Clarifications+-+Barriers

Table 2 List of Barriers with Clarification
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Triggering Question: "What are barriers to what "ought to be done" for all students to learn math?"
Barrier 1: ACCOMMODATIONS OR INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHES DO NOT MEET STUDENT NEEDS (LEARNING STYLE, LANGUAGE, OR SPEC. ED. NEEDS) This came from parent voices that were writing it in surveys and they said over and over again my son or daughter speaks another language and how will a bouncy chair help them. Or my child is blind and they are using overhead projectors. So the accommodation or approach does not match the student's needs and this is where the statement comes from.

Barrier 2: NEED FOR TEACHING STAFF TO BE WILLING TO MOVE AWAY FROM TRADITIONAL TEACHING STRATEGIES IN ORDER TO TEACH ALL STUDENTS Came from my personal experience where early in my teaching career I was trying something new. I came from a fairly traditional staff and they weren't always happy with what I was doing. Seems like over time, trying to fit it, I started moving towards traditional and was miserable. Tried to move away from that. They need to be open to non-traditional teaching strategies.

Barrier 3: BEING UNABLE TO USE DATA AS A MEANS TO GUIDE INSTRUCTION AND LEARNING AND NOT TO PASS JUDGMENT ON A SPECIFIC TEACHER Teachers get very scared about assessment and results and think it is an attack on them personally. We need to change the mindset from one of attack to help them see that they are using the information to help with instruction in the classroom.

Barrier 4: RELIANCE ON PARA PROFESSIONALS TO WORK WITH HIGH NEEDS STUDENTS INSTEAD OF HAVING THE MOST QUALIFIED TEACHERS WORKING WITH THEM Comes from working in schools and noticing that teachers are teaching the general math and sending high end students out with their paraprofessionals who are not highly qualified and generally don't like math.

Barrier 5: LOCAL CONTROL IN SCHOOL DISTRICTS Local control of school districts is a system not unique to math but certainly applies. This has been a mainstay in MI forever but it hinders when we take a look at trying to get a handle in certain areas because there are so many ways of doing things. Even thought it looks the same on the surface it isn’t. This is a darned if you do darned if you don’t because local control is important to people in MI. But we are already starting on this and it is beginning to erode as we have common graduation standards. I am not saying this is good or bad but it is just the way it is.

Barrier 6: LACK OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES TO INVEST IN A COMPLETE OVERHAUL OF OUR MATH INSTRUCTION SYSTEM - E.G. BOOKS, SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS AND TEACHER TRAINING Thinking maybe now it sounds a little drastic. Some things we do require tweeking but conversely there's a lot of statements about change that needs to happen. Daily I read my local newspaper to make sure my school isn't on the front page. This time of year we see what local school districts are going through. There's talk about what's going to be cut. Locals debate and discuss and get mad at local boards. Talking about a time in the state's history where its parallel. I see as money is how we're going to make this happen. We can talk about great ideas but end of the day when we can't bus kids to school, cutting classroom teachers, outsourcing services, buying new math materials, going to be pipedreams. Concerned with lack of finances. Going to be a long time before funding comes back.

Barrier 7: LACK OF QUALITY TIME TO PROPERLY PREPARE DAILY LESSONS To just sit down and create a lesson with differentiated instruction, formative assessment, and all those best practices. Most teachers don't have one prep they have 2,3,4 and most teachers don't have time to do this. They are lucky if they have one prep period a week.

Barrier 8: INADEQUATE TEACHER MATH CONTENT KNOWLEDGE It's pretty straight forward. Too many teachers just don't know the math well enough to do an effective job of teaching. I often use the notion if you don't know the math well enough, you don't know what questions to ask. It's that kind of issue.

Barrier 9: LOW PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS I meant this from every perspective and level. Low performance expectations for teachers, students, district. Worry about low expectations and sometimes there is a peer that holds one back and creates a low expectations.

Barrier 10: NEED FOR TEACHER TRAINING PROCESS TO BUILD COMMON UNDERSTANDING ABOUT BEST PRACTICE MATH INSTRUCTION If our teachers don't experience a process for training that helps them to get to the understanding of what they need to address, we are going to continue with the struggle between traditional vs best practice. It's really getting to the idea that for us to help teachers learn, there must be a process that brings them to a common understanding.

Barrier 11: INCREASED EMPHASIS ON SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS TO MATH I suppose we could add "to math" on that [barrier statement] to make it more specific. So as we are trying to meet the needs of various assessments at the higher level (MEAP) we lose the assessment at the classrooms level. C - You said before increase emphasis. A - The barrier is increased emphasis

Barrier 12: NEED FOR RESTRUCTURING OF LEARNING TIME FOR STUDENTS For a number of students there isn't enough time. There's so much content. Forces them to do without really understanding with the math, it builds so much. So many parts of education have made great efforts. One of the things that remains constant is the way schools structure their day. Need to think more outside the box with time schedules and accommodate learning times so that they do get the content.

Barrier 13: MOST DATA AVAILABLE FOR TEACHERS IS NOT ACTIONABLE AT THE CLASSROOM LEVEL Most after school meetings that teachers are asked to reduce data at and use, it is usually a large assessment and does not give teachers information at the classroom level. So they need more data that is actionable like formative assessments that can be used at the classroom level to be used that day or the next in the classroom.

Barrier 14: LACK OF EDUCATIONALLY KNOWLEDGEABLE BOARD MEMBERS Coming from experience from boards who really don't know anything about education. They making major decisions financially with curricula.

Barrier 15: ENTRENCHED AND OUTDATED VIEWS OF HOW AN EDUCATION SYSTEM SHOULD LOOK This is similar to what Jamie was talking about. I am thinking about this as grades not just teacher grading but because you are 6 you are in 1st grade, 7 second. I think the whole system need to be revamped. When I heard Jamie explain hers [number 12] I think it was what I was thinking. At the time maybe mine was bigger - like the system that surrounds it. (Comparison occurs between 15 and 12.) Mine is bigger than 12 I am thinking more globally.

Barrier 16: TEACHERS LACK OWNERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Addressing as teachers often going to professional development, maybe get ideas, head straight back to classrooms, then forget everything. We write it down, drop it off on our desks and never think about it again. The times I dramatically change my teaching is when I was told research says these are the best practices and easiest to implement. I bought into it. I'm going to learn formative assessment as much as I can. Providing the vision, teachers want to learn more about this, will make a big impact in changing how we want to teach. Q - When you first said that I thought you were more talking about generally "we are told what professional development we are going to go to." Is that included? A - That is included in that, yes.

Barrier 17: TEACHERS LACK THE CLASSROOM TIME NECESSARY TO OFFER DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION I think there is so much emphasis on the GLCEs that teachers are moving through a progression where they have to teach this and I think teachers are moving toward this and they have to move through it and it does not allow teachers time to do differentiated instruction or move through this in any C - This is like Tara’s but hers is more like lesson planning

Barrier 18: THE SCHOOL YEAR IS TOO SHORT It's related in a sense that if you are going to keep all content and not have enough time, then somethings too short. Either the classroom is too short, year is too short, etc. That's where my thinking is on that.

Barrier 19: LACK OF TIME FOR TEACHERS TO WORK IN K-12 COMMUNITIES IN ORDER TO FOCUS ON MATH INSTRUCTION I guess I have been working with MS teachers trying to figure out what they have been covering so that we don't have to recover it - maybe because the school year is too short. But every fall they come in and we have to re-teach what they have learned the prior year. But if the communication is open we can focus on what we need to teach and not re-teach every year.

Barrier 20: [DELETED]

Barrier 21: LOW EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHERS TO SELF-IDENTIFY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS I meant that some teachers come to professional development because it is offered in their region not because it is what they need to learn. They do not seek out PD on what they need to learn. Q - They go for the sake of going? A - They just go because it is what is in front of them. One year I went to a national math conference and an elementary teacher went also and I commended that because teachers don’t always do that Q- Are you trying to address that teachers have a low expectation and an inability for them to seek what they need or if they don’t have a choice? A - If they don’t have a choice - but if you know you have a weakness ..

Barrier 22: LACK OF TEACHER KNOWLEDGE REGARDING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT Goes along with what Gary said. He was concerned about increased pressure we're putting on some assessments. I don't think we've done enough witth helping teachers understand how formative assessments can be. It would make their jobs a lot easier. C - Could combine the word "and." He was referencing the fact that I had emphasized increases assessement. This one says we need to balance it. That's my thinking for adding the word "and." Barrier 22 and 11 - lack of each knowledge Aleco stated that we're going to keep them separate because the "and' will create it more confusing Author Comment - There is a connection between the two, meanings are different

Barrier 23: LACK OF REFLECTION TIME FOR TEACHERS TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LESSONS

Barrier 24: TOO MUCH CONTENT TO GET THROUGH SO THAT STUDENTS CAN TRULY UNDERSTAND CONCEPTS Given 1,098 hours that I supposedly have minus assemblies, art club, etc. goes there. To get through every content expectation for 8th grade, it doesn't happen. Can't happen if you want them to truly understand the math. It's the whole milewide, they don't get it. You are constantly re-teaching when you get them back because they don't understand it. They don't make those connections to it. C - I think part of the problem is that we make our curriculum maps for the year and what your saying is when a kid doesn't get it and you have one day to cover materials in order to hit all the huskies from the state, it just doesn't happen. There's no time to do anything. C - Robyn and I have been doing this with our local districts, weighing expectations less than others so that you can take 2 or 3 days. Those curriculum maps that are based on reality but actually looking at the past and reflecting and giving us that realistic time-frame. There are judgments that have to be made so that staffs are contained so it's not going to affect last years learning.

Barrier 25: LOW PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS FOR THEIR CHILDREN TO SUCCEED IN MATH Parents - there were studies done at U of M on international beliefs and the US came out at the bottom regarding expectation for math. Parents say I didn't do well you won't do well and it is okay.

Barrier 26: LACK OF PRACTITIONER AND PROFESSIONAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION POLICY Lack of practitioner and professional development. If it exists, it's sporadic and inconsistent. The development of education policy, and this is true of the state level, watching the hearings for re-authorization the elementary and secondary act it's sparatical there, also. They don't know education as mentioned before. Tends toward the involvement of organizations rather than people that are in the field and in the trenches doing the work. I believe it's an obstacle and stands in the way. C - In the parent community when we are advocating for ourselves, that is saying nothing about us without us. A - When we get to the action, but I won't talk about that. Q - So I don't want to make any connections A - No, don't make any connections

Barrier 27: NEED FOR PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN TRAINING FOR BEST PRACTICE INSTRUCTION AND UNDERSTANDING STUDENT LEARNING OF MATH I’m trying to address that parents become resistant about changes in math when they hear about it through our child’s homework that they do not understand. Core issue is that parents will be a barrier in changes unless we empower children in math and parents are empowered and understand the math and we let them know what changes will take place in math and in the child’s classroom. Q - Are you referring to differences in how long division is taught now versus. How it was? A - I am talking about that and also about the many ways children can learn LD. How children can learn, ways children can learn and what can be provided to help parents with Q - Can we include parents understanding formative assessment? A - Good point and I always say best practices instruction and I assume that formative assessment is part of that package so I have it added in.

Barrier 28: THE BELIEF THAT STUDENTS ONLY NEED BASIC MATH SKILLS Goes back to the idea in many respects, reflected in last comment, I think we need to move beyond math basics and make sure kids have higher level skills in how to solve math, not just do math. They need to use the math in everyday life.

Barrier 29: THE NEED FOR ASSESSMENT DATA TO BE COMPILED EFFICIENTLY AND IN A TIMELY MANNER SO AS TO BE BENEFICIAL TO EDUCATORS This is like Robyn's # 20. The way she stated it is exactly what I mean. I will eliminate it to be combined with number 20.

Barrier 30: TOO MANY EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS NEED TO COMMUNICATE AND COLLABORATE Currently not everybody gets the same information that's necessary to create a common vision of whats best for all students from the state to regional to local to administrative to school boards, students, boards, teachers. There's so many players in the system that I've never seen an infrastructure that makes sure everybody understands what that common goal is. So many participants without a communication network to work together instead of against each other.

Barrier 31: LACK OF VARIOUS ABILITIES AND DESIRES OF TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS TO ADDRESS STUDENT NEEDS This goes towards what is being produced by college and administration and also what goes toward teachers with natural abilities but also to try and help them understand. Q- On your abilities would you consider desire to address students needs as the same or different A - I would include it as having the ability and the desire to address student’s needs. Q - I understand that but I am not sure I understood what that means. A - Some teachers have a natural ability to see the needs of students and meet their needs. Some universities are not training teachers to see and address the needs of students. Sometimes the desire is not there either because they are so overwhelmed. Q- I understand what she said but I think there is a lot more than what is up there. C - Clarification between unconsciously skilled and consciously skill A - Yes but we are looking at the barrier itself and we are seeing that the abilities are not there. Q - The college piece when they come so differentiated but is that a whole new barrier? - and I don't know if we add that now or add later.

Barrier 32: LACK OF BELIEF THAT ALL STUDENTS CAN OR SHOULD LEARN MATHEMATICS This is pretty much what it says. Anybody that's involved in the system. It's a barrier if somebody in the system doesn’t believe a student should or can learn mathematics. Students and teachers themselves.

Barrier 33: LACK OF REAL WORLD INPUT INTO WHAT REAL AND RELEVANT APPLICATIONS OUGHT TO BE TAUGHT This is because of the fact that we had a requirement that all instruction is real and relevant. I have some experiences in my live (construction, engineering) that will allow me to have real and relevant instruction. But I want to hear from various businesses and parents in the community (housewives) about what is real and relevant. Q - Applications - does it have to be something that the student does or the mathematical reasoning? A - In an ideal world with plenty of time if a student was able to do something whenever possible - because it gives them a deeper understanding. Q - Is the application find the area or given that we have this area - what are all the possible things we can do with the area? Are employers valuing because they know the area formula or because they know all the ways they can use the area? A - Not only to know how finding area could be used but also how finding the area could be helpful. Q - Does this point to the why - to help with student motivation A - That is important but this is more getting to could we form a community group to inform this. Invites people form industry and the community to help formulate this. C- I heard of a community in AZ where people C - Input from parents and community would be to create content A - I think our content expectations are good but in addition the group could come up with how we could connect that in real and relevant ways.

Barrier 34: RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF SUBJECTS IS UNDULY IMPACTED BY POLICY SET BY FORCES OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT I.E NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND I like the emphasis there, "unduly." Going back to what we value and somehow what we value is set by legislation. It isn't necessary what we value but it's what we have to produce value for, funding, etc. No child left behind is an instance of that. As a parent it seems like weeks for us, my child is being taught to a test. Outside things impacting what's going on inside the classroom.

Barrier 35: LACK OF SUPPORTIVE AND MEANINGFUL MATH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHERS WHO ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH MATH That came a lot from the work that I do with math and special education and often they do not have a math background. They want to get better and they go to a college algebra class but they are intimidated and it doesn't apply to what they need. Differentiated professional development may be what I am referring to because they want to learn but there is nothing relevant for them to go to.

Barrier 36: INABILITY OF PARENTS AND TEACHERS TO ALLOW STUDENT FRUSTRATIONS IN ORDER TO LEARN MATHEMATICS I recently heard that there was a study done and one of conclusion, which is one of a major difference from us, is that we do too much for our students and we don't actually allow them to get frustrated enough to where they are going to actually learn the materials. Right away parents jump in and try to save them, teachers jump in and try to save them. I probably do the same thing. I think sometimes we don't want to hear them complain and get frustrated. As a mother I want to jump in and help.

Barrier 37: NOT USING A GUARANTEED AND VIABLE CURRICULUM WITH FIDELITY I meant either they don’t have the viable curriculum or they are not implementing it correctly. Some people with find a curriculum that is research based and they make it their own. They change it. So change yourself not the program.

Barrier 38: LACK OF EXPECTATION FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF BEST PRACTICES LEARNED IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT This is kind of a personal one right now. When I meet with high school principals and I say "have you noticed the differences in math classrooms", and then I get the blank stare. On #16 when we talked about that one with developments. Lack of expecting people to use what they done. People go to professional development to learn something but when they come back they put it on the shelf and it's ok.

Barrier 39: DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN MEMBERS OF THE MATH COMMUNITY REGARDING MATHEMATICS INSTRUCTION That's it. I think I have heard and I have seen disagreement in the math community regarding what mathematics instruction has taken place. Q - Just to clarify- you don't mean content - you mean calculators A - Yes that is correct Q - Are you defining the community as teachers or the research as community Thinking of math instructors and the community itself Listen about the TIMMS project and there are people who don’t agree with it If we want to get to the nitty gritty then we have to circle our wagons and work together

Barrier 40: SHORTAGE OF HIGHLY QUALIFIED INSTRUCTORS There is a shortage of highly qualified instructors. I've had the opportunity the past 6 years to interview for math and science. It's a shallow pool as candidates that I would characterize as highly qualified. Q - Wanted to know if part of the problem is because Mark has killed the wrong people? LOL

Barrier 41: TOO LITTLE TECHNOLOGY IN THE HANDS OF STUDENTS There is a lot of inadequacies across the state when talking all students and there are amazing tools and it is not in the hands of students. There might be one in a school or district and they are not in the student's hands. The kids need to be using them not us so much.

Barrier 42: INADEQUATE OR INAPPROPRIATE INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS AVAILABLE Inadequate, example: Technology for 30 kids and only 10 calculators is not adequate. Appropriate is I believe all teachers take a secret course in how to get textbooks. Textbook publishers will tell you that everything they have will fit every standard created in the world. Instruction and materials doesn't match. As teachers we tend to think that we'll fix this somehow. Inappropriate is one part.

Barrier 43: THE PERVASIVE DISPROPORTIONATE EMPHASIS ON LANGUAGE SKILLS PRESCHOOL THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL In the USA - cradle to grave English, English, English - what we know best and think we know best. I have taught at all levels and math is the add or the thing we will get to later, maybe, after we put all this emphasis on language. We do the same thing with science.

Barrier 44: LACK OF SUSTAINABILITY PLAN TO CONTINUE WHAT WAS STARTED I know that when any new professional development is brought to teachers, one of the reasons why they drag themselves to it, and worry, and probably don’t listen, is because there's no trust that what's going to be trained will be sustained.

Barrier 45: THE INEQUITIES OF SCHOOL FUNDING I tried to make this general because there are inequities at federal, how it is given to states, and inequities in how states dole out to schools. You can see inequities from here to Detroit in all the ways that it is given out.

Barrier 46: LACK OF APPROPRIATE STUDENT/TEACHER RATIO The question was I found if you're going to have 30 kids in a classrom, then need to have more than 1 teacher in there to work with the students or cut the classroom size in half. It's not necessarily the teachers. Need something to help the students master that content, whatever works.

Barrier 47: INSTRUCTIONAL AND ASSESSMENT RESOURCES THAT ARE ALIGNED TO STATE EXPECTATIONS ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO ALL TEACHERS Lots of math teachers in MI and around the county are teaching from what they have off the internet, their closet, or what they are given from other teachers. They need support, they need direction to do differentiated instruction they need resources to do differentiated instruction and it is impossible to meet the needs of every student without the resources in the classroom.

Barrier 48: THE MISDIRECTED MINDSET OF ASSESSMENT OF MANY PARENTS, STUDENTS AS WELL AS TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS Goes along with some of the other ones about understanding of a formative assessment helping students and parents understand. Goes along with regurgitating what you thought you heard in the classroom.

Barrier 49: LACK OF KNOWLEDGE AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL ABOUT GOOD INSTRUCTION IN GENERAL AND MATHEMATICS IN PARTICULAR Q - Do you mean - that teachers and schools have lack of knowledge of math or researchers and text book writers? A - I mean lack of knowledge at school and district level. Q - I was thinking was it possible to add that to the end of it so that it is clear as we move forward. School level Added to vision statement.

Barrier 50: NEED FOR FLUIDITY OF CLASSES TO MEET STUDENT NEEDS I have special education students in mind with this. In the high school I work at they ask us every year what classes do your students need to be in next year. We go student by student. This student needs a resource class, etc. then we decide what we're going to teach next year. Every year it changes what we're going to teach. I don't know if it's a barrier but it's my hunch.

Barrier 51: TEACHER PREPARATION LEAVES TEACHERS UNPREPARED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF A DIVERSE STUDENT BODY From the special education perspective, the teachers are not adequately prepared to have students with special needs or widely varying skills in the classroom. Q - Do you mean that they have the content, pedagogy, and the ability to differentiate upon student needs? A - Yes

Barrier 52: DATA USED TO MEASURE PROGRESS (AYP) DOES NOT COME FROM A VERTICAL MEASURE OF PROFICIENCIES Thinking about the larger data. They only measure at grade level so if kids are failing or aren't meeting grade level you don't see if the school is making progress. You could have a year and half work and won't see if kids are working below grade level, which is what I was talking about here.

Barrier 53: INCONSISTENCY OF CONTENT EXPECTATIONS FROM THE STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FROM YEAR TO YEAR Every year when we come up with the curriculum map and we have to revise and revamp it and there are new content standards coming out I find it frustrating.

Barrier 54: INCONSISTENT EXPECTATIONS FOR TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAMS ACROSS THE STATE OR THE NATION Now that we are coming up with a common core of expectations, seems like that should continue up through the university levels so that when we hire teachers, we can have those expectations for them.

Barrier 55: SLOW RESPONSE FROM INSTITUTES OF HIGHER EDUCATION TO CHANGE AND TO MEET STATE, DISTRICT, AND POPULATION NEEDS They just are slow to respond - that might be the nature of the beast. Q - I guess it goes either way (#54 or 55) - the disconnect between the college professors and the current classrooms of today. A - I didn’t mean it that specifically - I literally meant the nature of the character. The barrier that stands in the way - what they should and should not know - differentiated instruction and co-teaching. They might know what to do but the response in order to change the program goes through quite a bureaucracy and process to get a program changed. By the time they get through that you are so far behind what the teachers need that it is a constant need to catch up.

Barrier 56: ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS THAT LEAD TO LOW EXPECTATION OF POOR AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS It is what it is. There's attitudes in education, not saying just teachers, educators, that lead to expecting a lot less of poor and African-American students. Q- mean all African American studnets or poor? A - I especially used "and' talking about both poor students and African American Q - I see that attitude and believe that leads to low expectation being a chronic problem of poor and many at risk populations and I'm wondering if "not sure if appropriate" if that could be in some way examples so attitudes, I'm not trying to change, actually I am. A - First of all, I used to not include poor in my sentence that related to this. Reminded time and again in urban areas that it's not just African American, it's poor students who can't leave and can't move. Specific on how I said that. Not opposed to including other groups but was specifically targeting those audiences. C - wanted to make sure that it wasn't that

Barrier 57: MATH INTERVENTION AND ENRICHMENT TIME IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR ALL STUDENTS WITHOUT MISSING NEW LEARNING WITHIN THE OFFICIAL SCHOOL DAY A lot of students miss classroom instruction during a pullout to help catch them up which in effect makes them fall father behind. I wanted to add enrichment also because if affects all student including those that can go deeper in enrichment. I don't want it to be recess, or lunch and give everyone time during the school day to catch up or go deeper.

Barrier 58: LACK OF SUSTAINABLE FOLLOW UP IN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT This goes along with 38, 16, and 44. In all the conversations we had regarding professional development, with not following through, taking home, and putting the information on shelves. The administrators need to take time to make sure we are spending time on professional development and it is used wisely.

Barrier 59: LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARENTS TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND MATH EXPECTATIONS There seems to be an idea that parents magically know the expectations about what their children know in the classroom. They think we get in through osmosis. I have a teacher friend who was surprised that I knew what the GLCEs were. And most parents don’t know but we need to know what the expectations are if you want parents to be partners. Even if it is stepping back but we need to know the expectations.

Barrier 60: LACK OF COLLABORATION AND COHESIVE ACTION PLANNING BETWEEN ESSENTIAL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATORS AROUND MATH (SPECIAL ED, BILINGUAL, ETC...) If you have a diverse population of kids, kids with special education needs, English language needs, The district and administration need to come together. Rarely do you go into a district and do these people know each other.

Barrier 61: THE LACK OF COMMON LANGUAGE AND KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT BALANCED ASSESSMENT IS Thinking about the community, the parents and others in the community and making sure we know the vocabulary and what all the assessments are.

Barrier 62: TOO LITTLE IS DONE FIRST TO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS AND MEET STUDENT SOCIAL NEEDS BEFORE TEACHING MATH Part of this comes because yesterday we went through Rachel's challenge, a phenomenal program. A program where one of the students who was shot at Columbine. You can't do that when you've heard an amazing assembly. What about all those days when kids come to you not having breakfast, where they are going to sleep that night, where mom has cancer, all those pieces. I don't know in education that we meet those needs enough before we try to hammer that content.

Barrier 63: THERE IS A DISCONNECT BETWEEN COLLEGE PROFESSORS THAT ARE TEACHING THE MATH ED CLASSES AND THE K-12 CLASSROOMS OF TODAY I say this because I have a current student teacher who is doing a very good job and I feel connected to some professor at GVSU. But I don't know if they are teaching what students look like, act like, behave like. Students are being taught the methods properly but the professors are not in our walls enough to know the students of today. Q - So the students of today - ex. 11 year old that has hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt because he is texting someone? A - Yes