MATHEMATICS PROGRAMS
The Batesville School District is committed to putting Students First. One of the ways we do this is by building problem-solving math communities with Standards for Mathematical Practice — how our brains know and use math  — to inform our mathematical teaching practices. Here you will find information about mathematical programs, research, and resources.

AR Math QuEST
AR Math QuEST (Quantitative Essentials for Students and Teachers) is a journey for ambitious teaching that promotes equity and engagement of all students in meaningful mathematics learning experiences of reasoning and problem-solving. AR Math QuEST empowers educators and families to help students develop identities as doers of mathematics to increase student achievement. This student-centered approach to teaching math starts with what students already know and builds on their natural number sense and intuitive approaches to problem-solving. Problem-based learning is based on 30 years of research. It's a framework that helps teachers to understand how children's mathematical ideas develop and provides an opportunity to build on the child's own thinking and understanding. Problem-based learning is a critical thinking and application approach to learning mathematics through discovery, inquiry, and discourse.

The goals are as follows: 

1. Eliminate achievement gaps
2. Increase problem-solving and reasoning
3. Build positive identities as doers of mathematics 

Because of AR Math QuEST, the focus on math progression for your child has shifted from learning procedures with memorization to building procedural fluency and conceptual understanding through connection to meaning and application. 

Click here to learn more

Mathematical Practice
The NCTM's (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics) Mathematics Teaching Practices and the Standards for Mathematical Practice are the research-based foundation for exemplary teaching and learning. Ambitious mathematics teaching involves skilled ways of eliciting and responding to each and every student in the class so that they learn worthwhile mathematics and come to view themselves as competent mathematicians.

In a mathematics class, students should not just learn about mathematics, they should do mathematics. This can be defined as engaging in the mathematical practices: making sense of problems, reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, making arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others, modeling with mathematics, making appropriate use of tools, attending to precision in their use of language, looking for and making use of structure, and expressing regularity in repeated reasoning.

This research has been conducted through TIMSS over the last three decades across the world, and it is derived from thousands of studies conducted in multiple countries. The Mathematics Practices and Ambitious Mathematics instruction has culminated in a preponderance of evidence to inform how mathematically proficient learners develop; why some have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of and intervention for mathematics difficulties.

Decades of research tells us that in order to learn mathematics, students should spend time in math class doing mathematics — Students learn mathematics as a result of solving problems. Mathematical ideas are the outcomes of the problem-solving experience rather than the elements that must be taught before problem-solving.