Accelerated Math Program

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Revision as of 02:42, 30 January 2006

What is Accelerated Math?

Accelerated Math is a computer-based system that manages and monitors mathematics learning, from first grade math through calculus. Accelerated math automatically prints customized practice assignments and tests for each student, scores student’s work, and reports the results immediately. It keeps track of all student work and gives the teacher diagnostic information by printing individual and class reports.

Math Renaissance

Math Renaissance is a set of teaching techniques that work with Accelerated Math to help maximize student achievement in mathematics.

Principles of Math Renaissance Teaching

Practice – students become proficient when they spend time practicing math.

Appropriate level – students make the most progress when they work at levels that are appropriate for their individual skills.

Feedback – both students and teachers benefit from quick, constructive feedback on student learning.

Goal setting – students are more focused and motivated when they set personal goals for their progress in math.

How Is Accelerated Math Used in the Classroom?

In the Accelerated Math Program the teacher will plan instructional lessons,instsruct the students in whole class, small group and individualized settings,discuss practice assignments and tests with the students,monitor student learning using reports generated through the Accelerated Math software, motivate students by setting individualized goals and rewarding student achievement, and by intervening when students need additional help in order to master a mathematical concept.

The student in the Accelerated Math Program is responsible for helping to set individual goals appropriate to their ability level, to work practice assignments or tests, to review work and correct problems and to discuss assignments and tests with the teacher.

The Accelerated Math Software will generate individualized practice assignments for all students, correct practice assignments and record results in a data base that is available to the teacher, print the practice results for the students to see in the form of a TOPS report, and print the student's next individualized practice assignment based on the results of the assignment previously scored. The Accelerated Math Software will also generate math tests for students at the teacher's request. These tests are based on student performance on math practice assignments on which the student has been working. When a student correctly answers enough questions about a specific math concept on a math practice the student will be eligible to test on that concept. The Accelerated Math software will score the student's test, record the results in a data base and print the student's TOPS report so that the student has immediate feedback about their work.

Is Accelerated Math an Effective Tool in the Math Classroom?

Accelerated Math can be an extremely effective tool in the math classroom when used to its potential. Because of the strength of the data collection ability, Accelerated Math can help teachers to analyze the strengths and weakness of students in the classroom, and to customize teaching to those strengths and weaknesses. The immediate feedback in the form of a TOPS report gives the student an opportunity to continue moving on to new mathematical concepts or to get an opportunity to review or learn again a specific concept with which they had difficulty. Students abilitiy to move at their own pace in this math program allows for good use of classroom time for all students.

The reports generated by the Accelerated Math program help students, teachers and parents stay informed about mathematical progress in the classroom. Some of the reports available through this program are:

TOPS Report – the key teaching and learning tool. The TOPS Report provides results for each objective and a list of correct answers. Prints automatically when a practice assignment, test, or exercise is scanned.

Student Record Report – prints the summary of a student’s work on each objective.

Status of the Class Report – the most useful report to print every day. Lists students in the following categories: having work to be scanned, ready to test, needing intervention, with no recent activity. Prints the dates of all practice assignments, exercises, and tests that have not been scanned. For each objective, the report lists students who are working or about to start on the objective.

Diagnostic Report – places diagnostic codes next to the names of students who are struggling. Includes codes for low number of objectives mastered; low percent correct on practice, test, and review; low number of problems attempted; intervention needed.

Parent Information Report – provides information for the parent or guardian; mastered objectives, working objectives, and percent accuracy on practice, test, and review. Good to send home regularly and use for parent-teacher conferences.

Criticisms of the Accelerated Math Program

While researching about this program on the Internet I was able to find an on-line discussion about the Accelerated Math Program on Drexel’s Math Forum Website, in their Teacher2Teacher discussion area. It gave me a chance to look into what people in the education field as well as parents were saying about the Accelerated Math Program. Because this was a discussion area, often complete names were not given by the people sharing information, but the majority of users of this forum were teachers and parents. Two criticisms of the program follow:

"Our district, especially at the high school level, seems to be placing tremendous faith in this program. When our middle school began using it, I requested going to the first training. As a CGI facilitator, I wanted to see what was happening at the secondary levels. I was not at all impressed. Very much like AR, designed to provide individualized practice but has become the instructional focus. One thing I remember is a particular question that was shared with us in which children were expected to read a problem and then identify THE way to solve the problem. I spoke up and said that I could see (and have seen) children solve this problem type with several different approaches and did not like the single strategy focus. It seemed to me that the program may help teachers individualize BUT cannot replace good teaching and so often becomes the INSTRUCTION. I don't like it at all, it is misused and overrated and cannot replace meaningful instruction."

"I absolutely do not agree with this way of teaching! My love for math grew because of the wonderful patterns. You learned one problem, did similar problems, then it changed slightly and you learned how to adapt what you already know. By this method you learn not only the math, but also how to adapt your thinking. This is not a way to get children to love math or to learn how to think for themselves. What we are losing by doing this are the future scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and math teachers!"

"As a high school math teacher whose junior high employs the Accelerated Math program, I have had a few concerns with the program. I have seen very bright students, who, allowed to work at their own pace, finished an entire semester's worth of work in the first month. These students then sat for the rest of the semester. I have also seen some of the weaker students get their classmates to do their required assignments. While these flaws, I hope, are not widespread, it does show some of the weaknesses of the program."

Life Experiences, Testimonies, and Stories

On the same web site in which I found criticisms of the Accelerated Math Program (Drexel’s Math Forum Website) I also found testimonies in support of the Accelerated Math Program. Two of these testimonies follow:

"I am thoroughly convinced that Accelerated Math can do things for students in math that are almost impossible to accomplish otherwise. The instant feedback and the emphasis on mastery ensure that students do not just coast through the program without truly learning the material. While the teacher (or someone) still has to do much of the teaching, students can be much more independent much of the time, and can cruise quickly through objectives that come easily to them. I have never made it through the end of the math book with any of my classes - I'm lucky to get past the halfway point with some of them. But with AM, motivated students can master EVERY SINGLE objective for the grade level library they work through, eliminating the gaps I see in the math skills of most of my students."

"The true power of AM is its ability to collect data about each student and to report that information to the teacher so he/she can act upon it. AM will notify a teacher whether a student is struggling in any given topic. It is then the teacher's job to act accordingly. The teacher may re-teach a lesson to the whole class, assign a peer-tutor to a struggling student, or to meet with the struggling student himself/herself. AM notifies the teacher of a struggling student much faster than the teacher ever could have figured it out if left to his/her own devices. I could continue singing the praises of this wonderful teaching tool, but I fear I've gone on long enough."

As a teacher who has used Accelerated Math in my classroom for the last 5 years, I believe that is a powerful tool for teachers in the mathematics curriculum, but not a perfect tool. The data that is available to teachers enables them to quickly surmise how all students in the classroom are progressing and which students need additional help. A child cannot slip through the cracks because there are built-in warning systems in the program that alert the teacher that a child is struggling. Availability of data to teachers should be a focus of educational software programs.

Probably the most important advantage of using Accelerated Math for me is that I spend the entire math class teaching. It is hard work, and there isn’t much of a chance to catch your breath, but it is a great feeling to be able to spend an entire math period teaching math. One of the complaints of using Accelerated Math is that teachers do not instruct, the computers do. This is either a misconception or the classroom using Accelerated Math is using it incorrectly. I have taught more math in the last 5 years with this program than I did in my previous 15 years of teaching.

I am concerned with the heavy emphasis on multiple choice practice in Accelerated Math. I would like to see more research about the effects of multiple choice practices and tests in math. I also do not use Accelerated Math solely in my classroom (although it is an integral component). I supplement my math instruction with problem solving, real-life challenges and math games which I think are necessary to broaden students mathematical thinking. I think solely using Accelerated Math could become as stale as a classroom that solely used the textbook. But because of the many things Accelerated Math can do in the classroom, it allows me more time and freedom to develop lessons, activities and learning experiences that are more stimulating for my students.

While my school has the Accelerated Reader Program, we do not have the accelerated Math Program. I did however teach with a person who's daughter had this program for math in her school. Her daughters grade was suffering from how she was performing on the Accelerated Math program. We had the same issues at our school with Accelerated Reader. I believe that both the Accelerated Math and Reading are excellent programs it just comes down to how the programs are implemented and used within the classroom. In our district the Accelerated Reading is used only in primary and is not part of the grade. I can see that other districts are needing to step back with the Accelerated Math and need to ask them selves what they really want to accomplish with the program and implement it better.

Research of the Accelerated Math Program

Differentiating Math Instruction:A Large Scale Study of Accelerated Math

Ysseldyke, J. & S. Tardrew, 2002.

In this study Ysseldkyke and Tardrew studied 2,202 students in 125 classrooms encompasing 24 states. The results showed that when students using the Accelerated Math Program were compared to a control group, those students using the program made a significant gain on the STAR Math test or a Normal Curve Equivalent test taken. Students in grades 3 through 10 that were using the Accelerated Math Program had more than double the percentile gains on these tests than students in the control group.

The Use of Accelerated Math in an Urban Title I Elementary School

Sadusky, L.A., & S.K. Brem

In a study in which first-year implementation of Math Renaissance was studied in a K-6 urban elementary school during the 2001-2002 school year, researchers found that teachers were able to immediately use data to make decisions about instruction in the classroom. The students in classrooms using Math Renaissance had double the percentile gains when tested as compared to the control classrooms that did not use Math Renaissance.

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References

Math Renaissance – Achieving Success in Math for Every Student and Every Teacher. (2000) School Renaissance Institute, Inc. Madison, WI.

Math Renaissance – Teacher’s Handbook. (2002) Renaissance Learning, Inc. Madison, WI.

Math Forum at Drexel [2]

Research on Accelerated Math [3]

Readers’ Choice Awards [4]