What We Do
Key Components
Math Teachers and their Coaches
• Annually for 3-5 years
Summer Professional Development for Educators Institute—10 consecutive weekdays (60 hours)
Four Saturday Workshops—2 each semester (7 hours/workshop)
Four Classroom Visitation Weeks—each precedes a Saturday Workshop
School Leaders
• Annually for 3-5 years
Summer
School Leaders Technical Assistance General Seminar (7 hours)
School Leaders Technical Assistance School Specific Seminar (3 hours)
Quarterly Check-ins (8 hours)
Community Members—Parents, Teachers, School Administrators, Representatives of Organizations (faith-based, businesses, government agencies, higher education, etc)
• Annually for 3-5 years
Design Team Execution (24 hours)For schools, school districts implementing the SIAP PK-16 Model for 3-5 years
Based on the Four Components of the SIAP PK-16 Model
Summer Community Leadership Development Institute—3 consecutive days (21 hours)
College/University and High School Youth
• Annually for 3-5 years
Summer Youth Leadership Development Institute—10 consecutive weekdays (60 hours)
Four Saturday Workshops—2 each semester (7 hours/workshop)
The faculty and staff of colleges and universities may be involved in the Design Team for the Site and may participate in the Community Leadership Development Institute. They may opt to work with the Youth Leadership Development Program. Or, they may become involved in Professional Development for Educators by participating initially in the activities offered to math teachers and coaches, eventually working with SIAP staff to provides services to math teachers and coaches as implementation moves forward. These faculty members will be a source of support for math teachers and coaches beyond SIAP’s presence and will help sustain the SIAP PK-16 Model at the Site.
Professional Development for Educators (PDE):
What is the SIAP Professional Development for Educators Program?
The Southern Initiative Algebra Project, Inc. (SIAP) provides intensive professional development for teachers to ensure that their practice and content knowledge enable every child to succeed in mathematics and related content areas. Teachers participate yearly for 3-5 years in a hands-on, two-week summer institute grounded in Algebra Project pedagogy and common core standards, followed by series of academic-year content workshops and classroom visits. Teachers who emerge as potential teacher leaders (Implementation Specialists) receive an additional week-long training and internship with SIAP trainers to support other teachers in their practice during the course of the year and to sustain the work beyond SIAP’s on-site involvement.
How does the SIAP Professional Development Program Relate to State and National Standards? SIAP’s Professional Development does not impose a new curriculum on schools; rather, it focuses on increasing teachers’ content knowledge, changing teacher practice, and strengthening teachers’ pedagogical skill aimed at deep conceptual understanding and application of mathematical concepts. The pedagogical emphasis and strategies are particularly responsive to the critical thinking and application requirements of the Common Core Standards for mathematics.
What has been the outcome of SIAP Professional Development in the past?
SIAP has a long history of effective turn-around in low-performing school- and district-wide mathematics programs. Teachers, schools, and districts that participate and practice with some degree of fidelity post significant gains in mathematics accomplishment as well as other academic and non-academic areas of student growth. Testimonies are available.
What are school leaders technical assistance seminars?
The Southern Initiative Algebra Project, Inc. (SIAP) will provide technical assistance to school leaders implementing the SIAP PK-16 Model in their schools. The technical assistance seminars will focus on “Best Practices” in administrative leadership. The seminars will be conducted in two strands: 1) a general strand which will focus on targeted services that highly effective schools (as defined by educational research) offer to their communities and 2) a school specific strand customized for each school to assist in addressing specific challenges faced in their school communities.
The School Leaders Technical Assistance General Seminar focuses on but is not limited to 1) shaping a vision of academic success, 2) creating an accommodating instructional climate, 3) cultivating leadership in other staff so they assume their part in realizing the school vision, accountability and responsibility, 4) improving instruction that uses best practices and appropriate pedagogy; and 5) managing staff, data and communication to foster opportunities of school improvement.
The School Leaders Technical Assistance School Specific Seminar focuses on1) demographics (What is the make-up of the school?), 2) communication (How is information conveyed in the school?), 3) challenges (What obstacles are faced by the school?), 4) solutions (What strategies may assist the school in overcoming challenges and obstacles?), and 5) resources (Where does the school turn for support?).
The general seminar involves one full day and the school specific seminar involves a half day, both held annually between academic years. Four check-in sessions are conducted during each academic year.
Site/Community Development (S/CD)
Connecting school and community for the success of every child – The Southern Initiative Algebra Project, Inc. (SIAP) site/community development goal is simply to connect schools and communities in ways that surround children with a strong floor beneath which they cannot sink, a wall of support from which they cannot escape and a ceiling of possibilities that rises as they rise.
We accomplish this goal by partnering with community- and faith-based groups; child and family agencies and advocates; and school-, district-, and state-level personnel in a Design Team process to:
• Create a success-oriented expectation and climate for all children, especially the most vulnerable
• Build and sustain out-of-school supports and extended learning opportunities to augment the work of schools
• Bridge gaps, structure or restructure relationships, rearrange assets, and transcend cultural divides to ensure every child’s access to quality education
• Train and support new leadership for necessary elements of this work
How We Approach the Work
The transformational work to ensure the success of all children must belong to the community, just as the children do. To that end, we:
• Identify and engage a broad base of diverse stakeholder groups in the Design Team process
• Facilitate a Connecting School and Community dialogue to action process that results in concrete, goal-oriented plans for child and family success
• Conduct Community Leadership Institutes to train local citizens to organize and sustain the work
• Assist school leaders in designing and implementing support structures for community engagement
Key Questions Guiding the Work
• What are the opportunities and obstacles in restructuring university-school-community connections for the success of all children?
• What kinds of school-based structures and supports are necessary to ensure the success we want for all children?
• What kinds of community-based structures, supports, and activities are necessary to ensure the success we want for all children?
• What resources are available in and to the university, school, and community to ensure the success we want for all children?
Partnerships with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) [PIHLs]
Strengthening Partnerships for the Success of Every Child – The Southern Initiative Algebra Project, Inc. (SIAP) partners with institutes of higher learning (IHLs) to develop a pipeline, especially for low-performing students, from pre-kindergarten through high school, ready for college or career without remediation.
Colleges and universities are generally highly respected entities of the community. They can provide human and material resources. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) typically sit in or near the communities where schools are low-performing. Thus, they have insight into the community and schools and a responsibility to the community and schools to actively engage on their behalf. With the potential to act as a lead partner with SIAP, HBCUs can help sustain and grow the project once the SIAP PK-16 Model has been firmly established in the area. SIAP collaborates with IHLs to support the school, school district, teachers, and students using the SIAP PK-16 Model. Colleges and universities can participate in SIAP’s Design Team process, provide resources to enhance teachers’ content knowledge, provide recertification credit or college credit for summer institutes and workshops, can secure college/university students to be trained as tutors and mentors for their peers and students in PK-12, generate programs on campus for PK-12 students, and secure funding for local and national programs and projects.
YOUTH LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT (YLD)
The Dr. Oliver W. Hill, Jr. Youth Leadership Development Program
Catalyzing Youth Action for the Success of Every Child – The Southern Initiative Algebra Project, Inc. (SIAP) prepares youth as active community members who engage in professional development and service activities. This cadre of high school and university students become youth leadership specialists who have the knowledge and skills to serve as math tutors to positively impact the pipeline, especially for low-performing students, from pre-kindergarten through high school, ready for college or career without remediation. They become quality education advocates for themselves and their peers capable of addressing educational, social, political, economic, cultural issues and their history and the history of the places which they live.
SIAP recruits youth (through their schools and universities) to work with schools and other organizations that serve students in programs outside school, train youth development specialists to facilitate discussions among their peers. design and conduct various types of youth leadership trainings and institutes, under the mentorship of SIAP’s Professional Development staff, including summer institutes and follow-up sessions to prepare for work during the school year. connect youth with schools to tutor and/or lead Saturday Academies for PK-12 students. facilitate connections with and among youth organizations for the purpose of maximizing resources in working with area youth.
Youth Leadership is essential to providing a connection between PK-12 students and the possibilities that lay ahead, like success in school and going to college. The students can envision themselves in the same footsteps as their youth tutors/mentors. The youth tutors/mentors provide the extra, individual help that can make the difference in a student feeling capable and confident.