Teri Malpass never shied away from new and innovative strategies to get her students on the road to success. Currently, Malpass is the principal of Red Hill Elementary in Tustin Unified School District. In the late nineties, she was a teacher at Weaver Elementary. During her time there, Malpass introduced a philosophy called CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction), a conceptual approach to teaching math. CGI is a unique philosophy that teaches students to build upon their innate problem-solving abilities to expand their understanding of math concepts and build conceptual understanding.
The principal at Weaver Elementary School, Erin Kominsky, where Malpass was teaching at the time, had always sought out advancements and innovations in education to help meet students' academic needs. At that time, Kominsky connected with MIND Education's co-founder while he was visiting Weaver Elementary School to explore the advantages of CGI. "He [MIND's co-founder] was eager to see what CGI looked like, so I modeled a few lessons for him," said Malpass. "Then, the co-founder of MIND expressed his thoughts about how powerful it would be to merge CGI and ST Math. The power of combining the two approaches proved successful in helping teachers guide students toward a deeper understanding of math concepts through the Spatial-Temporal (ST) approach.
Malpass and Kominsky instantly could see the potential benefits of the visual instructional program that leverages the brain's spatial-temporal reasoning ability—at the time still in development—and how it could support the work they were doing in CGI. With that realization, Weaver Elementary became the first school to pilot ST Math in Orange County.
Not long after, Weaver's math scores dramatically improved. "Students would see concepts in ST Math before they were actually taught the same concepts in the classroom and say, 'I remember doing that on ST Math,'" said Malpass. "It's the perseverance that's difficult to teach students, but CGI and ST Math played a big role in helping students build problem-solving stamina. Students' conceptual understanding of math was deeper than I had ever seen."
Fast forward nearly two decades later, Malpass had started her new role as principal at Red Hill Elementary. The school had gone through a lot in the past few years, especially during the height of COVID. Math test scores were definitely an area of focus. Malpass remembered the impact that ST Math had and knew if properly implemented, it would benefit the students at Red Hill.
Although ST Math was available to students at Red Hill, it had yet to be fully implemented, and teachers and parents did not entirely understand its value. Malpass got teachers and parents on board with ST Math by sharing her experience and past successes, and there was no turning back.
Teachers soon understood the lasting impact ST Math had on their students. They saw the connection between ST Math and higher math scores. They became more involved and curious about ST Math in the same way they were taken in by CGI and its five-part structure. As their curiosity grew, the inevitable outcome was the successful implementation of both, which led to phenomenal results. With the full implementation of ST Math at Red Hill, math scores have skyrocketed. Red Hill's math scores did not merely grow by the 3% they had hoped for; they grew by 15%, an unheard-of 5-year growth in a single year. Red Hill teachers also reported a direct correlation between ST Math completion and the student's State testing proficiency.
Malpass monitors Red Hill students' ST Math percentage progress weekly. "I'm checking to see if students are staying on target with their weekly growth goal," said Malpass. "I'm working with teachers and students to get a better sense of what barriers there might be that could prevent the students from achieving their weekly progress."
Early in Malpass's career as a teacher at Weaver Elementary School, when she noticed the strengths and similarities between CGI and ST Math, it became clear to her what a winning combination this was for students. "For me, it was the perseverance, the building of stamina for students that can be hard to teach," said Malpass, "But I was able to see that ST Math—like CGI—was something that really does build that for students. As long as they stick to it, scores will jump dramatically."
Every Friday at Red Hill Elementary, teachers, students, and their families attend a Red Hill Rocket assembly at which Malpass recognizes students who achieved their weekly ST Math percentages and celebrates students who go above and beyond in their ST Math goals. Malpass said, "Students at Red Hill are embracing ST Math, and it is not uncommon for them to come up to me at recess and ask if I want to know where they are at."
"I've seen ST Math's impact as a teacher. I've seen it as a parent," said Malpass. "And now, as principal, I know it works."
