4 ways SpringMath builds teacher capacity
The COVID-19 pandemic widened reading and math gaps across the nation and presented immense challenges to educators. There’s pressure to close those gaps making it more important than ever that teachers feel confident instructing and guiding their students in the classroom — addressing what’s working, not working, and where additional support is needed.
SpringMath doesn’t just help students build enduring math mastery and confidence — it builds the capacity of teachers, too. Unlike programs that remove teachers from the process, SpringMath employs technology for assessment, MTSS tool selection, and progress monitoring to make instructors more efficient and effective in their roles.
SpringMath builds teacher capacity by:
1. Leveraging technology for teacher efficiency: Built upon more than 20 years of rigorous, peer-reviewed research and implementation science, SpringMath strategizes the assessment and intervention approach. Proprietary decision rules direct instructional decisions to save teachers time and accelerate student growth.
2. Providing clear, step-by-step guidance: From the very first log in, SpringMath guides educators through each step — from screening to skill mastery in about 15 minutes each day. Assessment results highlight what skills a student has and hasn’t acquired — powering customized classwide and individual intervention plans and taking the guesswork out of math intervention.
3. Simplifying math intervention: For both classwide and individual intervention, SpringMath guides teachers step-by-step. Classwide interventions provide weekly adjustment of skill difficulty, new materials, summary reports, and implementation support. Individual interventions begin with a “drill-down” assessment process and identify the right intervention for each student. All intervention packets are dynamically generated to ensure they match current skill development and include all materials necessary for effective intervention.
4. Supporting each school and district’s unique needs: The SpringMath team is here not only to get schools and districts up and running, but are dedicated to ensuring ongoing success. Data consultation, support and coaching throughout the school year ensures a robust implementation and strong outcomes.
Tips for using SpringMath to build teacher capacity:
Celebrate success
A Pennsylvania district uses SpringMath data for individual intervention, but also encourages teachers to use it in the classroom for its unique, team approach to learning — the class sets a goal, and everyone works to meet it. When students reach their goals and help the class move on, it gives them the confidence and motivation to keep learning.
“Kids get so excited to actually do it. They will see me in the hallway and say, ‘Hey, Mrs. Wagner! We passed our goal, or we met our goal, or we have to do SpringMath again!’” said Wagner. “And teachers are the same way. They are celebrating successes on a regular basis. Some of their classes are getting through some tough concepts in a short amount of time, which is awesome.”
- Angela Wagner, Title 1 Math Teacher, Juniata County School District
Customize implementations
At North Star Elementary School in Pennsylvania, some teachers choose to do the main lessons in one class, and partner work in another — making it easy to incorporate SpringMath alongside core curriculum.
“You can really make it fit into your classroom schedule without sacrificing results,” Lepley explained. “Our teachers appreciate that. It is easy to implement and easy to use. From uploading documents and printing papers to seeing results, everything is quick and easy.”
- Renee Lepley, Principal, North Star Central Elementary School
Bottom line
We know that being an educator isn’t easy, especially recently. We truly believe in the power of SpringMath and are proud of all that our partners have accomplished with their students. Thank you, educators.