Action Research Project
The Project
The purpose of my action research project was to infuse culturally linguistic and responsive pedagogy (CLR) with math instruction, to see if we notice an increase in math achievement for African-American students in grades 2, 3 and 4 at Culture and Language Academy of Success (CLAS). Culturally responsive teaching is “a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural and historical referents to convey knowledge, to impart skills, and to change attitudes” (Ladson-Billings, 1994, p. 13). Culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy changes the mindsets of teachers by helping to provide them with strategies and activities that are deliberate, purposeful and responsive to students.
Over the past two decades, the underachievement of minority students in all core content areas have remained constant, and the lack of opportunity for African-American students to excel in mathematics has been well documented (Secada, 1992; Tate, 1997). While African-Americans are making gains in basic skill proficiency, it is not enough for “true knowledge and mastery of mathematics” (Secada, 1992, p. 630). The gap in Mathematics continues to grow even larger as topics become more complex.
Efforts to reform public schools have not accomplished the task of greater student achievement in Mathematics for African-Americans. We know from research that one part of the problem is a lack of sound instructional Math practices by teachers who teach African-American students and the hope is by infusing Culturally and Linguistically Responsive teaching and learning in math instruction African-American students will begin to enjoy and excel in Math.
Leadership Collaboration and Outcomes
I am fortunate to work in a school where CLR pedagogy is our normal way of work. My goal was to begin to focus our 2nd through 4th grade teachers on how to use CLR strategies in Math to improve the academic performance and enjoyment of math for African-American students. I chose to lead this charge due to my love of math and the belief in CLR as a mindset, strategy and pedagogy that if intentionally implemented will enhance math instruction and provide improved academic achievement for African-American students. As the principal of the school, I worked collaboratively with math teachers to development the implementation plan for the action research project. Teachers were already trained in CLR strategies, and versed on use and lesson planning around CLR pedagogy. We met periodically to discuss progress and to share CLR math lessons with one another. One teacher even presented one of her CLR Math lessons at the 2012 Charter School Conference where she received rave reviews.
Challenges and Changes
My plans did not evolve or change during the year. The CEO and myself wanted to focus on math this year do to our dismal math scores from the past two years. Also, we knew we were well versed on how to infuse CLR strategies in Language Arts, but we often could not describe what CLR looked like in a math or science class. This Action Research Project was a perfect opportunity to explore CLR in Math and to develop our CLR Math program for the future.
The only challenge I faced was a lack of funds to help teachers get more professional development on math instruction and exposure at conferences to present their work. It is a great learning opportunity when teachers are able to present their work in front of their peers. However, due to our fiscal situation, teachers were not able to attend any outside conferences or any professional development on new math strategies developed by higher institutions unless they paid for them out of their own pocket .
Data
I collected interview data from the math teachers, focus group data from students, classroom observation data and benchmark standardized test data to inform us on how well CLR strategies were working to improve academic achievement and enjoyment in math for African-American students. The results were overwhelming positive and showed that the use of CLR strategies in math improved enjoyment and the success of our students in math.
Analysis of data:
The four teachers that participated in the Actions Research Project were very cooperative and helped with the collection, creation and analysis of data. Teachers were open with allowing me to view their classrooms at random and provided me with the students to conduct the focus groups. When all the data was collected, the math teachers and I came to the conclusion, based on the results of the data, that infusing CLR in Math had positive benefits for our students.
Results from Teacher interviews and benchmark test: Four Math teachers were engaged in the Action Research Project. The teachers used culturally responsive text when presenting math concepts and math vocabulary to students. They stated that any information presented in math had to be relevant to the students lives and show them that math influences the decisions their families make everyday. One teacher used starting your own business in your community as a way to teach math concepts while making them relevant (Unit Math Assessment).
All of the teachers stated that by using relevant math text and issues that pertain to the lives of their students, made learning more fun for them and their students. The teacher began to see their students take more of an interest in math. The teachers felt that by focusing their lessons on home language and making them culturally relevant they were able to capture their students’ attention. It was not just rote repetition during the class, true conversations were taking place about math and math became meaningful for the students.
Quotes from the teachers on the benefits of CLR in Math:
"The benefits are the kids are so much more engaged and excited to learn! I think the majority of my kids would definitely say math is their favorite subject because we have so much fun. Their retention also seems to be a lot better because they're able to relate it more to their lives".
"For math, I use a lot of the protocols to keep kids interacting with each other and using cooperative learning. Some of my favorites are Give One, Get One, Numbered Heads Together, and Musical Shares. I also try to relate math to their everyday lives and particularly to their African American culture as much as possible. We play games regularly, have lots of friendly competitions, and use a lot of manipulatives. I love keeping everyone interacting and learning together as a group. Basically, the goal is to keep them engaged and excited to learn math as much as possible".
Teachers created benchmark test to track the academic progress of their students. We saw moderate gains in test scores, but we determined that the project had to continue if we wanted to see any long term changes in academic achievement. The analysis of CST scores will help us further determine how the implementation of CLR in the classroom impacted student achievement in math.
Results from student focus groups: The main two question that I focused on with the students were 1) What does CLR look like in Math? and 2) Is math more enjoyable since the teachers started using more CLR strategies in math?
Student responses were as follows:
*"CLR math is learning about our heritage"
* "It is nice to learn about the Egyptians and math”
*“I like that we learn about how to use math in our community, we are learning about black people”
*"CLR looks like protocols, call and response"
*"Teachers are allowing us to use technology to complete work and it is about us"
Overwhelming, students felt Math was more enjoyable and they said they were willing to put forth more effort because math seemed more interesting and useful. Also, students stated that they discuss issues of racism and "taught about our culture, history and ancestors".
Classroom observations: Example of CLR Math instruction in 6 th grade
Kim is a 4th grade teacher who participated in the Action Research Project. She presented a CLR lesson for a 6th grade teacher during our instructional rounds. Kim is consistently thinking of ways to make her lessons culturally responsive because she feels it is the best way to introduce her students to new math concepts and vocabulary. Students are beginning a lesson on percentages. The vocabulary words needed to understand the concept were percent, percent increase, percent decrease and percent proportion.
Kim begins with a discussion by asking the students if they know of any African-Americans that have doctorate degrees in math. The students quickly responded “no” and when asked why, they volunteered enthusiastically their reasons. Responses ranged from “black people are not smart in math, math too hard, and it cost too much money to go to college”. Kim presented the students with an article about the first African-American women to received doctorate degrees in math. Students were fascinated and proud. She then provided the student with an article that illustrated past and present data on the percentages of ethic minority groups receiving doctorate degrees in math. The students used home language to talk about the differences in the numbers presented for each ethnic group. For example, students noticed that even though the population for Asian Americans was smaller, they were receiving doctorate degrees in math at a much higher rate than other ethnic groups. They also noted the percent increase or decrease over time between ethnic groups and that African-Americans percentage increase was almost stagnate over the years. During their discussions, new vocabulary was introduced and modeled by the teacher along with practice on finding percentages. For homework, students had to figure out the percent decrease or increase of ethic groups over a time frame. They had to write up their mathematical analysis of the data in academic language using appropriate math vocabulary.
This teacher found an exciting way to introduce new information to students and make it relevant to their community and lives. Teacher validated home language and used it as a way for student to connect to concepts and share their prior knowledge. The new academic language was demonstrated through text and the teacher modeled appropriate use. The expectation is that students now begin to use their new academic vocabulary when discussing percentages.
What Might I do differently Next Year?
I would not do anything differently next year. I have very supportive and innovative teachers working on the project. They are ready to continue with the work next year and are already discussing plans for building more CLR math curriculum over the summer. They are designing common benchmarking to make sure they are all on the same page next year in monitoring and assessing students. I have a great team in place and they own the action research project.
I facilitated the development, implementation and evaluation of the entire project. Due to the fact that I am the principal of the school, I was afforded the time and flexibility to get people to move on the project. It was not a hard sell, since our school is a CLR school and it is inherently the way our teachers teach. The action research project provided us time to reflect on our work and find ways to enhance what we already do at our school.
Next year I would like to meet more regularly with teachers to discuss their progress and share more student work. We did meet and share work this year, but I would like to do it on a more consistent basis. I would like to raise money so the teachers can share their work at conferences. It is nice to have your work validated by your peers and I want them to know that they are doing a great job. I would like them to coach other teachers in the middle school on how to use CLR strategies in Math. Also, I would like to make sure I provide teachers with more outside professional development opportunities around new math instruction. It is important for teachers to stay on top of the latest technology and instructional practices in the field. It will only enhance the CLR work they are doing at our school.
CPSEL Connection
Standard 1
- Plan and implement activities around the vision (The mission and vision of our school is to use CLR pedagogy to teach students to be confident, caring and competent. My action research project helped promote that vision)
Standard 2
- Guide the instructional program and professional growth (I facilitated the development of content-based learning strategies and provided opportunities for teachers to collaborate and reflect on instructional strategies used in the classroom)
Standard 5
- Model Reflective Practice an continuous growth (Worked with teachers involved in project to continue to reflect on learning and motivate teachers to continue to strive for higher levels of performance).
Bibliography
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Secada, W. (1992). Race, ethnicity, social class, language, and achievement in mathematics. In D. Grouws (Ed.). Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 146-164). New York: Macmillian.
