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Benson High School Advocacy Project. School Counseling Team: Leon McKenzie Doreen Poling Janet Starosciak Barbara Ward Steve Wren (intern). Advocacy Project Goals. To raise the percent of Freshmen that earn a satisfactory grade (A,B, or C) in Algebra.
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Benson High SchoolAdvocacy Project School Counseling Team: Leon McKenzie Doreen Poling Janet Starosciak Barbara Ward Steve Wren (intern)
Advocacy Project Goals • To raise the percent of Freshmen that earn a satisfactory grade (A,B, or C) in Algebra. • To raise the percent of Sophomores with unsatisfactory math grades last year to satisfactory grades this year.
Reviewing the Data, Freshmen More than 83 % of Freshmen took Alg 1 or higher by choice % of 9th graders Trans math ended and Alg 1A started in 2004-2005
Reviewing the Data, Math Class (2004 sem 1 data) Its not just the freshmen struggling in math It’s ALL the “FIRST YEAR” math students % of A,B,C students
Summarizing the Data Relative to Concerns and Strategy • Success rates in math are low for freshmen and all “first year” math students • While there are significant differences in success rate by ethnic groups the team feels that helping struggling first year math students of all races will be more useful than targeting groups by ethnicity • There is little gender difference in math success rate.
Collaboration • Counselors • Administration • Math Teachers
General Steps Presented math data to staff Math class rosters reviewed for proper placement Administration met regularly with math department Action Steps
Action Steps • Setting Up a Math Skills Class • Administration selected math skills class teachers, allotted FTE. • Data committee set parameters for admission of students to math skills class. • {9th graders from trans math class, 10th graders with D or F in 9th grade} • Students scheduled into math skills classes • Letter sent home to parents of all math skills students about the new class and that freshmen would not be in health class this year.
Results So Far:Data from the Math Skills Class Percent of students with satisfactory grades, First Semester 2004-2005
Results So Far:Data from the Math Skills Class Number of Students
Looking closer at 2004-2005 data Success in first year algebra varies by race for freshmen but the race difference is much less for sophomores % with A,B,C
Next Steps • Arrange for MS and HS math teachers to meet. • Look at second semester grades • Arrange for data to track the exact same categories over time