Filling The Pail Amanda VanDerHeyden
Mar 7, 2022
Dr. Amanda VanDerHeyden is a mathematics education researcher and founder of Spring Math, focusing on evidence-based instruction. In this conversation, she dives into the significance of class-wide math interventions and how they can dramatically improve proficiency. Amanda emphasizes the importance of actionable data and explicit instruction, while contrasting effective teaching methods with ideology-driven approaches. She also tackles math anxiety linked to timed tests and advocates for integrating procedural fluency with conceptual understanding from the start.
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District Turnaround With Class-Wide Intervention
- Amanda rebuilt a district-wide class intervention in Vail, AZ and halved special-ed identification in one year.
- Math proficiency rose to >95% and the district ranked first in the state after sustained daily intervention.
Teach With High-Dosage Explicit Routines
- Use high-dosage explicit instruction with many opportunities to respond and clear advancement rules.
- Monitor progress daily and increase task difficulty when students demonstrate proficiency.
Collect Only Actionable Assessment Data
- Assessment yields diminishing returns; collect just enough data to decide what to change tomorrow.
- Frequent, simple progress monitoring guides pacing and task advancement more usefully than heavy assessment.