Nether Providence Elementary credits targeted Reveal Math work and second‑grade rotations for early gains

Nether Providence Elementary school leaders told the Wallingford‑Swarthmore Board of School Directors on May 28 that the district’s first year with the Reveal Math curriculum produced better‑than‑expected student growth in several grades and subgroups, and that a grade‑two instructional redesign produced measurable gains on unit assessments.

Al Hindley, introducing the school’s presentation, framed year one of Reveal as a professional‑development year for teachers and said the school is now moving into more targeted intervention and ancillary resources in year two. He described the curriculum’s core tenets—an inquiry and sense‑making approach, real‑world scenarios, multiple strategies and differentiation—and said teachers have begun to match resources to individual student needs.

Shelby Blake, who led the grade‑two data team presentation, walked the board through a skills‑grouping and rotation model. Blake described using question analysis on Reveal unit assessments to identify foundational skill gaps, grouping students by specific skills, and rotating them to teachers who specialized in a single strategy. "We grouped students by those skill gaps and then teachers just chose their one skill that they wanted to perfect and then we rotated our students among teachers," Blake said. She described meeting weekly to plan, using exit tickets and two‑form assessments (form A and form B) to track progress, and limiting rotations initially to students scoring about 70% or below on unit tests.

Blake gave concrete examples of growth: several classes averaged roughly 65% on an early unit and rose to roughly 80–83% by the final addition unit after targeted intervention—"about 20% or more growth across a couple of units," she said. The team emphasized backfilling place‑value understanding before advancing to addition and subtraction within 1,000.

Hindley and Blake credited teacher planning time, the district’s Teaching on Special Assignment support, and a shared, clickable resource database that links assessment question analyses to specific Reveal lessons for intervention. Hindley noted that some subgroup results reported through the state growth measure PVAAS were ‘‘well above’’ or ‘‘above’’ expected growth for grades four and five and for several student cohorts; he said some subgroup sample sizes prevented state reporting for certain groups.

Board members responded positively and recommended replicating promising practices across other elementaries. "What really comes through is the pride that you have for MPE and the progress you’ve made," one board member said during the Q&A.

What’s next: NPE leaders said the model will continue and expand in year two, with an aim to rotate additional students and embed enrichment groups. The presentation will feed into district planning on interventions and curriculum alignment over the summer.