From Middle School Student to Modern Mathematician: How Distance Learning Allows for Remarkable Scaffolding

In the sixth largest K-12 district in the country, students from diverse socioeconomic, geographic, gender, and grade-level groups venture higher into modern mathematics using an innovative online curriculum and distance learning technology. Students represent situations, make connections, justify, explain, and reason through online dialogue among themselves and with distance learning instructors. Early successes have led to a quadrupling of program enrollment in three years, improved student learning, and positive student and parent reactions. This presentation is intended for K-12 administrators and teachers involved in math education in grades 6-8. The online curriculum we use is proven in large and small districts and in bricks and mortar and virtual schools. Where in-class delivery methods that depend on the local presence of a qualified teacher once limited access to select geographic locations, the distance learning implementation has expanded access to students throughout our district, the state, and across the US. The presentation will have three parts: (1) We will demonstrate use of this non-traditional, research-supported online curriculum; (2) We will describe how we promote online discussions about advanced mathematics; and (3) We will summarize research on student achievement and stakeholder attitudes about our program, which has helped our schools remain attractive to parents of high-achieving students who might otherwise choose competing education options. The related study explored the relationship between gifted middle school students\u27 images of this online curriculum and their images of mathematics. Survey research on students in our distance learning program determined that most believed mathematics is fun and thought-provoking, connected to the real world, makes a unique contribution to human knowledge, and is a creative process that supports many different ways of looking at and solving problems. The average distance learning student enjoyed this curriculum and strongly agreed that it made them more ready for high school and college