Why Tier 1 Math Fails Before Instruction Even Begins

Hey everybody, it's Cheri Dotterer
from Tier One Interventions Today.

Jonily is gonna uncover some new material.

She didn't even tell me what
this time, so take it away,

Jonily and let's get started.

Mission accomplished.

Mission accomplished.

We are gonna unpack exactly what
that means in our first segment

here of our live session today.

And then we also have to think
what are the common themes that

we're trying to develop throughout?

And all of those themes need to be exposed
to our students in season one, in unit

one, in chapter one of our school year.

So when you think about our textbook,
chapter one or your pacing guide,

unit one, or your scope and sequence
part one, that is not how any of

those things are currently designed.

They do not include all of your content
standards at the most basic level,

but the novel model does, and this is
why I say we have a structure problem.

Now we have an instruction problem
and we have a presenting problem,

and we have a facilitation problem.

But number one, first and foremost,
we have to fix the structure problem

in how we are designing our year.

This is what we call in our
masterclass pre-planning.

The big pre-planning method is looking
at the entire year and setting up

the entire year as your pre-plan.

Then you can start planning your weekly
and monthly and daily lessons from

that, but without a plea P, without a
pre-planning exercise, either by yourself

or in collaboration with your grade level
team, or better yet, in collaboration

with your entire district, without a
pre-planning deliberate and intentional

exercise and structure, any planning
you do for lessons throughout the year

are going to have much less of an effect
and impact on student achievement.

So how do we do this?

I'm going to lay out the steps right now.

I'm not gonna define all the steps
until we are meeting with our

tier one interventions, level two
team that are here live right now.

But I'm gonna tell you exactly
what the steps are to create your

novel model in your district and or
with your classroom specifically.

Number one, and I've already exposed
some of this, but now I'm gonna put it

in the streamlined checklist version.

So number one, overarching question,
what story are you telling?

Let's think about how now, I'm not
an expert in literacy or in literary

development or in any of that.

So if any of you are here live, and I'm
not making like the correct analogy, I

want you to just flag me down and unmute
and say something else or add to it.

Don't be afraid to interrupt
me from this point on.

Okay?

Don't be afraid to interrupt me.

Amy, Cheri, Theresa, Kathy, Kirk,
Janet, don't be afraid to interrupt me.

Just flag me down and then I
will pause for you to unmute.

Don't wait, don't write it down.

Don't hold that in here and
try to remember it later.

I'm giving you permission and I'm
telling you it's gonna be necessary

for you to interact with this as
I'm explaining it because you all,

you're all the team of experts.

For this structure.

You all have been doing it.

You've been creating from this
model, you've been implementing it.

So don't wait.

Don't be afraid to jump in.

Okay?

So think about this.

If you're writing a novel now, I've
never written a novel and when I

wrote my book I hired a ghost writer.

So I'm not an expert in writing
a novel, but to use this analogy,

I've done some research on what
people do when they write a novel.

Okay?

So if you're writing a novel, the
first thing you have to do is ask

yourself this overarching question
what is the story you're telling?

You have to have a general idea
of after people read the book,

what are they gonna walk away?

Taking away?

Like you have to know that as the author,
which in mathematics, most educators can't

answer this, or if they do answer it,
they actually answer it in the right way.

They'll start listing math content
pieces, which is actually step

two of the pro of this, which is
essential defining essentials.

So think about this.

Math and in writing this novel.

So in mathematics, the first thing
we need to think about is what is our

overarching outcome of telling this story?

Now I'm gonna take it to a district
level, because yes, you can do this

as a single teacher in a single year,
but if you can actually do this at

a district level, you will be the
district everyone looks to, to follow.

Because you have achieved such high
math achievement in your district

with the masses that people are
gonna be like, what are you doing?

And then you're gonna say, we
just followed the novel model.

Easy as that.

So number one, at a district level,

you have to answer this question.

What story are you telling?

What story are you telling K 12?

And to answer that question, you
need to define as your district,

what is your ultimate math
achievement goal for your district?

Not each year, but for your DIS district.

What's your overarching end?

What's your end goal?

What's the punchline as the plot thickens?

What do you hope people achieve?

And then within that, what part of
the story is each grade level telling?

What part of the story are
you responsible for telling?

And I'm gonna give a couple of
examples of this in a moment.

But I wanna design the whole outline.

I wanna tell you the whole outline first.

Outline first.

Then I'm gonna give you a
couple of examples of each one.

So at a district level, you need to ask
yourself, what is your ultimate math goal?

What is going to show your
district at the end of 12th grade?

What is your district going to use to
say, we have achieved math success?

Now I'm gonna give you
some multiple choice here.

You can choose any of these.

You might say, you know what?

In our district, we want the opportunity
for all kids to be able to take AP calc.

Now with our current traditional
system, now, hold on.

Hold your horses, put your pants back on.

In our traditional, typical math
system, you're gonna be like, there's

no way we can achieve that goal.

No, not the way we're doing it.

With the novel model, this
is a very reachable goal.

I promise you,

in your district, you might say,
you know what, if we just get kids

to have success in high school
at the algebra one level, like

if we can show from data that all of our
kids, a hundred percent of our, of kids

in our district have achieved Algebra
one by whatever measure that is, we

here in Ohio, we have the end of course
exam for Algebra one that kids take.

Maybe that is your ultimate goal,
but you gotta pick one vision.

You might say, you know what, our
school, like literally my district

this year is switching to a CT.

So you might say and in Ohio, students,
all of our juniors this year in

our district must take the a CT.

We're taking it during school.

They're all taking the a CT, so
you might say, as a district,

okay, what story are we telling
and what are we hoping to achieve?

What's our ultimate goal?

You might say a CT results.

If you're not, if a CT isn't yours,
you're gonna say SAT results.

Or you might say, and this was one that
we had for a while, and then it was

abandoned because we weren't achieving it.

And here's the thing.

This is what's so wrong
with what we're doing.

We were like, look, we can fix all of
our math problems if we make Algebra

two a requirement for high school.

That's what the powers beyond said.

Now, I have a love hate
relationship with the powers beyond.

Okay?

Don't even get me started on that soapbox.

You know who you are and
you know who they are.

Okay?

And I get snarky because y'all
don't know what you're doing.

But a while back, just a few years ago,
actually, many states said, okay, we're

gonna fix all of our math problems
if we just say the ultimate goal is

for kids to succeed in algebra two.

So we're gonna make algebra
two a high school requirement.

How'd that work out for us?

Huh?

How'd that work out?

It didn't.

It failed miserably.

So guess what?

In Ohio, algebra two is not
a high school requirement.

Algebra two, and let me be specific
'cause it's different everywhere.

Algebra two end of course.

Exam passing is not a
requirement for graduation.

Anymore used to be Come
in, Kirk, talk to us.

Oh, sorry.

Oh.

Somebody knocked on my door.

I, for, I was gonna say something
earlier and it was snarky and not nice.

So I bit my tongue, but I forgot to
unmute or forgot to mute myself again.

Oh, I wish you wouldn't
have bit your tongue.

I don't wanna be Mr. Negativity.

I was just miss negativity.

Oh, you were much nicer
than I wanted to be.

That's what I was gonna say.

You have a love-hate relationship.

I just think they're stupid.

Look,

have to start putting things out there.

We have to start getting fired up.

We have to start being real.

We have to start truth telling because
what needs to happen in mathematics

education is a complete and total shift.

It is not these little
minor tweaks all the time.

It is not about policy change, it
is not about giving teachers merit

pay based on their student success.

Bill Gates.

Now I said it, I said
Bill Gates, but love him.

Hate him.

I'm gonna tell you why, and I'm gonna give
some accolades to Bill Gates for a moment.

Bill Gates.

And he's given a lot
of money to education.

So I don't wanna, I don't wanna,
bill Gates was behind an initiative

in math education that said and he
was like, look, if we pay teachers

for good student results, we're
gonna get better student results.

Now, long story short, that didn't work,
but good for you, bill Gates, when you

actually publicly came out and said, I
thought this would work, and it didn't.

That takes a big person
to, to be able to do that.

Now, when he said it in the beginning,
all educators were like, you are

out of your ever loving mind.

Do you realize how many
things are wrong with that?

Do you realize we're putting
the children's fate in our

hands as a do you real?

This isn't a private company that we're
trying to increase productivity of the

adults because the productivity of adults
that we're trying to increase in education

we're relying on outcomes of kids.

So like when Bill Gates came out
and did this, we were all like,

I'm not even gonna say because.

Kirk, I wanna just stay
nice, as nice as I can.

Okay.

But no sarcasm here.

No sarcasm here.

It did take a lot for him to come out,
bill Gates, to come out and say, look,

we tried that and it failed miserably.

It didn't work.

Now educators were like, duh.

But you know what?

We had to try it to say it doesn't work.

But guess what else we did?

Guess what else we did?

And this is where I get snippy with Minds
on Math and the Mastery Math method.

And when school districts say to
me, what research based do you have?

How do you know this works?

We can't try it until we
have the research dah, whoa.

All of the policies that were created
that were required for teachers to

do AKA common core, merit pay algebra
two as a graduation requirement,

the list could go on and on.

All of the policies that were created
that then schools were required to

do by the state, or federal levels
by the state or federal government,

were an experiment.

They were not backed by research.

So don't give me the Jonily.

We can't use your novel model
because it's not research based.

First of all, it is research based.

If you define what research based
actually means, and second of

all, don't tell me you can't do it
because it's not research based.

Because all of the policies that
have been given to us by government

entities that schools have been
required to do, are not research based.

Let me give you the most recent
example RIMS for reading.

In Ohio, we have what are
called rims for reading.

Kids that don't score a certain
measure on an assessment must have an

individual plan, an individual customized
intervention plan that is called a ri.

Now, since that's a policy, I'm
assuming that we're saying by

making this policy, we're expecting
that reading is going to grow.

Success in reading, reading
achievement is going to improve.

See, we're implementing that,
but a rim has never been some

kind of research project.

So I just, I need you
to hear what I'm saying.

And the reason I'm saying this
is the reason I'm saying this

is you can't use the excuse.

I can't use the novel model as our
structure and instruction delivery

system because it's not research based.

So I'm eliminating that excuse for you
because I'm proving other things that

we've been required to do that have
not been through the research model.

Now, research based doesn't mean the
actual thing that we're doing has been

through a, an experiment already before.

Research based means we take results
of other research, of other models,

of other things, of other chunks
and apply it to the new model.

Jonily, I wanna close out Tier One
Interventions podcast, and that is, if you

are listening to this podcast and you are

thinking, how do I get involved,
you wanna head over to your show

notes and click on the link.

We are offering you to come to a
session like this where you get all two

and a half hours at one shot for $47.

You can then join another
session for another $47.

Or you can buy the whole year for
$497 plus you have to buy the.

When if you're going to go buy
the whole year, you're gonna

have to buy level one as well.

But the coaching and these conversations
that we're having are $497.

That sounds to me like a really good
deal for to really think the way you're

thinking about not just mathematics,
but occupational therapist delivery,

speech therapy, delivery, special
ed delivery, and how we're helping

these kids rethink, reregulate,
relearn and think about life as whole.

Good pause there to make
that ending connection.

Love it.

All right, kids, I'm gonna jump
'cause I'm on a time schedule today,

so I'm gonna jump if you guys have
any other conversation, have at it.

Love you guys.

Oh my gosh, you're awesome.

I was gonna sign off as well.

You guys have a good, wonderful holiday.

You as well.

Bye bye.

Lovely.

All.