Math Agency Transcript

Tim Ahlers - Math Agency at TOPS Lead/TOPS Parent

The Math Agency has a program that they are running in five schools right now in Seattle and Bellevue. We take the kids who are behind in math and offer them intensive small group tutoring. We give them math exercises and practice at their individual level, so they can catch up with their peers.

Historically the kids that are in the Math Agency program at TOPS have been learning math at a .6 grade level per year, so they’re falling further and further behind each year. The kids in the program on average are learning math at more than twice that rate, 1.6 grade levels of math per year.

The Math Agency program at TOPS is remote and after school, we start at 4:30pm. It is three days a week for an hour each day. Students get on Zoom at 4:30 in the afternoon. We have volunteer tutors who join. Each breakout room has an adult coach who has been trained and has had a background check. Each coach has one or two students. We start with a group activity, then each individual student goes into they’re math practice that is targeted at exactly their level of work.

Our hope for next year with the Math Agency is that we would have two grade levels served, but so far, the challenge has been funding multiple grade levels. Friends of TOPS has been super generous and we’ve been able to do a single grade level last year and a single grade level this year, but if we’re able to do two grades, we think that we can take all the kids who are behind in math and get them up to grade level. This would be almost unprecedented in the city of Seattle and even in the state of Washington. To be able to do that amount of growth would probably be one of the highest in the state.

Another great thing about the Math Agency program is it is one of the most cost effective ways to do small group intensive tutoring for elementary school students. If a family were to hire a tutor on their own it would cost far more, if the school were to bring a full time resource, that also becomes really expensive. For per student access to math support, this is one of the most cost effective ways to do it.