In a packed school cafeteria one spring evening, Linden Elementary math coach JoAnn Smoot-Bryant looked on as a group of students and family members estimated the weight of an apple, a ball and several colorful plastic tokens.
It was the school’s first annual math night. Across the room, teachers held stations with puzzles, manipulatives and other hands-on math activities to help parents understand new concepts.
“We’re doing different strategies now than what the parents may have had to do when they were in school,” Smoot-Bryant told AL.com last spring. At the event, she sported a T-shirt that read, “Math is not a spectator sport.”
In the last five years, Alabama has invested heavily in elementary reading and math skills. Many schools have hired coaches, like Smoot-Bryant, to work with teachers and help them get up to speed on new techniques and data.
Linden Elementary math coach JoAnn Smoot-Bryant works with third grade student Nyla Bates on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Linden, Alabama.
Mike Kittrell/AL.com
And effective coaching can lead to good results: In 2023, Linden Elementary made it on the state’s list of the most improved schools, which is based on report card scores. In just the last two school years alone, the school’s report card score went from a 70 to an 83.
“She’s well-versed, she’s very creative, and we’re fortunate to have her,” Principal Richard Bryant said of Smoot-Bryant. “With her as a math coach, we’ve seen pluses in growth in our math scores.”
Principal Richard Bryant Is pictured in his office at Linden Elementary on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Linden, Alabama. Mike Kittrell/AL.com
In 2024, AL.com Education Lab reporters found schools with the most improved grades from the Alabama school report card for the 2022-23 school year, and identified local educators whose stellar work contributed to the school’s overall academic growth.
These “Teachers of Alabama” demonstrate the effectiveness of evidence-based best practices in the classroom — and opportunities for other schools to learn from.
How coaches work
Bryant attributes much of that growth to the school’s new coaching model, which he said has transformed the way reading and math has been taught across the building.
In 2022, Bryant asked second grade teacher Dawn Sheffield to take on a new role as the school’s literacy coach after seeing how her strategies in the classroom were paying off.
Research has shown that math and reading coaches can lead to significant improvements in teacher instruction and student achievement, and the models have already shown some success in other Alabama schools.
Adding coaches doesn‘t mean simply adding more adult staff to schools. Coaches work directly with staff and, in some cases, students, and make sure they are using effective techniques in the classroom.
Sheffield transferred schools this fall, but during her time at Linden, the school saw significant growth in reading: About 42% of the school’s students are now proficient in English and language arts, compared to about 25% in 2022.
Linden Elementary math coach JoAnn Smoot-Bryant works with fourth grade student Nathanial Payne on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Linden, Alabama.
Mike Kittrell/AL.com
He recently promoted Smoot-Bryant, too.
After working for several years in nearby school systems, Smoot-Bryant came to Linden three years ago to teach fifth grade. At the time, the school was struggling to regain lost ground in math: Math proficiency rates dipped from 30% in 2019 to just 16% in 2021.
Smoot-Bryant got to work, drilling down on student data and zeroing in on the skills that some were missing. In 2023, she earned the certification needed to become a math coach and started spreading those strategies across the school.
Almost immediately, math scores started to climb back up. Now, about 32% of students are proficient in math.
“We’re building the excitement for learning again,” said third grade math teacher LaShonna Thurman. “At one point it dropped because of COVID, and it was a strain and struggle, but now the kids have regained their excitement and zeal for learning.”
Smoot-Bryant spends much of her day working side by side with Thurman and other third grade teachers, helping them double down on certain skills and refine their lessons with hands-on activities.
When some students were having trouble with fractions, she brought in packs of Zebra Cakes and asked them to cut them up into smaller pieces. Soon, it clicked: as the sizes of the pieces got smaller, the denominator got larger.
“We’re building the excitement for learning again.”
LaShonna Thurman, third grade math teacher
“If you bring in the real world and see how they’re using it, it sticks with them,” Smoot-Bryant said.
Her role is not about “trying to change the teacher,” she added, “but looking at student data and coming up with different ways to teach the student.”
Getting everyone on board
Teachers at Linden Elementary now use recommended programs, like iReady, as well as practice assessments modeled after the state ACAP test, to track student data early and often. And they talk about the data at least once a week to see where students might need a little more help.
Each day, students also get two hours of uninterrupted reading and math instruction. Officials said they rarely have discipline issues during those periods, because students are so dialed in.
Linden Elementary math coach JoAnn Smoot-Bryant works with third grade students including Laniyah Sims, right, on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in Linden, Alabama.
Mike Kittrell/AL.com
And some parents say they have also noticed a difference.
“At first it was like ‘I don’t understand that,’” Arnita Robinson, a parent of three, said at the math night in March.
Robinson, a retired school counselor, works as a substitute teacher and has seen first-hand how teachers are working one-on-one with students, using best practices and including parents like her in their learning. Her first grader, she said, has improved significantly with the help of new interventions.
“They know now that they have to learn at a pace,” she said of her youngest two. “Now they know what the pace is and they follow the pace.”
