This is the story of how Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), a top-20 district, discovered a new path to improving standardized math scores—with a Tier 1 intervention dosage of just four hours per month.
Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is among the nation’s 20 largest school districts, serving a diverse student population of more than 133,000 students in Maryland.
Our story begins, as most successful breakthroughs do, with collaboration. Dr. Melissa Kanney, Supervisor of the ELD Office at PGCPS, had partnered with the Mathematics team to develop a cutting-edge academic language toolkit several years before the 2020 WIDA ELD standards came out. The toolkit offered math literacy strategies specific to the needs of middle school students and teachers, all integrated with the PGCPS mathematics curriculum.
Dr. Michelle Dyson, PGCPS Mathematics Instructional Supervisor for Grades 6-8, joined this effort early on. Her most critical goal was to encourage students to use mathematical language in classroom discourse and writing. When Dr. Kanney discovered the Speak Agent Math + Language program, Dr. Dyson immediately saw how it could support development of math literacy skills.
The full story of their collaboration and partnership with Speak Agent can be found in this podcast episode: What True Partnership Looks Like. But the results were undeniable…
Results speak louder than words
In 2022, PGCPS commissioned a district-wide QED impact study (N=46,929) in 1,597 middle school classrooms. Students who used Speak Agent, across all demographics, outperformed their peers who did not use the program. Students who completed 10 Speak Agent modules experienced a 10.3% higher mean score than their peers on the PGCPS Math Benchmark test, raising the mean score for these students from 17/100 to 27/100. The results applied to both multilingual and monolingual learners. Multilingual learners experienced a 17-point mean gain on the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs assessment, in addition to the gains in mathematics.
Predicted Mean PGCPS Math Benchmark Score
(N = 46,929, p<.001)
Interpreting the results
Completing 10 modules in an academic quarter, which takes one hour per week or less, resulted in a 10.3% mean higher score.
Huebert, E. (2022). Effect of Speak Agent on Math and English language proficiency scores at middle grades in Prince George’s County Public Schools. Learnlab Education.
Predicted Mean ACCESS 2.0 Scale Score
(N = 5,361, p<.001)
ELD by domain
The following table shows the mean effect size, by ACCESS domain, at the same one-hour dosage:
| ACCESS Domain | Effect Size |
|---|---|
| Speaking | +22 points |
| Listening | +20 points |
| Writing | +18 points |
| Reading | +13 points |
| Comprehension | +15 points |
| Literacy | +16 points |
| Oral | +21 points |
How did PGCPS achieve these results?
The implementation at PGCPS transformed the model of how we think about content and language integration. This transformation is what drove improvements to learning outcomes in middle school math.
The Old Model
Under the old model, there was only a slight overlap between math content and language proficiency. Nearly everyone viewed this overlap as mainly math vocabulary. When Dr. Dyson began to collaborate with Dr. Kanney, together they learned that the research pointed to a new way forward.
The Content + Language Model
The research showed that the overlap between content and language was greater than anyone had realized. It went far beyond vocabulary. Language underpinned every one of the mathematical practices, from making conjectures to constructing arguments.
Dr. Dyson had found a path to achieving her math literacy mission. And it worked!
Ready to make your move?
If you are considering moving from the old model to the new Content + Language model, we offer a pilot program that enables you to measure the results on a small scale before making a strategic decision.
Meet with us!
Discover how we can address your unique needs and priorities!
