Albuquerque Public Schools
Making Headway in Math
Grant Middle School teachers are constantly asking, 'How else can we improve?'
Kids have a language all their own, and Grant Middle School teacher Katie Kamminga knows how to translate.
“`We’re cooking, we’re cooking,’” Kamminga says, parroting the term she loves to hear from her students at the mid-Northeast Heights school. “You know how the kids say that? That means they’re doing good.”
There’s an unmistakable aroma of hope – not just activity – at Grant these days, spurred by recent improvements in math proficiency based on strategy, intentionality and yes, good old fashioned hard work.
Grant recently was lauded by Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gabriella Blakey for improving its math scores by 15.4 percentage points in a recent short-cycle assessment.
The district sees consistent improvement in those exams as a key marker for long-term success.
Kamminga, who teaches math to special education students at Grant, said the six-person math team at the school takes pride in where students are headed, particularly because success in math – identified in Goal 2 – is a key priority for the district.
But it’s more than that: Success on any front breeds confidence, uncovers abilities not yet seen, and begins preparing kids transitioning from kid-hood to adulthood for all the possibilities ahead.
“I think all of our math teachers here were like, that’s great, but we need to keep going,” she says, noting the short-cycle jump. “What else can we accomplish? How else can we improve? There’s always room for improvement.
“I’m very proud of our math team, though. I think we work really well together. We’re all very open-minded. We collaborate over the summers and we’re just ready to go.”
Treating math as a collective effort – not a group of individual classes with individual teaching strategies – is helping, said fellow teacher Sueann Miller. Once a month, math teachers at Grant gather for an uninterrupted day of working on plans and practices that help them learn from one another in hopes of creating a seamless way to help students grasp the subject.
“What we’re trying to achieve in our collaboration is just the fact that we as a math department can kind of be on the same page – where we can excel in specific areas where we can align things,” says Miller. “What does the sixth grade need to know to then continue onto the seventh grade, to continue onto the eighth grade?”
The question is critical at Grant, where 17.1 percent of students are rated proficient in a recent summative assessment.
It’s clear Miller and Kamminga, to name just two, love the challenge. In one way or another, they’ve been connected to teaching for much of their lives.
Miller, who grew up in Albuquerque, was a student at Wherry Elementary, Van Buren Middle School and Highland High, but her teaching days started long before she graduated from the University of New Mexico. At Van Buren, she helped tutor students at nearby Emerson Elementary, and later, aided her Highland classmates with math.
“What do I want to be? What major do I want to do?” she recalls asking herself her senior year. “I was like, well, maybe I’ll be a teacher.”
She’s now in her 25th year.
Teaching is Kamminga’s second career – she managed a small optometry practice at one time – but it may well have been her first passion. Her mother, Carla Weeaks, taught math at the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe for 31 years.
“We have a lot of teachers in our family, so I’m like, `Why not me?” she said. “I’ll do it.”
She says she felt connected to special education students in part because of her mother’s background, but also because she struggled in school as a kid. Her connection resonates at Grant, where 46 percent of the school’s population are considered special ed.
“I have to combat this label that they’ve received – `Oh, I’m special ed; I can’t do this.’ Or, `I can’t learn this because I’m special ed or my brain doesn’t work that way.’ That kind of thing,” Kamminga says. “I’m like, `Nope. I don’t accept that.’ I’m combating this lack of self-efficacy and belief in themselves.”
Her tools in the battle: Teamwork, and not just among teachers. It’s not uncommon to see Kamminga’s math students at a whiteboard, working together to decipher problems – not just the end game, but how to deconstruct the process in order to come up with the answer.
She and other Grant teachers sometimes vary the way they teach the subject, noting not all students learn the same way.
“I’m encouraging them to think about unique ways to solve problems,” she says. “Did you draw a picture? Did you use a number line? What resources have you used? I invite them to look at how other students are approaching problems and approaching ways of solving things and celebrating the different ways to access the curriculum, the different ways to access problem solving, and allow them to learn from each other.
“There’s more than one way to do things,” she adds. “It’s OK.”
She says she also regularly issues “exit tickets” – a one- or two-question exam – to see how kids are grasping the lessons.
“It allows me to assess: Are they actually learning this?” Kamminga says. “And then I know what I need to review for tomorrow.”
There’s a long way to go, of course. No one at Grant thinks one short-cycle success means the end game will be easily won in math – or any other subject.
But you know something’s cooking when middle school students stand before a whiteboard and high-five after grasping – and conquering – a problem.
Q and A with Grant Principal Kelly Boersma
You made some significant gains in a recent short-cycle assessment at Grant. What do you all do to make that happen?
Teacher collaboration day once a month where teachers focus on best teaching practices and standards based teaching. We have also pulled in district support to help work with our teachers.
We have made these assessments very important schoolwide. Yearly we recognize the top 10 students that have shown the most growth during our honor roll assembly. Often these are students who normally do not receive this type of recognition.
People at Grant talk a lot about creating a community. That’s not easy to do. What did you do to make that happen?
We have put in structures that have built community schoolwide. These include our houses, family engagement nights, Eagle Exploration (Genius Hour), spirit assemblies and much more. I believe that community is what makes a school great. I also believe in the importance of having fun with students and staff.
Could you offer an example of something innovative that you and your team have done?
Eagle Exploration, which is our genius hour. Schoolwide houses is also unique to Grant.
Schools struggle with high absenteeism. How do you work on that issue at Grant?
We meet with students and families individually to develop attendance plans that work on the barriers to attendance. (We) uttilize school resources to support families. Students meet with a trusted adult bi-weekly to check in with their attendance goals.
Student success systems meet once with teachers and counselors to discuss our high need students.This is taken back to grade-level collaboration meetings for teacher input and recommendations. We are very proactive when when identifying students and working with them.
Could you talk about Genius Hour and what that’s done for your students – and staff?
In response to our Panorama data, attendance data and minimal elective opportunities we created our Eagle Exploration class. Teachers have chosen a topic that they are passionate about to teach students. This helped build relationships with students and staff. Students participate in two six week classes throughout the semester. Four throughout the year. Students get to choose what classes they are interested in. Our data shows that this motivates many students to come to school and that they look forward to our Eagle Exploration classes. We received an (APS Education) Foundation grant to fund our Eagle Exploration.