Increased Instructional Time

Schools implementing the TI MathForward program schedule students in 100-minute "power block" class periods each day.

• Class time is partitioned into three distinct sections: daily skills warm-up, district curriculum (lesson), and problem solving (task or lesson).
• Additional time allows teachers to use problem solving and collaborative learning strategies, and utilizes formative assessments, adjusting instruction as necessary.

Increased Teacher Content Knowledge

Through regular training with a mathematician, participating teachers can build personal mathematical understanding and content knowledge for upcoming lessons tied to the district and state curriculum topics.

• Gains in content knowledge are gauged prior to and at the end of the trainings.

Common Aligned Assessments

Within the MathForward program, teachers are trained how to effectively administer formative and summative assessments at the beginning and end of each unit of study.

• Frequency of assessments allows teachers to identify struggling students and address their needs immediately rather than waiting for deficiencies to become visible after a test, end of grading period, or a benchmark.
• Various forms of formative and summative assessments are used to inform teachers about students’ content and procedural knowledge.

Common Planning Times

Teachers participating in the TI MathForward program benefit from having a common planning time. This time allows them to better leverage components of the MathForward program to assess and improve students’ understanding and retention of the mathematics content.

• Here they can share instructional strategies, plan lessons for the week, analyze student work, and discuss underlying math concepts.
• This connection between the educators is critical to ensure a consistent approach to the program and an understanding of technologies utilized.

Coaching and Professional Development

An identified MathForward Coach or Implementation Specialist plays a critical role in the program’s ongoing, effective implementation.

Coaches help teachers:

• Adjust to and effectively utilize the 100-minute "power block".
• Integrate program components with district curriculum.
• Implement ongoing formative and summative assessments.
• Model best practices through team teaching.

Professional development prior to program initiation is an essential step toward teacher and program success.

• Through award-winning T³ Professional Development, teachers are trained on the use of the extended classroom time, appropriate integration of technology, data driven decision making and setting high expectations, all in the practical context of daily math teaching.
• Teachers are prepared to carry on the training with colleagues within the district.

Utilizing Technology to Motivate Students

In applying the TI MathForward program, teachers use technology daily to enhance district curriculum, reinforce mathematics content, assess students’ understanding and provide them immediate feedback about their learning.

• The program relies on each classroom being equipped with appropriate TI graphing calculators and the TI-Navigator wireless classroom network.
• Use of graphing calculators is shown by research* to improve students’ math skills and their attitudes toward math by enhancing their ability to visualize and process the concepts they are learning.
• Use of the TI-Navigator system enables real-time communication between the teacher’s computer and each student’s graphing calculator, which has been shown* to improve student engagement, understanding and performance.

Curriculum Integration

The TI MathForward program is designed to incorporate and extend a district’s existing local or state curriculum while adding supplemental activities and assessments aligned to state standards that enrich student learning and deepen understanding.

• TI’s MathForward program is based on the principle that all students benefit from rigorous curriculum.
• Although the program has been shown to be effective in reducing achievement gaps, it is not a remedial program.
• MathForward Coaches work with teachers to achieve and maintain the appropriate level of rigor to improve student achievement for all students.

Administrator/Parental Support

Critical to the success of this program, administrators are asked to participate in staff development, meet with program implementation specialists to discuss components of the model, and actively support implementation. Working with the implementation specialists, administrators set expectations for teachers and students during the initial phase of the project and continue to monitor progress throughout the year.

Because students often are giving up an elective to participate in the program’s extended class period, initial and ongoing parental support is critical. Teachers are encouraged to stay in regular contact with parents, informing them of their child’s progress and discussing needs. Usually, by the end of the first grading period, parents are commenting on the positive change in attitudes – and grades – they are seeing.

"It turned her thinking around. It turned her understanding of math around. Therefore I think it’s a very good program and it should be implemented in other schools if it isn’t." - 9th grade parent