District math coaches outline multi‑year push on Illustrative Mathematics and job‑embedded PD

Missisquoi Valley’s elementary math coaches told the board they have moved from implementing Illustrative Mathematics to a new phase of professional development that focuses on the mathematics behind the curriculum and improving instruction across three schools.

Heather Digby, Kristen Hughes and Kelly Hyde described why the district chose Illustrative Mathematics (via Imagine Learning) after reviewing longitudinal data and neighboring district performance. Coaches said the curriculum met their evaluation checklist across grades and provided assessment features — notably pre‑unit practice problems based on prerequisite learning — that enable targeted intervention before students reach new, more complex units.

The coaches said teachers have reached fidelity on program mechanics and that the district now needs deeper, job‑embedded PD. To deliver that, the district contracted consultant Brendan Scribner (a former Illustrative Mathematics staff member now working as a private consultant) to lead multi‑day, in‑school PD focused on productive struggle, eliciting and using evidence of student thinking, creating intentional lesson plans with fewer, deeper problems, and aligning instruction across grade bands.

They described how the common needs assessment in each building produced different emphases: Swanton prioritized deepening instructional practice around productive struggle, Highgate focused on improving lesson‑planning consistency and bringing ideas together, and Franklin emphasized adding retrieval and computation practice so students retain skills for checkpoints and end‑of‑unit assessments. Coaches provided examples of teacher reflection changes across the year — from primarily ‘reading the lesson’ to planning purposeful questions and anticipating student misunderstandings.

Coaches also described district changes to intervention structure. Working with consultant Christian Cordamash, they are piloting a rapid‑cycle intervention model (three to nine sessions aligned to the classroom unit), including 'thin slicing' to scale back support to specific prerequisite skills, and building special‑ed math PLCs so special educators can practice high‑impact math instructional strategies.

Board members raised testing alignment concerns: VTCAP testing windows and scope mean students may encounter test items from units not yet taught due to pacing or school calendar interruptions. Coaches and curriculum director Kosha said they are investigating discrepancies between VTCAP and nationally normed STAR results and have asked state assessment officials for more item‑level information.

Administrators said they will continue to collect data on impact and noted early evidence of middle‑school transition improvements as K–6 practices align with MVU practices. The coaches asked for time to collect longer‑term impact measures; they described progress as promising but still early in a multi‑year process.