Five Schools across New York State Share How eMATH Curricula Has Supported Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic
How have eMATHinstruction materials helped teachers?
- Empowering teachers to continue providing math education during the chaotic early days of the pandemic by using the eMATH video lessons and online lesson materials.
- Providing supplemental materials to help teachers address the learning gaps students are exhibiting due to the disruptions in education.
- Offering standards-aligned content that is scaffolded, with each course building on the previous one in 6th -12th grade.
- Assisting teachers and students in covering content that was missed during absences through the eMATH video lessons
COVID-19 Pandemic: Educational Impacts
At the end of the 2020-2021 academic year:
- U.S. students were an average of 5 months behind in math in 1st – 6th grade.1
- Chronic absenteeism for 8th
through 12th graders increased
by 12 percentage points across
the country.1 - Without intervention, pandemic-related unfinished learning could reduce lifetime earnings for K–12 students in the U.S. by an average of $49,000 to $61,000.1
Secondary Chronic Absenteeism Rate in New York State Increased During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Note: Attendance data was unavailable for 2019-2020 and data was not reported for one or more schools within the state in 2020-2021
eMATH Videos Helped Teachers Provide Instruction During the First Months of the Pandemic
Students, teachers, and schools are concluding their third academic year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This period of time has brought unprecedented challenges as educators and students have managed prolonged periods of remote learning, schedule disruptions, technology issues and constant uncertainty.
Minisink Valley Middle School was using eMATHinstruction (eMATH) curricula for less than a year when the pandemic hit in March 2020 and the school closed. Jeffrey Malara, a 22-year veteran educator, says the teachers posted the eMATH lessons and videos for students to review independently, which helped students continue learning even though they couldn’t meet with their teachers regularly. He says the math teachers were grateful to be able to rely on eMATH materials when many other teachers had nothing.
Steve Weissburg, who has been teaching at Ithaca High School for more than 30 years, says that having eMATH as a completely online math curricula with videos made the transition to virtual teaching easier. And Marcy Boyd, an educator at York Middle/High School, noted that the QR codes on the lessons also helped students easily access the videos that accompany each lesson.
Schools Featured
- Ithaca High School in Ithaca, New York
- Catskill High School in Catskill, New York
- York Middle/High School in Retsof, New York
- Great Neck North Middle School in Great Neck, New York
- Minisink Valley Middle School in Middletown, New York
When the pandemic first hit and we were out of school from March on, we weren’t prepared for Google Meet teaching and neither were the kids. So we were able to post the video lessons and have Kirk teach the lessons and then us just talk about it more. That helped us get through that first period of ‘what do we do here?’ It was a huge help having the [eMATH] videos.
Jeffrey Malara, Mathematics Teacher at Minisink Valley Middle School
eMATH Videos Minimize Loss of Instruction Due to Absences
As schools offered hybrid or blended learning options during the 2020-2021 school year and returned to in-person instruction for the 2021-2022 school year, math educators continued to turn to eMATH videos and online materials. Zachary Boyt, a teacher at Great Neck North Middle School, says that students having access to the eMATH lesson videos has been critical throughout the pandemic to ensure that absent students don’t fall further behind. He says that students view Kirk Weiler as their second teacher.
Erin Holdridge-Carlile, who teaches at Catskill High School, says another challenge educators are currently facing is the lack of available substitute teachers, so teachers are often filling in for each other in subject areas that are not their specialty. She says that eMATH videos help ensure that her students don’t miss a day of instruction when she’s absent.
We’ve had kids out for extended periods of time on quarantine. With the videos, I can tell them: watch the video, do the notes, try the homework, and tell me where you got stuck. It’s turned out to be very helpful in the unfortunate situation that we’re in.
Erin Holdridge-Carlile, Mathematics Teacher at Catskill High School