What happens when a district takes a bold step toward transforming middle school math instruction? West Contra Costa Unified School District (USD) set out in 2020 to do just that—partnering with ConnectED to diagnose the causes of lagging middle school math achievement and develop a strategic plan to implement a new, high-quality curriculum.
In the 2020-21 school year, ConnectED was expanding our work supporting districts to adopt and implement high-quality instructional materials (HQIM). In this context, we were put in touch with Mark Lobaco, Instructional Coordinator for Mathematics at West Contra Costa USD. While ConnectED had a long history of supporting this district in its efforts to build college and career pathways, we had not yet directly supported work in mathematics.
We began with a readiness assessment, which revealed some interesting findings:
- Most middle school teachers were not using the district-adopted curriculum.
- The existing curriculum did not support the instructional shifts outlined by the Common Core well—a key priority for this district.
- Student outcomes were lagging, and the district was not seeing the achievement improvements.
Mr. Lobaco, eager to usher in a new era for mathematics by exploring problem-based curricula and building a robust system of support for teachers, said, “Middle school is close to my heart and can be the neglected stepchild of education. I wanted to ramp up middle grades teaching and learning and bring more joy to the math classroom. This starts with getting a great, engaging curriculum that promotes student thinking and discussion.”
ConnectED then acquired fiscal support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and we began our work with West Contra Costa USD.
We identified a new curriculum and began piloting it with a small group of nine teachers. We worked closely with the district’s coaching team to:
- Develop professional learning sessions for the teachers
- Create a coaching approach that could support a problem-based approach to instruction
- Continually monitor implementation using customized observation protocols and tools
“What was so exciting about this new curriculum implementation was that I was going to be able to work with an instructional coach, someone coming into my classroom. She taught one of the lessons so that I could observe and see how she was facilitating the routines. Also, I was able to participate in the district professional learning. We worked on lesson planning and unit planning so that we could see how the learning built over the course of the unit.” Nancy Pasqua, 6th-Grade Teacher at Betty Reid Soskin Middle School
ConnectED worked with Mr. Lobaco to recruit a cross-role implementation team, develop the meeting agendas for the team meetings, and leverage the perspectives from many colleagues toward building structures for continuous improvement. Each year, we drafted an implementation plan that included specific goals and outlined the mechanisms and data sources that would tell us about how the system was performing in relation to these goals.
With each new year of implementation, the number of teachers who chose to participate in the pilot increased. We were able to eventually serve approximately 63% of schools over the course of our 3-year implementation project—supporting across a variety of settings including K-8 schools, 6th grades situated in elementary schools, and 6-8 middle schools.
We designed professional learning structures that enabled teachers to learn from each other. Rather than having them sit through mandated curriculum-based training, we sought to build professional learning communities that empowered teachers to turn toward their colleagues in collaboration as they navigated the challenges of shifting their instructional practices. This focus on collaboration led to teachers feeling that participating in the pilot community was a professionalizing experience.
“Because I was one of the first teachers to pilot the curriculum I also worked over the summer to develop pacing guides for 6th grade so that the newer teachers had a reference for which lessons were optional and which were really important. This was a positive experience for me. I worked closely with the coach to develop slides that showed teachers how long each unit is going to take. This helps us know, as a district, know how we are doing and it helps us plan when we meet in our district professional learning planning times. This helps us in our collaboration.” Nancy Pasqua, 6th-Grade Teacher at Betty Reid Soskin Middle School
While we do not yet have all of the impact data, we did see some changes in how students who were in the classrooms using the new curriculum performed on the state standardized assessment.
From Year 1 to Year 2 of the pilot, the categories of students who “Meet or Exceed Standard” increased 5%, and the percentage of students who scored “Standard Not Met” decreased by 15%. While these outcomes are preliminary, they are also promising.
Teachers felt more empowered, collaboration deepened, and early assessment data showed meaningful gains. While the work continues, one thing is clear: when educators have the right tools and support, real change is possible.
