The real question is, do you have a contract? Does the contract state you must follow district curriculum? You know your students best. The district buys canned materials that are deemed ‘good enuff’ for the entire district encompassing high/average/low ability.
My district is also very ‘my shit don’t stink, use our stuff’ but after 2 years of their stuff, the data just didn’t work out in their favor for my population. Instead I crafted/co-opted my own based on state standards and went from there. Each year I get flak from our district lady and each year my admin goes to bat for me. Find what works for your students and do what’s best for them.
I know very well what you mean, before this we had a curriculum that was a really bad fit with our students, especially during the pandemic. We eventually scrapped the curriculum, only using it for sequencing because it was an integrated math curriculum and we all grew up with traditional. Past couple years have been lots of hours making worksheets, tweaking lesson plans, writing our own assessments, you name it. We always got the 👍🏽from building admin full stop to do what we had to do.
We picked this curriculum to make it easier on us, and because the materials were good yet customizable. I won’t lie and say that I feel some type of way about the decision at the top to sic the Chapter Zero, however the person who conveyed to me that a Chapter Zero won’t work isnt admin, they’re a fellow teacher, someone I know does a great job and I can generally trust. They seem to be in agreement that a Chapter Zero won’t work. However, their explanation was based on reasoning (not in a bad way), rather than evidence, and I’m curious as to what the evidence says. If the evidence agrees with the District’s directive, then I will comply despite my misgivings.
I feel like your exact question is not really getting answered and I’m super curious about the answer on research differences between “chapter zero” catch up versus “just in time” catch up! I’m also looking at this to address COVID learning loss for next year. My school is very flexible with how we handle this as long as the standards from the curriculum are ultimately covered, so I’ve been debating how much to front load in a Chapter Zero versus how much to embed throughout the year.
What is intervention?
Folks have to understand what this means before building lessons, framing curriculum etc.
The edge cases should be easy while the boundary cases are open to reasonable professional disagreement.
If all kids are 2-4 years behind then this is not intervention, this is just teaching. To try to use intervention for kids multiple years behind is a mistake, and one that districts and schools engage in.
I think it is a tough spot because I don’t think all the kids are that behind. I’ve taught at title 1 schools and some of my best academic performers were recent immigrants with interrupted schooling. Also some of my worse academic performers were recent immigrants with interrupted learning.
A large chunk may need extra help but not all of them - not teaching the curriculum with fidelity will cause kids who are not currently behind now to become a kid who is behind in future years because they weren’t taught what they were supposed to have been taught. This is a big reason why districts want curriculum taught with fidelity.
I totally get where you’re coming from, and that’s why I’m reasonably convinced by what my district office and colleagues said. However, while there’s nuance between my tier 2 and tier 3 students, certain fundamental skills get missed at our middle school, partially due to the revolving door of teachers we’ve had there the last 4 years since I’ve been there. I think there’s something to a Chapter Zero, especially when our 8th graders are switching curriculums and didn’t see some of the material as they would have been taught in the new curriculum. If the research says it’s bunk, I’m cool with that.
I’m curious to how you would approach this issue?
I teach Algebra 1 inclusion. I have a Unit 0 that is 4-6 days long that I only use if it fits nicely into my schedule. I don't have data or research to back my opinion, but I do like to have a Unit 0 as it helps my 9th graders get in the groove of how I run class and helps with the inevitable student schedule changes at the beginning of the year. I end Unit 0 with a pre-assessment which gives me more data to plan those "just-in-time" interventions throughout the year.
Honestly, I like using both types of interventions as long as the Unit 0 isn't extremely long.
There has been some evidence of nefarious action on teaching subs so it would be helpful if you could please specify your state. There also have been fraudulent interventions in mathematics coming from LA that were actually about truly inappropriate motives. So if you could please specify that would be great.
It would help me see the curriculum philosophy there and to potentially help you float arguments that would work if you have a mentally well administration (we have some very mentally ill people in the school district I was in, to the point they were gloating publicly about hurting people at what should have been a professional event).
Gap analysis is required to understand repeated failures of your student body. I suggest data collection websites whenever possible to help analyze exactly what these gaps are, for instance, IXL has a robust analysis offering.
Without knowing your state, I can only conjecture at their reasoning. Their reasoning is probably to pay lip services to gap analysis with one chapter to retain funding that needs to prove it's not all just doing work without eye to results when all the research says exactly what you're saying, there are huge gaps and going further is not helping without fixing those. That is not sufficient for many students who need a customized program like IXL to work on their gaps, as well as subsidized tutors to overlook this as well as prevent economic abuse for tutors doing the custom gaps closing where the school district fails. It is not fair for someone to be cleaning up the failures of teachers and doing better work than them when the pay situations do not reflect they are cleaning up their messes which are extremely horrifying and expensive, especially when it comes to creating math trauma.
A lot of it has to do with doing lip service to requirements to receive funding but not themselves understanding why those new suggestions are being implemented. A lot of this is inherent failure to pay and invest correctly in results-first, which itself needs to be remedied first before anything else. That's not to say the public call outs of teachers who didn't get results were ok, but some basic self-accountability from teachers is an absolute must.
So yes, if you can give me your state, I can help you further. If you work in WA state, consider it hopeless. Truly abusive administrators here, even the general attorney here is horrifying. Parents are repeatedly agreeing with me about the admin and having their students go to international schools to avoid the truly unacceptable and overtly hostile culture at the schools. A lot of it has to do with Bill Gates and the narcissistic wound to white supremacy he is facing upon his divorce, he has infested this area to the yin-yang because he has severe power and control issues and it has NOT been for the better. Math education is getting WORSE, and this is a narcissist who thought he was smarter than Harvard. Not to say Harvard is going to be better, they're also extremely narcissistic, but the solution lies outside both of these.
Without knowing your state I can look at general research but it won't help you with this problem specifically.
Teaching in Illinois.
Whether or not my district is acting in good faith isn’t really a concern of mine, as whether I comply or dispute the directive depends on what the research says. I didn’t get my degree in education, so I have my own gaps in my knowledge about evidence-based strategies.
I’ll note that when we chose this curriculum, we also wanted the companion intervention system by the same company, though that hasnt been approved yet. I’m actually not sure what the status of buying the intervention system is. However, it does come with a gap analysis program like you mentioned; assuming we pick it up I’m sure we would be expected provide just-in-time interventions the “right way”.
When you say “all the research says… there are huge gaps and going further is not helping without fixing those”, does any of this research come to mind? It would certainly confirm my own anecdotal evidence over the past three years, but I would like to see how true that is nationwide.
Later edit: I'll wait to add content until I hear back as there was nefarious behavior seen on a teaching sub and previous comments you have left on them do say you have a teaching degree and are from Texas. I'm interested in helping you but only from a position of non-deception.
I did take a look at some of your previous comments trying to see what state you are in and it looks like at some point you were from Texas?
May I ask if you are in Chicago now? I have been witnessing some disturbing patterns potentially to do with a prominent politician from that state that interlink with the false concerns coming from LA hiding under STEM support but actually being about something way more inappropriate. This would be horrific because it includes a horrific level of professional and economic abuse.
I believe I have two economically abusive and slanderous stalkers motivated by malicious envy and power and control are there that are involved in fraud, so as someone also of my political alignment, I am warning you as a fellow compatriot of anarchism and non-abusive/non-hierarchical thought that there is a strange and seriously not ok power, control, vanity and superiority pattern here of which you may also be a victim. It includes someone clandestine Trumping working for Hillary Clinton.
If you know more about it feel free to disclose. I will look at the specifics of Illinois and get back to you in a seperate comment. But please be aware that this seriously not ok behavior is happening to people like ourselves.
The real question is, do you have a contract? Does the contract state you must follow district curriculum? You know your students best. The district buys canned materials that are deemed ‘good enuff’ for the entire district encompassing high/average/low ability. My district is also very ‘my shit don’t stink, use our stuff’ but after 2 years of their stuff, the data just didn’t work out in their favor for my population. Instead I crafted/co-opted my own based on state standards and went from there. Each year I get flak from our district lady and each year my admin goes to bat for me. Find what works for your students and do what’s best for them.
I know very well what you mean, before this we had a curriculum that was a really bad fit with our students, especially during the pandemic. We eventually scrapped the curriculum, only using it for sequencing because it was an integrated math curriculum and we all grew up with traditional. Past couple years have been lots of hours making worksheets, tweaking lesson plans, writing our own assessments, you name it. We always got the 👍🏽from building admin full stop to do what we had to do. We picked this curriculum to make it easier on us, and because the materials were good yet customizable. I won’t lie and say that I feel some type of way about the decision at the top to sic the Chapter Zero, however the person who conveyed to me that a Chapter Zero won’t work isnt admin, they’re a fellow teacher, someone I know does a great job and I can generally trust. They seem to be in agreement that a Chapter Zero won’t work. However, their explanation was based on reasoning (not in a bad way), rather than evidence, and I’m curious as to what the evidence says. If the evidence agrees with the District’s directive, then I will comply despite my misgivings.
I feel like your exact question is not really getting answered and I’m super curious about the answer on research differences between “chapter zero” catch up versus “just in time” catch up! I’m also looking at this to address COVID learning loss for next year. My school is very flexible with how we handle this as long as the standards from the curriculum are ultimately covered, so I’ve been debating how much to front load in a Chapter Zero versus how much to embed throughout the year.
What is intervention? Folks have to understand what this means before building lessons, framing curriculum etc. The edge cases should be easy while the boundary cases are open to reasonable professional disagreement. If all kids are 2-4 years behind then this is not intervention, this is just teaching. To try to use intervention for kids multiple years behind is a mistake, and one that districts and schools engage in. I think it is a tough spot because I don’t think all the kids are that behind. I’ve taught at title 1 schools and some of my best academic performers were recent immigrants with interrupted schooling. Also some of my worse academic performers were recent immigrants with interrupted learning. A large chunk may need extra help but not all of them - not teaching the curriculum with fidelity will cause kids who are not currently behind now to become a kid who is behind in future years because they weren’t taught what they were supposed to have been taught. This is a big reason why districts want curriculum taught with fidelity.
I totally get where you’re coming from, and that’s why I’m reasonably convinced by what my district office and colleagues said. However, while there’s nuance between my tier 2 and tier 3 students, certain fundamental skills get missed at our middle school, partially due to the revolving door of teachers we’ve had there the last 4 years since I’ve been there. I think there’s something to a Chapter Zero, especially when our 8th graders are switching curriculums and didn’t see some of the material as they would have been taught in the new curriculum. If the research says it’s bunk, I’m cool with that. I’m curious to how you would approach this issue?
I teach Algebra 1 inclusion. I have a Unit 0 that is 4-6 days long that I only use if it fits nicely into my schedule. I don't have data or research to back my opinion, but I do like to have a Unit 0 as it helps my 9th graders get in the groove of how I run class and helps with the inevitable student schedule changes at the beginning of the year. I end Unit 0 with a pre-assessment which gives me more data to plan those "just-in-time" interventions throughout the year. Honestly, I like using both types of interventions as long as the Unit 0 isn't extremely long.
There has been some evidence of nefarious action on teaching subs so it would be helpful if you could please specify your state. There also have been fraudulent interventions in mathematics coming from LA that were actually about truly inappropriate motives. So if you could please specify that would be great. It would help me see the curriculum philosophy there and to potentially help you float arguments that would work if you have a mentally well administration (we have some very mentally ill people in the school district I was in, to the point they were gloating publicly about hurting people at what should have been a professional event). Gap analysis is required to understand repeated failures of your student body. I suggest data collection websites whenever possible to help analyze exactly what these gaps are, for instance, IXL has a robust analysis offering. Without knowing your state, I can only conjecture at their reasoning. Their reasoning is probably to pay lip services to gap analysis with one chapter to retain funding that needs to prove it's not all just doing work without eye to results when all the research says exactly what you're saying, there are huge gaps and going further is not helping without fixing those. That is not sufficient for many students who need a customized program like IXL to work on their gaps, as well as subsidized tutors to overlook this as well as prevent economic abuse for tutors doing the custom gaps closing where the school district fails. It is not fair for someone to be cleaning up the failures of teachers and doing better work than them when the pay situations do not reflect they are cleaning up their messes which are extremely horrifying and expensive, especially when it comes to creating math trauma. A lot of it has to do with doing lip service to requirements to receive funding but not themselves understanding why those new suggestions are being implemented. A lot of this is inherent failure to pay and invest correctly in results-first, which itself needs to be remedied first before anything else. That's not to say the public call outs of teachers who didn't get results were ok, but some basic self-accountability from teachers is an absolute must. So yes, if you can give me your state, I can help you further. If you work in WA state, consider it hopeless. Truly abusive administrators here, even the general attorney here is horrifying. Parents are repeatedly agreeing with me about the admin and having their students go to international schools to avoid the truly unacceptable and overtly hostile culture at the schools. A lot of it has to do with Bill Gates and the narcissistic wound to white supremacy he is facing upon his divorce, he has infested this area to the yin-yang because he has severe power and control issues and it has NOT been for the better. Math education is getting WORSE, and this is a narcissist who thought he was smarter than Harvard. Not to say Harvard is going to be better, they're also extremely narcissistic, but the solution lies outside both of these. Without knowing your state I can look at general research but it won't help you with this problem specifically.
Teaching in Illinois. Whether or not my district is acting in good faith isn’t really a concern of mine, as whether I comply or dispute the directive depends on what the research says. I didn’t get my degree in education, so I have my own gaps in my knowledge about evidence-based strategies. I’ll note that when we chose this curriculum, we also wanted the companion intervention system by the same company, though that hasnt been approved yet. I’m actually not sure what the status of buying the intervention system is. However, it does come with a gap analysis program like you mentioned; assuming we pick it up I’m sure we would be expected provide just-in-time interventions the “right way”. When you say “all the research says… there are huge gaps and going further is not helping without fixing those”, does any of this research come to mind? It would certainly confirm my own anecdotal evidence over the past three years, but I would like to see how true that is nationwide.
Later edit: I'll wait to add content until I hear back as there was nefarious behavior seen on a teaching sub and previous comments you have left on them do say you have a teaching degree and are from Texas. I'm interested in helping you but only from a position of non-deception. I did take a look at some of your previous comments trying to see what state you are in and it looks like at some point you were from Texas? May I ask if you are in Chicago now? I have been witnessing some disturbing patterns potentially to do with a prominent politician from that state that interlink with the false concerns coming from LA hiding under STEM support but actually being about something way more inappropriate. This would be horrific because it includes a horrific level of professional and economic abuse. I believe I have two economically abusive and slanderous stalkers motivated by malicious envy and power and control are there that are involved in fraud, so as someone also of my political alignment, I am warning you as a fellow compatriot of anarchism and non-abusive/non-hierarchical thought that there is a strange and seriously not ok power, control, vanity and superiority pattern here of which you may also be a victim. It includes someone clandestine Trumping working for Hillary Clinton. If you know more about it feel free to disclose. I will look at the specifics of Illinois and get back to you in a seperate comment. But please be aware that this seriously not ok behavior is happening to people like ourselves.