Math scores at West End Public Schools District are going way up, in grades four and five, thanks to a collaboration with Nucla teachers and the Pinhead Institute, a Smithsonian affiliate, made possible through funding from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE).
As part of a three-year Colorado Academic Accelerator Grant (CO-AAP), giving $82,000 annually, students are getting high-intensity math intervention with Jeanna Jasperson in the form of Monday through Thursday after-school support with snacks, plus family engagement activities too.
Jasperson, of the Pinhead Institute, is a formerly retired STEM teacher who spent her career in Montrose educating kids. She’s now back to working in STEM education to lead the program in the West End for Pinhead.
Monday morning, Jasperson and other Pinhead Institute representatives had a meeting with the CDE to discuss the latest data for the CO-AAP grant. Districts across the U.S. regularly give beginning, middle and end-of-the year testing with the expectation of seeing growth in student achievement. Nucla just completed their round of mid-year testing, and the results were even better than what leaders had hoped for. In fact, instead of just demonstrating growth by five to eight points — what is typically a good outcome — students in fourth grade showed growth an average of 17 points’ growth, which is quite an accomplishment by state and national standards. One student even showed growth by 27 points.
With two and a half years left in the CO-AAP grant cycle and the programming, representatives from the school and Pinhead Institute are pleased.
“The kids are working hard, and they and their families have bought in to the value of this program, which is free,” said Sarah Holbrooke, executive director of the Pinhead Institute.
She added that while Jasperson has done great things, Jasperson credits the collaboration with the school. Jasperson said Pinhead officials know the leaps in learning wouldn’t be happening without the teachers at the Nucla School.
Jasperson has much experience with IXL, an online platform for math that identifies student learning gaps and provides opportunities for kids to address those and increase learning. The kids work with IXL some, and they also use manipulative learning tools, get direct instruction from Jasperson and more. They also eat snacks and play math-related games — every day after school.
And the family engagement piece has been big too. Families have participated monthly in activities like bowling and practiced keeping score of their games using math. They’ve cooked and shared meals. And, more is coming this spring for those family events too.
Many of the kids in the after-school program also participated in the Friday robotics program, the First Lego League, also led by Jasperson, which advanced to the state competition in Denver this year. Though that’s now over, other STEM programming, STEM days at Naturita Community Library, will take place instead. The next STEM day is March 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is free and open to a large number of kids.
Sara Bray, principal for the elementary grades, expressed enthusiasm at the recent test scores.
“ … The overall results have been amazing, and the collaboration between WEPS and Pinhead is fantastic,” Bray said Monday.
Holbrooke agreed the collaboration has been excellent.
“We’re so happy about this program,” Holbrooke said. "We at Pinhead love our collaborations with the West End school and look forward to seeing more impressive results from the after-school sessions that Ms. Jasperson runs so effectively. We know that Pinhead and the West End students are more than lucky to have an educator with the background and passion of Jeanna Jasperson running our programs at the Nucla school, and it's showing with great results and interest.”
Pinhead Institute will be offering STEM summer camps, and information on those opportunities will soon be announced.
