El Dorado County Districts Increase Performance Tasks

In 2023, Ed Partners and the El Dorado County Office of Education began a partnership to support districts through an 8-9 On Track Collaboration with a focus on increasing the number of students who are prepared and able to seek college as an option after high school.  Part of this work is providing students a rigorous education in mathematics that incorporates higher-level thinking and application –– an area where there is often a gap in curricular materials and unit plans.  

Seventh through 12th grade teachers from Black Oak Mine, Camino Union, Gold Trail Union, Pollock Pines, Placerville Union, and El Dorado Union High school districts have collaborated to address this gap through the use of performance tasks ––an activity or assessment requiring students to demonstrate and apply their knowledge, understanding, and proficiency in complex “real-world” situations.  These tasks can engage and motivate students in applied learning contexts that link math with other content areas and allow for critical thinking, creativity, and communication.  New research shows that such performance tasks lead to deeper understanding and have improved student achievement by as much as 39 percent.

Teachers involved in the 8-9 On Track Collaboration identified and tested the use of performance tasks in their classrooms throughout the year.   They created a shared bank of tasks and supporting materials to be used in cycles of testing, student work analysis, reflection, and iteration.  As a group, they have engaged in 14 performance tasks’ cycles that have allowed them to better gauge student understanding of math topics that also push students to engage in more complex work.  While there is much work to be done to ensure the quality and best uses of tasks in classrooms, the implementation of performance tasks has already led to beneficial shifts in how teachers understand and approach instruction, assessment, and unit planning. It has also built coherence around student expectations.  

As one teacher reflected, teachers can’t teach the math first and then have students apply it in situations.  Rather, students need the context and application of math alongside the discrete skills and procedures if they are to deeply learn and be successful in school, college and career.