DISD has moved to a new math curriculum that places emphasis in student-direct learning. This is a result of a successful pilot program as the district like...
So what to expect from the changes? I’ve been working with Dallas ISD schools and others in the state to adopt the new curriculum, which is freely available to Texas educators and families. Anything new takes a little time to get used to, and that’s the case for educators who’ve been using other approaches and were themselves taught math differently. And it’s true for parents who may be unfamiliar with the homework kids are bringing home. I’m a mom. I get it.
For example, last spring, I was in a third-grade classroom in which students were using area models, which are used for solving multiplication problems. One boy piped up and said, “Hey, these are like the arrays [an arrangement of a set of objects into equal groups in rows and columns] we worked with last year in second grade. These look just like the arrays, but now we’re multiplying instead of adding.
Dallas ISD is not the only district in the state of Texas who has adopted this new math program in partnership with TEA. In other districts, we have seen improvements and gains in math scores given post pandemic learning gaps.The joy I felt that day wasn’t always there when I was a classroom teacher. The truth is I loved teaching reading but was initially scared of teaching math. I became a kindergarten teacher early in my career because I figured the math lessons would be relatively easy.
Change can be hard and, in the case of our math classrooms, even noisy and messy, but Dallas families and educators should take heart knowing this shift is one that will better prepare young people for the bright futures that lie ahead for them. Brittany duPont is a math implementation leader in Texas for Great Minds PBC, where she supports the use of Eureka Math TEKS Edition. She previously was an elementary classroom teacher in North Carolina and Nevada. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
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