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THE PROBLEM
Math is a gateway subject to college-career level classes. It is the only core subject where students, as early as middle school, can have access to higher-level classes beyond their current grade. Black males are the lowest performing demographic in math education. Only 12 percent of Black males are proficient in math in eighth grade. This in comparison to 44 percent of White males. By fourth grade, Black students may be three full years behind their peers (Sharon Lewis et al, 2011).
Regarding what students are learning, many teachers believe in their state standards. The issue is that many teachers do not believe their students can have success with those standards and therefore students spend hours on work that’s below grade level (TNTP, 2018). This approach continues to widen the provision gap of who gets access to grade-level work. Such instructional approaches need to shift! Could you imagine showing up to a place day after day and asked to show mastery and you could not? Could you imagine seeing those around you “get it” and you’re left wondering what’s wrong with you? Well, many black males in math classes do not have to imagine it, it’s their daily experience.
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I believe that teachers can cultivate an environment where beautiful black boys vocalize their brilliance in the classroom, engage and contribute to the learning environment, and are academically competitive with all other genders and races. When teachers lack the necessary approaches to mathematics education, the education achievement gap continues to widen, leaving teachers exhausted, frustrated, and negligent accomplices in creating inequitable outcomes for black male students. This narrative must be disrupted with adaptive changes that speak to the structures of schools, teacher/student mindsets, and teacher/student practices, so that teachers can support black male students in building positive math identities.
THE SOLUTION
We have developed a model that empowers K-12 math educators to examine their mindsets and practices for the development of an equitable approach to instruction that shifts classroom culture, thereby impacting the math identities of black male students for generations. This is math, made EASI.
EXPERIENCE
15 years of teaching math education to over 1200 students
6 years of leading as a department chair to support teachers within my school.
Led over 25 Professional Development Sessions to over 3,000 teachers and administrators
92% of educators reported they valued the PD as high quality and relevant to their practice
5 years of leading Aftermath, a club dedicated to supporting black males in education. This club has supported a 300% increase of black boys taking higher level math classes where all of them have scored 4s and 5s on their state tests. Proficiency in NC ranges from scores 3-5.
3 years of dedicated facilitation of professional development of anti-racist approaches to mathematics education which has reached teachers around the country.
SKILLS
01.
Building engaging and standards-aligned curriculum
02.
Developing professional development that supports change in teacher mindsets
03.
Public/Keynote Speaking on topics of mastery teaching, equitable instruction, culturally relevant pedagogy, teacher mindsets, etc.
04.
Increasing the proficiency level of students previously identified as "below grade-level"
05.
Leading and coaching teachers surrounding unconscious and conscious bias in relation to instruction
06.
Identifying problem areas in instruction and classroom/school culture
07.
Advocacy work for educators across the state.
RESULTS
1
2018-2019 EVAAS growth measures of 13.1 & 15.4, respectively. This is in comparision to the average teacher growth of about 1.5 points.
The growth measure is related to the number of scale score points a group of students scored above or below their expected score (growth standard), which considers their prior testing performance.
2
Top 25% of Teachers in the District's Recognition
Recognized in the top 25% of teachers in the district and state to grow students on their state assessment (2017-2019).
3
Increased the average percentiles of all 65 students in a standard 8th grade math class from 37% to 87%.
On average, students entered my class scoring higher than 37% of students in the State who took the test the previous year but exited my class scoring higher that 87% of students who took the state assessment the previous year.
4
Presidential Award
2021 Finalist for the Presidential Award of Mathematics and Science Teaching for North Carolina
5
Tool-Belt Award
Awarded the “Tool-Belt Award” by UnBoundEd for excellent facilitation around anti-racist math education
The growth measure is related to the number of scale score points a group of students scored above or below their expected score (growth standard), which considers their prior testing performance.
Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools supports more than 145,000 students.
