ATLAS awarded $3M contract to enhance math instruction in rural Alaska

LAWRENCE — Alaska Native elders, educators and researchers are coming together to make math instruction more meaningful by connecting classroom learning to students’ lives and local traditions. The Learning Maps for Math in a Cultural Context (Learning Maps for MCC) project will strengthen mathematics teaching and learning for Alaska students across the Calista region in western Alaska.

Accessible Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Systems (ATLAS) at the University of Kansas has received a five-year, $3 million contract to support this work. The project is part of a $5.4 million U.S. Department of Education grant led by Calista Education and Culture, serving Alaska students living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim region of Alaska.

The project builds on Math in a Cultural Context (MCC), a long-standing, community-developed curriculum created with Alaska Native elders and educators more than two decades ago by Jerry Lipka at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The new Learning Maps for MCC project will enhance six existing MCC modules with research-based learning maps aligned to Alaska’s mathematics standards. Researchers will also create new formative assessments and professional learning resources to help teachers integrate MCC materials into the district math curricula.

“By combining the proven MCC curriculum with learning maps and formative assessments, we can give teachers a clear view of how students build mathematical understanding,” said Dale Cope, ATLAS principal investigator. “That clarity will help teachers support students more effectively and strengthen achievement in mathematics.”

Over the next five years, the Learning Maps for MCC project will reach more than 4,000 students and 180 teachers across 35 rural schools in the Lower Kuskokwim and Lower Yukon School districts, and the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School in Anchorage. Teachers will participate in professional learning through Alaska’s Response to Intervention/Multi-Tiered System of Supports conference hosted annually by the Alaska Staff Development Network, annual webinars and on-site training.

ATLAS researchers will collaborate closely with the Calista Education Committee, Hooper Bay Charter School Academic Policy Committee, Alaska Native Charter School Academic Policy Committee and district curriculum teams to ensure the learning maps and assessments are responsive to local contexts and community input.

“Our work honors the knowledge that has always guided our people. By connecting traditional ways of learning with modern tools, we’re helping our students see themselves reflected in every lesson,” said Denise Brown-Chythlook, president and executive director of Calista Education and Culture.

ATLAS’ partners include Calista Education and Culture Inc., the grant recipient and lead organization; the Life Span Institute at KU, which will lead the project evaluation; the Alaska Staff Development Network, which will manage implementation and professional development; and the Lower Yukon and Lower Kuskokwim school districts, Hooper Bay Charter School and Alaska Native Cultural Charter School, which will pilot the enhanced MCC materials.

The Learning Maps for MCC project builds on more than a decade of ATLAS research on learning maps from projects such as the Shared Writing Instructional Model (SWIM) and Writing and Revising Interventions to Excel (WRITE). Learning maps are visual representations of how students develop knowledge, skills and understandings, designed to inform instruction and assessment. The long-term goal of Learning Maps for MCC is to expand the use of MCC resources and demonstrate sustained improvements in student achievement.

About ATLAS

ATLAS, a center within the Achievement & Assessment Institute at KU, promotes learning and improved outcomes by creating accessible and academically rigorous technology-based learning and assessment systems. Visit the ATLAS website to learn more.