Success Stories
From 51% Math Standards Pass Rate to 88% Pass Rate in 4 Years!
(improvement of 72%)
McPherson Magnet School is a K-8 math, science, and technology focused school in the city of Orange, California. Under the leadership of Principal Joe Erven, it has been implementing the Barobo/C-STEM Math and Robotics Program over the last several years since being adopted in 2016. The graph above on 3rd-grade SBAC math standards passing rates shows some of the amazing results. The first year the passing rate jumped from 51% to 72%, and then has continued increasing each year until 2019 when it hit 88%, the highest achievement level for 3rd grade students among the 27 elementary schools in the Orange Unified School District. (More info: c-stem.ucdavis.edu/about-us/success/mcpherson-magnet/.)
More Success Stories from Middle Schools and High Schools
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Teacher Testimonials
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“From early in the year, an observer could easily tell the students enjoyed the class and were reinvigorated to learn algebra. Intrinsic observations showed students high on enthusiasm from their positive attitude in class, their frequent participation in class and small group discussions, and the time they spent at lunch and afterschool in the classroom gaining additional help or advancing their skills in a self-guided challenge.” Susan Johnston, Livermore High School (CA)
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“Prior to the C-STEM professional development I attended in January 2014, I had not programmed in C/C++ nor had I taught programming in any of my classes. Working with the C-STEM program has brought so many positive impacts on my teaching, my school, and my students’ learning on the STEM subjects. Students were excited each day we got to explore the programming and wanted to go deeper into the content with every lesson. Students regularly performed at a higher level on common formative assessments that were given throughout the site.” Stephen Mason, Hillcrest High School (CA) Math Teacher​​
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“The UC Davis C-STEM curriculum is a godsend to me. I used to spend hours trying to develop just one coding lesson for my mathematics students, but now I have a ready-made curriculum and I am free to teach coding to my heart’s content, while also providing my students the opportunity to interweave algebra, computer coding, and robotics.” Doug Obrigawitch, Math Teacher and Department Chair, Manteca High School (CA)
