The Rancho Santa Fe School District is six months into the new math curriculum at R. Roger Rowe Elementary and Middle Schools. According to Superintendent Donna Tripi, the new programs allow students to have a deeper understanding of key math concepts as they have to think and justify their answers with mathematical reasoning. Many of the math tasks are related to real-world problems, “Kids see the relevance and are motivated to do the work,” Tripi said.
Last June, the board adopted Open Up Resources for the middle school after an 18-month process that included every math teacher at the school, and a review by math experts and consultants at the San Diego County Office of Education.
With the new curriculums, Tripi said they were looking for a more focused and structured curriculum that is robust with high quality tasks and professional development and resources for the staff to ensure an “exemplary” classroom experience.
“We’re really proud of the work we’ve done in math,” Tripi said. “We’ve come a long way.”
In the middle school level, Tripi said the level of student engagement has been “astounding” and the students really like the Open Up materials. Students work on classroom activities and tasks, independently and in groups, followed by lesson synthesis where teachers further explain concepts learned in the task.