Mahesh C. Sharma

Narrowing the achievement gap among different student populations at schools, reaching state, national and international mathematics standards, and realizing the potential of each child is my mission and this is my goal:  

It is a very important goal and an important task, but only important goals are worth pursuing.  It is my firm belief, based on many years of involvement in teacher training and working with children adults in many settings and countries, that our teachers—given the right training, well-defined goals, and right tools—are capable of implementing instruction that will help schools realize these objectives. And I am equally confident of the fact that our children—given the right instruction and supportive environment—can reach these goals. I have seen that with proper and timely feedback and with a taste of success, children thrive to reach high expectations in mathematics. They want to succeed and success is the greatest motivator for any individual—be that be an administrator, a teacher or a child. These are the three key players in this endeavor: the administrators, teachers and children. 

To achieve this outcome, the ‘change model’ that LAPDA has developed has three phases: planning, high quality professional development, and a robust feedback loop.  The LAPDA strategy in working with schools combines elements of ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ approaches to bringing about and implementing meaningful instructional change in mathematics instruction and learning. 

In the ‘top down’ efforts, the emphasis is on the importance of the engagement of the leadership of the school system so that they understand the coherent general principles of mathematics curriculum and instruction. A curriculum that has breadth and depth in content and process that results in deeper student understanding of concepts and their connections; emphasizes high level of mathematical thinking and reasoning; and has high expectations of mastery of meaningful mathematics content as described in Core Mathematics Curriculum (Sharma, 2008). 

The objective of the ‘top down’ (phase one) effort is for the leadership of the school system to understand the principles of:  What is ‘good’ mathematics content? What are the key developmental milestones in mathematics learning and mastery? What are non-negotiable skills at each grade level that each student should master and the teacher should focus on? What are the characteristics of a mathematics way of thinking and reasoning? How is a mathematical way of thinking developed? How do children learn—conceptualize mathematics ideas, acquire fluency in mathematics language, and master skills and procedures of mathematics?  What is the definition of  ‘knowing’ a mathematics idea, skills or procedure? Are there consistent language and conceptual models for key mathematics content across grade levels? Why do children experience difficulty in learning mathematics? What are the implications of learning problems/disabilities in mathematics? What does an effective and productive mathematics lesson looks like?  What should we look for in a mathematics lesson?  How do we support teachers and children in learning mathematics? 

The ‘bottom up’ principles means: The clear understanding of the idea that the unit of change in instruction and achievement is a school building.  Curriculum is what happens in the classroom and that means the teacher is the implementer of the curriculum. This means that the principal and teachers are willing to explore the answers to questions: Do the teachers have the requisite skills to implement the intended curriculum? Do they know for sure the skills that are non-negotiable for each child to master at each grade level? Do they know the ‘pedagogical content knowledge’—content mastery, skills, strategies, models, sequence of content development, the language, the questioning process, and materials, to be able to implement that curriculum—the skills, procedures and concepts?  

Teachers need to become adapt in instructional practices that support the goals: emphasis on the key components of mathematics ideas—linguistic, conceptual and procedural; mastery rather than exposure—reinforcement of previously learned skills, mastering new skills appropriate to the grade and age level, and introducing new skills as the ground work for the future using models that will be followed later; rich and diverse language usage and powerful questioning techniques; emphasis on developing reasoning, thinking, and problem solving; multiple entry points, multiple solution paths, and multiple modes of demonstrating competence—a focus on concrete grounding of mathematical ideas through the use of materials progressing from intuitive to concrete to pictorial to abstract to applications to communication of mathematics ideas; with a rich communication between students and teacher and among students. 

There has to be ‘buy in’ from the top and the bottom—the leadership team, the principal of each school, and the teaching staff (regular and special education teachers). This translates into: focus on content-based staff development, ongoing teacher support, curriculum development and/or revision, and alignment of student assessment with instructional practice. It focuses on the staff development that focuses on mathematics content (developmental milestones), pedagogical content knowledge (didactic, Socratic questioning, and coaching), and provides models of effective teaching (presentation of model lessons that demonstrates the presence of key components of mathematics, levels of knowing and differentiation of instruction).
Recommended planning and implementation process:

Phase One:
1.    Have a full day planning meeting with our LAPDA lead districts as the first step
    •    AM meeting with the district leadership team to include Superintendent, Curriculum Director, Special Ed Director, All Principals, & Math teacher leaders
    •    PM meeting with Curriculum Director, Math Teacher leaders and Math Curriculum Committee/District math team (read that as teachers)
    •    Mahesh does a quick pop in/walk through in three “typical classrooms” one elementary, one middle and one HS (ninth grade) Algebra class. To do a dip stick assessment/gain perspective on the current state. Bob & Mahesh will help district to map their “current state” in mathematics.

Phase Two:
2.    First workshops for all teachers broken out by level
    •    Workshop #1:  K-5 teachers and all Special Educators that work at this level (Mahesh and Curriculum Coordinator will determine the workshop focus depending on what other training they have already received)
    •    Workshop #2: Grade 6-12 and special educators who work at this level

3.    Series of “clinical rounds” days (3 days total) : ( i.e. “job embedded” PD
    •    K-5 focus
    •    Grade 6-8 (i.e. Middle school)
    •    HS (focus will be on 9th grade with Algebra as the content)

4.    Planning meeting with Curriculum Coordinator, Math Teacher Leader and Math Curriculum Committee
    •    This could be a half day session with a PM clinical rounds session built in – debrief year #1
    •    Plan year two PD

Phase Three: 
Institutional Memory
5.  Ongoing Data analysis and feedback systems for continuous improvement  
Please note: LAPDA will coordinate and facilitate this process for all LAPDA Districts. As LAPDA/ESA Director, Bob will attend the district leadership team meeting and as many other district based meetings as deemed appropriate). Mahesh will be working as a Contracted Consultant though LAPDA.