Alliance Grant Provides Opportunities for Professional Development & Student Growth

Students collaborate in small groups during a math lesson at Davenport. The students, like the teachers from Davenport and KT Murphy, continue to work together to better prepare themselves for the coming CCSS.

As a result of the Alliance Grant SPS has been able to provide professional development for mathematics throughout the district’s 12 elementary schools. The focus to this point has mainly been on improving math instruction in Kindergarten through Second Grade. Most schools to this point have already met with an outside consultant and district personnel and other schools have made plans for future visits.

The focus in most locations has been to improve the use of small grouping, incorporate differentiation and enrichment, and implementing the CCSS Mathematical Practices. With the assistance of an outside consultant, district personnel, building administrators and classroom teachers many buildings have already begun to see the benefits of this work.

One strategy that is being used during these professional development visits is to have building teachers from one school collaborate with teachers from another school in the district. The Alliance Grant has allowed teachers from various schools to go and visit classrooms in similar grade levels at other district locations. These visits include pre and post Q&A conferences with a host teacher who also conducts an exemplar math lesson for the guests.


Teachers are beginningn to incorporate technology more often during math instruction time in order to facilitate learning and in an to effort engage students in small groups without teacher direction.

The work has proven quite informative and beneficial for all stakeholders and most importantly scholars in the elementary classrooms are now gaining more experience working in small groups and without constant teacher directive. Students are also exposed to a variety of strategies and materials while receiving differentiated math instruction.

Today’s work included Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers from Davenport and KT Murphy collaborating with each other on how to improve their math instruction time. Teachers from Roxbury and Springdale have also been provided opportunities to work with SPS teachers in other buildings. So far all of the feedback has been positive and the hope is to continuously help improve instruction for all scholars while simultaneously building a larger community of connected teachers. According to those who have had the opportunity to see various math lessons with small groups, differentiation, CCSS Mathematical Practices and technology in multiple locations, the consensus is that these classrooms are very unison and consistent in the way scholars transition, engage, participate, and persevere in solving problems.


Differentiation is a key element of the math instruction that is being incorporated in math centers. Here you can see scholars working on similar type word problems but at different ability levels all of which followed a mini-lesson.

Let SPS Elementary Math know if you have had any recent PD as a part of the Alliance Grant that you would like to share or if your class uses small grouping, differentiation, CCSS Mathematical Practices or technology in any unique ways. We’re always looking forward to seeing and sharing great experiences around the district.