Grand Rapids Public Schools highlights summer math lab for fourth- and fifth-graders

The Grand Rapids Public Schools board heard a report on a weeklong summer "math lab" pilot held June 24–28 at Ottawa Hills that the district ran in partnership with TeachingWorks.

Amy, a district presenter, said the lab brought Dr. Deborah Ball, Darius and other instructors into an elementary classroom for live demonstrations with about 21–22 fourth- and fifth-grade students. The program combined morning whole-group sessions and afternoon teacher professional-development workshops, and presenters described much of the classroom instruction as "in vivo" (live) so teachers could observe and reflect.

Presenters said the lab focused on equity-centered, high-quality instructional practices and included work on challenging topics such as fractions, with time set aside for students to record reflections and for teachers to build a classroom contract and a teacher contract. The week culminated in a celebration where students received shirts and engaged one-on-one with instructors to review their notebooks and work from the week.

District staff said transportation was provided door-to-door to remove barriers to participation and that the experience included opportunities for teachers across subjects to participate so the learning could be applied beyond math classrooms. The session was framed as an opportunity to build students' mathematical identity and to elevate student voice and participation.

Board members were invited to review materials sent by staff and to share feedback in the coming weeks about whether and how to scale the pilot more broadly into the district.