More than 70 Riverside County teachers are currently attending an eight-day intensive summer workshop from Cal State San Bernardino designed to improve mathematics teaching and learning for students designated as English learners in grades pre-kindergarten through 6th.
This is the second year of the Teaching English Learners Early Mathematics (TEEM) Summer Institute, where the teachers engage in both math content and pedagogical practices, said CSUSB mathematics professor Madeleine Jetter, who serves as the TEEM project director. The institute is being held at Chase Middle School in Menifee.
TEEM is designed to address the high risk of school dropouts seen in the English-learner population, which is roughly twice that of non-English-learner students. In many cases, the dropout problem can be traced to issues with learning mathematics, Jetter said.
In the higher grades, data shows the dropout problem is much worse for students classified as English learners and often the roots of the dropout problem appear in the early grades when achievement gaps open and persist into high school, Jetter said.
Last year, about 2,500 Riverside County students were served by teachers who attended the initial summer institute.
The TEEM Summer Institute is funded from a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund, or i3, and is combined with matching grants of $75,000 from the Packard Foundation, $150,000 from Toyota USA Foundation and $238,370 from the Heising-Simons Foundation.
The institute this year consists of 71 classroom teachers, special education teachers, math classroom coaches, instructional aides and site principals from seven schools in Riverside County: Nuview and Valley View Elementary School (Nuview Union School District), Romoland, Harvest Valley, Boulder Ridge and Mesa View elementary schools, and Ethan A. Chase Middle School (Romoland School District).
Along with Jetter, the facilitators include Victoria Kukuruda, Shirley Roath and Diana Ceja from the Riverside County Office of Education.
For more information on the TEEM Summer Institute, contact Sara Zayas, the assistant director of the CSUSB Center for the Enhancement of Mathematics Education at (909) 856-0230.