In a bustling area of commercial road, an unassuming office building acts as a lending library for math and science education. This facility, located in a southern suburb of Birmingham, is one of the 11 service sites for the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI), which is considered one of the largest and most ambitious state-run math and science programs in the United States. On the ground floor, there is a vast warehouse filled with math and science classroom equipment, such as graphing calculators, water-monitoring devices, beakers, flasks, and even GPS units. These items are shipped out on loan to schools on a weekly basis. Upstairs, there is a team of traveling mathematics and science specialists who offer their expertise to schools, helping teachers with challenging content and lesson plans.
AMSTI, also known as the Alabama program, focuses on giving schools access to classroom materials and providing them with experienced teachers. Launched in 2002 with the support of corporate and university leaders, AMSTI aims to enhance students’ interest and achievement in math and science by offering a combination of professional development, instructional aid, and resources that many schools would not be able to afford otherwise. When it first started, only 20 schools partnered with AMSTI. However, today, approximately 40% of Alabama’s schools, totaling 575 schools, participate in the program, and state officials hope to eventually achieve 100% participation. Over 16,000 teachers have received training through AMSTI so far, and the program’s external evaluations indicate that participating schools have outperformed non-AMSTI schools, particularly in the early grades.
Elementary schools that take part in AMSTI generally achieve better results compared to non-AMSTI schools on various measures, such as the Stanford Achievement Test, according to an external evaluation conducted by the Alabama Department of Education.
AMSTI invites schools to engage in a type of contract that aims to improve instruction. Elementary, middle, and high schools that wish to participate must send all their math and science teachers and administrators through a two-week professional development program for two consecutive summers. They are also required to assign lead math and science teachers within their schools, allocate time for teachers to plan their lessons, and form partnerships with local businesses, among other obligations.
In return, teachers in AMSTI schools gain access to a well-organized inventory of classroom kits and equipment, which they are encouraged to order in advance. However, if necessary, they can receive these materials on short notice. Each service site houses several thousand materials, and teachers can also benefit from ongoing training and regular assistance from teacher-specialists. Some kits remain in schools throughout the year, while others are loaned out for several weeks and then refurbished by AMSTI staff members once they are returned.
Deborah O’Hara, who joined AMSTI as a math specialist in 2006 after spending 19 years as a secondary math teacher, is one of the people responsible for assisting AMSTI teachers. She currently oversees eight specialists at the AMSTI office in Pelham, which is associated with the nearby University of Montevallo.
Her office serves 39 schools located in the surrounding five counties. When O’Hara was working as a specialist, she collaborated with 16 schools. Typically, she spent four out of five days on the road, aiming to visit each school at least once a month, and some schools even more frequently. This is considered a typical schedule for the specialists.
All AMSTI math and science modules and classroom materials are designed to align with the state’s academic standards in these subjects. The materials and instructions provided through AMSTI prioritize "inquiry" lessons that encourage students to actively participate in problem-solving, hands-on activities, and in-depth discussions about concepts and principles. O’Hara sees AMSTI as a way to help students understand how math is applied in the real world. She believes that many students simply memorize their way through math, which eventually leads to a lack of interest or a realization that memorization alone is not enough.
Promoting innovative and expert math and science teaching was one of the primary objectives for Alabama officials when they first laid the groundwork for AMSTI in 1999. They aimed to establish a program similar to the Alabama Reading Initiative, a statewide initiative that was credited with improving student performance in reading.
Equipment and Concepts
AMSTI specialists from the Pelham office provide assistance to teachers in schools regarding math and science content and lesson design. Some teachers request specialists to collaborate with them during specific lessons until they become proficient. Others require assistance in using equipment like graphing calculators.
However, this task is not without its challenges. Some teachers may be hesitant to seek or accept advice, according to Ms. O’Hara. Additionally, some educators mistakenly believe that the presence of AMSTI specialists implies an official evaluation of their teaching, which is not the case. When Ms. O’Hara initially started as a specialist, she found it difficult to keep up with the diverse and numerous requests for help with various types of lessons. Towards the end of her tenure, she managed to alleviate this burden by creating teaching materials in advance for the most frequently requested math lessons and directing teachers to those resources.
Jemison High School, located about thirty minutes south of Pelham, is one of the schools served by the AMSTI site where Ms. O’Hara works. There, she has assisted teachers in planning math lessons on topics such as ratios and proportions, exponential functions, and more. Ms. Easterling, a math teacher at Jemison High, learned about a creative approach for teaching unit circles, a trigonometry concept, through AMSTI. In her precalculus class, she organizes an interactive unit-circle game using large, colorful paper cut-outs representing the x and y axes. The students play the game on the floor, which helps them better understand the concept. Ms. Easterling describes it as a fun and straightforward method of translating textbook material into a tangible learning experience.
Another math teacher at Jemison High, Robin Gray, implemented an AMSTI activity in her advanced geometry class. She distributed wooden cubes, flashlights, and chart paper (all provided by AMSTI) to her students. Then, in a darkened school auditorium, they made hypotheses about the length of shadows and conducted experiments to test their hypotheses. The students later graphed the correlation between variables.
The popularity of AMSTI in schools like Jemison High, along with the academic improvements observed, has persuaded Alabama officials to increase state spending on the program. The program’s budget has seen a significant increase, from $15 million in 2006 to $41 million in fiscal year 2009. "We have successfully changed students’ attitudes," Mr. Ricks stated. "If students don’t enjoy math and science, why would they ever choose it as a career?"
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