Utah teachers receive grant monies to hone their math skills

Sixteen Utah school districts received state money this fall to arm teachers with the know-how and background to give fourth- through sixth-grade students a firmer grasp of math and provide teachers with incentives.

The $7.5 million grant was part of HB181 and is aimed at deepening elementary teachers' content knowledge in math so that they can better teach concepts to students. Along with funding professional development for educators, around half of grant monies go to incentives for teachers to take part in the professional development programs.

Lisa Jasumback, math supervisor for the Davis School District, said math taught in fourth through sixth grades requires a fairly deep understanding of mathematics — something not all elementary teachers have.

"A lot of our teachers are coming to us not having had much math background in college — some of our older teachers didn't even have to take a math class in college," Jasumback said.

She said that late grade school is a critical time for students in learning math. It's the age where students start learning core concepts that they must grasp firmly so they can build on them later.

"Studies have shown that students who have a good strong math program in grades four through six, most will do fine in junior high and high school — but kids who don't, we can never fix that inadequacy when they get into junior high because they don't have those concepts down," Jasumback said.

Moreover, after running an analysis, data specialists in Salt Lake School District found that students not doing well in math on the CRTs in sixth grade correlates with those failing the math portion of the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test, said Janet Broxton, K-12 math supervisor for the Salt Lake City School District.

Students who can't pass the UBSCT, the state's graduation exam, are in danger of not receiving a regular diploma.

That encouraged district officials "to really want that support for our sixth-grade teachers and in so doing we can prepare our fourth- and fifth-(grade teachers) with more mathematical content so that they can be stronger and have a direct impact on that student achievement," Broxton said

She said that not only should that have a direct impact on the number of students passing the UBSCT exam but will hopefully enable more students to take higher math courses and be successful.