Opportunity to pilot and refine GeometryByExample

The SERP-Temple team that created AlgebraByExample and MathByExample needs your help! 

100+ GeometryByExample problem sets have been drafted based on misconceptions identified in the research literature and by geometry teachers. Each assignment is aligned to geometry standards and includes both correct and incorrect worked examples accompanied by prompts to help students to analyze and explain core geometry concepts.

SERP is inviting districts to partner with us for the GeometryByExample pilot study!

Interested high school geometry teachers in partner districts will use the assignments in classrooms whenever and however they choose during the 2022-2023 school year. Teachers and students will help determine whether this example-based approach is helpful and effective in geometry, and will provide feedback to improve the design of the materials. The research team will request and collect student data (see information below for more details and requirements). 

Since these materials will be provided to educators free of charge once finalized, participation would be a tremendous contribution to the field. Honoraria will be provided to teachers who participate. 

What does participation look like?

Flip through slides to find out more:

Sign up to participate Download/Share Information Sheet for Teachers

If you have questions, please contact Allie Huyghe at ahuyghe@serpinstitute.org! 

Why should my district partner to pilot GeometryByExample?

There is promising evidence that this approach will help student learning in geometry. The SERP-Temple team is experienced in creating aligned and effective worksheets for mathematics. The approach has demonstrated effectiveness in Algebra I as well as 4th and 5th grade mathematics. 

Students using AlgebraByExample assignments over the course of the year:

  • Scored 7 percentage points higher on a test composed entirely of released items from standardized tests.
  • Scored 4 points higher in procedural knowledge, even though AlgebraByExample students were assigned half the number of problems to solve on their own. 

AlgebraByExample students in the bottom half of the performance distribution: 

  • Scored an average of 10 points higher in conceptual knowledge than their peers.

Conducting pilot studies allow us to determine whether the GeometryByExample assignments actually result in measurable benefits for students and are critical for us to be able to confidently say that the ByExample assignments for geometry increase student achievement, as we have been able to say for algebra.

It’s not a commitment for everyone district-wide, only for interested high school geometry teachers. The study team works directly with interested geometry teachers to prepare and ship materials, answer questions, send reminders, and manage all aspects of the work. The only requirements from the district are to recruit interested teachers and provide deidentified student academic and demographic data for participating classrooms at the end of the study. 

Your geometry teachers will help shape a freely available resource for all educators. With your help, GeometryByExample will be made available worldwide as a flexible and FREE resource to help students succeed in their geometry classes and higher-level mathematics.

  • Background: The SERP-MSAN Partnership to create AlgebraByExample

    In the spring and summer of 2006, SERP launched its first multi-district field site in collaboration with MSAN and its member districts. During the initial partnership meetings, superintendents set parameters to guide the work. On the basis of decades of experience, they put off limits:


    • a supplemental approach (because these are always the first to be cut when budgets tighten)
    • an intervention that targeted lower performing minoritized students alone (because this would exacerbate stereotype threat)
    • a whole new curriculum (because too much time is lost in political battles to introduce the curriculum, and performance drops while a new curriculum is learned)

    District math coordinators emphasized that asking teachers to substantially change the way they teach was not going to work. One argued that teachers needed a “back door” approach in order to see the benefit of a new practice without having their primary routines uphended.


    Among the team of mathematics researchers recruited by SERP for the partnership work, Ken Koedinger (Carnegie Mellon University) saw a potential solution. Decades of laboratory research demonstrate that worked examples interleaved with problems to solve are an effective way to improve student learning compared to assignments that include only problems to solve. Over a six-year period, the SERP-MSAN partners worked to design, test, and redesign assignments that interleaved worked examples that targeted common misconceptions. After many waves of experimentation using rigorous research designs, AlgebraByExample emerged as a finished product with 42 assignments.

     

    MSAN Partner School Districts: AlgebraByExample

    • Ann Arbor Public Schools, MI (2011-2013)
    • Arlington Public Schools, VA (2007-2010, 2012-2013)
    • Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Public Schools, NC (2010-2012)
    • Evanston Township High School, IL (2007-2010)
    • Evanston/Skokie School District 65, IL (2007-2013)
    • Green Bay Public Schools, WI (2010-2012)
    • Madison Metropolitan School District, WI (2007-2013)
    • Shaker Heights School District, OH (2007-2013)

  • Background: The Shift To MathByExample for Grades 4-5

    Analysis of SERP's AlgebraByExample materials revealed that many misconceptions have their roots in earlier grades. Addressing elementary math misconceptions before middle school is doubly important because early student failure can decrease motivation, hindering students’ future success even further. Traditional practice activities do not address common misconceptions about the problems to solve, allowing misconceptions to linger long after elementary school. Addressing this early is even more important as standards for rigor rise. Better-prepared students will free teachers in higher-level math courses to focus on grade-level content, making it more likely that students will succeed in higher-level math. From 2015-2019, the SERP-Temple team received funding to develop and test MathByExample. In 2019, the MathByExample materials emerged as a finished product with 139 assignments aligned to 4th and 4th grade math standards. 

    Watch Video about MathByExample

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