Success Spotlight: Debra Dunham’s 39th Year of Teaching

Enthusiastic. Invigorating. Ready to take on new challenges.

Those are just a few things that come to mind when we think about Debra Dunham, sixth-grade math teacher at Aldine Independent School District in Houston, Texas and 2021 Houston Area Alliance of Black School Educators (HAABSE) Teacher of the Year recipient.

Ms. Dunham has been teaching math for 39 years (Yes, you read that right! Kudos to Debra!). But even this far into the game, she’s open to embracing new opportunities and continually improving her craft. 

“I was going to retire at the end of last year. But Carnegie Learning just keeps my feet planted,” she says.

Read on to see how Ms. Dunham has shifted away from traditional methods such as rote memorization and skill-and-drill, and increased her students’ conceptual understanding of math through investigation and collaboration.

You’ve been teaching for 39 years, and you said the Texas Math Solution was a big change for you and your students. What did you think when you first saw the materials?

When I got the opportunity to see the textbook, I automatically loved it! I could totally connect to it because I saw that this was exactly what the students of Aldine ISD, as well as the state of Texas, needed.

What my students and our instruction really needed was a paradigm shift. We needed to move away from the typical set-up of teacher instruction, modeling, and independent practice. Now with Carnegie Learning, there’s excitement when the students come in. The atmosphere is set and there are engaging lessons that they really connect to.

Can you give us an example of how your students have connected to a lesson?

My students really connect with the characters in the lessons. One of them was Nick, a peanut seller at a baseball game. I gave them some background about Nick, like a little story, and they really loved that. They became invested in him. I even had a student teacher who came in dressed as Nick!

We were teaching dependent and independent quantities and they did so well with that skill, mainly because they made a connection with the character from the lesson. Students need a connection, and that connection can’t just be the teacher standing and giving a lecture and then expecting the kids to be involved.

It sounds like your students enjoyed that active involvement! How has Carnegie Learning helped encourage active learning?

Carnegie Learning starts by establishing a background and connecting to what students already know; then we move into investigations. My students are were able to analyze math concepts together. They love getting into a lesson and talking about it! It just really gives them such a connection and keeps them involved and motivated in the learning. 

With Carnegie Learning they also become critical thinkers. Before, I would use Bloom’s Taxonomy and find a couple of questions to increase higher-order thinking. But with the Texas Math Solution, that’s all embedded into the curriculum and laid out for every lesson. 

Now I’m able to support critical thinking skills. I can guide them to think outside of the box. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that Carnegie Learning is giving Texas students what they need to be able to do that.

It sounds like using the Texas Math Solution really changed your instruction. What did your teaching look like before Carnegie Learning, versus what it looks like now?

I’m 39 years into the game, and I’ve always taught math. In those 39 years, I did a lot of rote memorization in order for my students to learn a skill, concept, or operation. But now, with Carnegie, they’re introduced to math through analysis and investigation.

I used to help my students learn things through a rap or chant to encourage memorization. Sometimes I’ll throw that in for fun, but for the most part, I don’t have to. Once they investigate something and create their own rule or understanding, there’s no need to memorize. 

I’m no longer the sage on the stage; I’m the facilitator. I see my students sit together and be engaged with each other. They collaborate and work together. It makes me feel so good!

What impacts have you seen on student performance?

My students are scoring really high on every end-of-unit test! I strongly believe that this is because the Texas Math Solution encourages them to investigate math, analyze what they’ve learned, and then communicate and collaborate with each other to strengthen their learning.

I also didn’t have any failures last year, which was our first year with the Texas Math Solution. Not a one! That’s very rare. But Carnegie Learning helps them to be actively involved every day, from the time they walk into the classroom until the time they walk out. They aren’t bored because they don’t have to learn passively everyday. With Carnegie, there’s excitement. They’re at my door all the time, saying, “Ms. Dunham, what are we doing today? What’s going to happen?” They’re just as excited as I am about this great Texas Math Solution.