Penny Booth could have created a math program to hone the skills of the best pupils, paired them with veteran teachers and shown great progress.
But what would that have proved?
Baltimore County's coordinator of mathematics could have taken those experienced teachers, paired them with pupils in need of extra help and shown success.
But that would have proved only that top teachers can get top results.
At Summer Steps -- a 20-day summer program at four Baltimore County schools -- she has instead matched 180 soon-to-be sixth-graders at the county's low-performing middle schools with novice teachers.
And they're all learning.
It's part of what Booth calls her "experiment."
Last summer, the program's first year, pupils notched seven months' worth of gains in one month -- gains they sustained, she said. They passed the sixth-grade Maryland Functional Test in math three times as often as a control group of children from the same schools (a computer chose pupils at random for the free lessons). Their grades improved each marking period, and they scored better than their counterparts on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. She expects more from this summer's crew.
"It wasn't just a Band-Aid," Booth said.
The goals are to get more of the school system's eighth-graders passing Algebra I, and to boost the county's math scores on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests by helping schools that fall below the average.
Summer Steps is paid for by a grant -- worth more than $400,000 over three years -- from the State Department of Education.
As many as 300 youngsters could have enrolled, but not enough parents signed up their children. Some parents didn't respond despite letters and follow-up phone calls, some had vacations planned, while some had jobs and needed a place to put their kids for more than just three hours a day.
Each pupil took a computation test at the start of the program. The teachers used that information to determine what the children know -- and what they don't know. Incoming sixth-graders should have mastery of multiplication, know most of the basics of division and have a head start on fractions and basic geometry. But many of the kids were lacking some of the pieces.
"A little girl told me the other day, she didn't ever remember doing fractions in elementary school," Booth said last week as she toured the program at Chadwick Elementary School. "Obviously, she did them."
The small classes have 10 or fewer children per teacher. That means Myrle Bonneau, a fifth-grade teacher at Red House Run Elementary School in Rosedale, can create lessons for each child based on a book from publisher Houghton Mifflin. Bonneau, who just completed her second year of teaching, places a worksheet in each child's folder that focuses on a skill he or she lacks.
The kids spend time playing math games. For example, a beach ball with simple multiplication problems is tossed in the air and the child has to answer the question his or her left thumb lands on. Children read books involving math and write journal entries discussing the concept they learned.
They dance and use makeshift musical instruments as part of the rhythm and movement component -- the program's version of physical education -- because Booth found that research says students learn math better when they're moving to a beat. Their parents get involved, meeting with teachers and helping with math exercises at home.
"They do good work up there," said Michael S. Rosenberg, professor of special education at the Johns Hopkins University, the program's outside evaluator. "This helps out the teachers. Clearly, the effect on the kids is just outstanding. ... It's interlocking."
And they try to make it fun, too.
Research shows that math is among fourth-graders' favorite subjects.
"By eighth grade, it's lunch," Booth said.
Bonneau and the other teachers spent a week in training and will be followed through the year by a math resource teacher such as Lisa Esslinger, who will offer advice, lesson plans and support. Most elementary education majors take only one or two college classes in teaching math.
"Many times, the ones who aren't comfortable with teaching math are still teaching it," Esslinger said.
Summer Steps boosts the confidence not only of the children but also of the teachers.
Does Bonneau think she will be a better teacher in September than she was in June?
"I know I will be," she said. "Every hour you spend with a child makes you a better teacher. Look how many hours I've had this summer."
And that's why Booth decided to go with less-experienced teachers. She figured that they needed jobs during the summer, and most summer-school programs require that teachers have at least three years in the classroom. But Booth knew they could take their new skills and share them during the school year with many more than the 10 children they help now.
"It helps you, like, with stuff you don't know in math," said Isreal Miller, 10, who graduated from Halethorpe Elementary and will attend Arbutus Middle in the fall. "It just makes it easier to do."
In teacher JaMarr E. Jackson's room, the chalkboard held equations waiting for "less than" and "greater than" signs. A girl stepped to the front and drew in the "crocodile mouth" -- but it faced the wrong way, indicating that 5 1/4 is greater than 7.
Jackson, who teaches fifth grade at Milbrook Elementary, drew circles on the board -- calling them pizzas -- to illustrate the fractions and mixed numbers.
"If you and your family were really hungry one day, what would you rather have, seven pizzas or 5 1/4 pizzas?" he asked.
"Seven," they answered.
The light bulbs were going on.
"They see the progress themselves," Bonneau said.
