Its A Matter of FACT

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 623

First, I would like to thank Florida Power and Light for the funding of the grant “It’s A Matter of FACT”. Our school used the program religiously from its inception in October all the way up until February 1^st at which time it became optional for students, as we transitioned our students over to a district program that works on State Benchmarks to prepare them for the State Mandated FAST Test in Mathematics. Your investment in our school is going to pay dividends as it had the opportunity to impact 623 students in our school. The focus of our efforts was placed on the FAST tested grade levels of 4^th and 5^th. At the inception of the program, we did not have one student in 4^th or 5^th who was fluent in their facts, in fact, the initial diagnostic showed that our 5^th graders only knew 37.3% of their facts and 4^th graders only knew 17.5% of their facts. When I talk about facts, the program works students not only in multiplication, but also division facts. They learn the fact families for both operations. By the end of the program our 5^th graders knew 93.7% of their facts, a huge increase of 56.4% facts known. The 4^th graders ended up knowing 86.8% of facts, a huge increase of 69.3% from the initial assessment in October. Also, our 5^th grade classes went from 0 students out of 109 completing 100% of all facts up to 81 out of 109 or 74% knowing all the multiplication and division facts. Our 4^th graders also had 0 students out of 93 who were not proficient, that increased to 59 students out of 93 or 63%. Just imagine the cognitive energy that is saved by knowing their facts. Not only the great increase of students knowing all facts, but those who did not complete the program were also in those gains in math facts, they might have not completed it, but they now have a huge chunk of facts in their working memory. Our other grade levels were not required to do the nightly expectation of 10 minutes, but a lot of students used the program to learn their addition and subtraction facts.

The students at Pinecrest Elementary were also rewarded on our end for their accomplishments. I put together a weekly Power Point to recognize students as they achieved their Milestones. This Power Point was displayed during lunch on our big screen to recognize their accomplishments. They loved seeing their name on the big screen and I believe this also pushed them to move towards proficiency in their math facts. As soon as they completed 100% of their facts, I gave them a completion certificate and a cool bracelet to recognize their accomplishments.

Students were monitored daily to see if they achieved their “green light” nightly, which shows they were working on specific facts and reviewing learned facts for a certain length of time. If they did not, they received additional support during lunch to help them reach their goals.

The week of May 15^th we take our state test, and I am anxious to see the scores come back and see how REFLEX Math impacted our scores. Again, if students know their math facts with automaticity, it really frees up their cognitive energy to focus on the problem presented to them. I have always been a believer that the smaller number of steps in solving the problem, the less chance of making a mistake. Prior to our school using Reflex Math, we had many students counting on their fingers to find a fact like 8 x 9. Now, that energy is used on the problems presented to them. Once again, our teachers, students, parents, and especially myself are so grateful for your investment in our school. If the grant wasn’t funded, we would not have had that opportunity to utilize this valuable program because funding was not available to buy the subscription through our school. I would love to work with you again next year to fund “It’s A Matter of FACT, the Sequel”. Again, thanks and may God Bless you and your company for blessing the neediest of schools in our community.

Sincerely,

Mr. Charles Krause

Math Coach

Pinecrest Elementary

319 9^th Street South

Immokalee, Fl. 34142