previous | table of contents | next

	ACTION RESEARCH AT WILSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL* We started an action-research project in 1995," explains Francie, a lead math teacher. "We had been getting math scores from the state since 1993, and Woodrow Wilson’s scores were the lowest in the district. It was really embarrassing. When three of us signed up for an action-research class at Kansas State University, we saw it as an opportunity to deal with our students’ problem-solving skills. We thought that if all our teachers, grades K-6, were knowledgeable about what students are expected to know on the assessment [which is given in grade 4] and were trained in the techniques for teaching and assessing open-ended math problems, the students would score higher over time. "So we presented our proposal to the faculty. Not everyone was 100 percent behind the project, but they participated. First we got together and, looking at the state math assessment scores, we asked one another, ‘What are we missing here?’" Kit, who teaches fourth grade, reports what a revelation it was simply to take a hard look at the test. "We almost cried when we saw the exam. We were used to basic math, mostly a numbers test. We were comfortable with that type of test because that’s what we were used to teaching. The new test had lots of reading and no two problems were alike. They had big blank areas, and now you had to explain your answer in words. Our kids couldn't do it, and we, as teachers, couldn’t do it either. We were very frustrated. We didn’t know how we were going to teach these concepts. We knew we needed help, and not just in fourth grade. We needed to have teachers teaching kids these kinds of problems from the beginning – in the earlier grades. We decided to make the whole school responsible, not just the fourth-grade teachers."	Francie continues, "It made a big difference in everyone’s attitude to share the load. That’s when we started to get together as a faculty. We were using the same language, and we all started to talk about our expectations. Everyone came together around the goals." "We learned by doing it," Kit adds, "practicing and working out the problems together. All of our teachers started by using open-ended questions and grading them the same way the state grades them. We would make up problems and think about how to teach our students to solve problems. There was a good book we used to learn about how to teach problem solving, and we would take their problems and change words to get the kids’ attention. We also had a lot of manipulatives, and teachers would get together and play with them. We kept practicing, and each year we got better." To answer their action-research question definitively, Francie and her colleagues analyzed the student test scores on the Kansas Mathematics Assessment over a two-year period. Their findings corroborated their informal observations: student achievement had improved.   * This vignette is constructed from interviews with several Wilson teachers.