An Evaluation of the Teaching English Learners Early Mathematics (TEEM) Program; an Investing in Innovations (i3) Development Grant

California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) and the Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) were awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Development grant in 2015 to investigate the impact of an early education mathematics program on English Learner students at two rural school districts in Riverside, CA. Teaching English Learners Early Mathematics (TEEM) had five major goals: to improve the academic achievement of English Learners (ELs) (Goal 1); to improve teacher knowledge and beliefs for teaching math to ELs (Goal 2); to improve the teaching of math to ELs and all students (Goal 3); to develop principals as instructional leaders in mathematics (Goal 4); and to build a learning partnership that develops, sustains and shares a model of instructional change supporting ELs. (Goal 5). In support of these goals, a combination of four mutually supportive interventions were implemented. The study followed four cohorts of students preK-6th grade over 4 years from 2015-2016 to 2018-2019. The project received a no-cost extension through 2020 but data collection difficulties due to COVID-19 and resulting school shutdowns made it impossible to continue. Data collected included teacher assessments, classroom observations, teacher surveys, student state-level assessments, and student notebook ratings. TEEM Teachers demonstrated growth in mathematics content knowledge, as measured by the Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) Assessment. They showed improved self-efficacy beliefs relative to a comparison group. Participating teachers' mathematics content knowledge improved relative to a comparison group of non-participating teachers in each project year (although due to sample size, the difference was not statistically significant in the last two project years). Student Math and English Language scores on state-wide tests increased each year for students with any exposure to the program, though not to a statistically significant degree. [This report was written with Madeline Jetter and prepared by COREducational.]