Education Week - February 15, 2023 - 31

For some teachers, taking on the role felt like an
extension of the mentorship that Clarke had already been
doing more informally with them throughout her two
decades in the district.
" The things that I saw her do, I mimicked, " said
Lawrence, the instructional-support teacher. Her
education in Clarke's methods started long before her
teaching career; back in 12th grade, she was one of
Clarke's Algebra 3 students.
" In her class, I was able to ask 'why' and actually get a
definitive answer, " Lawrence remembered-a contrast
to other math classes she had been in where questions
about the 'why' behind math methods " were just met
with resistance. " Clarke matched students with a peer
partner to discuss and problem-solve. Lawrence instituted
the same system in her own classes when she became a
teacher.
Tarquiann Bates, an Algebra 1 teacher at Morrow
High School, also remembered borrowing from Clarke's
approach for his own classroom, even before he started
working as a math ambassador. " She's definitely leading
from the front, " he said.
Still, he worries about maintaining buy-in among staff.
It takes a while to bring teachers around to this approach,
he said. When teachers leave, or new staff starts, that
process has to start all over again.
Encouraging students-and teachers-
to notice and wonder
Clarke understands that getting teachers on board
takes time. Giving up any control in a room full of 20 to 30
teenagers is intimidating. Teachers worry that if they're
not " the meanest or the sternest, " kids will lose focus
or end up off task. But lecturing to prevent side chatter
doesn't reliably engage students, either, she said. So
Clarke tries to show teachers how to strike a balance.
In monthly meetings with the district's math
ambassadors, she models new procedures. Take one
example of a 3rd grade lesson on symmetry.
Typically, teachers start by defining the term. In
Clarke's model, teachers begin by showing images that
lack symmetry, a photo of a crab with three legs on one
side and four on the other, for instance. They ask: " What
do you notice, what do you wonder? "
Once the students identify the leg difference, teachers
can connect the concept of symmetry to an understanding
that students already had.
The goal is for math ambassadors and other coaches to
spread these practices to the teachers they work with. So
far, though, that's been a challenge.
Many teachers haven't had much guidance with the
new methods in part because school leaders haven't
made it a priority to schedule time for math ambassadors
to offer training and group planning, Clarke said. She
and her team are still working to change that, despite
competing demands for teachers' time during the day.
Clarke believes these implementation problems are part
of the reason the instructional changes haven't improved
students' math scores on state tests.
Like other high-poverty districts, Clayton has long
FPO PIC
struggled with the subject. Only 17 percent of students
scored " proficient " or above in Algebra 1 on state end-ofcourse
assessments, compared with about 36 percent of
students statewide, on tests administered in spring 2016,
the year before the math transformation began.
Despite the efforts of Clarke and her team, those
Algebra 1 scores haven't budged. In fact, they fell: Just
14 percent of students scored at the proficient or above
level in spring 2022-the first normal year of testing
during the pandemic.
Still, schools are seeing some early evidence that
they're on the right track.
The district is also tracking student interest, said
Trina Reaves, Clayton's director of STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and math) and innovation.
Clarke set up new districtwide math
competitions in which students demonstrate
mathematical concepts through art, design
their own math board games, or work in teams
to use math to solve a real-world problem. Pre-COVID,
about 600 students a year participated-a six-fold
increase from the number that used to participate in the
district's exam-based competition.
Clarke has also struck up partnerships with several
outside organizations to bring math-enrichment
opportunities to district students, Reaves said.
One of the students who participated was Anna Njie.
Now a freshman at Vanderbilt University, Njie spent the
summer of 2020 teaching elementary and middle school
students remotely as one of Clayton's math-literacy
workers-an internship for high schoolers to teach math
to younger children, which Clarke brought to Clayton
through a partnership with the nonprofit Young People's
Project.
The program changed how Njie thought of herself:
as someone who had something to teach others. She
attributes much of that change to the leaders of the
program, including Clarke.
Clarke made it known, Njie said: " What we had to say
mattered. " n
leaders.edweek.org | 31
Tonya Clarke, the K-12
math coordinator
in Clayton County
public schools in
Jonesboro, Ga.,
helps students
with geometry
while observing an
8th grade math class
at Adamson Middle
School.
Dustin Chambers for Education Week
http://leaders.edweek.org
Education Week - February 15, 2023

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