Reinvigorating Math Software Engagement at Warm Springs Academy

District Profile

Jefferson County School District 509J — Madras, OR

• Small, semi-rural district of 2,700 students

• Student body is roughly 1/3 Hispanic/Latino, 1/3 white, and 1/3 American Indian, with significant student population residing on the Warm Springs Reservation

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The Challenge

Warm Springs Academy, like many middle schools nationwide, has invested significant funds into the purchase, training, and support of instructional software to aid math instruction and provide additional math performance data to teachers and leaders. Among their most significant challenges? Keeping students actively and enthusiastically engaged in using that software to ensure its effectiveness for instruction, remediation, and assessment.

When Jefferson County's superintendent, Dr. Jay Mathisen, returned from a research and development conference with enthusiasm for the CMU PLUS approach to pairing live human tutors with student use of math instructional software, his middle school team agreed that the PLUS program could boost engagement and bolster math learning through the end of the year with a late spring pilot.

For Assistant Principal Gena Bennett and her team, the opportunity to pair human, college-age tutors with their students allowed them to supercharge the impact of their chosen digital tools and provide their students with another window to a broader world.

"We're a bit rural where we are located, so we love opportunities to share with our students about postsecondary, and thought this was nice, to get kids to interact with college students."

Most importantly, the district team recognized that students using the software with a tutor at their side were more likely to be engaged with the tools and receive immediate help when they struggled with a concept or skill. The 1:4 tutor-to-student ratio during tutoring sessions also held great appeal as a means of increasing student support in larger classrooms.

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A Spring Pilot

Because each class already had weekly time dedicated to using the district's instructional software, integrating PLUS tutoring was relatively seamless, requiring only the addition of a Zoom meeting for tutors to join as students worked through the assigned activities on their math platform.

Bennett credits a thoughtful onboarding process for some of the seamless launch of the program:

"One of the things that the CMU team did that I think was really helpful for our kids was an orientation of the tutors. The kids got to virtually meet them and learn a little bit about them, and then when they got into the breakout rooms, they were a little bit more familiar with this person who's popping in to talk with them about the math, and what we saw was really awesome."

Almost immediately, the Warm Springs team saw an increase in student engagement and enthusiasm for the digital math work. The pilot had initially been implemented with a small group of 6th grade students, but the effectiveness of the partnership soon prompted them to scale PLUS tutoring time to all students in the school, allowing more students to benefit from working on their math software alongside a caring tutor.

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A Story of Success

Going into the pilot, teachers had some concerns about struggling students engaging fully with the tutors, which were quickly alleviated.

Bennett described the students' reaction with a smile:

"Hardly any students were reluctant to interact with the tutors. The kids were really on board, and you could tell when the tutor would jump into their breakout room and the kids were like, 'Oh, good. You're here!'"

One student even notably asked a pull-out instructor to delay their work until a time that did not conflict with tutoring, placing a premium on time with their PLUS tutor.

Teachers likewise found a lot to like about the partnership. They noted that students were more productive with the instructional software with a PLUS tutor virtually present. The improved student-teacher ratio was also appreciated — having 4-5 tutors supporting 15-20 students in each class provided each classroom teacher with a great deal more flexibility.

Bennett noted that the sixth-grade pilot was so successful that Jefferson County is expanding the PLUS partnership to all middle schoolers across both Warm Springs K-8 Academy and Jefferson County Middle School in the 2025-2026 school year.