Featured Speakers:
- Angela Knotts, Research Manager and Professional Learning Specialist, WestEd
- Kadron Johnson, Course Program Specialist, Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin
Host:
- Danny Torres, Associate Director of Events and Digital Media, WestEd
Danny Torres:
Hello, everyone, and welcome. This is the 30th session of our Leading Together webinar series. Thank you all very much for joining us today. Today’s topic, Integrated Statistics and Quantitative Reasoning, also known as ISQR, which is a new mathematics course for high school students. Our featured speakers today are Angela Knotts, research manager and professional learning specialist for WestEd, and Kadron Johnson, course program specialist with the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Unfortunately, our ISQR project director, Amy Getz, couldn’t join us today. My name is Danny Torres. I’m associate director of events and digital media for WestEd. I’ll be your host.
Okay, and before we jump in, I’d like to take a brief moment to introduce WestEd. As a non-partisan research, development, and service agency, WestEd works to promote excellence, improve learning, and increase opportunity for children, youth, and adults. Our staff partner with states, districts, schools, and others, providing a broad range of tailored services, including research and evaluation, professional learning, technical assistance, and policy guidance. And now it’s time to move into today’s session. Angela, take it away.
Angela Knotts:
All right. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Like Danny mentioned, we are gonna be talking today about a new rigorous high school math course for third and fourth year students called ISQR, Integrated Statistics And Quantitative Reasoning. It’s currently being developed by the Dana Center at UT Austin with WestEd supporting the pilot. So, I’m here with you today in place of Amy Getz, who’s our project director and couldn’t make it today. And then I also have with me my colleague at the Dana Center, Kadron Johnson, who is one of the folks working on the development of the course. So just to tell you a little bit about ISQR, what is it? So ISQR is a rigorous high school math course that integrates statistics and quantitative reasoning that’s designed to be offered in the third and fourth year. So we know that high school math gets to be a real challenge for a lot of students, and that a lot of the options that have been traditionally available to students, particularly after the required one to three years of high school math, are not often designed to serve every student and their particular needs and interests as they’re thinking about post-secondary. And so ISQR is looking to try to address that need.
So this is a course that’s gonna try to integrate statistics and quantitative reasoning, taught with real-world questions and contexts, hands-on projects, very technology-driven, very inquiry, investigation-focused. And then another piece is designing this course so that it is accessible to a wide range of students, regardless of their background, their post-secondary goals and interests, supporting a lot of different communication and learning styles, and a wide range of post-secondary goals. ISQR is a very integrative course. So some of the things that make it unique are, rather than kind of being taught via this kind of checklist model where it’s kind of a list of topics, this course is really thinking about coherent design being built around a lot of these kind of real-world engaging questions. It embeds a lot of technological aspects from the world that we currently live in. So thinking about data ethics, AI literacy, lots of topics that are relevant to students in their lives in the current world. A lot of focus on using the tools of technology in order to help us answer and address and think about mathematical question. And then really being designed to foster community and belonging and really thinking about how can we help all students be successful because of who they are, and kind of bringing and showing up with their whole identities.
A focus on kind of going beyond the traditional kind of the way we think about the types of tasks or things that you would do in a traditional math class and more focused on performance tasks, portfolios, those kinds of things. And really kind of preparing students to be able to think about not just how am I gonna use different math techniques to get the right answer, but how am I gonna use evidence to make decisions around real-world mathematical questions. So the Dana Center, Charles A. Dana Center at UT Austin is developing the course. And then this coming school year, ’26-’27, it’ll be piloted in 30 districts in 11 states. And then the goal is that, after the course runs this year, there will be some revisions based on feedback that we get, and then it will be released as open education resources in 2027. So something that we have been very excited about is that there’s a lot of excitement around ISQR from the students and the teachers that we’ve been working with.
So something that’s unique about ISQR, as far as we know, this is the only high school math course out there that’s been designed in this way. So, traditionally, a lot of times, high school math courses are designed by textbook authors, course authors who kind of go through their design process, writing the curriculum kind of on their own, and then maybe it goes out to teachers and maybe some other interest holders for feedback. And ISQR has been designed in a different way. There’s been a user-centered design model from the very beginning. So from the very earliest days of the project, we’ve had input from a lot of different interest holder groups, so including teachers, students, families, folks from workforce development, lots of different folks giving input. So we’ve had focus groups where those folks have had opportunities to interact with the authors. There have been regular design sessions over the course of this last year focusing on the assessments, focusing on how are we using AI and talking about that, how are we bringing in family engagement, so getting input from around those things. And then also we’ve had our advisory board be able to give input via material reviews.
And so they’ve had an opportunity to see draft materials and then provide feedback either via written surveys, via focus groups, or even testing out some of the lessons in their classrooms. And we’ve heard some really exciting things back from them. So we have several students on the advisory board, and they’ve had a lot of really validating lovely things to say about it. So we are excited that students are excited. And then also, we’ve also had a lot of great things coming back from teachers. So teachers just being really excited about students having opportunities for choice, opportunities to engage with real-world math problems, the idea of having lots of different ways to show what they’ve learned rather than kind of just traditional test-taking.
So how are districts thinking about using ISQR? So like I mentioned, we have over 30 districts now in 11 states that’ll be piloting next year. And they are using the course in some different ways, just depending on their particular context in their state or their district. So in some cases, they’re offering ISQR as a third year course. And a lot of times, whether it gets offered as a third or fourth year course has to do with whether Algebra II is a requirement in a district or a state. And so, in context where Algebra II is not required, a lot of times ISQR will be offered as a third year option in addition to Algebra II. And then from ISQR, students have kind of a springboard into a number of different kind of fourth year options. So that could be AP Stats, some other type of statistics course. Dual enrollment could be a quantitative reasoning, could be a number of other kind of dual enrollment options.
And then in some cases, it’s a fourth year. And so a lot of times, if there is a state or a district where Algebra II is required, so students are needing to take three years of math beforehand, then ISQR is offered as a fourth year option, so in addition to maybe things like pre-calculus. Other options that might be offered, ISQR is another rigorous fourth year option that is accessible to a wide range of students with different goals, interests, backgrounds, and a wide range of future plans in terms of post-secondary. Just to give you kind of a visual of who are our states, where are our partners, they’re kind of all over. So something we’re very excited about is that our state and district partners represent a huge variety of contexts. So we have, as you can see, a wide range of geographic regions kind of all over the country. We have a wide range of district sizes, and so we have some really large districts. We have some tiny little districts. We’ve got rural districts. We’ve got urban districts, districts with all different types of student demographics. And so we’re hoping that that’s gonna help us learn a lot about how does ISQR play out depending on the context.
In terms of timeline, so we are kind of here now getting toward spring, getting into summer 2026. And so we’ve had a year of course development with a lot of input and feedback from our partners and our interest holder advisory board. This summer, we’ll be doing professional learning institute with the teachers who will be piloting next year. Piloting will start in the fall and run through next spring. And then we will take feedback based on that year, do some revisions. And then in spring 2027, ISQR will be available as open educational resource. So now I’m gonna pass it over to Kadron to tell you a little bit about the curriculum.
Kadron Johnson:
Awesome. Thank you, Angela. I get the opportunity to talk to you about the curriculum, the materials that we have really built here, and this is truly something that is very different, very innovative, and something that we think is gonna truly bring joy to the classroom in itself. So to get us started, right, one of the first things that I wanna say is that ISQR is organized into eight units. And what’s really important here is that these are not traditional topic-based units like we get within algebra or geometry. Instead, each unit is truly built around these real-world questions. For example, as you can see, is it typical or is it fair? Is it significant? What is the cost? And what’s happening here is that we’re asking these kind of questions for students to think about what they are actually dealing with and thinking about in real life, and understanding that math becomes the tool that they get to use in order to answer these questions.
And just to reiterate, instead of actually just learning math, we’re asking… And you get students all the time that ask like, when will I use this? Well, students start to think about these big questions and think about how do I use math in order to answer these kind of questions? So it’s really innovative in this idea and approach that students get this real world experience where they can actually take some time to think about what these questions mean, how they apply to life, and how can I continue to use math in order to build upon this ideal within itself. And so it really brings out the driving force in these questions in itself. So as we dig a little bit deeper into that, we want to actually think about some of the questions that come along with this. Well, first and foremost, what we gotta understand is that we wanna make things more concrete. And so in order for us to do that, we actually get to see some of these things.
Building a foundation. Here we are, we’re setting a foundation for students to actually know what’s going on within the course, understand how things are impacting them in their lives. Students get to think about their sleep, their attendance, their grades, and how they are responsible when it comes to actual data collection in itself. And also thinking about, are data collection practices ethical in itself? And so these things are all important. And one of my favorite topics that students get to think about is screen time and saying, how does screen time affect sleep? If I’m up late on my screen, scrolling and doing all the things on social media, how does that affect how I sleep? And there’s a mathematical question in that. So what we wanna understand is that it’s powerful that students are not just discussing these topics. They’re gonna be using data, they’re gonna be using statistics, and quantitative reasoning to analyze these things, making it real, making it engaging.
And this is truly where we get the rigor that we want showing up. Students are able to do the real analysis here and not just answering textbook questions. And that’s important. We don’t want students just working questions out of a textbook. We want them to feel engaged and really in depth and understanding in terms of what they’re being asked to do and how they’re connecting with the work and making it feel relevant to what it is that they want within their lives. And so just to dig a little bit deeper into that, is it fair? Here, what we’re doing, we’re showing the depth and the seriousness for students. Students also tackle this more complex and sometimes even controversial questions, how equitable housing access is global, or whether vaccines are effective for different groups, or even whether certain claims about populations are actually true. And what does this do? Well, this truly does push students beyond computation and takes them into interpretation, reasoning, and critical thinking.
So now students are really getting to think and learn not just the math, but they are also evaluating claims using math. So it’s taking the learning that they’ve done within math, and saying, how can I apply this knowledge to make a claim, to interpret, to understand, to show that I can make a decision from these particular ideas within itself? And then we get to equitable assessments. And what are we doing here? Well, what we wanna understand is that a key principle for ISQR is equitable assessments. This means that we’re not just asking, can students get the right answer? What we are asking is can they explain their reasoning? Can they communicate their thinking? Can they demonstrate understanding in different ways? Equity here is about giving students access to demonstrate what they know, not lowering expectations. That’s never what we wanna do. We wanna have students meet the expectation, but we wanna find ways to have students feel like they can get the right answer through being able to explain, being able to communicate, and how they demonstrate their learning, and different ways at that, understanding that students learn in a variety of ways.
So how can we reach every student to have them feel comfortable within understanding these assessments? And so that’s what we get to look at, is actually exploring a couple of different assessment ideas in itself. So as we go into this, what we wanna think about is here is what actual practice looks like within ISQR. Here you can see we have a progress check, we also have a performance task, and then we also have ongoing formative assessments as well. And some of the things that we wanna understand here is that these are truly working towards building deeper understanding as time goes. And so these are just a couple of things that you actually see within our course that helps us to really work on assessment and bringing assessment about in a different way than it had been previously. So no longer is it just sit and take a test, we’re actually thinking about how students are learning, how we can check in with them, how are we ensuring that they’re comfortable with the materials that we are giving them? Are they actually able to answer some of the big questions that we’re thinking about as we continue to go throughout the actual unit?
And so here is an example of one of the assessments. This is our student choice assessment. So what I wanna do here is I really wanna just take some time and say this is one of the most exciting parts of ISQR is that we give students choice here. And so what you see is, for example, in this “Is it fair task?” students are investigating fairness and how resources are distributed in their schools or communities. What must they do within this task? Well, first, they have to use numerical evidence. They also have to interpret what the data shows them, and then they have to support a claim using mathematics. And I just wanna pause right there for a second just how folks think about that. You’re getting to use numerical evidence. You’re getting to make interpretation. You have to support your claim using mathematics. That is everything that we truly want for students to be able to understand what data is actually telling them.
So we’re using the math to make a claim about real world things that actually pertain to them. And it may not pertain to them exactly, but it may pertain to some community nearby or some community across the nation. And so this is the real world relevance that students are wanting to see within a course. So it gives them that autonomy of choice here. And we wanna understand that this is truly showing that learning is flexible. One of my favorite things here is that they have options in what they can give. You might wanna create a visualization for your class to see, or maybe you wanna write an opinion paper or design a campaign, or maybe you wanna propose a policy revision to your state government. The key here is that you have choices, options, and the options are limitless in terms of how we want students to continue to learn. So the math here truly does stay rigorous, but the ways that students demonstrate understanding is becoming much more meaningful and relevant to students so that they feel like they’re connected to math in a deeper way.
So we get rid of that stigma that says, when am I ever gonna use this? Now I’m actually seeing how this could be useful for me outside of a classroom in itself. One of my favorite parts is the capstone. The capstone is how we tie everything together. The course truly does culminate within our capstone project. The capstone is, these students, they get to take everything that they have learned throughout the course and now we’re putting it all together. What did you learn from each of those big questions and how can we put it together? And students bring everything together through data analysis, through modeling, reasoning, communication, all of the things that they have been learning from start to finish of this course, from the foundations through each big question. Now they get to take it and put it together. And what this means is that they are truly working on a project on their own, a project where they get to take a question that they develop, they choose their own real world question, with guidance of course, something that matters to them. And then they truly get to use math to investigate and then justify their conclusion.
So it’s really important that we take and spend plenty of time on that capstone to where the students are taking the time to actually collect data, to think about if their data is good. Because as you know, sometimes we get messy data. How do you ensure that that data is clean? How do you ensure that it’s becoming useful to your project? And then how do you take that data, and then how do you pull out some kind of conclusion, some kind of answer to your question? And then can you create a visualization, whether it’s a presentation, whether it’s some kind of graphic, whatever it might be? Or maybe you choose to write a paper, or maybe you decide to record a video that you wanna share with the class. This is something that you know is truly different in the way that we end the course. And what we gotta understand is that the ultimate goal of ISQR is not just to learn math, but to use math to make informed decisions in the real world. And this capstone gives them that opportunity to show that they can take a question of their own thinking, make an informed decision, and usually take that with them elsewhere as well.
I envision this as a student taking something like this and saying, how can I continue to further this understanding as I go to whatever venture I wanna go into next in life as well? And so, I just love the fact that we get to bring all of these audience together, and that this is just truly a space where students get to bring real world thinking into the classroom, bring in their own questions, and we can help them really see how statistics and quantitative reasoning are integrated, not working separately, but working together. And that’s what we gotta understand is that, at the core of this course, ISQR is about helping students use math to understand, make decisions, and understand what’s happening in the world around them. So if you would like more information about the ISQR course framework, we do have that framework available on the UT Dana Center website, which that link we’re gonna drop in the chat for you. Feel free to go through and see that framework to understand more about how this course was developed, the ideas behind the framework in itself, and then also look at the case for integrated statistics and quantitative reasoning.
See why it is that we have ISQR. What was the reason that we thought that ISQR should be a thing? That’ll help you understand more as well. And then make sure you also check out the “Relevance Inspires Rigor” video. That is actually from an AP Stats course and QR courses, which help with the thinking in terms of ISQR by Dash Young-Saver, great guy who is doing some great work when it comes to understanding stats. So those things are all information and resources that are available to you. So please feel free to take advantage of those. All right. And then if you have questions, I see the chat is going over questions. Y’all continue to ask questions. We will answer them as well. What we want to make sure that you do is visit this ISQR webpage to learn more about the course.
And then if you want updates… I saw in the chat that folks are interested. We love it. We want your interest. We want your involvement. We want to tell you more about the course. We wanna help you if you have any kind of questions or concerns. Use that tinyurl.com/ISQRinfo, and we would be happy to have you using this ISQR material. We want this to be everything you want it to be. And I wanna make sure I give a special thank you to the states that are piloting this course. Without them, we couldn’t be where we are. We’re going to have some great stuff, and it’s gonna continue to be great. So I’m very hopeful that all of you will sign up to continue to get updates about ISQR, and we will help you get all the things that you need.
Danny Torres:
Well, thank you, Angela and Kadron, for a great session, and thank you to all our participants for joining us. We had a lively discussion in the chat, so I appreciate that. All the links to resources shared during the session will be available in the video recording archive page on WestEd.org. And if you’d like to learn more about our work in mathematics education, visit us at WestEd.org/math. And feel free to reach out to Angela and Kadron via email if you have questions about the work we discussed today. You can reach Angela at [email protected], and you can reach Kadron at [email protected].
And you can check out recordings of our past Leading Together webinars and register for upcoming events online. Visit us online at wested.org/leading-together. And if you’re interested in learning more about WestEd and staying connected, you can sign up for WestEd’s email newsletter to receive updates. Subscribe online at wested.org/subscribe, or you can scan the QR code displayed on the screen here. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Bluesky. With that, thank you all very much. We’ll see you next time.