MasterTrack in the News

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As student math scores remain low statewide, Samish Elementary is a bright spot:  The school doubled its passing marks in state assessments in one year

By Charlotte Alden 

Math remains a challenge for Washington students. Only 40.7% of students are consistently showing grade-level knowledge, with 63.3% showing foundational knowledge, according to the latest state testing results.    But at a small school tucked into the woods in Skagit County, the number of students consistently meeting grade-level standards in math has seen stark improvements in just one year, as statewide results stayed mostly flat.  

In 2023-24 at Samish Elementary, only 21% of students were consistently showing grade-level knowledge. The next year, that number jumped to 44%. 

School officials credit targeted efforts by teachers and administrators to focus on math and ensure every student gets the specialized support they need.   “Every student, every day, whatever it takes,” is the school’s mission.  

Principal Laura Schmidt and special education teacher Alexsis Nelson have led staff in living up to that mission by introducing better progress monitoring systems to identify learning gaps. They also adjusted schedules so nearly every student gets direct, small-group instruction on those gaps four days a week. 

Last winter, the school started using MasterTrack, a progress monitoring program that allows for frequent, short checkpoints on key concepts that give teachers regular insight into how students are doing. Then, MasterTrack coaches provide virtual support on finding ways to close those gaps.   “It really gives us very clear guidance and direction on where to go next with students,” Nelson said. 

Schmidt said in the small school, teachers were previously on their own in determining interventions and analyzing results. 

“You’re teaching day in and day out, you’re running all these assessments, and to sit down and analyze on your own which students you need to focus on which standards with without having a tool that helps guide you — that just seems a very tall order,” Schmidt said. 

Samish’s revamped schedule makes it so every student has access to personalized math instruction, based on their own learning gaps. 

Before, students were often pulled out of core math instruction to receive specialized instruction, and as a result, missed important learning time. 

Thanks to a reorganized schedule and the creative use of funding to hire needed staff, nearly every student receives small group instruction from a paraeducator or a teacher four days a week. Data from MasterTrack allows teachers to easily group students with similar learning gaps. 

On a recent Thursday at Samish Elementary, four groups of students were receiving specialized instruction one room.

One teacher worked with a first-grade student to count backwards from 24 in one corner, while another pair worked on writing numbers in order. 

A teacher and two students focused on counting from 10 to 29, while another teacher worked with a group on addition by using 10 as a tool: they learned that 9+6 and 10+5 both equal 15. So, turning the 9 into a 10 and the 6 into a 5 makes it easier to quickly add. 

Schmidt said there used to be more “stigma” in the school around getting support in a small group.  “Now everybody goes to a group,” she said. “Everybody needs help.” 

“We’re going to double down on math.” That was one of State Superintendent Chris Reykdal’s core messages at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s annual press conference in September.  

“We also have to make gains in mathematics,” he said at the press conference. “We want our students to be competitive. It means a focus on math.” 

It’s not just a Washington problem. As our state’s math scores have declined, so have scores globally. OSPI blames that decline, in part, on social media and the “increasingly interconnected digital world.” 

OSPI is requesting $10 million to fund professional development for elementary math teachers, and access for digital tools students can use to practice “foundational math concepts,” said Katy Payne, chief communications officer at OSPI. 

As for Samish, the school isn’t sitting still after the big gains.  

“We want to keep going and send that trajectory up,” said Schmidt. 

The team has now set a new goal. In an initial assessment completed at the beginning of the school year, 37% of Samish students were at two or more grade levels below in math. By the end of the academic year, the team aims to reduce that to 10%. 

Part of the focus is also on encouraging students to take more ownership of their math learning. 

“When we really broke things down into the math standards, students had a much easier time knowing that whether they had the skill or not,” Nelson said. “… Students were really able to reflect on their own learning to help them keep growing in math.” 

In Kellie Georgio’s fourth grade class, students recently struggled on one MasterTrack checkpoint. Georgio turned to the class, and they problem-solved together. The students determined they were going too fast and not checking their work.

As two girls played a card game on a recent Thursday that required them to subtract numbers with decimal points, they went slowly, carefully checking to make sure their answers were right.