North Carolina’s PRISM initiative is their “LETRS for math”

While the vast majority of states have taken steps to support high-quality early literacy instruction, attention to math has been less consistent. What can state leaders looking for a smart approach do? North Carolina is working on that answer with a focus on teacher support.

Ideally, teachers collaborate with peers who teach the same grade or subject. But in rural North Carolina, there may be only one fourth-grade math teacher at a school. To address this issue and offer broader support for high-quality math instruction, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) launched PatternsTM for Reaching and Impacting Students in Math (PRISM). PRISM is an $8 million initiative to provide high-quality professional learning for math to 300 upper elementary educators. 

PatternsTM is an intensive math professional learning program created by Carnegie Learning. Educators receive two years of individualized instructional support to improve student progress in math through a combination of in-person and virtual coaching and collaboration sessions.The virtual component provides rural teachers the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with peer teachers from across the state who are in the same position of implementing a new curriculum.

“We created Patterns to fill the gap we noticed in math professional development in North Carolina and other states, especially in the elementary and middle grades,” said Peter LaCasse, Chief Strategy Officer of Carnegie Learning. “It takes a strong partnership between the program provider and the state agency who is willing to do the legwork of reaching out to districts to successfully roll out a program like this one.”

The initiative aims to replicate the state’s success in boosting literacy outcomes, according to Dr. Michael Maher, Chief Accountability Officer for NCDPI. Every PK-5 teacher in the state is required to participate in LETRS, a popular professional learning program focused on the science of reading. Like LETRS, NCDPI believes that Patterns training will help teachers master the fundamentals of math instruction and create communities of practice. “The efforts in literacy have paid off. K-3 students are outperforming the nation on DIBELS scores,” said Dr. Maher. “Now, we’re going all-in on math.”

While PRISM is still early in its implementation, state leaders hope that it will provide rural teachers with a network of peers specifically focused on math instruction that extends beyond the two-year span of the training. 

“Teachers want colleagues to be a sounding board and to talk to,” said Dr. Charles Aiken, Section Chief for Math, Science, and STEM at NCDPI. “One of our primary goals is to connect educators in similar contexts to work together.”

North Carolina 3rd-grade teacher Patty Miloro reflected on her experience with Patterns, sharing, “Programs do not teach; teachers teach, but teachers need good, rigorous programs that they can follow because it’s a heavy lift to try and plan and design curriculum on your own while teaching. To have the resources at your fingertips – that’s what teachers need. It’s clear to me that there are a lot of real teachers involved.”

North Carolina is building on a commitment to literacy instruction with a focus on math – while keeping teacher support and connections at the center. 

Jocelyn Pickford is an education policy and communications specialist focusing on understanding and promoting practitioner-informed public policy across the private, public and non-profit sectors as a Partner with Waypoint Education Partners. She began her career in education as a high school English teacher in a regular and special education inclusion classroom and is now a public school parent and recent member of her local district school board. Previously, Jocelyn led the design, launch and implementation of the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education to integrate teachers into the national education policy dialogue.

Jocelyn’s passion for her work was seeded during her own public school education and took root during her classroom teaching experience in Fairfax County, Virginia, where she led action research and presented instructional materials to a variety of audiences. Jocelyn earned her bachelor’s degree from Trinity College (CT), working as a professional writer and editor prior to becoming a teacher, and obtained her master’s in secondary education from George Washington University. Jocelyn lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two children.