As part of a continued effort to address declining math education, the The Coast Mountains School District is gathering a group of teachers to form a numeracy focus group.
This school district has hired math education consultant Carole Fullerton to work with a group of teachers and develop a plan about how to improve numeracy skills.
That teacher group will be formed over the next few weeks, and they hope to have one teacher from every school with, said school district superintendent Katherine McIntosh.
Their mandate will be two-fold: to develop a district-wide framework or numeracy plan, and decide what system to use for math assessment
Currently the school district uses the Island Net diagnostic math assessment (DMA) which was brought in two years ago. McIntosh says they want to review whether it’s the best program for assessment.
There may be a better assessment program, or the school district could develop its own, said McIntosh, adding that the decision will be up to Fullerton and the focus group of teachers.
Fullerton came to Terrace Sept. 22 and presented a workshop for teachers at the Northwest Trades Education Training Centre (NTEC). Seventy-two teachers from Terrace, Kitimat and Hazelton participated.
She will return Nov. 23-24 to begin work with the focus group and put on another workshop, and again in March.
The goal is to complete the project this school year, but McInosh said the teachers may extend the timeline if needed.
The contract with Fullerton is multi-year, so the math consultant will return next year to work with teachers and do demonstration lessons in classrooms, McIntosh said.
For prior story outlining the math decline in this district, click here.