Districts across Texas are seeing academic gains using the Texas Math Solution (TXMS), find out what they have to say about the TXMS, their implementation, and the impact on their STAAR scores.
To learn more about the research and design of the Carnegie Learning Texas Math Solution, click here.
Read more about the Muleshoe ISD STAAR Success Story
Jubilee Academies-Kingsville began using the Carnegie Learning Middle School Math Solution (with Algebra 1) in 2017, and has seen extraordinary results. Steven M. Solis, Associate Director, says, “Before Carnegie Learning, we had struggles. This program has really helped us—we’ve seen a turnaround in our students, and we’ve seen a turnaround in our scores.”
They began their implementation with Professional Learning services with Peter Carellas, a Carnegie Learning Master Math Practitioner. “The Carnegie Learning training made an impact on our campus,” Principal Joseph Acevedo says. “The amount of classroom support and feedback we got from Peter was very helpful. I also give a lot of credit to our middle school math teacher, Ms. Aurora Ovalle. As soon as she received materials and training, she started to implement with fidelity. She always made sure that her instruction was aligned to Carnegie Learning.”
Frisco ISD began the transition towards teaching mathematics conceptually about seven years ago, before the state of Texas changed its standards. They began rewriting their lessons and teacher materials to fit with this new type of instruction.
In 2012, the standards changed and Texas had a statewide adoption call for middle school curriculum. Chantelle Elliott, Math Coordinator at Frisco ISD, says that they decided not to adopt at all if they couldn't find a resource that supported what they wanted to do philosophically. "We wandered into the Carnegie Learning presentation and nearly fell out of our chairs," she said. "It was everything we were looking for." Ultimately, Carnegie Learning was approved by teacher-vote and adopted for middle school. A year later, it was adopted for high school as well. According to Chantelle, "Our teachers who have embraced Carnegie Learning say they would never go back to another way of teaching."
Frisco ISD also receives professional learning to support the transformation. Over the past four years, the district offered teachers new to Carnegie Learning a two-day initial training. In Year 1, each school was also offered the option of 1-2 days of on-campus support, which they could request as needed in the following years. All new schools that opened received two days of on-campus support as well.
The district has now implemented a new cadre of campus teacher leaders called Math Instruction Peer Support (MIPS) who are trained by Carnegie Learning during the summer. They learn best practices, implementation support and instructional coaching strategies which equip them in their role of providing ongoing campus support of teachers creating and facilitating student-centered mathematics classrooms.
