SHREWSBURY, Massachusetts – Last night the Shrewsbury School Committee had it’s first formal report on our new advanced math program at Sherwood Middle School, and it’s been just a fantastic success story.   This program was one of the most important things I’ve had the chance to work on this year, and so it really makes me feel great to see it succeed.   The original thought came from a friend of mine who has kids in school in Saratoga Springs NY., where they run a “young scholars” program which provides advanced learning starting at the middle school level, for students that are ready to be challenged.   Here in Shrewsbury, it was decided to start it with the hiring of an advanced math coach, and the development of a three tiered approach to making sure that high achieving students are able to go as far in their studies as they are ready.

Students in 5th and 6th grade are given an extensive pre-test, prior to beginning each unit, to evaluate what their abilities are in that particular area, and then are placed in a variety of setting to maximize their leaning potential.  Students who have not yet quite mastered the material or who need help learning that concept, stay in the regular classroom setting, and are exposed to the first tier, which is a set of advanced differentiated instructional materials which reside in the regular classroom.   The advanced math coach works extensively with the teachers, showing them how to provide differentiated learning materials to each student based on their particular knowledge of that concept.

Students who have pretest results that indicate the mastery of that concept before the unit begins are moved to the second tier of the program.   In tier 2, students are pulled out of the classroom several times a week, and moved to a separate class where they work directly with the advanced math coach learning at a much higher level, ensuring that they are challenged.  When they return to their classroom for the other days of the week, they have the ability to continue working on the advanced materials, while simultaneously making sure they understand the basic fundamental concepts being taught in the regular class setting.

The third tier is for the handful of Sherwood student who are “off the charts” in their math skills.  These are students who, in the 5th or 6th grade, are already doing high school math.   They are pulled out of the regular classroom, where they work one on one with the Math Curriculum Specialist, Matt Rosenthal, in conjunction with a special program put out by Stanford University, which allows them to work at their own pace, and go as far as they are able.  These students recently competed in the national math contest, and placed in the top 5%, among 8th graders…while they were only in 5th and 6th grade.

In terms of results, the committee had the opportunity at last nights meeting to hear first hand from the students in the program, who are just thrilled with what they’re doing.  Who would have thought that there would be that many kids thinking math was fun!

One very important aspect of the program, has been to stem the tide of students leaving the district to attend charter schools, in the hopes of being more challenged.  Each student that opts to leave the Shrewsbury District costs the town about $10,000.   This year alone, we have over 140 students attending charter schools, 90% of whom attend the Advanced Math and Science program in Marlboro.  The net cost tot he district, after reimbursements, is over $800,000, which would have paid for quite a few additional teachers.  This is one of the critical reasons why I was such a promoter for this program from day one.  When you look purely at the numbers, you see that the number of 5th and 6th graders leaving for AMSA has dropped by over half, saving the district over $250,000 in outgoing tuitions, at a cost of less than 1/3rd of that towards running the advance math program.

The next steps will be two-fold.  First, the School Committee will be looking at the prospect of expanding this program further, adding an advanced math coach to Oak Middle School for the 7th and 8th grade students.  I’m sure to some, it must seem odd at a time of reducing budgets to suggest adding programming, but it’s truly a budget saver, rather than a budget spender. If we can put together a program in the 80K range, and keep a dozen students in district that otherwise would have left to pursue advanced studies elsewhere, then it’s been a “profit center” for the district.   Furthermore, the advanced students at Sherwood who are moving up to Oak, need to be able to continue their advanced work here in Shrewsbury, or they too will be inclined to leave, taking state dollars with them.

Next, in my opinion, will be to expand advanced teaching to fields other than mathematics, with the development of an Advanced Science program, and a similar program in Advanced Language Arts.   Middle school students develop at very different levels, in a variety of subjects.  It’s entirely likely that a given 5th grade student might be struggling with basic math, yet ready to be reading at a 9th grade level.  The expansion of charter school programming across the state has had the effect, as intended, of making all districts realize that they are “providers of a consumer service,” and that if other schools are providing something better, then the consumers will go elsewhere, and our district will pay the bill.  The key, from a pure business standpoint, is to provide such an incredible level of service that they will want to stay.  Of course, from as non-business standpoint, it’s every school districts obligation to do the absolute best we can to help each student reach for the stars, and this type of programming will do exactly that.

Special kudos go to my fellow School Committee members and Dr. Sawyer, for their vision in supporting this great initiative,  to our Assistant Superintendent Jay Cummings for taking the ball and running with it to make it a reality, and to our Math Curriculum Specialist Matt Rosenthal and new Math Coach Melissa McCann, for being the hands on people in the school who are working to change lives every day.

Watch for more exciting news on this and other programs in the coming weeks…

Stay tuned for more exciting news