It was all broken, so we started over

A publication of the Association of California School Administrators

How Camarillo High School came up with the Humanities Math Pathway

By Matthew La Belle and Daniel Cook | September | October 2024

“Learning Loss” has been a familiar phrase post-2020, and while there is some degree of truth to it as schools re-imagined instruction during and following the pandemic, it was never an accurate depiction of the math classroom for most students in secondary schools.

The truth is that most high school students who struggle with math have been struggling for many years. The 2018-19 8th grade CAASPP results show us that only 36.63 percent of students met or exceeded grade level expectations — for 11th graders in that same year, only 32.24 percent. While 11th grade scores have slipped to 27.35 percent in this last year across the state, it was clear to the team at Adolfo Camarillo High School in the Oxnard Union High School District that nothing about what was going on was remotely acceptable. ACHS began a massive shift under new leadership — and the perfect storm of a new leader and a new leadership structure created meaningful change that is already producing results through the grassroots adoption of what we like to call our Humanities Math Pathway. Here are five significant improvements that helped get us there.

Significant improvement #1: No wasted meetings Our site leadership team has provided an innovative new approach to solving problems thanks to a few things that put us on the path to making meaningful change. First, Principal Matthew La Belle, like many of us, decided that he could not endure another wasted meeting. Our school’s Instructional Leadership Team structure was set up to essentially be a slightly less stuffy version of our faculty meeting: 35 or so of our department chairs, content leads and directors sat in a room to hear our fearless leader speak. Mr. La Belle was not interested in this structure. It was not conducive for ideas to flow freely between areas of concern, provide space for voice, and it felt like a meeting for the sake of a meeting (what should be a cardinal sin in any organization). Additionally, Matt saw a clear logjam of talent unable to get enough time to address areas where they may actually have an impact. Matt broke our leadership structure apart into areas of focus. In doing so, ACHS began to focus on our core tenants of Equity, Wellness, and Inquiry. Thus, the Faculty Inquiry Project model was born. While each year our structure of the Instructional Leadership Team has altered to meet the needs of our concentrations, the concepts remained the same: Put like-minded and motivated leaders together and provide them space and time to create structure, solutions or just be resources for areas of focus.

The group has been tackling our Equity Grading/Grading for Mastery initiative, AI/Khanmigo implementation, Integrated English Language Development and overall accessibility in design for all learners (UDL), wellness/PBIS and more over the past three years. You’ll notice that not one of these items is about mathematics. It turns out having your wrist slapped by WASC allowed our intensive reflection process to begin.

Significant Improvement #2: Dive into the data Matthew La Belle and teacher/librarian and WASC chair Heidi Resnik began to reflect on what it would take to dig out of the WASC hole we had developed. That would require a team of people to dig into our processes and culture around data that we had rejected in prior years. Out of this blossomed the WASC Leadership Team (WLT) in order to tackle the broader tasks of data collection, synthesis and clear presentations of valuable data to inform instruction. Simply having a broad collection of data and historical analysis was not enough, though. Through the planning of one-time ESSER funds post COVID-19, the district think tank looked at providing additional site resources to support the significant changes, broad adoption and efficacy of ed tech tools and more. Thus, the Learning, Instruction, and Technology (LIT) Coach was born.

This LIT coach was a full-release TOSA who was tasked with wearing many hats, but who also had the benefits of leaning on a team of single-period release additional part-time TOSA peers to help tackle these projects. The LIT team at ACHS has evolved over the three years since their inception, but one thing remained constant: We must collaborate and make impact in the areas we acknowledge as impeding student success, whether it be our practices, our instructional strategies or the system itself.

Reflecting on the above data regarding math results, we dug in on many layers to the problem, including math placement procedures, common assessments, data sharing, D/F rates and general lack of professional learning communities surrounding what was a commonly acknowledged problem. Our LIT Coach, Daniel Cook, was often taking on the tough conversations as a peer and was willing to attack the core of the issue. OUHSD had been using the Integrated Model of Mathematics for over a decade with varying degrees of success or comfort with it being the solution. It’s no surprise to anyone that students are coming to middle schools well behind grade level, and the problem only compounds as the grade-level rigor intensifies.

Similarly, OUHSD had long grappled with the past-practice of tracking students. While we can all acknowledge that the system put into practice harmful placement protocols that disproportionately limited access for subgroups in ways that still impact society, OUHSD was hesitant to address the area of concern, which is that grade-level Integrated Math moved at a speed and intensity that left most students in the dust. The spiral curriculum of Integrated Math allowed some instructors to say things like, “They don’t get it now, but later when we revisit that standard, they have another shot at it.” The nature of A-G and mathematics being allowed to validate further solidified that argument. Our LIT coach went as far as to float the idea of going back to Algebra I–Geometry–Algebra II as the three-course model for math to consider our students’ challenges and our math faculty’s desire to eliminate no chapter or standard from the agreed-upon curriculum. Mr. Cook met with the now former department chair many times, and it was clear that the department had long been viewed as stuck and stubborn when it came to being a willing participant in systemic change.

Significant Improvement #3: Build bridges, ask questions Working alongside the department, the team identified trends and areas of flawed processes. Data sharing between the various feeder districts, summative data accessed too late to be meaningful for placement and a delayed process for placement were all mutually agreed-upon areas that needed to be addressed. The department would review for weeks before a placement test was given and the placement test was a mere suggestion to families.

Additionally, the district had developed a new “remedial” math intervention class — as many districts do — entitled Foundations of Algebra. While the intent was to develop skills for students deficient in math with a review of seventh and eighth grade math, the fact that it was not universally required for students below grade level and the reality that students placed into the remedial program were showing no signs of improvement were clear indicators that our current system was broken. Mr. Cook did an analysis of every student who had Foundations of Algebra on their transcript at ACHS over the course of six years and found that only four students became A-G (completing Integrated Math 3, Semester 2 with a grade of C or better).

The team embarked on a yearslong bridge-building mission with the feeder district to build back relationships and roll out our Humanities Math plan. The mission was twofold: 1) deliver the message about the woeful performance of students in math without it remotely coming across as blaming; and 2) identify areas of shared common interests, like understanding their student outcomes with both placement and longitudinal data, and use this common thread to create a placement assessment that could be given first in middle school to eighth graders and again when they arrive as ninth grade students.

The team reflected on this and through hours of conversation with our math intervention specialist and others, it was clear that placement was just one variable in this problem. Our math students could not handle the speed of the courses. If you will reflect on the above ILT restructure, you’d notice that we had a grading for mastery/equity conversation going on at the same time. One of the main tenets of equitable grading is to not punish a student for not learning on your time — reward them for learning a standard or concept eventually. Mike Vollmert shared with us in a training session: “Make time the variable and the learning the constant.” Time and time again, our teachers’ grades reflect the typical model of time being constant and learning being the variable — and our math courses were the biggest culprits.

We began to ask some questions of ourselves:

What if we just gave them more time?
What if we didn’t cut standards or water it down and just gave them more opportunities to show their learning?
What if we gave teachers more time to reassess?
What if we gave teachers more time to reteach?
What if the students who needed the test retakes were afforded the time during the school day?
What if we just made our math pathway a four-year model that aligned with UC/CSU desires for students in math?

Significant Improvement #4: A new math pathway We don’t take no for an answer. Let’s pretend no one is listening for a moment and it’s just you and me. Good ideas that buck the system are met with serious resistance. They resemble other things and can’t possibly be a solution. This is just tracking all over again. Bah humbug! The ACHS team had to have some tantrums and a delayed launch, but we pulled off Humanities Math. This is a great opportunity to address Humanities Math (which was also toiled over).

Why is it called Humanities Math? The idea of Humanities was to align it to the major of humanities at universities across the country. Our acknowledgement that a student who never makes it to AP Calc BC, AP Stats, etc., is likely not a fit for most STEM majors was also a tip of the hat to the humanities, where a significant number of opportunities existed. Ironically, many of our math instructors had humanities degrees and we imagine many of yours might also. Humanities Math was also accompanied with the traditional university numeric system of Humanities Math 101, 102 and 103. The three years of coursework were the equivalent of Integrated Math 1 and 2, just over three years instead of two. This meant that Math 3, Math 3 Applications, or the artist formerly known as Data Science would be their senior year math class. (Read more about OUHSD taking on UC/CSU on Data Science in a recent Washington Post article.)

We must collaborate and make impact in the areas we acknowledge as impeding student success, whether it be our practices, our instructional strategies or the system itself.

Significant Improvement #5: Student performance Our team has leaned in on data protocols and ascertaining how to best allow teachers to reflect on practice without it becoming self-deprecating. ACHS is seeing substantial improvements in D/F data. In the three years before our Humanities Math courses were introduced, an average of 47 percent of students received Ds or Fs in any ACHS math class. Today, that figure is 24 percent. A 23-percentage point reduction in D/F rates in one semester felt improbable, but the outcomes for students have been astounding. One of the significant tasks we were given — aside from the rebranding and buy-in from the community — was to provide opportunities for off-boarding. Students were identified based on course grade and placement both by grade level and math level to be considered for several different math bridge opportunities. Of the 430 students within the Humanities Math course offerings in year one, 28 percent were identified to take a summer bridge course to either exit Humanities 101 and enter Integrated Math 2 or exit Humanities 102 and enter Integrated Math 3 Applications. These students successfully completed Humanities coursework with an A or B and showed promising habits and successful modified pacing and were referred to the more rigorous coursework of Integrated Math. Our LIT team also has a secret weapon in Chem AP teacher, golf coach and data guru (a true renaissance man in his own right) Mr. John Gonzalez. John developed several dashboards through Google’s Looker Studio that have helped in other areas of analysis, but this tool was used to identify students who are showing success (specifically between a 2.5 and 3.5 GPA) in non-math courses while having a D/F in a Humanities Math course, where they received more intensive support. Having the ability to toggle between so many different analytics in a seamless way has provided the ability for our intervention providers more time to interface with students directly. More importantly, the Big Ideas Integrated Math curriculum, a pacing guide, had to be developed by Ms. Brandae Rossini and Mr. Dale Perizzolo to identify how to best attack the additional time. They developed this scope and sequence that clearly delineates the difference between Integrated and Humanities Math. Too good to be true, no? It turns out providing experts more time to help their students understand improves outcomes beyond what you could hope for. Students are taking the exact same assessment, just allotted more time to prepare and more opportunities to retest. Stratifying levels and being more prescriptive with placement has worked wonders for our students and teachers alike. While we don’t have CAASPP scores to reflect on just yet, the outcomes have been clear for our students and teachers. The reflective process, areas of focus through the Faculty Inquiry Project model and elevating instructional leaders have been a seismic shift for ACHS and OUHSD as a whole. The results in our math D/F rates have been inspiring and the systems of reflection and progress monitoring are being replicated in other areas of concern and desired improvements. Suggested further reading Salman, J. (2024, March 2). Data science under fire: What math do high-schoolers really need? The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/03/02/data-science-algebra-ii-alternative-california-debate/ ACHS Integrated Math Pathway: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qvmZX6Cd_WgKDb5q2_ewGjlq9ZKkJoOB/view ACHS Humanities Math Pathway: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bo2x02hqYWXo1QLHZ3yGDE7dX7CzO-Ir/view Matthew La Belle is principal at Adolfo Camarillo High School. Daniel Cook is the Learning, Instruction, and Technology (LIT) Coach at Adolfo Camarillo High School.