LONG + LIVE + MATH in Concord, CA

Kristina Levesque, Mary Beth Dittrich, Lesley Schooler, and Christy Marin

Meet Lesley and Kristina

Carondelet High School is an all-girls private Catholic high school where students actively use creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills that are vital to their future success. The Algebra 1 team, consisting of department chair Lesley Schooler and teachers Kristina Levesque, Mary Beth Dittrich and Christy Marin, is using MATHia to improve student mastery of algebra. Lesley and Kristina recently sat down with us to share the success students are having with the program.

Using an innovative approach to learning, students work together to complete mathematical tasks to develop conceptual understanding. MATHia consistently measures learning to ensure students master required skills at their own pace. Lesley and Kristina appreciate that they can customize the MATHia software to meet their specific instructional needs. They use the content browser and custom modules to assign what students need at any given time. "It's really nice to have the Carnegie Learning modules there as a reference," Kristina says. "I love that feature."

She also appreciates the power of MATHia data for guiding instructional decisions. "The data and reports that we’re able to pull from MATHia is amazing. We can easily pull reports and show them to students and parents to provide information that allows us to redirect student learning in real time."

A Transformational Shift in Math Learning

The Algebra 1 team revamped their math program at Carondelet because they wanted to create a class where students could move at their own pace. Previously, they had three levels of Algebra (Honors, Algebra 1, and Algebra 1 + Math Lab), but even with that format, students within each class had different needs at different times. 

Now all Algebra students are in a class together learning the same content but moving through it at different paces.  There are two class periods and four math teachers. MATHia allows the teachers to personalize instruction that allows each student to move at her own pace. Students go to different rooms based on what they're ready to do that day, whether it's working on MATHia, watching videos, collaborating on activities or taking a test. They are required to reach at least 70% on each assessment in order to progress to the next unit of study, but they are also allowed to reassess for a better grade at any time. This model meets the needs of each individual student, helps students take ownership of their math experience by providing choice, and encourage deeper collaborative learning. At the end of every class period, students complete an exit ticket on what they accomplished that day. All four math teachers use that data to collaborate during a common prep period and plan for the next class.

Hope for the Future

The Algebra 1 team is seeing great results with this model. "Students are definitely more engaged," says Kristina. "It has been a huge success. Students know what each day is going to look like and they are collaborating and talking about math all the time. They form their own groups and just get right down to it, explaining things to each other. Collaborating is facilitated by students while teachers engage with groups to measure their progress.  Students are explaining things to each other in ways that broaden the way information is shared."  

Lesley says, "We had one student who was in the 15th percentile on her standardized test scores who definitely had gaps in her prior knowledge. The first time she took an assessment she got a 40%. She kept working in MATHia, retook it, and finally got a 98%. Students learn differently and need real-time metrics to measure progress and revisit concepts that allow each students to learn at her own pace without compromising future learning.  We were able to give this student the resources she needed, and she got it."  

Lesley and Kristina also love LiveLab, the new feature that allows them to see what students are doing in MATHia in real-time. Kristina says, "It’s super helpful in our room where students are working on math individually. Instead of just circulating, we can immediately see a snapshot of what each student is doing and who needs additional support."