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and provide some basic resources that districts could share with parents.” That plan developed into more than workshops and resources after the new standards took effect in the 2014-2015 school year. It became evident that district leaders needed help to get their teachers and parents up to speed. Not only were standards different overall, but learning requirements were changing from grade level to grade level, creating a gap in what students were required to learn and what teachers were equipped to teach. Instructional leaders in Region 11, who meet regularly, also expressed a concern about helping parents understand how differently math would be taught. “The process standards were different from those that parents used in school,” says Laura Carson, instructional services coordinator. “The instructional leaders were concerned about the role of parents — how were they going to be able to effectively help their students if it wasn’t the same kind of math they had learned in school?” The ESC Region 11 Superintendents Advisory Group — which includes superintendent representation from districts of all sizes, as well as from charter schools — shared that concern and challenged the service center to create professional learning and instructional help for teachers and a product or service to help parents. Math leaders in Region 11 provided their feedback through a needs assessment. They were asked to share their concerns about the transition from the previous Math TEKS to the revised TEKS, as well as provide suggestions about the type of support they would find most helpful. “The assessment results indicated that there was a real need for teachers to continue to deepen their understanding for the TEKS, to have training available beyond that provided by the Texas Education Agency,” says Carson. “Kindergarten through eighth grade was the math leaders’ biggest concern, so that became our emphasis.” The ESC Region 11 Math Initiative proposal, which included the plan for a parent-focused website, was unanimously and enthusiastically approved by the ESC Region 11 Board of Directors in March 2015. The board generously funded the initiative for a total of $2 million divided over a two-year implementation period. “Our board immediately recognized the implications and value of providing these
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Texas School Business JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2017
services and programs to our districts and knew that the largest benefit would be to the students who are always our primary consideration,” says Steelman. The Math4Texas website was developed by ESC Region 11’s elementary math consultants, Faith Schwope and Wendy Curtner. Alison Lentz was hired to develop the math academies for educators, as well as the Math4Texas website. “Although we are the third-largest service center in Texas, we had only three math consultants on staff at the time,” says Laura Carson, instructional services coordinator. “Our first priority was hiring two additional people to develop the content for the math academies, establish a central location for online learning content and create a math website to explain the new TEKS to parents.” Several part-time educators translated the TEKS into parent-friendly language, with specific examples for each TEKS. The website design and development team included the service center’s education consultants and staff from the digital learning, technology and communications/marketing departments. Throughout the process, several districts reviewed the site to make sure it would meet parents’ needs. The result was a simple website design that allows parents to select their children’s grade levels and the topic of interest. Once those two elements are identified, parents can find tips, examples, digital tools and resources. Additional links on each page provide indepth, research-based explanations of the math concept for parents who wish to learn more. “Math is being taught differently than when parents experienced it as students. There is no other parent resource that is based on Texas standards,” says Lentz. “Although there are web-based math help resources available, the Math4texas.org site is different, and it is a true lifeline for parents. The official marketing program for the website begins this spring, with plans to promote the website to Texas school districts and charter schools. We will be asking districts and schools to put a link to Math4Texas.org on their websites, in school newsletters and in other parent communications. After the site went live in April last year, a soft promotional kickoff included presentations to several school districts and at conferences. We also distributed promotional bookmarks and ran advertisements on the ESC Region 11 website and in ESC TODAY, the region’s newsletter. Our team continues to provide regular updates at superintendent meetings
and at ESC Region 11 Board of Directors meetings. Even without an official promotional campaign, the site has found its way into the hands of many grateful parents. According to Google Analytics, there have been more than 35,000 page views since April 2016. The site has drawn most of its viewing traffic from Fort Worth, Houston and Dallas. Thirty percent of those views are coming from mobile devices. Although the highest number of site visitors are from Texas, Math4Texas.org has been viewed from 46 other states, including Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Several parents have sent thanks to ESC Region 11 for providing a resource that helps their children with homework and real-life experiences: “I wanted to let you know that Math4Texas.
‘The instructional leaders were concerned about the role of parents — how were they going to be able to effectively help their students if it wasn’t the same kind of math they had learned in school?’ — Laura Carson, ESC Region 11
org was very helpful! My son wants to do small jobs around the house to earn an allowance, and I have been working with him about saving, budgeting and basic money management. Your site provided useful information about this.” “The Getting Started section was so helpful when I first visited the site. The graphics in the section are simple, and the sample problems made it easier to understand the concepts and explain them to my child.” Steelman says that Math4Texas.org has “far exceeded” what the superintendents asked for and what the original expectations were for parent assistance. “There may be other parent help sites out there, but Math4Texas.org — with its videos, concept-based curriculum and instruction — is superior, and we are excited to offer it to the parents of Texas,” he says. VERONE TRAVIS is a digital marketing and communications specialist for ESC Region 11.