As 2016 picks up speed, we’d like to give you an update on the Education Department’s ongoing initiatives!
At a strategic level, we are working on improving high school curriculum, enhancing Instructor training, and developing the correct measures to measure education effectiveness. This breaks down into several projects:
Assessments – In late October, the Education Department spearheaded a joint effort with other education experts at HQ as well as franchisees to plan all of the high school Assessments. This means that we have looked all across the high school courses to determine what should be on a new set of Assessments, and what they should look like.
The first results of this collaboration will be a replacement for Assessment 8 (called Algebra Readiness) and a High School companion to the Computation Assessment (called High School Fundamental Skills). These two new Assessments entered the test phase in December, and the goal is to provide them to the system no later than the end of Q1 2016. Additionally, we expect a decrease in writing time for the follow up Assessments. That said, our goal is to release a new Assessment and associated curriculum every six months.
Instructor Training – The main effort here is to add depth to the amount of Instructor certification training outlined and available for your Instructors. The first addition will be modules more specifically providing depth to teach the page. These modules will be arranged by Mathnasium Construct. We will also add written material to accompany the new modules, and provide better balance between online and in-center training for your Instructors. The first of these modules should be available this quarter for testing and feedback.
Measures of Effectiveness – We have KPIs for many aspects of our business and yet none for Education… this has got to change! How do we know what’s working, and how do we make M2 give us the data that we need to measure at many levels? We are working to correct this.
Corrections – We continue to update existing curriculum, creating Answer Key layers, and correcting all errors in the process. Please read this article [1] for more information.
Other projects: Multiplication – We have tested a set of PKs that provide the teaching strategies for teaching multiplication to kids. WOBs – WOBs are being freshened and updated, and a new WOB 2.5 is being created. Curriculum Retirement – The curriculum that accompanied Core and Original Assessments 1-7 is being evaluated piece by piece for either retirement or continued use within the system.
Important reminders: If you subscribe to the Education Change Log, there are new ones for 2016, and you must re-subscribe to continue to get notifications of changes:
Education Change Log – Canada [3]
Lastly, the final SAT in the old format will be given on January 23rd. Old SAT materials will be removed from the system at that time. Please make sure that you are using the materials labeled SAT 2016 for students taking an exam beyond that date.
Please direct all questions to Mathnasium Support: support@mathnasium.com [4]
12 Comments To "Education Department Update"
#1 Comment By Kapil Mathur On January 23, 2016 @ 5:43 pm
Thank you for focusing on instructor training.
Can you please provide an update on the transition of Mathnasium University to the “new” platform? In July 2015, franchisees were asked to go through a three phase process of data cleanup in preparation for the new platform. Has this change occurred? If so, can multi-center owners now see progress data across centers in one place?
If the change has not occurred, are there still plans to do so?
#2 Comment By Tammy Goldberg On January 23, 2016 @ 6:12 pm
Thanks for the update. Which assessment is slated to be released 6 months after “Algebra Readiness” and “High School Fundamental Skills” is released?
#3 Comment By Myrtha Chang On January 24, 2016 @ 6:29 pm
I’m so happy to hear finally there will be video training to “specifically providing depth to teach the page”. The same page can be taught with such a varying degree of depth by different instructors. Currently, it takes a while to train a new instructor to really convey the key concept of a page to a student.
#4 Comment By scott rubin On January 24, 2016 @ 8:49 pm
Great news! Do you know if there is a plan to be able print a partial assessment for the pre-calc and sat assessments? Thanks!
#5 Comment By Mathnasium Training Department On January 28, 2016 @ 12:47 pm
In response to Kapil’s question regarding the new LMS, the tasks that were given in the fall allowed us to prepare for the next phase. We are still currently in that phase of testing and will provide an update as soon as we have one. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. We appreciate everyone’s assistance with this project!
#6 Comment By Mathnasium Education Department On January 28, 2016 @ 2:07 pm
Thank you everyone for your interest! In response to Tammy’s question regarding upcoming Assessments, we will be tackling an Algebra I Assessment after Algebra Readiness and High School Fundamental Skills.
Scott, in response to your question, we will look at creating Post-Assessments for these upper level Assessments once we release Algebra Readiness.
#7 Comment By Scott Rubin On January 28, 2016 @ 4:31 pm
Thanks for the response but I was not asking about post-assessments. I was curious when we would be able to print partial assessments.
#8 Comment By Travis Loeschen On January 30, 2016 @ 10:43 am
The partial post functionality is based upon having post assessment data entered in the M2 system. Once they create the new posts, that will allow you to create partials for that curriculum.
#9 Comment By Scott Rubin On January 30, 2016 @ 12:59 pm
Thanks Travis!
#10 Comment By Elana Daigle On February 8, 2016 @ 1:04 pm
Any word on when the SAT Trifold Brochure will be updated to include information on the new SAT?
#11 Comment By Joshua Klarmann On March 10, 2016 @ 2:36 pm
Also, will you guys be replacing WOB 9 with new SAT material, I’ve still been using it for my SAT students, and if you are going to continue using it, there are a few problems that need to be fixed. Otherwise, when can we expect a new SAT WOB?
#12 Comment By Jodi Ralston On April 5, 2016 @ 4:37 pm
We are planning how much time to invest in improving/revamping our own multiplication materials. What is the timeline for the release of the new multiplication prescriptives?