CPALMS Mathematics Formative Assessment System Changed The Course Of A Florida Teacher’s Career
Tallahassee, Fla. – The Learning Systems Institute (LSI) at Florida State University has been innovating learning around the globe for more than 55 years and LSI continues to impact education in Florida schools significantly.
LSI is home to the Florida Center for Research in STEM (FCR-STEM) and the CPALMS team. CPALMS is a unique platform developed by LSI to support K-12 education in Florida. More than 300,000 K-12 Florida educators and approximately three million Florida students actively use CPALMS to access educational resources, information to help them teach and learn and software applications to support them throughout. CPALMS is the State of Florida's official source for standards information and course descriptions.
One of the impactful resources CPALMS offers is the Mathematics Formative Assessment System (MFAS). Teachers using MFAS ask students to perform mathematical tasks, explain their reasoning and justify their solutions. The objective is to understand student thinking so that teaching can be adapted to improve student achievement of mathematical goals related to the standards.
One teacher who helped pilot the program is Chris Sadler. Sadler is a KG Math/Science Teacher at Wright Elementary School in the Okaloosa School District. In 2012-2013, Sadler was in year 20 of teaching elementary school and struggling to implement brand new math curriculum materials for the newly adopted Common Core Math Standards. Sadler was presented with the opportunity to work with LSI piloting the MFAS housed on CPALMS. 
"It is hard to put in words the waves of eye-opening, ah-ha moments I experienced piloting these MFAS tasks with my students and meeting weekly with colleagues to discuss student performance and the student's thinking and reasoning," said Sadler. "I often use the term mind-blowing when I try to describe what I learned about how children's mathematical thinking develops while working on this project."
Understanding what Sadler's students knew and did not know could mostly only be known through listening to them explain their thinking and work. The knowledge gained through this formative assessment process began to drive Sadler's instruction more deeply, specifically for the students, in a way that a general boxed curriculum could not.
"None of the things I have participated in, learned and accomplished in math education come close to the monumental shifts that occurred in my teaching practice as those that occurred while working on the MFAS," said Sadler. "I have never stopped using and sharing this resource gem housed on CPALMS with other teachers."
Since working on the MFAS project with CPALMS, Sadler has served as a district math coach, worked on the creation of the Florida BEST elementary math standards, presented at national math conferences and served as a regional director on the board of Florida Council of the Teachers of Mathematics (FCTM). Sadler credits her experience with LSI and the MFAS for helping her students perform better and for her career success.
"My student performance data went up, I began doing presentations for teachers at my school and was soon after voted Teacher of the Year at my school and then a top three nominee for Teacher of the Year for my district, largely due to sharing and writing about my experiences with MFAS on CPALMS," said Sadler.
LSI is at the forefront of developing innovative solutions that bridge theory and practice in education. Our experts' advanced research provides state-of-the-art methods and a clear path for implementation. For 55 years, LSI has delivered systems that measurably improve the learning and performance of organizations and individuals in Florida and worldwide.