Riding on the success of its reading program, the Douglas County
Educational Foundation announced that its as-yet-to-be-named math
program will begin in January or February, a school district
publication said.

The math program will take a somewhat different tack than Read
to Succeed, said Larry Linnen, district math coordinator.

“This new program will provide intensive, ongoing professional
development for elementary teachers,” said Linda Pelo, director of
fund-raising for the educational foundation.

In the math program, Kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers
reportedly will learn the “best” instructional practices to apply
to students who are low-performing in math.

By osmosis, the skills the teachers learn to help their
struggling students will begin to show in regular classrooms as
well, Lennin said.

“Training will emphasize content, conceptual understanding and
hands-on strategies to improve weaknesses in topics identified by
analysis of district Colorado Student Assessment Program [scores],”
Linnen said.

The project consists of three components, Linnen said.

Included are: intensive five-day training workshops for
elementary school teachers; application of best instructional
strategies to each teacher’s own low-performing math students,
increased math content knowledge and gradual infusions into the
teacher’s instruction of all students; and coaching teachers in
their classrooms/schools by district math cadre members.

Each workshop will include the modeling of the best practices by
expert practitioners, Lennin said.

“The math cadre will be made up of the first 20-some teachers
who’ll undergo training,” Linnen said. “The idea is to catch
students before they fall too far behind.”

Teachers will be selected based on their interest and Linnen
hopes for a wide range of grades, tracks and schools, he
said.

The cadre will be available for coaching teachers who go through
the program later, Linnen said.

Training will be done during the teacher’s off-track time, he
said.

The foundation has budgeted $17,573 for the first year of the
program, said Tracey McCarthy, director of fund-giving and
administration for the foundation.

The plans are for the project to be absorbed into the school
district curriculum in about five and a half years, McCarthy
said.

“In the end is should be a self-perpetuating program,” McCarthy
said.

While the Read to Succeed program was under the umbrella of the
foundation it was funded in equal parts by the foundation, the
participating school and the district is now funded by the district
in each of its schools for five years, Pelo said.

The one-on-one reading program supported struggling readers in
primary grades.