BOISE, Idaho — Boise State University and local schools are finding ways to continue supporting math education after federal funding for a key program was abruptly cut.
A program created to help Idaho students improve their math skills no longer exists, with impacts felt at Boise State University and throughout local school districts.
The Accelerate Math Learning Collaborative, based at Boise State, was established with federal funding to help students who fell behind during the pandemic. However, at the start of April, that funding abruptly stopped, bringing significant impacts to data collection, educator stipends, and most importantly, the students in the classroom.
"Once students tend to get behind in math, we don't have great mechanisms in schools to catch them up," said Carney.
Despite the funding loss, educators at Parkridge Elementary School in the Nampa School District are continuing the work.
"Our teachers have been working tirelessly and attached to that is also the credit, and we're lucky enough that Nampa school district is going to help pay for that credit," said Parsons.
The collaborative assisted educators throughout Idaho, particularly in the Nampa School District. Educators there are determined to maintain the progress they've made.
"Now our teachers are equipped to know that kid didn't get that portion of that learning target or that standard, I need to go back a grade level," said Parsons. "What does that standard look like? How are we going to teach to fill that group of kids whole so they can get caught up fairly fast."
Principal Parsons emphasizes that despite the funding loss, their professional learning community continues to focus on identifying student misconceptions and determining where help is needed most. She says they're beginning to see results both in student achievement and professional learning for educators.
Meanwhile, Boise State is working with the State Department of Education toward a regional math center contract to continue serving teachers as they have in the past.
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