This past fall was like no other in the history of education in the United States. It was one in which teachers, students, parents, school and district administrators, and all those involved in the “village” of educating children faced uncertainty, took steps into the unknown, and struggled. It was also a time of incredible resilience, and I was inspired by our ASSISTments teacher community’s ongoing commitment to learning, furthering their practice, and taking on leadership roles to support other teachers.
It was this energy that allowed ASSISTments to have a Fall like no other in terms of our teacher reach and programming. Over 18,000 teachers have assigned online via ASSISTments since August, providing over 520,000 students access to quality math content with immediate feedback (a record-breaking year in our history!). Over 3,000 joined us for webinars, both to get the basics of ASSISTments but also go deeper on topics like how to build a growth mindset in math and how to effectively differentiate learning.
We saw over 80 teachers get involved in our Certified Educator and Ambassador Programs, and participate in our virtual Professional Learning Communities. Our Facebook community doubled in size to over 800, with 70% of members actively engaging. We are also excited to see our community is more diverse than ever, with teachers in almost all 50 states, and 58% serving majority free and reduced lunch, and 38% majority Black and Latinx students. 45% of teachers who attended webinars identified as people of color.
Overseeing our teacher programming and professional development, I get the pleasure of learning what great math teachers do, and how ASSISTments fits in.
As we look ahead to the Spring, we look forward to continuing to be inspired by the dedication of teachers to meet the needs of their students, no matter the circumstances. We will be busy launching our next cohort of Ambassadors, three new cohorts of our PLCs, a new set of webinar programming, including a focus on equitable and inclusive math instruction, and continuing to serve and learn from our incredible community of math teachers.
Automated feedback can supplement in-person instruction by making teachers’ jobs easier while personalizing student experience.
Continue ReadingASSISTments operates in part from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program grant. The first two years of this grant have been focused on what we have named as three key “scale-up” mechanisms, areas where we can further develop and improve to achieve greater reach and impact. Thus far, we’ve engaged hundreds of our teacher users, and learned valuable lessons about scaling sustainability. As we enter the third year of the grant, we wanted to share these lessons to support other nonprofits in the early and pivotal stages of growth.
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