TGC now offering Student University Tours

Harvard Professor Visits RGV To Discuss Quality Math Instruction

Donna School Board Recognizes math Teachers

March 2015TEXAS GRADUATE CENTERMonthly

February 2015

2 | Texas Graduate Center

TEXAS GRADUATE CENTERMonthly

PresidentDr. Roland Arriola

executive directorDr. Mary Alice Reyes

AssociAte directorAdriana V. Lopez

designer/ PHotogrAPHer David Alvarado

AcAdemic AdvisorDr. Edwin LeMaster

tgc oFFices1098 W. Expressway 83

Mercedes, Texas78570

The Texas Graduate Center (TGC), a component of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation, has been established to support programs in higher education that will guide new and emerging leaders in education to implement transformational change that will impact schools and communities. TGC will offer distance learning graduate programs from outstanding universities in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The TGC will make available the latest telepresence technology and virtual classrooms with direct connection to world-class undergraduate and graduate programs from across the country. TGC will also serve as a college and career readiness facilitator offering assistance in selecting, preparing and enrolling in nationally recognized graduate programs.

About Us:

Annenburg hall,harvard university

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

06 How Does Language & Location Affect Algebra Scores?

As teachers who reside and teach in both locations, we constantly see an influx of students who come from Mexico and enroll in public schools near the border.

Many students make the journey across the border every morning to come to school and travel back home at the end of the day. With all the movement, we’ve noticed that certain schools out score other schools on the End of Course (EOC) state exams.

10 MATHTEACH Collaborative “At-A-Glance”

M ATHTEACH is composed of local school districts committed to supporting their teachers in earning a Master of Liberal Arts in Mathematics for Teaching

from Harvard University. This three-year graduate program is delivered through distance learning and includes a residency requirement to attend Harvard during the summer sessions.

In this issue...Harvard UniversityExtension School

The Texas Graduate Center has partnered with the

Harvard University Extension School to

implement the Math for Teaching Graduate

Program. Harvard Extension School is one

of the twelve degree-granting schools of Harvard

University, offering professional certificates

and liberal arts-based undergraduate and

graduate degree programs aimed at nontraditional

students, as well as open-enrollment continuing

education courses.

ABOVE: The Rio Grande Valley (RGV) or the Lower Rio Grande Valley (when referring to the eight county region), infor-mally called The Valley, is an area located in the south-ernmost tip of South Texas. It lies along the northern bank of the Rio Grande, which separates Mex-ico from the United States.

TexasGraduaTeCenTer

Students will visit the following schools:

Harvard University Massachusets Institute of Technology Brown University Boston University

exclusive to our mathteach collaborative partners!

UNIVERSITYSTUDENTTOURS

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

Girls EnGaGEd in MathEMatics is a public-privatE initiativE of thE tExas vallEy coMMunitiEs foundation

GIRLS ENGAGED IN MATHEMATICS

Building CONFIDENCE and reducing MATH ANXIETYThe notion that only boys can become scientists and engineers has persisted over time. Studies have shown that negative stereotypes about girls’ abilities in mathematics and science have impacted their performance in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and math) areas.

to schEdulE a GEM caMp at your school, contact: Executive Director, Dr. Mary Alice Reyes956.903.4231 | mareyes@tvcof.org

February 2015

6 | Texas Graduate Center

T he goal of this research is to determine if Rio Grande Valley students who live and

attend a school further from the Texas-Mexico border score high-er on average on the Texas End of Course Algebra I exam than those students who reside and attend a school near the border. As teachers who reside and teach in both loca-tions, we constantly see an influx of students who come from Mexi-co and enroll in public schools near the border. Many students make the journey across the border ev-ery morning to come to school and travel back home at the end of the day. With all the movement, we’ve noticed that certain schools out score other schools on the End of Course (EOC) state exams. Mr. To-bias is a mathematics teacher who teaches at a school that consistently does well on state exams. The school Mr. Tobias teaches at consists of students who live approximately 30

miles away from the Texas-Mexican border. Mr. Barrera, another math-ematics teacher, teaches at school that is under TEA review due poor EOC scores in Math and English. The school Mr. Barrera teaches at consists of students who live no more than 6 miles away from the border, with many students living across the border. The two schools of study are approximately 20+ miles apart, but there exist much diversity between the campuses. Fifty-four seniors were selected ran-domly from each campus. The data included the gender, raw score of exam, whether a student is an ESL student (English as a Second Lan-guage), and if the student is an “At Risk” student. Because the students were selected randomly, we are confident that the sample is a good representation of the senior student body at each campus. We ran a t –test to see whether the means of the two groups are statistically different

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

cohort 1 members Juliotobias (abovE),

teacher at Ecisd. Juan barrera (bEloW),

teacher at psJa isd.

February 2015

8 | Texas Graduate Center

The results sparkedmuch interest and has us

re-evaluate just how we areteaching our content. We

quickly conlcuded that seniorswho attended the Edinburg

North campus will scorehigher on average thanseniors who attendedthe Southwest campus

Mexico

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

from each other. The results showed that students who attend the cam-pus further from the border score, on average, 3.6 to 11.4 points higher on their Algebra I EOC exam than those students who attend the cam-pus near the Texas-Mexican border (P –value < 0.001).

Our model shows that for one ESL student, holding all other variables constant, the average score will de-crease by 6 points.

So for an ESL student who attends Southwest and is considered At – Risk, we can expect the score to de-crease by about 18 points, holding constant the other variables. We ran a two sample t-test and found the re-sults to be statistically significant (P = 1.184e – 09). Non – ESL students were scoring, on average, about 9 to 16 points higher than ESL students

(see TEST 2). The mean score of a Non – ESL student in our sample is about 31 while an ESL student’s mean score is about 19. The results from our t-tests and re-gression model are as one would ex-pect. Students who attend a school near the Texas – Mexico border will have a higher number of ESL students than a school who resides further north from the border. Our study shows that there seems to be an association between a student’s language status (ESL vs. Non-ESL) and their Algebra I EOC score.

This study has prompted us to fo-cus and reevaluate our ESL teaching strategies. Maybe mathematics is not the issue here; rather, maybe it is the language barrier an ESL stu-dent faces that presents itself to be the greater obstacle. A limitation that we encountered,

which prevented us from extending these results to a wider population, was our educator accounts on D – MAC. These accounts restricted us to data regarding our own students. As teachers at these campuses, we are still confident that our sample is a good representation of the senior student body at each campus. For future research, Mr. Tobias and Mr. Barrera have submitted a request to their respective districts for access to the rest of the underclassmen high school student’s data and mid-dle schools that feed into these two high schools. Further research may shed light on campuses that reside in the area, and provide teachers with greater insight and focus on their ESL teaching strategies.

this study has proMptEd us to rEEvaluatE our Esl tEachinG stratEGiEs. MaybE MathEMatics is not thE issuE hErE; rathEr, MaybE it is thE lanGuaGE barriEr an Esl studEnt facEs that prEsEnts itsElf to bE thE GrEatEr obstaclE

Students whoattend the campus

FURTHERfrom the border

score

3.6 to

11.4 pts

HIGHER on their Algebra EOC Exam

February 2015

10 | Texas Graduate Center

7/8

MATHTEACH COLLABORATIVEAT-A-GLANCE

M aTHTeaCH is composed of local school districts committed to supporting their teachers in earning a Master of Liberal Arts in Mathematics for Teaching from Harvard University. This three-year graduate program is delivered through distance learning and includes a residency requirement to attend Harvard during the summer sessions.

As members of MaTHTeaCH, school districts will also receive Leadership Capacity Building and Teacher Training in Mathematics conducted by Harvard faculty and Student College and Career Readiness and Parent Engagement sessions provided by teachers in the program at their respective schools.

12Workshops Provided by Harvard Faculty in Leadership Capacity

Building & Mathematics

ATTENDEES:

20223

SchoolDistricts

11826

SchoolDistricts

42 362

AverAge AttendAnce

rAte:

on trAck to meet grAduAtion

requirements

PROFESSIONAL LEADERShIP SERIES:

TXGRADCENTER.ORG

STuDENT LEADERShIP SERIES:

GEAR uP STuDENTS ATTENDINGCONDUCTED BY HARVARD GRADUATE STUDENTS

109 18 School Districts

144 18 School Districts2013 Hanging with Harvard I

2014 Hanging with Harvard II

2015 Hanging with Harvard III

Cohort IV Is now formIng!

Submit your application online at www.txgraduatecenter.org/application

• HarvardUniversityExtensionSchool• 3-yearMaster’sprogram

• CohortLearningModel• VirtualClassroomLearning

Texas Graduate Center

University stUdent toUrsEXCELLENCETHROUGHEXPLORATION

Texas GraduaTe CenTer

81 13 School Districts

February 2015

12 | Texas Graduate Center

Teaching Geometry Differently

WhEn: saturday, April 18, 2015WhErE: region one esctiME: 8:30 am - 1:00 pm

Texas Graduate Center and Region One ESC GEAR UP: Ready, Set, College! Partnership

Invite you to join us as we explore how geometry can be taught and learned differently. Sessions are presented by Rio Grande Valley teachers in the Mathematics for Teaching Masters program at Harvard University.

dr. dAniel PlAs

Phd, BAylor college of medicine, 2005mAjor: neuroscienceBs, the university of texAs-Austin, 1986mAjor: PhysicsBA, hArvArd university, 1980mAjor: economics

Keynote SpeaKer: