The Highline Advanced Math Program
The Advanced Math Program is a math enrichment program for students in grades 5 and 6. This program was developed by parent volunteers, working with educators, in the Highline School District #401, Seattle, WA. It began with 12 students in 1990 and has grown to include hundreds of students in public and private schools around Puget Sound and beyond. Each school has one or more volunteer coaches (parent or educator) using the materials provided at this site. The schedule serves as a template to deliver these concepts to any student in any school, including home-schools.

OBJECTIVES

 The objectives of our program are as follows: (in the order of importance)
  1. To interest students in math! (Most important!)
  2. To provide a positive experience that shows the student and family that math can be fun.
  3. To provide math enrichment for highly capable and highly motivated students.
    This includes kids of average ability that are willing to work at math.
    Your child doesn't have to be a 'math whiz' to succeed at this.
  4. To teach kids to work in teams.

CLASS FORMAT

This course is designed to be taught in a one hour session once a week. Beginning with lesson #9, additional practice competition materials for a second hour long session are provided. The one hour lessons generally follow this format:
  1. (5 minutes) Mental math. 3 to 5 problems to get students warmed up.
  2. (5 minutes) Review two or three homework problems. Students solve problems on the board.
  3. (10 minutes) Explanation of new topic, with examples on the board and interaction with class.
  4. (40 minutes) Students work problems in class with coaches assistance. Homework is handed out when students successfully complete the in-class exercise.
Notice that only 10 minutes of the hour are devoted to "chalkboard lecture." For the largest part of the hour students are actively working independently or in groups. One of the main ways our program has improved over the years is to include more hands-on problem solving and less lecture. We have found that this format achieves better results.

Second day practice competition:
The one hour practice competition offered in a second class session each week after lesson #9 consists of two quizzes in two selected subjects and never covers new material. Students are organized into teams of three or four for these practice competitions. We hand out small prizes for high scoring teams. Students find these practice competitions to be enormously fun. They learn to work as teams and to allocate work among team members. Each team requires a captain to coordinate problem solutions.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION

With this brief historical sketch in mind, we make the following suggestions for any parent group contemplating a similar program:
  1. Meet with school administrators and teachers to get permission to present your Math Team program to incoming 5th graders. Generally, you should:
    • Use your own version of the Powerpoint presentation to make this presentation.
    • At the end of the spring semester, go into the 4th grade classes and recruit kids into Math Team! Bring a supply of Math Paks to hand out to prospective students to complete over the summer. Make it look like fun! (It will be!)
  2. Get a teacher sponsor. This smoothes communication with school administration. They can also find you facilities to use. If the teacher is present when you teach, they are experts at maintaining discipline in the classroom!
  3. Involve the community by soliciting parent support through the PTA. There are nominal costs of approximately $300-$400 for this program. These include notebooks, calculators paper and instructional materials. Your PTA may want to help out.
  4. Get the parents to help! Solicit help from the parents of your students. They are motivated to ensure that your program is a success. Some may volunteer to help as assistants. The completeness of materials in our program makes it easy to recruit new coaches, even coaches without STEM backgrounds! This completeness also means you can include a new parent as a teacher even mid-way through the program!
  5. Start small:
    • Only one instructor? One grade, 10 students max.
    • One instructor and a non-teaching helper? One grade 14 students max.
    • 2 instructors?: One grade, 18 students max.
    • Two grades with 10 students each? You'll need 2 instructors, but an assistant or 2 would be helpful.