McCosh CLC Math Team

The goal of the McCosh Math Team was to increase student achievement through wider implementation of NCTM standards-based instruction. Math and Science coordinator Juanita Skulark headed up the team while Roosevelt University professors Brigitte Erbe and Steve Cohen served as university partners.

Erbe and Cohen spent time the first year observing teachers and working with 8th graders to assess their skill level and analyzing results from the ITBS scores. Their report,gave ideas for instructional changes at all grade levels. Based on this assessment teachers' began

to focus on improving students' understanding of place value throughout the grades.In January '97 Erbe and Cohen taught a graduate level math methods course on-site designed specifically to meet the needs of McCosh teachers. It also served to fulfill part of the requirements for middle school endorsement by the state of Illinois. Fifteen teachers took the course.

During Year 3 Juanita Skulark led math workshops for preK through 6th grade teachers. Spurred by Cohen's interest in combining math and writing middle school teachers received funding to publish a math magazine for parents. Erbe worked directly with teachers in their classrooms.

The big news is that students' math scores, especially in the middle school grades increased on the IGAP and the ITBS in both 1996 and 1997!

"We can't attribute the scores going up to any one thing," reports Teacher Leader Juanita Skulark. "We feel

everything we did was important, so much so that we are afraid to drop anything--the university courses, the workshops, teacher empowerment, the use of manipulatives, the five week assessment program. We feel everything is important and we are continuing everything."

Click here to see excerpts from the Math Magazine.

	The goal of the McCosh Math Team was to increase student achievement through wider implementation of NCTM standards-based instruction. Math and Science coordinator Juanita Skulark headed up the team while Roosevelt University professors Brigitte Erbe and Steve Cohen served as university partners.
	Erbe and Cohen spent time the first year observing teachers and working with 8th graders to assess their skill level and analyzing results from the ITBS scores. Their report,gave ideas for instructional changes at all grade levels. Based on this assessment teachers' began
	to focus on improving students' understanding of place value throughout the grades.In January '97 Erbe and Cohen taught a graduate level math methods course on-site designed specifically to meet the needs of McCosh teachers. It also served to fulfill part of the requirements for middle school endorsement by the state of Illinois. Fifteen teachers took the course.
	During Year 3 Juanita Skulark led math workshops for preK through 6th grade teachers. Spurred by Cohen's interest in combining math and writing middle school teachers received funding to publish a math magazine for parents. Erbe worked directly with teachers in their classrooms.
	The big news is that students' math scores, especially in the middle school grades increased on the IGAP and the ITBS in both 1996 and 1997! "We can't attribute the scores going up to any one thing," reports Teacher Leader Juanita Skulark. "We feel
	everything we did was important, so much so that we are afraid to drop anything--the university courses, the workshops, teacher empowerment, the use of manipulatives, the five week assessment program. We feel everything is important and we are continuing everything."