The SEC are designed to encourage teachers to reflect on their teaching and to discuss what they learn with other teachers. The SEC are:
- Data Analysis Tools for examining your school's mathematics (K-12) curriculum
- Web-Based Teacher Surveys that collect and report data on what and how you teach
- Content Maps that enable you to "see" your school's patterns compared with state standards, state assessments, and other teachers
The SEC allow you to examine the alignment between:
What do the Surveys Ask?
The surveys have two sections: 1) Instructional Content, which asks about instruction time by topic and teacher expectations of students; and 2) Instructional Practice, which asks about teaching practices, teacher opinions, and the use of strategies like homework and small group work.
What do the Reports Show?
SEC reports show—in several graphical formats—the content of a teacher's instruction and practice compared with other groups of teachers, state standards, and state assessments. As soon as you submit your completed online survey, you receive these reports.
The sample report here shows two contour maps; each highlights how much instructional time is spent on different content areas (listed on the right of each grid) related to how much cognitive complexity is expected of students (listed on the bottom of each grid). The map on the left represents an individual teacher; the one on the right represents state assessments. Darker colors mean more time is spent in that teaching area.
How Can I Use the SEC?
This research offers you what most studies do not– immediate survey results designed to help your school and teachers. The SEC allow you to:
- Align math curriculum, instruction and assessment
- Improve math instruction within and across grade levels
- Track performance against standards
- Identify professional development needs
- Engage in open, objective dialogue about teaching
- Support mathematics instruction, a primary target of NCLB
Schools that have at least 80% of their math teachers complete the SEC will have access to professional development workshops to help them use and interpret their data.
