Palm Beach County
STEM Initiative Review
July 30, 2015
Algebra Nation
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Palm Beach County
STEM Initiative Review
July 30, 2015
Summary of Algebra Nation Activities in Palm Beach County
2013-2014
In the 2013-2014 academic year, School District of Palm Beach County was one of the most
active Algebra Nation partner districts in Florida. District teachers and personnel provided
ongoing feedback to developers, and the students in Palm Beach County schools utilized the
online resource more intensively than the students in any other district. Based on the feedback
from teachers in Palm Beach and across Florida, the Algebra Nation team developed a
workbook to accompany the video instruction available on the web site. This workbook was
then made available to schools at no charge. Algebra teachers in Palm Beach schools ordered
16,000 of these workbooks for their students.
Sixty-five of the district’s middle and high schools utilized Algebra Nation as a regular part of
their instruction and almost 400 teachers signed in as regular users of the network. The
Algebra Nation team worked intensively with the district’s instructional technology team to
integrate the electronic resource into the district system. Before this integration, the Palm
Beach County administrators unblocked Algebra Nation on Facebook in classrooms so that all
algebra students could use the resource while integration was being completed. Full
integration was accomplished in March, 2014.
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Palm Beach County
STEM Initiative Review
July 30, 2015
Summary of Algebra Nation Activities in Palm Beach County
2014-2015
The School District of Palm Beach County continued as one of the most active Algebra Nation
partner districts in Florida. Within the 2014-15 school year, Algebra Nation had 5,010 Palm
Beach County students enter Algebra Nation for a total of 32,508 student log-ins. These log-ins
generated over 64,000 student wall postings—more than any other district in Florida. More
than 250 teachers logged in producing a total of 4,395 teacher log-ins. Palm Beach County
teachers and students utilized the videos on Algebra Nation. There were 90,000 video views by
Palm Beach County users. A total of 120 Palm Beach middle and high schools used Algebra
Nation and Palm Beach County teachers pre-ordered over 12,000 workbooks for classroom use.
Finally, Algebra Nation staff members conducted two professional development sessions for
Palm Beach County teachers during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Palm Beach County students participated in the Algebra Nation Test Yourself Challenge in April
2014. This challenge helped focus student attention on reviewing concepts prior to the Algebra
1 End of Course test. Students who participated had chances to win iPads and pizza parties;
participating teachers were eligible for a drawing awarding a cruise for two.
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Palm Beach County
STEM Initiative Review
July 30, 2015
SDPBC Student Achievement Data Relevant to Algebra Nation
STEM Initiative Component
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Palm Beach County percentage of students passing the Algebra 1 End of Course test is
70%
This was the highest percentage of students in the Large Urban Districts.
Percentage of students passing the Algebra 1 End of Course test in other Large Urban
Districts were: Broward—67%; Dade—63%; Duval—57%; Hillsborough—69%; Orange—
64%; and Pinellas—56%.
Palm Beach County
STEM Initiative Review
July 30, 2015
Goals for Algebra Nation in Palm Beach County
2015-2016
Algebra Nation will continue to update teaching videos in order to address new concepts now
encompassed in the Mathematics Florida Standards (MAFS) for algebra. These standards are
increasingly emphasizing statistics concepts; such concepts may be new or daunting for current
algebra teachers. Three new videos have already been recorded and editing will be done soon.
The Florida Legislature approved a budget which the Governor signed for the 2015-2015 year
that includes a $2 million appropriation for Mathematics Nation. These new funds will support
the development of resources for middle school mathematics students, using a similar format
and utilizing lessons learned from the creation of Algebra Nation. Once the site is operational, it
will be opened to Palm Beach County middle school teachers and students.
There are also plans to bolster the Algebra Nation teacher area this year, especially in the area
of formative assessment lessons. Increased numbers of professional development sessions
offered within districts are also currently being planned. These new professional development
opportunities will move beyond providing a simple overview of the site; the sessions will be
infused with more structures to encourage teacher collaboration and engagement.
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