Impact Florida's first Learning Cadre for teachers focuses on student experience in math, a critical pathway for college and career success.
Effective professional learning is one of the Five Conditions that Support Great Teaching. Launched in Spring 2022, the Solving with Students Learning Cadre provides an innovative approach to professional learning based on student feedback. Through a series of continuous improvement cycles, teachers use Elevate by PERTS to gather feedback from students about their classroom experience, analyze results, and implement research-based teaching strategies.
Gaining Traction in Year 2
Learn more about how the Solving With Students Cadre continued and built on previous successes in its second year. Fill out the form to download a PDF of the report.
Explore Cadre Results
Overall Learning Conditions Improve
Students reported learning conditions improved in every area by as much as nine percentage points overall. Most teachers focused on the four learning conditions with most room for improvement: Classroom Community, Teacher Caring, Student Voice, and Meaningful Work.
Student Behavior and Learning Improved
More than half of cadre members attributed evidence of improvements in behavioral issues and improvements in student mastery of learning objectives on assignments, quizzes and/or tests, and benchmark and/or state assessments to their participation in the cadre.
Math-Specific Learning Conditions Improved
Results demonstrated improvements of 3-6 percentage points in the percentage of students providing positive ratings for math-specific items.
Improvement Compounded
In a sort of “rising tide” effect, when one condition improved, other conditions likely improved as well.
Experience Matters
Teachers with two years of participation improved more, on average, than did those in their first year of participation. Continued practice and familiarity with the process may result in greater gains.
Read Takeaways
“Here I was, thinking my students and I were on the same page. But when I saw those first results come in, I knew the students had something different in mind.”
For teachers, the first step toward more effective instruction is to challenge assumptions. In both years of the cadre, Solving With Students teachers unanimously found disparities between their assumptions about students and the experiences students report. Yet once these disparities are revealed, teachers know where to focus their efforts.
“Every year is year one. I can’t just do things the same as always when my students are not the same. I needed to change with the times and meet the kids, these kids, where they are.”
One of the most notable things about classroom learning conditions: they change. By incorporating student feedback, cadre teachers meaningfully affect the learning conditions in their classrooms, in real time.
“It’s about me, but it’s about me from the students’ points of view. And this work was making me better for them.”
In order to challenge their assumptions, cadre teachers are asked to open themselves up to student critique. That takes vulnerability and courage, and it also takes practice. Year 2 data showed that it gets easier for second year teachers and beyond.
“That relationship was built on simple things like standing at the door to greet them and ask them how they’re doing every day. That’s something the students said they wanted, so I implemented it and did it consistently.”
Classroom changes can be simple, but they’re not small. Changes like asking the students how they’re doing every day can help students blossom into their fullest potential.
Watch: What Students and Teachers Said About the Cadre
Impact Florida interviewed teachers and students about their experience with student feedback in the classroom.
Watch: Teachers Share Their Experience
Meet the Teachers
Ian Boze
Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High School, Putnam County
"Just like adults, students want to feel like what they are doing matters and that they have some control over what is happening in their lives."
Tawanna Rowe
Crystal Lake Middle, Broward County
"The experience a student has in math class MATTERS! Since beginning the cadre, I’ve noticed an improvement on students’ test scores, and they are working harder toward academic achievement."
Tia Geivet-Colon
Eau Gallie High School, Brevard County
“I love to inspire my students, and if I don’t know what drives them, then I don’t know what will inspire them.”
Jean Beagan
Fort King Middle School, Marion County
“This is all about helping me become better at what I do, and I tell my kids that I can’t do that without help from them."
Katrice Dixon
Crystal Lake Middle, Broward County
“The surveys and strategies have been essential for us. Rather than being an add-on and creating more work, it has actually made it easier for us as teachers."
Lori Antos
Buddy Taylor Middle School, Flagler County
"If students don’t feel a part of their learning process and know that they’re valued, they don’t see the value in learning."
Kellyann Campbell
Yearling Middle School, Okeechobee County
"I have been able to see how I have truly impacted my students in my classroom over a span of months."
Leisha Collins
Leto High School, Hillsborough County
"It’s essential for students to experience a safe, positive classroom culture, where they feel comfortable to try, make mistakes, and try again."
Anna Stewart
Yulee Middle School, Nassau County
“No matter how good you are as a teacher, there is always room for growth."
Josey Pearce
Yearling Middle School, Okeechobee County
"In the business world, the motto is 'customer knows best,' so why would the classroom be any different?"
Vanessa Cupak
Mowat Middle School, Bay County
"The experience is both humbling and encouraging, going through and discussing data with students."
About Learning Cadres
The cornerstone of Impact Florida’s work, learning cadres bring education leaders together from across the state to pilot innovative practices and learn from each other. Impact Florida then packages and shares those learnings with leaders and partners from around the state to positively impact as many students as possible.
To date, Impact Florida’s learning cadres have primarily served district leaders charged with important district-wide decisions that affect instruction. This cadre was an exciting opportunity to provide direct support to teachers and students in the classroom with the goal of improving student engagement with math. Impact Florida welcomes others to use the learnings from the cadre across the state.