The journey that led us to our current SunBay program has taken us to classrooms throughout Texas, Florida, and England. In each location, we work with local teachers and administrators to adapt our materials to the demands of the local standards.
On average, when we test students before and after a unit, SunBay students gain 30 percentile points against students in our control group. These gains aren’t confined to any particular category of student: our studies show huge gains regardless of gender, socioeconomic status, or past success in math. Although our method demands a deeper conceptual understanding from students, it isn’t designed for just the most elite. This is a program that works for everyone.
Our units teach more than typical curricula, in the same amount of time. We call this the intensification of learning: when students come away from a unit with both refined skills and a deep conceptual understanding. This means they’re not only prepared for state assessments, but for the more advanced math required for college courses and careers.
Our program doesn’t just activate students, it activates teachers. When you look at the data that comes out of our trials, SunBay teachers are able to get the sort of results that only the district’s very best teachers had been getting.
That’s because our program is more than a technological gimmick, it’s a philosophy of teaching built up from best practices. Our professional development sequence doesn’t just train teachers to use some niche product, it helps them reach their potential as math instructors.