OCEAN Update: Rowing in the Same Direction
With a variety of stakeholders in tow, a School of Education OCEAN partnership with Rea Elementary and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District is improving teaching and students’ mathematical thinking and reasoning.
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When a world-class School of Education, local K-12 teachers, principals, students, and district administrators come together and “row in the same direction,” truly astonishing results are generated.
That’s what’s happening between the UCI School of Education, Newport-Mesa Unified School District (NMUSD), and Rea Elementary. Together, a team is implementing and facilitating professional development for Rea Elementary teachers to support a school-wide improvement effort that will ultimately improve mathematics teaching and learning. The project team features several key stakeholders, including: UCI School of Education Professor Rossella Santagata and doctoral student Jiwon Lee; Jody Guarino, School of Education lecturer and mathematics coordinator, Orange County Department of Education; Duane Cox, Rea Elementary School principal; and John Drake, assistant superintendent and chief academic officer, NMUSD. |
From left: John Drake, Jiwon Lee, Jody Guarino, Rossella Santagata, and Duane Cox.
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“Our ultimate goal is to improve children's learning, and teachers work closely and directly with them," Santagata explained. "But the school leader is extremely important because he/she motivates the teachers and provides the time and settings for teachers to continue to learn and grow. Go up one more level, and if the district isn’t on board, then the school leader's impact can be limited.
“So, what teachers do in their classroom is not always solely their choice; changes to improve teaching quality must be supported by school and district leaders – everyone must be on the same page for improvement efforts to be coherent and effective."
ESTABLISHING SUPPORT
The partnership is part of the School of Education’s Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN), a network of research-practice partnerships between the School of Education and K-12 schools in Orange County. At each site, a School of Education faculty member and doctoral student work with school leadership to identify the greatest needs and goals of the school, and in turn conduct research that will positively impact the school.
The professional development project, known as SWIM (School-Wide Improvement in Mathematics), is a direct result of NMUSD’s interest in providing professional development to its teachers.
“Our district was very interested in how we could provide professional development for our teachers across our entire district in a more coherent way,” Cox said. “A unique thing happened in that all our teachers at Rea Elementary said they would like to participate in Cognitively Guided Instruction. After that, we were introduced to the UCI team and it became about learning together.
"It’s been an amazing 18 months working alongside UCI.”
LEARNING FROM THE TEACHERS
Beginning in fall 2019, the team established a variety of methods to implement a robust professional development ecosystem at Rea Elementary School.
Teachers were provided professional development in Cognitively Guided Instruction by Jody Guarino, School of Education lecturer and mathematics coordinator at the Orange County Department of Education. Teachers have since continued to meet as an entire school to collaborate and learn together with their principal’s support. Most grade levels also formed groups to plan mathematics lessons, look closely at student work samples, and decide on next steps in instruction.
Teachers leave each grade-level meeting with a math task to test out with their students. They then return a week later with new samples of student work. This process is reiterated week after week, creating a consistent setting for teachers to learn from their practice. Throughout this process, UCI researchers study teacher participation and engagement.
“Through our surveys and interviews, we documented teacher learning and gave them the opportunity to reflect on their professional development experiences. Each teacher shared what worked for them and what was challenging,” Santagata said. “We shared these findings with the entire staff and said: ‘We heard you, we heard what you’re excited about and what you’re apprehensive about, and we’re going to take that into account to plan for the upcoming year.’”
The professional development meetings and weekly grade-level meetings have continued to this day. The COVID-19 pandemic created some challenges, but the team has shown determination and has continued the work, addressing and solving problems collaboratively as they arise.
To help steer everything, the team of Santagata, Lee, Guarino, Cox and Drake also meet multiple times a month to reflect on the previous sets of teacher professional development meetings and plan next steps accordingly.
“So, what teachers do in their classroom is not always solely their choice; changes to improve teaching quality must be supported by school and district leaders – everyone must be on the same page for improvement efforts to be coherent and effective."
ESTABLISHING SUPPORT
The partnership is part of the School of Education’s Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN), a network of research-practice partnerships between the School of Education and K-12 schools in Orange County. At each site, a School of Education faculty member and doctoral student work with school leadership to identify the greatest needs and goals of the school, and in turn conduct research that will positively impact the school.
The professional development project, known as SWIM (School-Wide Improvement in Mathematics), is a direct result of NMUSD’s interest in providing professional development to its teachers.
“Our district was very interested in how we could provide professional development for our teachers across our entire district in a more coherent way,” Cox said. “A unique thing happened in that all our teachers at Rea Elementary said they would like to participate in Cognitively Guided Instruction. After that, we were introduced to the UCI team and it became about learning together.
"It’s been an amazing 18 months working alongside UCI.”
LEARNING FROM THE TEACHERS
Beginning in fall 2019, the team established a variety of methods to implement a robust professional development ecosystem at Rea Elementary School.
Teachers were provided professional development in Cognitively Guided Instruction by Jody Guarino, School of Education lecturer and mathematics coordinator at the Orange County Department of Education. Teachers have since continued to meet as an entire school to collaborate and learn together with their principal’s support. Most grade levels also formed groups to plan mathematics lessons, look closely at student work samples, and decide on next steps in instruction.
Teachers leave each grade-level meeting with a math task to test out with their students. They then return a week later with new samples of student work. This process is reiterated week after week, creating a consistent setting for teachers to learn from their practice. Throughout this process, UCI researchers study teacher participation and engagement.
“Through our surveys and interviews, we documented teacher learning and gave them the opportunity to reflect on their professional development experiences. Each teacher shared what worked for them and what was challenging,” Santagata said. “We shared these findings with the entire staff and said: ‘We heard you, we heard what you’re excited about and what you’re apprehensive about, and we’re going to take that into account to plan for the upcoming year.’”
The professional development meetings and weekly grade-level meetings have continued to this day. The COVID-19 pandemic created some challenges, but the team has shown determination and has continued the work, addressing and solving problems collaboratively as they arise.
To help steer everything, the team of Santagata, Lee, Guarino, Cox and Drake also meet multiple times a month to reflect on the previous sets of teacher professional development meetings and plan next steps accordingly.
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Between meetings, the team surveys the teachers, observes lessons, have rich one-on-one conversations with teachers, and even work on math tasks with children to learn more about their mathematics learning. They then use that information to inform future professional development meetings.
“Through Cognitively Guided Instruction, the teachers develop a really deep knowledge of how children understand and learn mathematics, and how their mathematics ideas develop over time,” Santagata said. “This approach to math teaching is very much focused on teachers’ deep knowledge of children’s development of mathematical reasoning and ideas over time. |
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The professional development is very much focused on teachers’ deep knowledge of children development mathematical reasoning and mathematical ideas. It builds on the idea that if teachers pay close attention to what students know and the way they understand math, then they can move their thinking forward to more sophisticated ways of doing math.”
- Rossella Santagata Professor & Director, Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice /
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TEACHER IMPROVEMENT
Collaboration and weekly professional development meetings were a sea change for the teachers last year, Santagata said, but they have responded with good grades for the project.
“I have my grade-level team meeting and we're all on the same page and we can talk to each other. If something doesn't work, we can talk about it and move forward, and it doesn't really feel like a failure, it feels like a learning experience now,” a Rea Elementary teacher commented (teacher comments have been kept anonymous).
“I feel valued by our staff members, and I also value them – I feel like we have this culture where we're willing to listen to each other. Everything has been so positive because we all want the same end goal for our students, and that starts with us willing to do the work and willing to collaborate with each other,” another teacher added.
Having experts from the UCI School of Education steer the professional development is beneficial, Santagata said, because of the researchers’ ability to infuse research-based knowledge.
“We infuse what we know about what works in teaching mathematics,” Santagata said. “We share and read together articles and books about math teaching and learning, and about adult learning and how teachers learn and collaborate in productive ways.”
Collaboration and weekly professional development meetings were a sea change for the teachers last year, Santagata said, but they have responded with good grades for the project.
“I have my grade-level team meeting and we're all on the same page and we can talk to each other. If something doesn't work, we can talk about it and move forward, and it doesn't really feel like a failure, it feels like a learning experience now,” a Rea Elementary teacher commented (teacher comments have been kept anonymous).
“I feel valued by our staff members, and I also value them – I feel like we have this culture where we're willing to listen to each other. Everything has been so positive because we all want the same end goal for our students, and that starts with us willing to do the work and willing to collaborate with each other,” another teacher added.
Having experts from the UCI School of Education steer the professional development is beneficial, Santagata said, because of the researchers’ ability to infuse research-based knowledge.
“We infuse what we know about what works in teaching mathematics,” Santagata said. “We share and read together articles and books about math teaching and learning, and about adult learning and how teachers learn and collaborate in productive ways.”
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“For the UCI School of Education team to attend our meetings and sit down with groups of teachers and learn along with them is incredibly powerful,” Cox said. “Their presence has helped build my capacity, and it’s made me realize that I want my teachers to have this opportunity — to have these professional dialogues about articles and research.”
Rea Elementary teachers also lauded the efforts and participation of Cox and Drake. “Dr. Cox and John Drake really have made a great effort and are being vulnerable themselves; they’re saying: ‘We don't have the answers, and we're in this learning together.’ It takes a certain administrator to be able to sit back and be a learner along with the teacher, rather than just asking ‘Please tell me what you did.’ So, I'm appreciative of collaborating with them,” a teacher said. |
Principal Duane Cox leads a classroom in mathematics instruction.
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MAKING WAVES
SWIM is currently taking place exclusively at Rea Elementary. NMUSD wants to expand SWIM to three schools in the fall and, eventually to all its school sites – 22 in total.
“We’re thinking how we can do this throughout the district, and we are having several conversations and presentations with various stakeholders in which we share a vision on how we can achieve this,” Cox said.
In January, Drake presented in front of the NMUSD trustees, and shared with them a progress report on the SWIM project. Cox also spoke, stating he has seen enormous progress.
SWIM is currently taking place exclusively at Rea Elementary. NMUSD wants to expand SWIM to three schools in the fall and, eventually to all its school sites – 22 in total.
“We’re thinking how we can do this throughout the district, and we are having several conversations and presentations with various stakeholders in which we share a vision on how we can achieve this,” Cox said.
In January, Drake presented in front of the NMUSD trustees, and shared with them a progress report on the SWIM project. Cox also spoke, stating he has seen enormous progress.
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“An interesting thing that has surfaced at Rea is that kids love math,” Cox said at the meeting.
Additional funding to the OCEAN network can support more School of Education doctoral students at the various NMUSD sites and help spread similar professional development initiatives to other districts in Orange County. Just like in business, scaling requires a precise and delicate balance, but is a mission that the team is up for. “If you don’t expand properly, then things don’t work as well, and teachers become de-motivated and discouraged,” Santagata said. “The School of Education is home to very skilled and knowledgeable doctoral students, many of whom join our program having taught in K-12 schools, sometimes for a decade, and have experience teaching in teacher preparation programs. As Ph.D. students, these individuals also learn to collect and analyze data on teacher and student learning. Receiving more funding so that we can embed more of them in the community will help scale-up the professional development efforts at other schools in the district and in Orange County.” |
More InformationTake a deeper dive into OCEAN and the many other ways the UCI School of Education is supporting the K-12 community before, during, and after the pandemic.
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