St. Charles Parish Public Schools Making Gains, Improving Teaching and Learning with Eureka Math²

When most people think about learning math, what typically springs to mind are the “how” and “what.” How did you solve that equation? What is the area of the triangle?

But in the St. Charles Parish school district, in southeastern Louisiana upriver from New Orleans, another question is just as important: “Why?” 

And that speaks to a significant shift in how the diverse suburban school system approaches math instruction these days. It’s also at the heart of the Great Minds® curriculum, Eureka Math^2®, that the district recently adopted.

A hallmark of this approach, for both teachers and students, is asking why.

“Teachers read about the ‘why’ and the intent, and how [the curriculum] was founded,” said Stacy Neighbors, supervisor of curriculum and instruction for the district. “... Then they see it, they’re living it, and appreciate the supports that are there.” This included reading an article about a letter the CEO of Great Minds, Lynne Munson, received from a student about an early version of Eureka Math, which the student said included overly complex vocabulary.

STRONG GROWTH

Early evidence from student achievement data suggest the district’s efforts to revamp math instruction, supported by Eureka Math², are moving the needle.

“Looking at our cohort data, scores either went up or remained the same, with the majority going up, and that’s across subgroups,” Neighbors said of middle school math test scores. Cohort data is an especially powerful measure, as it compares the same group of students from year to year. 

State achievement data show a 16 percent increase, on average, in the share of grades 3–8 students scoring at the “mastery or above” level in math, when comparing student cohorts for 2022–23 with 2023–24.

THE PIVOT TO EUREKA Math² 

The St. Charles district began its transition from Eureka Math to Eureka Math² in the 2022–23 academic year.

“We took a year (2022–23), and we piloted Eureka Math² for third grade, and that gave us an opportunity, because we had only one grade level … to just really give [teachers] a lot of support” with the new curriculum, said Melissa Parfait, supervisor of curriculum and instruction. “We were constantly asking questions of our Great Minds team” around the design and the changes from Eureka Math, and how best to implement the curriculum before taking on additional grade levels.

“So our third-grade pilot was very successful,” Parfait said. The following academic year, 2023–2024, the curriculum was fully implemented for grades 3 through 5.

One of the key changes was to improve the “pacing” of math instruction across the school year, Parfait said, noting that Eureka Math² makes that easier. 

“We didn’t want to be rigid,” she said. “Because we want to follow the student data [to decide] what do they need more [of]? When do we need to slow down? When do we need to speed up? And that might vary by class.”

The district reserves 90 minutes per day for math in the elementary grades, and also places an emphasis on small group instruction, Parfait said.

Meanwhile, in 2022–2023, the district also began middle school implementation of Eureka Math², starting with a sixth-grade pilot. And in 2023–24, it was fully adopted across grades 6 through 8.

“Our teachers have really loved just even the foundation of how Eureka Math² was built,” said Neighbors. As part of professional learning for the curriculum, “[teachers] read about the ‘why’ and the intent, and how it was founded, and why the UDL boxes are there, and how this curriculum is different.”

She added, "The UDL boxes allow students to use a variety of tools, solution methods, strategies, or accommodation methods to solve problems. These supports were absent from the earlier versions of Eureka Math. These support boxes support student learning and engagement."

The UDL boxes refer to Universal Design for Learning. The boxes, included in the teacher’s edition of the instructional materials, help teachers differentiate instruction in real time to better address the wide range of learners in classrooms.

“Sometimes it’s just a visual or an anchor chart that will build off of what’s on the actual page, but it really allows for that opportunity for students to either visually or kinesthetically interact with” the math content, Neighbors said.

The school district also has invested in a team of math coaches who provide hands-on support and guidance to teachers. “We have amazing math coaches,” said Parfait. “The coaches are in schools daily supporting the teachers.”

ADDITIONAL ASSETS HELP PARENTS AND TUTORS

One valued feature of the curriculum, specifically for grades K–5, are the Apply books designed for students to bring home and share with parents and caregivers. These materials also can help tutors who work with students outside of their regular math instruction each school day. (The state of Louisiana has approved funding for “high-dosage tutoring” to address students’ “unfinished learning” in math and English language arts, both during the school day and also in community centers.) 

The Apply books include these components:

• A Family Math letter that describes the major math concepts in a topic.
• A collection of additional math problems for students to work on at home.
• Practice Partners that take students through the thinking of a hypothetical partner solving math problems.

“The Apply books have been super beneficial for our parents and our tutors,” Parfait said.

The Family Math letters are written in clear and concrete language that help to make math, by nature an abstract concept, easier to understand. Typically, they also recap what students have learned previously, what they are learning now, and why they are learning it.

For example, a fourth-grade letter about “place value” explains that students previously learned about this concept for numbers up to 1,000, and now will increase so that they can “read, write, and compare” numbers up to one million

“A strong sense of place value understanding helps your student add, subtract, multiply, and divide with large numbers later this year,” the family math letter says.

The letter also suggests activities that parents/caregivers and children can do at home together, such as comparing money using pennies, dimes, and dollars.

The curriculum also includes a Learn book with student materials for in-class work. One especially valued component for the St. Charles team is the so-called Recaps for grades 6 through Algebra 1 that summarize each lesson’s core content.

“It gives examples and summarizes that day’s learning before students move on to the practice,” Neighbors said. “There is basically a two-page recap of the day’s lesson for the family to … see.”

Eureka Math² is also working well at the high school level, said Amy Walker, supervisor of curriculum and instruction. And one key to teachers’ buy-in comes back to the “Why?” 

“They have a better understanding of the why, … so they really are embracing” the curriculum, Walker said.

The shift is also increasing student engagement, and the learning is more student directed, according to Walker. 

“The students are let in on the assessment process,” she said. “That’s been a big … game-changer for us.”

Walker explained how students now see how, when they take a quiz and are not demonstrating proficiency, that they will get support before taking the summative assessment, the test at the end of a particular learning module. 

“They’re invested because they know that it’s not just a grade,” she said.

One way this is facilitated is through the so-called Take a Stand protocol, an instructional routine aimed at deepening learning and improving student discourse. In algebra, this involves asking students to justify how they answered a math problem. So they must indicate whether they agree or disagree, and then explain why, to justify their thinking.

Ultimately, the curriculum is getting students to talk more about their work and their learning process. And that’s powerful.

“They can articulate what they know and what they don’t know,” Parfait said, “and what they’re about to do to get to that level of proficiency.”