As you may know, AmeriCorps has significantly helped our district in reading; this program is recognized across the country. Having stated this, the intent behind this message is to help everyone realize that we are piloting a new program. We are the only school district in the country that is piloting MathCorps. MathCorps reaches students who are in 4th-8th grade to tutor and mentor students who are struggling to be at or above grade level in math so that they have the capacity to be successful with math in the future.
We gather data by using the NWEA MAP testing to assess our student's growth and achievement. It is the RIT scores of these assessments that make it possible to monitor student growth during the year and from year-to-year along developmental curriculum scales. NWEA uses the RIT scale, short for Rasch Unit, much like centimeters on a meter stick. While students might normally grow 2 points at any one of these grade levels in a year, our target group of MathCorps students experienced growth of 8.4 points in just a 1/2 year. This is remarkable because the remainder of the student population grew by just 0.5 points in that same 1/2 year. I realize that this study needs a complete year (which is soon coming), but the data to date is incredible.
I am so supportive of this that I've encouraged college students to apply to work with MathCorps and ReadingCorps (including my own children).
Even so, I am concerned about the future of this program. The state is committed to next year, but it's the future that concerns me, and I believe that funding mechanisms need to be examined very seriously so this program happens across the entire country. I have shared our pilot with U.S. Education Secretary Duncan's office along with the success we have recognized. My hope is that this will be seen as a viable program for the entire United States.
