How to Improve Math Scores in Clark County, Nevada

Imagine that your task is how to get your students to put together 2 triangles to form a quadrilateral so they understand the relationship between the parts and the combined whole of these geometric figures. By the way, make it fun, because they’re 1st graders. 

An elementary school math teacher in Clark County, Nevada will recognize this immediately as part of the state’s math curriculum standards. 1st graders even begin to learn to argue and critique how their classmates tried to solve a simple math problem. 3rd graders are learning multiplication and division as well as fractions, and are finding the area of 2-dimensional shapes. By 5th grade, they’re dividing and multiplying fractions with whole numbers, studying decimal fractions and place values, and beginning to look at the volumes of shapes. 

In 7th grade, students are working with rational numbers and linear equations, solving problems using surface area and volume, and trying to understand how samples give you information about populations. And by 8th grade, your kids are learning how to solve systems of linear equations, trying to understand and use functions, and learning the Pythagorean Theorem. 

So students may have difficulties right from the beginning of grade school. Like problems understanding place value, the difference between ones and tens, and not being able to write down numbers correctly. As well, English Language Learners may have challenges with  using new words like quotient, sum, or product, in math word problems. If they struggle with multiplication tables, that could mean trouble when doing operations with fractions in later years. And by the time they get to multiple-step problems in middle school, they risk turning in incomplete work or even giving up in frustration. All of this can lead to math anxiety, especially when it comes to end-of-year testing, unit tests, or math exams. 

Clark County is America’s 11th largest county and contains almost three quarters of Nevada’s population, including Las Vegas and outlying suburbs. Clark County School District is the 5th largest in the country with a diverse student population including:

• Around 6% Asian 
• Nearly 16% Black
• Just over 47% Hispanic
• Just under 22% White
• Over 7% of 2 or more ethnicities.

The district has 250 elementary schools and 82 middle schools and 380 schools in total. There are just over 315,000 students in Clark County School District and the teacher-student ratio - depending on the study - is between 20 and 22 students per teacher. 

The Clark County School District was formed in 1956 when 14 separate school districts located in Clark County were consolidated into CCSD with enrollment at just over 20,000 students. Growth really picked up in the 90s and early 2000s as large numbers of families moved into the Las Vegas area creating overcrowded classrooms. The county responded, constructing large numbers of new schools until by the 2015-2016 academic year there were over 320,000 students in Clark County School District. As of the 2019-2020 school year, Clark County School District is divided into 3 regions, with each region led by a Region Superintendent and 4 School Associate Superintendents. They, in turn, report to the Senior Deputy Superintendent of School Instruction.

CCSD’s minority enrollment is close to 80% with over 21% of students English Language Learners. It has been reported that as of the 2020-2021 school year, 21% of students in Clark County School District were proficient in math. Per-pupil spending  per student was reported in 2018 to be just under $10,000 per year while nearly 70% of the budget was spent on instruction compared to around 40% spent on support services. The graduation rate is reported to be around 80% while average SAT scores are reported to come in at 1180.

For the state of Nevada, the National Assessment of Educational Progress - or NAEP - report shows the following for mathematics:

• 8th graders scored an average of 269 on math, below the national average of 273.
• Both Basic and Proficient levels of math results fell from 2019 levels, perhaps due to difficulties from COVID-era transitions to remote learning.
• Average scores for NAEP math exams have been falling both in Nevada and nationally since around 2011, with Nevada’s scores consistently below the national average.
• However, Nevada’s NAEP math scores were similar to those in neighboring California and Arizona. 

As we point out in our blog on the LAUSD, COVID meant schools had to adjust to online learning, giving teachers and students a whole new set of challenges. Fullerton School District, in Orange County, was no exception. Remote learning meant supporting students below grade level (and keeping students above grade level engaged) was key. 

The 2019-2020 school year was cut short so students needed to do their math practice and build up their skills - often in a remote environment. That meant differentiating across a range of individual skill levels among their math learners. 

Teachers turned to Prodigy, a learning platform that uses Prodigy Math to engage students and provides teachers with reports on each student’s (and their class’) progress, based on real-time data. The results for the 2019-2020 school year speak for themselves. 

Each month in Fullerton on Prodigy, on average for each student using Prodigy Math:

• 113 math questions were answered
• 11 math skills were mastered
• 86% of questions were answered correctly

Prodigy is a web-based digital learning platform which embeds math tasks and quizzes within an engaging online game students enjoy playing. It provides reports on students’ progress for teachers to use and provides reports to parents as well through the game’s dashboard. It can be played at home or at school on any device with an internet connection.

A key feature of Prodigy is that a student's level is determined by the answers they give. The learning platform responds adaptively, giving each student an individualized pathway with skill-building math questions that challenge them but also encourage them. Prodigy Math keeps them playing, answering, and building skills day after day, both in class and at home on their iPad, computer, tablet, or cell phone.

This really matters because math learning is cumulative and every task and test builds towards a fuller understanding of mathematics. It’s called depth of knowledge (DOK) and for elementary school math it works as follows:

• DOK 1: Recall - can you remember what to do?
• DOK 2: Skill & Concept - can you decide how to solve the problem?
• DOK 3: Strategic Thinking - can you explain why you did what you did?

The challenge for a teacher is keeping their math students engaged. Teachers have said that as students move through Prodigy Math, they improve their understanding of mathematical concepts they need to know. Remember, if a student has trouble with math early on in elementary school, middle school math becomes an even tougher challenge. A supportive game-based learning platform is essential to help meet these challenges and ensure that students aren’t left behind. 

Teachers realized that Prodigy Math helped them fill the gaps that students were facing, particularly during the COVID pandemic. They further realized that this was a way to keep students engaged with their math practice - never an easy ask. Using Prodigy, several studies showed that:

• Students' enjoyment of math on average was shown to have improved after only a few months.
• The more students used the Prodigy Math Game, the more their math scores were demonstrated on average to correlate with higher grades.
• A higher percentage of accurate answers to Prodigy Math Questions were shown to tend to correlate to better scores in math exams.
• Students using the math game in public schools in a New Jersey study were shown on average to progress significantly, adding math skills every month.

Additionally, progress monitoring through frequent reports delivered to the Prodigy dashboard can help teachers to intervene and support math students in far more effective ways than is possible when not using digital game-based learning platforms. They can now adjust their strategies based on the reports Prodigy provides them. And parents get to see their children’s progress mastering new skills by using the parent dashboard and by receiving weekly reports.  

With over 2 million active daily users, Prodigy Math has proved to be an engaging learning tool that, when used by teachers, kids, and parents, transforms math learning into a fun experience for the kids, rather than an anxiety-inducing task.