End-of-Year Progress Data for My Year 3-4 Class: Maths, Reading and Writing

In this blog post, I'd like to share the end-of-year data for my Year 3-4 class. 

All results have been filtered to include only the 'same students,' ensuring a direct 'apples-to-apples' comparison of progress.

1. Mathematics Term 1- 4 PAT data

2. Reading comprehension Term 1- 4 PAT data

Year 4 (same students only) achieved a gain of 9 units, (=1.3 years of progress)

. 3. Writing Term 1- 4 OTJ (supported by e-asttle) 

Improving Teacher Practice and Accelerating Student Learning in Mathematics (TAI 2023 presentation at Burst & Bubbles)

Since 2021, my inquiry focus has been on improving teacher practice and raising student achievement  in Mathematics. Over the past years, the Maths achievement data has been consistently concerning across many Manaiakalani schools at all year levels. Furthermore, the issue of students underperforming in math has captured national attention.

At the start of the year, I discovered that almost 90% of our new Y3 students were working below and well below their expected levels in mathematics. Their Term 1 PAT results confirmed the data I collected during other summative and formative assessments. This group of students became my target group, or I prefer to call them my control group, as I always strive to deliver the best teaching to all students. 

After analysing the school-wide T1 PAT results, I engaged in several professional conversations with my school leaders and teachers. We decided to adopt a more data-informed approach and redesigned and restructured our maths programmes across all year levels. We ensured a well-rounded focus on both Number and Strand, employing an integrated curriculum and fostering student agency.

I’ve been actively involved in supporting my school and other COL teachers by working on understanding various assessments, analyzing and using data for more effective planning. 

I've supported a number of teachers and teams by discussing and collaboratively reviewing their maths programmes, by selecting the best resources for teaching different concepts, compiling and sharing practical resources, for example, maths-integrated Matariki resources for L1 to 4 of the curriculum, by observing lessons, providing feedback, unpacking it and planning next steps. 

To share my expertise and passion for this subject, I provided in-class support by both modeling and co-teaching maths lessons.

This year, I’ve had the privilege of working as part of the Maths design group, with the goal of launching a new maths PLD program next year. I've already volunteered to pilot this program in Term 1. I really hope that this new Manaiakalani initiative will support our teachers in growing their capability and love for teaching mathematics.

To conclude my presentation, I’d like to share the end-of-year Maths PAT results of my targeted Year 3 cohort (Y3 learners in my class achieved 18.6 gain).  We filtered the data analysis by "same students only" to compare apples to apples. The group achieved a gain of 17 points, compared to the national average of 9.2. This difference translates to nearly 2 years of progress and means that, with my team, we successfully accelerated their learning in Mathematics.

Team Feedback on Maths Programme and Team collaboration this year

This year, I've had the privilege of leading a team of five enthusiastic Y3-6 teachers. It has been an interesting and sometimes challenging experience with a lot of changes: we welcomed some new team members who felt more comfortable teaching literacy than maths. I heard them say, 'I am not a maths person,' multiple times. Furthermore, most of our team had to learn the curriculum for new year levels they hadn't taught before.

Thinking of the wisdom of the famous saying, "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn," we involved our newbies in team planning. I believed that involvement and shared responsibility would be the keys to transforming their perception of teaching Math.

I have been always available to model, co-teach, observe, explain maths progressions and resources, help with assessments, etc. Two of my team members had never planned for Year 5-6 maths (Level 3). I supported them by initially planning for those stages at the beginning of the year, gradually passing these responsibilities to them as they developed more knowledge and confidence.

Throughout the year, I observed the need for a universal planning template. So, in Term 3, a new universal planning design emerged, simplifying the planning process and enhancing our teaching and providing consistent learning experiences across our classes. You can read about our planning here.

Last week, I collected feedback from my team, seeking their insights and perspectives on our collaboration, teacher capabilities in maths and areas for improvement as we always strive to provide the best for our learners. Some findings are below:

Did collaborative planning help you deepen your knowledge of the maths curriculum and better understand progressions (stages)?

Teacher #1: Yes- I think the strength comes from different perspectives and how everyone approached the planning of the math curriculum. Elena led the team effectively, ensuring each member knew which progression they were planning while always providing support. This helped us grow stronger in planning, understanding the Maths curriculum and progressions, and how to teach Maths effectively.

Teacher #2: Yes, with having to plan all different stages it deepened my knowledge of the progressions as well as the maths curriculum. I was able to look at what my team had planned which allowed me to have access to more resources. As I had come from teaching year 3 & 4 I had never planned stage 6-7 before which at the beginning of the year I found challenging. With Elena's support and using my team's planning, I was able to gain a deeper understanding of what these stages looked like for all different strands etc.

Teacher #3: I think for me personally (as a fairly inexperienced maths teacher), planning my own lessons has allowed me to deepen my understanding of individual stages one at a time. If I was to have planned for all stages at the same time, I would have likely become overwhelmed. I now feel more successful and confident in teaching maths.

Did team planning help you feel more comfortable and confident when teaching maths?

Teacher #1: Yes! I love that I can bounce ideas off from my colleagues and that I can ask for advice in a safe space. 

Teacher #2: I love the evolution of how the planning templates have developed. Elena was mindful to support her team (most of whom were relatively new to teaching) and as such the planning templates helped to scaffold understanding of concepts and delivery. Even for someone with experience like me, I found them so useful! 

Teacher #3: Absolutely. Now I feel so much more confident teaching maths, I really enjoy working with Elena, Team Kea and using our planning format.

Teacher #4:  Yes, it was great to use the same structured format and also have others' planning as an example when completing my own planning. 

What do you like about our collaborative maths planning and the changes that we made this year?

Teacher #1: As a newbie! I love it, it made planning ahead so much easier and you can find planning and tailor it to suit the needs of our kids. 

Teacher #2: At the beginning, when we started teaching from each other's plans, I found that different teachers’ plans varied to some extent and I found different planning layouts confusing. However after Elena suggested the new planning format and explained it to us, I better understood how to plan for a good maths programme. I loved our Term 4 strand planning idea, I found it extremely helpful having the resource bank of plans that we can use and to slot it into our own classroom programs when needed. 

Teacher #3: I love to plan on the slides, it’s interactive and it is visually appealing. It was great to have  same expectations across classes and maths stages. We also often reflect back on what worked well and what didn’t, which helps improve our maths planning and teaching (since we learn from our mistakes).

Teacher #4: I felt like the pressure of planning was reduced by a significant amount. I wasn't spending all weekend finding/ creating resources and lesson plans. Now with our planning, we are able to put more thought into our lessons and explicitly teach. I find that our learners are getting more out of each lesson and the design is easy for them and the teacher to follow. When I had my student teacher in class, she commented on how easy she found our template and how she found it easy to follow other teachers' planning. 

As a team, we also reflected on the implementation of Maths Matrices to empower our students. 

All of us witnessed the positive impact they've had on empowering our students and engaging our students' whanau. This experience has reinforced our commitment to continue using Maths Matrices next year and beyond.

Monitoring the Effects: Term 3 e-asTTle Comparison Reports (Maths)

In this post, I'd like to share two e-asTTle comparison reports based on the latest assessment conducted in September by my Year 3 and 4 students. I have nine Year 4 students in my class but only two of them didn't sit this test due to their overall learning difficulties (they focus on their IEP goals). There is no e-asttle data available for Year 3 students from other schools.

Using the concept of repeated measures, I've been tracking my students' progress in maths and sharing their results with both them and their whanau. We looked at their individual reports to set up new goals and to see how far they've come and how much they've grown. It was a great opportunity for my learners to talk about their successes and next steps during our end of Term 3 Tamariki Korero. 

Report #1.  How are my students doing compared to students in ALL other NZ schools?

Report #2.  How are my students doing compared to students in SIMILAR schools (low decile)?

E-asTTle offers a range of individual and group reports that I've been using as formative and summative assessments to guide my students toward their learning success. Along with other assessments, I use e-asttle to keep a close eye on student progress and needs and to make teaching adjustments as needed. 

Next year, I will administer the same test at the beginning of Term 1 and then each term to collect data for e-asTTle progress reports and to compare them with PAT results (out of my personal curiosity).

Evidence of Improving Teacher practice and Student achievement in Mathematics in GTS

In 2021 I analysed our school data in Maths and raised my concerns with the management. I was thrilled that my voice was heard! This initiative led to a school-wide collaborative inquiry into improving the teaching of mathematics. Last year, we took this inquiry to the next level. After reviewing school Maths Matrices, we focused on two powerful areas: teacher practice and student agency. That meant that we needed to give students both the option to make choices to direct their own learning and the information they needed to make strong choices. Interestingly enough, after unpacking Maths matrices with their students, our teachers began to use these Matrices for their planning. 

Thanks to Johanna's (DP at GTS) data analysis before and after this intervention, we can provide clear evidence of the positive impact of this collaborative approach. 

In her recent Staff presentation, Johanna shared: "The impact of AfL is obvious when you look back on historic ‘normal’ year which is on the left - numbers stayed this same in WB, B, At & Above and compare it to this year on the right where there is a definite shift due to the focus on Assessment for Learning.  Teachers have noticed a difference and students are more engaged.  We still need a lot of work in maths and this will continue in 2023"

I totally agree that collaborative efforts between teachers, school leaders, and students have a significant impact on improving teaching practices and student learning outcomes. 

Burst in Bubbles 2021 - TAI 2021 Evaluation (Maths focus) - #23

Kia Ora, my 2021 inquiry started after collecting my first set of data, when I discovered that 61% of my learners were working well below their expected levels in Mathematics. 

During the profiling phase, I used student voice, formative and summative assessments, and referred to their historical data that revealed a widening gap in their achievements over the past years at school. Sadly, many of these students didn’t believe they could be good at Maths, some said that Maths was too hard for them. Interestingly enough, the same students enjoyed much better results in reading and writing.

So I decided to dig deeper into High leverage practices in mathematics to try to accelerate their learning.

We started by co-constructing positive norms, using Talk Moves and having ongoing conversations about the growth mindset. Soon,  most of my students began to feel more comfortable doing Maths.

During the planning stage of my inquiry, I looked at international results in maths and referred to research and practice of the most successful countries. I questioned myself, about what they’ve been doing differently from New Zealand and from our school.

I identified many differences but focused on the most crucial findings:

• They use well-designed maths programmes supported by textbooks or digital platforms, not depending on individual teachers’ planning
• They value explicit teaching, use of materials and deliberate practice in order to develop student’s ability to transfer their knowledge and skills
• They often revisit topics to build long-term memory and deepen understanding.

Reflecting on these, I restructured my maths programme to accommodate these best practices. For example, I now allow more time for deliberate practice with a gradual release of responsibilities. Another important skill that I’ve been explicitly teaching and practising with my learners is ‘translating’ word problems into maths equations. This definitely helped to improve their comprehension, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The mid-year data showed some good progress of my learners and I’m now in the process of collecting term 4 data.

I also extended my inquiry across our school. Supported by the management, we had a staff meeting with a focus on maths data, content knowledge, progressions and understanding of assessments. We planned to have a school GLOSS and JAM moderation. Collectively, we reviewed school expectations for planning, use of resources and delivery of mathematics. I tried to support my colleagues by sharing my practice via class on-air and on my blog, by modelling maths lessons, helping with planning and resources and pedagogy behind them. At the beginning of the last lockdown, I curated and shared a collection of digital tools for online learning. 

I believe that the changes that I made this year in my own practice and initiated school-wide will have a great impact on our teachers and learners raising their confidence, engagement and achievements in maths. 

Due to Level 3 in Auckland, the Bursts and Bubbles were conducted online. Below is the video I recorded about my inquiry this year and how I have improved my own practice and supported my colleagues. This year wasn't a usual face-to-face teaching year but there was still some great data and evidence that came out of my inquiry.