recent PIAAC report, a third of U.S. adults lack basic numeracy and adaptive problem solving skills to navigate dynamic situations.

While workforce development programs have expanded over the last decade, many programs are missing a focus on building and maintaining foundational skills. Adults must have these critical skills—such as reading, writing, and applying basic math concepts—in order to succeed in more targeted or advanced training and learning, and to enter skilled jobs.

That’s where adult basic education (ABE) comes in. ABE offers adult learners foundational skills training in literacy, numeracy, and the use of technology to support their needs and workforce development. And new investments and a consortium of researchers and practitioners are helping elevate the visibility of the field and strengthen outcomes for learners. Among these is the Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) project, a partnership between Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd, JSI/World Education, and Pennsylvania’s Department of Education, which is reimagining foundational mathematics education for adults. 

Building a Stronger Foundation Through a New Vision for Adult Math Education

According to the OECD’s report on the 2023 Survey of Adult Skills, skills in numeracy, literacy, and advanced problem-solving are a driving force in adults’ employability and increased income—more so even than formal education. Notably, numeracy has an especially strong association with adults’ employability, according to the OECD report. Yet, much like students across educational levels, for many adult learners math is a source of anxiety and a barrier to academic and career goals.

Drawing on mathematics reform research and models at the postsecondary level, an initial landscape review, and feedback from early course testing, ANDE has identified several opportunities for educators to rethink basic mathematics education for adults:

  • Increase relevance: Adults need relevant and engaging ways to learn about and practice math that acknowledges and accesses their prior knowledge and personal experiences.
  • Invest in instructor professional development: Instructors need professional development and ongoing support to build capacity with the content, implement research-based instructional approaches, and integrate technology tools into their teaching.
  • Include technology: Learners and instructors need user-friendly and accessible technology tools in the classroom that provide targeted just-in-time support and immediate feedback to enhance math learning and problem-solving capacity.
  • Build in more flexibility and support: Learners need greater supports to persist and complete courses once enrolled—in terms of course structures oriented to motivate progress and in-class practices that help learners navigate math anxiety, feel supported, and persist.

With these in mind, ANDE has worked with Pennsylvania adult educators and students over the last three years to develop and refine a new kind of numeracy course with accompanying educator supports that improves outcomes and builds robust mathematical reasoning and digital literacy skills for life. 

A Comprehensive Model of Change

The ANDE model takes a new approach to adult education that responds to the needs highlighted above. Key features of ANDE include the following:

  • Comprehensive and relevant adult numeracy curriculum: ANDE offers adult educators a thoughtfully scaffolded adult numeracy curriculum designed to support students to learn and master basic numeracy skills through lessons that situate the math in real-world and relevant contexts familiar to adults, such as banking and budgeting, grocery shopping, home repair, and assessing news and data.
  • Active, collaborative, and discussion-based instructional approach: Research shows that engaging in mathematical discourse enriches and strengthens student learning. The instructional approach used with ANDE moves away from teacher-directed instruction to encouraging adult learners to explore math and mathematical reasoning with each other through guided, practical, and concrete examples. 
  • Personalized and targeted supports using technology: ANDE includes an online learning platform that offers learners opportunities for personalized practice, feedback on their attempts, and a chance to redo and review to master the content. Use of the platform and engagement with the lessons online not only deepens the math learning but also builds students’ ability to navigate technology.
  • Supportive policies and practices: Informed by current research on adult motivation and persistence, the ANDE model encourages clearly defining term dates and offering condensed and accelerated courses. It also incorporates practices and routines to build supportive mindsets and learning environments (see the CIRCL package for resources that have been adapted for use in the adult education space).
  • Ongoing professional development supports: Alongside the course, ANDE has created a professional development system that helps instructors build their capacity to not only teach this course but to implement best practices in mathematics instruction for adults. Instructors receive initial training as well as ongoing coaching, tailored instructor resources to support the new instructional approach, and connection with peer educators to share experiences and troubleshoot.

Anecdotal evidence from early testing has shown that elements of the model are already having an impact. Reflecting on the student learning experience, one adult educator noted how the focus on relevance is helping students think about math differently: “Everybody hates math when they come into the GED class. I think [ANDE] changes their perceptions because they see these are some of the things they do in their lives every day.”

Meanwhile, instructors are learning effective approaches to support student learning. One educator shared, “I really like the [emphasis on] talking about math rather than just ‘Here’s a problem. Solve it.’” Another focused on their ability to better understand the mathematical reasoning process and their students’ thinking: “​​It helps me understand more as to mathematical reasoning so I’m able to explain it a little bit more, instead of saying, ‘this is how you do it’ and ‘that will get you the right answer and that’s all you need to worry about.’”

A Path Forward for Adult Mathematics Education 

Foundational skills building is essential for adult learners, and adult basic education offers a path to get there. Still, there are important questions about how instructors, administrators, policymakers, and researchers can reimagine the adult education space and create the conditions for high-quality learning to happen more reliably. 

ANDE highlights clear opportunities to enhance how we deliver adult mathematics education. Following pilot testing this year, we look forward to sharing insights on the effectiveness of ANDE’s course model in deepening math and technology skills and improving learner outcomes. With more understanding of what strengthens adult numeracy learning, we hope to support adult educators and students nationwide with evidence-based strategies and resources that help reverse the trend of declining adult numeracy skills. 

 

Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era (ANDE) is a project supported by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education through Award #R305N210029.

To learn more about this and other research work that Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd is engaged in, sign up for our In Sum newsletter.

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What Makes Scaling Work? Looking at Two Leadership Practices that Make or Break Efforts to Scale Innovations

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The challenges of scaling effective interventions and innovations in postsecondary institutions are well known (Asera et al., 2013). In this blog post, drawing upon insights from the NSF-funded Scaling Up through Networked Improvement (SUNI) project, we share two leadership practices that are key to scaling efforts. This knowledge will provide practitioners with tools and insights they can put in action today, and it will provide researchers with a new lens to view leadership for change.

Prior research tells us about the importance of collaborative, shared, distributed leadership for spreading innovation in their institutions. Leaders who seek to share the burden of leadership and decision-making have to build trust and attend to hierarchies if they want to effectively engage others in leadership work (Kater & Burke, 2022; Lizier et al., 2022). If leaders want to put in place innovations that have proven promising or effective, they must also pay attention to existing and changing policy and institutional structures at their college (Asera et al., 2013). 

But how exactly do leaders attend to these structures and relationships that can make or break efforts to scale? The research tells us what leaders ought to do, but we need to understand how they do it. 

Through the SUNI study, our research team sought to answer this question by focusing on practices. We define practices as actions that are simultaneously structured and that structure further action: instead of debating between whether leaders’ actions are dictated by their environments or whether leaders can actively shape those environments, we view practices as a way to understand how both are true at the same time (Feldman & Worline, 2016). 

We studied efforts to scale the Carnegie Math Pathways (CMP) across three colleges to understand what actions leaders were taking and the way those interactions were simultaneously constrained and enabled by their environments. The Carnegie Math Pathways, a reform of development mathematics involving the implementation of innovative math pathways, uses an evidence-based, collaborative instructional approach and contextualized curricula to create a supportive and engaging math learning experience that helps students persist and succeed in gateway college math. 

To understand how leaders came to shape the scaling efforts of their math pathways we conducted interviews with institution leaders and faculty, conducted site visits, and looked at meeting artifacts and meeting notes. Our analysis revealed that two practices were central to whether scaling efforts broke down or succeeded: tracking and leveraging. Tracking refers to how leaders pay attention to the institutional policies, practices, and structures that might get in the way of or help advance scaling efforts. Leveraging, on the other hand, refers to how leaders use those institutional policies, practices, and structures to support or inhibit scaling practices. 

Our analysis revealed a wide range of factors that leaders tracked at their institution and the very specific ways they sought to leverage those factors to advance the position of their math pathways to scale. 

In this blog post, we highlight a particularly successful case: Northern Technical College (NTC). NTC was wildly successful at scaling the math pathways reforms. The college offered just two sections (enrolling 27 total students) of the Carnegie Math Pathways quantitative reasoning course, Quantway Core, in the fall of 2019. In the fall of 2021, and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic no less, NTC had increased enrollments to over 200 students in 14 sections of the course. We turn now to tell the story of how leadership at NTC scaled their math pathways. 

 

Northern Technical College’s Successful Implementation and Scaling of CMP 

At NTC, the math department chair, Theo played a crucial role in scaling Quantway. Theo was the first to learn of Quantway in the department and, at first, was reticent to introduce the course to NTC given local conditions—NTC permits the introduction of new courses only when those courses are requirements for a certificate or degree program. However, the college later adopted Guided Pathways, an institutional change framework prioritizing structured guidance in selecting and completing courses, which presented an opportunity for Theo. Courses across the college, including within the math department, would have to be remapped and reorganized to implement Guided Pathways. Shortly after the implementation of Guided Pathways began, Theo pitched Quantway to several departments, starting with the Culinary Arts department given his knowledge of the department’s mathematical needs and his personal connections to the department. As a result, the Culinary Arts program adopted Quantway as one of its required math courses. 

After beginning with just two sections for Culinary Arts students in the first year of Quantway implementation, Theo continued to pitch Quantway to other programs and departments whose mathematical needs were well-aligned with the objectives of Quantway. Within just two years, Quantway expanded from 2 to 14 sections. 

 

Tracking and Leveraging at NTC 

Prior to even considering whether to adopt Quantway, Theo carefully tracked institutional policies that might limit Quantway’s ability to scale, including a policy that disallowed courses to be added unless they were requirements for a degree or certificate program. This caused Theo to delay advocating for Quantway adoption at the college, waiting for conditions that would enable Quantway to be more favorably considered.

More than a year later, when NTC decided to implement Guide Pathways across the institution, Theo tracked this shift and saw it as an opportunity to introduce Quantway. Anticipating that program directors would now be looking for a math course that would meet their students’ and programs’ needs, Theo leveraged this insight to pitch Quantway as a solution well-aligned to particular areas of study. “Every program was meeting to redo their course mapping,” Theo remarked. “They had to look at what courses they were requiring because they were really asked to start looking at all of the programs within one pillar [to support Guided Pathways].” 

Theo’s approach to selling Quantway to program directors and other leaders was effective. Not only was Theo keenly aware of the work that programs would need to engage in to be aligned with Guided Pathways, but he also carefully tracked the mathematics that students would need in each program and targeted his pitches to programs for which Quantway would be an ideal fit. 

As a result, several leaders took up Theo’s recommendation to implement Quantway as a required math course for their degree and certificate programs. With over 200 students enrolled per term, Quantway has continued to grow into a core part of the college’s vision. 

 

Lessons for leadership development

This study illustrates the power of closely examining the practices of leaders, at all levels, seeking to advance or limit innovations. Surfacing how leaders do the work of scaling informs the kinds of practices that leaders need to engage in, or begin to develop, to effectively scale reform efforts. 

Those responsible for preparing and developing leaders can help leaders develop more effective tracking practices by designing learning experiences aimed at helping them see and analyze existing and emergent priorities and policies of their institution and its departments. This builds on work by Iverson and colleagues (2020) around providing leadership development to STEM faculty to develop wider views of the institution. Leadership development can also focus on developing leaders’ leveraging practice, helping them to reframe barriers and challenges into opportunities that can play a crucial role in transforming the student experience at their institutions. 

Tracking and leveraging are crucial practices that constitute the work of distributed, collaborative leadership.  By having leaders learn to develop relationships and understand needs that they then leverage, leaders can more effectively engage their institutions to advance innovations that benefit students.

Leadership is not just a set of dispositions and skills, but a set of practices. Our study argues, for both research and development purposes, that attention to what leaders are doing and what they could be doing differently is critical to understanding, initiating, and sustaining institutional change.

 

References
Asera, R., McDonnell, R. P., Soricone, L., Anderson, N., & Endel, B. (2013). Thinking Big: A Framework for States on Scaling Up Community College Innovation. Jobs for the Future.
Conrad, K. L., & LeMay, L. E. (2020). Lessons from the field: Leading institutional change from the middle. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2020(191), 107-116.
Feldman, M., & Worline, M. (2016). The practicality of practice theory. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 15(2), 304-324.
Iverson, E. R., Bragg, D. D., & Eddy, P. L. (2020). How faculty change agents enact midlevel leadership in STEM. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2020(191), 67-79.
Kater, S. T., & Burke, D. (2022). Getting to shared governance: New perspectives for implementing governance. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2022(200), 37-50.
Lizier, A., Brooks, F., & Bizo, L. (2022). Importance of clarity, hierarchy, and trust in implementing distributed leadership in higher education. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 17411432221105154.
McPhail, I. P., & McPhail, C. J. (2020). Strategic planning as a leadership development tool for midlevel leaders. New Directions for Community Colleges, 2020(191), 21-33.

 

SUNI: Scaling Up Through Network Improvement is a project funded by the National Science Foundation: IUSE (Institutional and Community Transformation, Development and Implementation). To learn more about the research work of Carnegie Math Pathways, sign up for our In Sum newsletter.

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Comprehensive Support to Navigate the Reform Process: Exploring the New Strong Start to Finish Service Menu

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Originally published for and posted by Strong Start to Finish. Reposted here with permission.

For over a decade, Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd has been working alongside educators to design and implement math pathways solutions to support more students’ success in gateway college mathematics. Through this work, we’ve seen that it is possible to create more equitable learning systems that can benefit and support all learners. Yet, we’ve also come to understand that creating and effectively scaling developmental education reforms takes complex thinking, engagement of diverse stakeholders and a focus on equity at all levels. Because of this, we think Strong Start to Finish’s (SStF) newly updated Partner Services Menu is a helpful guide to institutions, decision-makers and change teams. 

The Partner Services Menu centers around six high-leverage service categories for developmental reforms — math pathways, corequisite support, placement redesign, other support structures and equity-first integration support.   

While the menu provides information about specific supports and services, it doesn’t mean that they need to be thought of in isolation. The value of this tool, from our perspective, is that it provides institutions and decision-makers with a useful framework to holistically prepare for and implement change. The tool aides strategic planning and scoping the needs and associated activities of institutional reform at multiple levels. The menu allows institutions to understand how the services intersect and build upon one another with the way the supports are presented. These supports enable leaders to identify the kinds of support needed and develop a more comprehensive plan to effectively achieve their reform goals.  

Seeing how these kinds of services have been combined in the past helps illustrate the benefits of using the Partner Services Menu. More impactful change plans are built when services are scaffolded across categories rather than selecting one-off services.  

Recently, we worked with a community college to redesign their math offerings and institute math pathways. This effort aimed to reduce equity gaps and improve student outcomes across their department. We supported the college as it engaged in multiple, overlapping activities to execute their planned changes. The following table shows how the overall body of work aligns to services from three of the four service categories in the SStF menu. 

 

Example of Institutional Activities  Related Services in Service Menu 
Restructuring and Case–making – Following the college math department’s decision to redesign their offerings and eliminate their developmental courses, key departmental leadership and math faculty worked with Carnegie Math Pathways. They worked to engage in math pathways case-making and course alignment consensus-building within and across departments. 

 

 Case-making for Math Pathways  
Professional Learning – Math faculty participated in Carnegie Math Pathways professional training in collaborative learning approaches and promoting productive student mindsets using social emotional student supports.   Equitable Teaching and Learning Strategies and Instructional Design 

Mindset Support 

Instructional support 
Leadership Support – Departmental leadership received coaching support from Carnegie Math Pathways’ administrator coaches to successfully organize, manage and sustain the change. Departmental leadership also received assistance to get buy-in from various institutional stakeholders, including faculty and advisors. 

 

 Math Pathways Action Planning 

Policy Development and/or Revision 

Leadership Development 

 

This college’s comprehensive approach to reform ultimately resulted in a successful transition. They saw markedly improved student outcomes by narrowing equity gaps in the students achieving college math credit and greater instructional confidence among the faculty.  

Creating impactful change requires broad thinking and engagement. The case above highlights the variety of actions and supports that institutions may need to execute a successful change plan. To increase equitable access and outcomes in college math, structural changes are not enough for success. Institutional decision-makers must also attend to the classroom learning experience and ensuring understanding and support for change across the institution, including among faculty and students. Yet, we know that doing so takes planning and partnership, which is where the Partner Services Menu comes in.   

The new SStF services menu illuminates options and possibilities for institutions navigating the developmental education reform process, taking out much of the guesswork. It is a great starting place for planning and identifying partners to help institutions and decision-makers. The tool supports the journey to create impactful and lasting change that supports the success of all students. Take the first step by reviewing it today and see how it can help build and execute a vision for meaningful, equity-centered reform.  

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Strong Start to Finish is a network of policy and research partners, institution and systems leaders and foundations advancing system reforms in developmental education, so every student can succeed in their first year of college. In particular, we support college success for Black, Brown, Asian American and Indigenous students, adult learners and students with low incomes, who have been underserved by the education system for too long. We work to scale the use of proven, proactive strategies that remove barriers that typically impede these students from earning essential college credits in English and math courses in their first year. Education Commission of the States is the host of the Strong Start to Finish network. 

Seven Essential Practices for Leading Change Effectively

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This post first appeared on the WestEd Insights and Impact Blog and is posted here with permission. This version has been updated.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

(Philosopher Will Durant) 

Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd uses an evidence-based instructional approach to create a supportive and engaging math learning experience that helps students persist and succeed in college math. Pathways courses are taught using active, collaborative pedagogy supported through common curricula, an online platform, and rich instructional resources.   

Recently Pathways delved into the practices of leaders who effectively managed change during Math Pathways implementation. Over six years, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, we studied institutions and their approaches to change, including the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the study concludes, we’re excited to share seven practices we observed among leaders who successfully implemented change. 

Practice 1: Change Management 

What is change management? Change management is defined by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) as the methods and manners in which an institution describes and implements change. This includes preparing and supporting employees, establishing the necessary steps for change, and monitoring pre and post activities to ensure successful implementation (American Society for Quality, n.d.). 

Observations: One institution did a good job of preparing and supporting employees with the necessary steps for change but only did so in one part of the institution. Other areas learned about the change and were asked to adapt at the last minute with little preparation or explanation. Change leaders met great resistance, and the change failed shortly after it was launched. 

Takeaway: Effective change leaders receive training in change management and apply its principles contextually within their institutions. 

Practice 2: Personal and Institutional Relationships   

What is the importance of personal and institutional relationships for leaders? Successful change requires a collective, coordinated institutional effort, also known as “Distributed Authority.” Leadership occurs at all levels and champions exist in all spheres—the leader cannot do it alone.  

Observations: In one institution, two faculty leaders attempted to scale a successful pilot program. However, their limited understanding of the institutional context and lack of relationships beyond their own faculty sphere hindered their ability to establish collaborators and champions across various levels of the institution. Consequently, the change initiative failed to gain traction and was unsuccessful even before its launch. 

Takeaway: Successful change leaders have relationships across the institution and leverage distributed authority and empowerment to build capacity to lead change. 

Practice 3: Dynamic Stability, Monitoring, and Tracking 

What is dynamic stability? Successful change leaders use tracking to constantly adjust, scanning the horizon to attend to the various phases of a change initiative, such as planning, networking, exploring, and organizing. 

Observations: One institution included a group of mid-level leaders with multiple roles and responsibilities in the institution and a common interest in this change initiative. One leader tracked individual reactions and behavior to differentiate the vision and frame the solution for various audiences. Using this micropolitical competence, the leader was able to adjust the approach as necessary for different audiences. The leader also networked to create synergy between the change initiative and the personal agendas and department cultures in the institution and monitored what features were important to different individuals. These behaviors allowed the leader to track the circle of engagement, gauge the depth of their interest in the initiative, and adjust the leader’s narrative when necessary.     

Takeaway: Effective change leaders use tracking and monitoring to plan, network, explore, and organize while leading organizational change. 

Practical 4: Political Savvy 

What does it mean to be politically savvy? Micropolitical literacy is an individual’s ability to use strategies to navigate organizational processes and structures to serve their interests. 

Observations: One institutional leader was an astute micropolitical negotiator. As a respected and trusted storyteller in the organization, this leader was able to engage key interested parties early in the change initiative to create a shared vision and common understanding. This leader was a collaborator and built strong relationships across the institution through ongoing networking by genuinely investing in personal and professional relationships. By leveraging these qualities, this leader gathered and built support for this change initiative, maintained the project as a high-priority initiative, honored individual contributions, and navigated through tense challenges successfully during this organizational change. 

Takeaway: Effective change leaders use micropolitical literacy as they network while leading organizational change. 

Practice 5: Communication Effectiveness  

What does communication effectiveness entail?  Successful change leaders develop their own communication skills and utilize institutional resources, such as communications and marketing departments, to convey important messages effectively. 

Observations: In one institution, the absence of communication had significant consequences. Despite Math Pathways having institutionwide implications, the change was treated as a math department matter. Consequently, when the change was implemented, others within the institution were caught off guard. Advisers struggled to guide students to the right courses, and the course scheduler faced difficulties arranging suitable classrooms for collaborative learning at the last minute. Unnecessary chaos ensued. 

Takeaway: Successful change leaders use effective communication to surface potential problems before they happen and to build engagement and belief in the change. 

Practice 6: Self-Awareness  

What is self-awareness for leaders? The self-aware leader understands their own character, feelings, motivations, and desires. They understand that, in similar circumstances, other people may have very different feelings, motivations, and desires. They understand their positionality and act accordingly. 

Observations: In one institution, a charismatic president commanded respect and admiration. However, due to an unintentional power dynamic, people were hesitant to deviate from the president’s lead. When offered coaching, the president declined, asserting self-sufficiency. When we suggested that the team could get the coaching instead, the leader offered them the choice. However, the team also rejected the coaching, not because they didn’t want it, but because the leader unwittingly made it untenable for the team to do it if the leader did not. This leader was unaware of their impact on the team. They believed they were giving the team a choice, but the team saw only one option—to follow the leader. 

Takeaway: Self-aware change leaders understand and address what motivates people in adopting or rejecting change.  

Practice 7: Utilizing Supports Such as Coaching   

What is coaching? Coaching is performance-driven support that seeks to bring the individual being coached to a different level of competence in terms of learning new skills or knowledge to help them maximize their personal and professional potential. The focus is on concrete issues such as effectively managing change, engaging employees, or learning to think strategically.   

Observations: Institutional leaders who are open and willing to try new strategies even in the middle of a storm can learn and benefit through the experience. During the pandemic, when many institutions were sticking to the basics and narrowing their focus, one institution’s leader kept the initiative on track by leveraging administrative supports such as coaching to lead through the challenge. Through coaching and access to a network improvement community, this leader gained new information about how this innovation could be used to solve their course access challenge. Through coaching the leader examined new concepts such as change management and methods to understand and engage key interested parties, all of which helped to maintain the momentum in scaling even through a pandemic.   

Takeaway: Successful change leaders gain capacity through supports such as executive coaching. 

Next Steps  

Reflect upon your own leadership practices and consider how you implement each of the seven practices. Identify areas where support may be beneficial, and proactively seek out resources such as coaching to enhance your leadership capacity. 

To delve deeper into successful change implementation for leaders, we encourage you to explore the resources listed below. We also welcome you to contact Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd for more information on institutional coaching opportunities.

 

Additional Resources 

Buller, J. L. (2015). Change leadership in higher education: A practical guide to academic transformation. Jossey-Bass. 

Kotter, J. (2012). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press. 

Kotter, J. (2013). Change: What really leads to lasting personal transformation. Oxford University Press. 

Kotter, J., & Cohen, D. (2012). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Harvard Business School Publishing. 

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge (6th ed.). Jossey-Bass. 

References 

American Society for Quality. (n.d.). What is change management? https://asq.org/quality-resources/change-management 

 

Carnegie Math Pathways Courses Are Now Open Educational Resources (OER): What This Means for Math Educators

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Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd recently released its course solutions, Statway and Quantway, as Open Educational Resources (OER). The materials are openly available now, just in time for instructors to consider implementing the curricula for fall 2024 courses.

So what is OER, why does it matter that Statway and Quantway are available as OER, and how will students and educators be served by this transition? Dan Ray and Lewis Hosie, Carnegie Math Pathways’ Operations Director and Development and Implementation Director, respectively, discuss the basics of OER, Statway and Quantway, and why the decision to go OER is such an important step toward creating a more equitable system of mathematics education that empowers all students to advance toward their goals.

Can you begin by telling us what Open Educational Resources are?

Hosie: Open Educational Resources, or OER, are part of a philosophy grounded in sharing, equity, and access within the education space. An open license can be applied to the result of any creative endeavor—for example, you might see a license that indicates openness on anything from photographs to code to a piece of fiction writing. In the education context, we think of OER materials as teaching, learning, and research materials that have a license that grants users access to those materials at no cost and, depending on the license, permission to modify, update, and/or rebuild those materials.

In addition to making curricular materials more affordable and accessible to all students, OER has contributed to the increased adoption of open practices in general, such as open peer review processes and open access publishing of research findings, across the education space.

Why did Carnegie Math Pathways at WestEd decide to license its courses as OER now?

Ray: For over a decade, Carnegie Math Pathways has researched and tested specific solutions designed to help more students succeed and advance in their education. We initially partnered with educators to develop Statway and Quantway and have since worked to improve and study the impact of the curricula, the instructional approach, and the social and emotional elements of learning, which together make up our course solutions.

We’re now at a stage where we feel that Statway and Quantway have demonstrated their effectiveness. We have years of evidence showing that the approach and curriculum have been impactful.

However, we’ve also received feedback about hurdles to utilizing the course solutions. To teach the courses, institutions had to be a part of the research program, so we had to enter into agreements with institutions that required institutional buy-in, which was a barrier for some faculty who were ready to jump on board, but didn’t have decision-making authority. Another barrier was the costs, which were often passed along to students and could be prohibitive for them.

So it made a lot of sense for us to open access to Statway and Quantway curricular materials while maintaining the instructional approach and supports. Making our research and the course materials available through a CC BY-NC license—a type of Creative Commons license—will ease course adoption and alleviate some of the financial burden on students.

You mention that you’re maintaining the instructional approach and supports. Let’s talk a bit about Statway and Quantway. What are they, what are the approach and supports that are used, and why will open access to these course solutions be helpful to students and educators?

Ray: Quantway and Statway are sets of course curricula around either quantitative reasoning, which is the Quantway curricula, or statistical reasoning, which is the Statway curricula.

The thing that really makes them different is their approach. First, these courses are designed to be taught in a way that is active and collaborative, different from the lecture-based, direct instructional approach many might think of in mathematics. The instructor for a Statway or Quantway course is seen as a facilitator of conversation and learning. The materials are highly contextualized for relevancy, so instead of doing mathematical procedures in isolation, students are discussing mathematical approaches to solving problem tasks situated in familiar and real-world scenarios. In traditional instruction, the word problems are often at the end of the lesson, whereas in Statway and Quantway, the word problems start the lesson, engaging students right away. Contextualized problem situations enable students to clearly see the applicability of the mathematics.

Second, our approach pays attention to social and emotional learning, from community building to fostering a growth mindset to addressing challenges like math and test anxiety. Exercises and reflective activities are embedded throughout the courses to address and attend to these noncognitive aspects of learning, making them a seamless part of the learning experience for students.

Hosie: There’s something particularly impactful about what the Quantway and Statway “special sauce” produces in terms of mathematics learning experiences.

Working within a network of institutions, we would hear from students and instructors about students’ Quantway or Statway learning experiences. We would hear that students’ relationship with mathematics was completely transformed, shifting entirely from someone who does not believe they’re capable of doing or liking mathematics to someone who looks forward to going to the grocery store or consuming data from a news report because they can apply mathematics to that situation and make sense of it. We know this has happened for thousands of students over the decade of Carnegie Math Pathways’ existence.

And now, with these materials being OER, those experiences are going to be available for a much larger number of students. It’s not just about cost. It’s about providing educators and students everywhere with access to an engaging and empowering math learning experience.

What supports do you offer educators to help them fully adopt and utilize Statway and Quantway for their classrooms?

Ray: Carnegie Math Pathways’ offers professional development focused on helping instructors who are new to teaching in this way. If an instructor picks up this curriculum, they’re probably going to look at it and think, ‘Wow, this looks quite different from what I’m used to.’ Viewing themselves as a facilitator is probably a new experience for many, and building social and emotional supports into the curricula may be new as well. We want to support instructors in making that transition.

That’s why we offer training for faculty new to this approach. These trainings are always led by experienced Quantway and Statway instructors, ensuring that faculty learn from those who are actively teaching these courses.

We also want to help educators use the OER materials effectively. Many faculty are familiar with the notion of OER, but might not be as familiar with licensing and permissions. So we have a resource bank that instructors can access through our OER website that explains what the license provides in terms of permissions and gives examples of recommended ways for attribution to be given on modifications made to the materials.

Similarly, it’s important to convey how we envision modification and adaptation of the materials. We’ve provided guidance for faculty around key considerations for redesign projects. We want to empower instructors to remix and modify these resources to best serve their students while knowing there are resources to guide their modifications.

Hosie: We believe instructors have the desire and the expertise to take ownership over the materials. But they won’t be on their own. As Dan mentioned, we provide just-in-time support so they can make sense of the scope of an idea they have and determine what it would take to implement it while maintaining critical design and instructional aspects. In addition to static resources already available that help guide modification efforts, we are exploring ongoing professional development opportunities for faculty who want to enhance their course and task design knowledge to further support the tailoring of Statway and Quantway while maintaining the research-backed design and approach.

The curriculum materials have always been faculty driven, and this shift to OER is the most recent, perhaps most major, demonstration of that commitment to and belief in educators having ownership of the curricular materials they teach.

So what are the exciting elements of Statway and Quantway OER that you’d like educators to know about and take advantage of?

Hosie: Statway and Quantway OER give instructors the full range of freedom to mold these materials to best meet the needs of their students and institutional programs. For instance, if there’s an institution that has a focus on nursing career tracks, this shift to OER grants instructors at that institution the ability to infuse Statway or Quantway with rich and meaningful examples that are relevant to that career trajectory, which helps prepare students for subsequent courses and the workforce. It enables specific and authentic expertise to be built into and reflected in the curricular materials.

Additionally, we were very intentional about the format. Carnegie Math Pathways’ commitment to access and equity doesn’t stop at making the materials openly available through OER—we wanted to ensure a collaborative and easy-to-access learning space for students and educators to engage with the materials. We thought about the experience from the perspective of students and educators and evaluated which elements were needed to truly support the kind of collaboration we envisioned for these materials. That’s what led us to choose Google Docs for interaction with the materials. It is a familiar platform to most students and instructors, it enables users to access the materials via any device with an internet connection, sidestepping potential barriers to access, and it also gives instructors the ability to make as many copies as they need—including for themselves to play around with redesign or contextualization ideas. Or they can make copies to distribute to students.

Google’s integrated ecosystem makes engaging with these materials more seamless. For example, if each of the members of a study group open the same Google Doc, everyone can enter a Google Meet space from that document (if using Chrome), share their screen, and work through the mathematics together. This keeps the experience contained to a single online space without the need for multiple tools.

Another attractive built-in component is the extensive language translation features. When you go into a Google Doc and use the translation options, you can translate to almost any language in existence in a matter of seconds, although you still need to have a native speaker check the translation. This opens up intriguing opportunities and possibilities for expanding more equitable access both inside and outside the United States.

Ray: For example, we’ve been working with the University of the Free State in South Africa and have adapted versions of Quantway and Statway for the South African context. And we’ve engaged in similar cultural contextualization work with math faculty at tribal colleges here in the United States. You can imagine instructors from other countries and marginalized communities gaining access to these materials, potentially translating them, and modifying the problems to reflect their local communities and identities.

In terms of innovation, what excites me is the potential for what educators will do with these lessons. It really provides an opportunity to increase relevancy in ways that could be hyper-local to the institution and to the students taking these courses. Right now, we have some excellent examples of side-by-side lessons—one with the original context, one with a completely different context, but both with the same mathematical learning outcomes. We have very nice exemplars, but we are also developing more supports to really empower faculty to contextualize and localize the curricula.

Side by side lesson comparison of same lesson contextualized for different locations and learners - one on left featuring U.S. labor statistics to inform problems and one on the right using South African economic data to inform the problems.Carnegie Math Pathways’ move to OER helps enhance the accessibility and affordability of Statway and Quantway for students while empowering instructors to modify the curricula to best suit students’ needs and contexts.

Ready to get started? Explore Statway and Quantway OER and download the course materials.

 

Explore the OER materials

From Classroom to Workforce – Using Quantway to Prepare Students for Work and Beyond

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An innovative approach to help struggling students succeed

Learning loss impacted students and schools across the country, including Brooke Stewarts’. Stewart teaches mathematics within the alternative education program at Oak Creek High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

“Before COVID, nobody knew who the alternative education teachers were,” says Stewart. “And now, post-COVID, everybody knows us.” With the impacts of COVID on the K12 education system, many more high school students fell behind and educators have found themselves trying to get students caught up, filling learning gaps, and encouraging credit recovery to help students complete and advance beyond high school. Stewart notes that “because of this, alternative education has exploded.” 

Her school has long served students who are in need of credit recovery to continue on their education path. Yet, while credit recovery and course support helps some students return to, and complete traditional high schooling, it isn’t a solution for all students.

In 2020, she and a team of colleagues created an innovative competency-based diploma program designed specifically to meet the needs of students who have historically struggled in school. The program serves students in their junior year, who are not four-year college bound and are significantly lacking in credits to complete traditional high school. Stewart and her colleagues wanted to build something that would support this group of students to graduate with competitive skills and be ready to enter the workforce. “The goal is get them to be on a path of success rather than stuck in this cycle of failing classes, credit recovery, failing more classes, credit recovery.” 

Identifying the right math solution

The one-year program beginning in the second semester of a junior year, is focused on resumè building skills and preparing students for employment immediately after graduation. There is a work requirement; students participate in a shortened school day to accommodate their work schedule, and they have the opportunity to graduate one semester early based on successful completion of the program. With these incentives, Stewart and her colleagues, hope it will motivate students to persist and complete the program.

Critical to the programs’ success, though, was finding the right math course to support students on this path. For Stewart, it was necessary that the curriculum not only develop her students’ basic math skills, but that it connect the math to real world experiences that her students were going to need to know about. “I wanted this to be something where if they’re going into the trades, or if they’re going into any sort of technical degree, that they could use these skills, or even just [better understand and manage their] personal finances – how to make a budget, how to have a credit card.”

Stewart’s search led her to Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), a close partner of Oak Creek and located just down the street. There she learned about their use of Quantway Core for technical college students not requiring algebra for their field of study. The course appealed to her because of its highly relevant curriculum that focused on practical application of the math concepts and its collaborative learning approach. This seemed like the right option for her students.

Transforming mindsets on math and the future

Since Oak Creek’s competency program launched in 2021, Stewart has noticed a lot of positive changes in her Quantway students. In particular, she has seen dramatic shifts in students’ mindsets about math and their own math abilities. “I’ve noticed a lot of confidence boosts in my students. One student of mine told me she hated everything about math. And now, after going through this class, she saw the value in what we were doing. She was understanding the concepts and getting the big picture of why we need math. And she ended up doing awesome in the course.” 

These boosts are gratifying to Stewart, but even more meaningful is how this confidence has helped her students engage and persist in the course. Stewart sees how as her students build their math skills and collaboratively navigate the problem exercises in the curriculum they begin to connect how this matters for their lives and feel that what they are learning is worth their time and their effort. 

This program is having a profound impact on her students, and the transformation is motivating for Stewart. She enjoys being able to have conversations with her Quantway students about real world topics connected to the math they are learning. Their engagement and interest is also leading to changes in their attitude toward school as a whole and how they think about and plan for their future. While at the start of the program students may not have set goals for themselves, Stewart says this completely changes through the program, and when, two months before graduation, she asks students about their plans, she will now hear things like, “”Oh, I’m going to MATC. I’m going to study welding. And I’m starting on January 19th, and I’m going to do an apprenticeship in welding, and I’m going to get a job.”

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