Boosting Student Thinking in Math: Four Takeaways from West Orange Public Schools

When we started thinking about how to strengthen math instruction across West Orange Public Schools, we were at a turning point.

Newly revised state standards had been introduced, our student population had new and emerging needs, and we wanted to make sure our instruction truly met them.

We took time to engage teachers, school leaders, and families in the process. Over the course of a year, teams piloted materials, examined learning progressions, and built a shared understanding of what strong math instruction should look like.

This rigorous process ultimately led us to implement i-Ready Classroom Mathematics and Coaching by i-Ready. Since then, we’ve seen meaningful shifts in both student outcomes and in what math classrooms look and sound like every day.

If you’re looking to deepen math instruction in your classroom, here are a few takeaways from our journey that may be helpful to you.

Start with Reflection—Then Act on It

Our transformation began in 2023, when New Jersey expanded its math standards just as our student achievement had begun to plateau under our then-current curriculum. We knew something had to change if we were going to rise to the challenge of helping our students meet the revised standards.

Rather than rush to adopt something new, we paused to reflect: Were our practices aligned to the standards? Were we supporting deep understanding and meaningful math discourse? Were we meeting our students’ evolving needs?

That reflection guided our next steps—and it’s a process you can use to strengthen your own instruction.

What teachers can do:

• Look at your current lessons and ask yourself:
  • Are students explaining their reasoning daily?
  • Are tasks focused on problem solving or just procedures?
• Bring one lesson to a teacher team meeting and analyze it together:
  • Where is the cognitive demand highest?
  • Where does it drop?

Try this tomorrow: 

Take one problem from your lesson and ask: “How could I turn this into a discussion instead of a worksheet?”

Make Student Thinking the Center of Every Lesson

One of the biggest shifts i-Ready Classroom Mathematics helped us make was prioritizing student thinking over teacher explanation.

The Try–Discuss–Connect framework helped us move from “show and tell” to “think and talk.”

What teachers can do:

• Replace “I do, you do” with:
  • Try: Let students attempt the problem first (even if they struggle)
  • Discuss: Have them explain and compare strategies
  • Connect: Highlight key mathematical ideas across strategies
• Ask more open-ended questions:
  • “Why does that work?”
  • “Do you agree or disagree?”
  • “Can someone solve it a different way?”

Look fors in your classroom:

• Students talking more than the teacher
• Multiple strategies shared 
  
• Mistakes used as learning opportunities 

Try this tomorrow: 

After posing a problem, wait 30–60 seconds before speaking. Let students grapple first.  Productive struggle is critical for learning.

Use Data and Professional Learning to Strengthen Instruction

We saw the greatest growth when data, professional learning, and daily instruction were connected, not treated as separate initiatives.

What teachers can do:

• Look beyond correct/incorrect and analyze how students are thinking:
  • What strategies are they using?
  • Where are misconceptions forming?
• Use professional learning time to:
  • Examine student work with colleagues
  • Identify trends across classrooms
  • Plan next steps together

How coaching can support this:

• Work with a coach or colleague to unpack student thinking 
• Use coaching conversations to reflect on instructional moves 
  
• Set one small, actionable goal based on student data 

Try this tomorrow: 

Bring three pieces of student work to a colleague or coach and ask: 
“What does this tell us about how students are thinking—and what should we do next?”

Learn through Collaboration and Coaching

One of the most impactful parts of our work in implementing our new math curriculum was creating space for teachers to learn from one another in a supportive, nonevaluative environment.

Through coaching and collaborative professional learning, teachers had regular opportunities to reflect, plan, and refine their practice.

What teachers can do:

• Invite a colleague or coach to:
  • Observe a lesson focused on student thinking
  • Co-plan an upcoming lesson
  • Debrief on what worked and what didn’t
• Focus on one reflective question:
  • “How much of the thinking was done by students versus the teacher?”

What makes coaching powerful:

• It’s ongoing, not one-time 
• It’s tied to real classroom practice 
  
• It creates space for honest reflection 

One moment has stayed with me. During a coaching conversation, a veteran teacher reflected: “I’m doing too much. I’m not giving my students enough space to think.”

That realization shifted the entire conversation in the room. It was a powerful example of what happens when teachers feel safe enough to reflect openly.

Try this tomorrow: 

Ask a colleague or coach: “Can you watch how I facilitate my class discussion and give me one piece of feedback?”

What This Looks Like in Practice

In West Orange classrooms today:

• Students explain their thinking daily 
• Teachers facilitate rather than direct 
  
• Discussion is embedded in the instructional design
  
• Data conversations focus on student reasoning 

Our classrooms are noisy! And that’s exactly what we wanted to happen. 

And importantly—these shifts are leading to stronger student outcomes, including growth across diverse student groups.

Start Small, Stay Consistent

You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. If you take one thing from our experience, let it be this:

• One lesson with more discussion
• One question that pushes deeper thinking
• One moment where students do the explaining

Start with one shift—then build from there.

In West Orange, our transformation wasn’t about implementing perfectly, but about building a culture where teachers learn with and from one another. And students do too.

That’s what made the difference, and what continues to move our work forward.

Read the West Orange Public Schools impact story to find out more! 

More Resources for You:
How One District Embraced a Problem-Based Mathematics Curriculum to Build Thinking Classrooms 
Improving Mathematical Understanding: Giving Every Student a Voice 
Make Mathematics about Meaning—Not Mnemonics—to Boost Math Scores