When I look back on the past two decades I’ve spent at Leander ISD, I think about how much elementary instruction has changed. I’ve been a third-grade teacher, a reading specialist, instructional coach, and now the Elementary Math Coordinator, so I’ve seen all sides of our district’s curriculum as it’s evolved to meet our students’ needs.
What hasn’t changed after all this time is the dedication of our teachers. They show up every day with strong instructional instincts and a deep desire to help students succeed.
But even with great curriculum, quality materials, and determined educators, we saw a persistent pattern in our elementary math classrooms: teachers felt confident performing math instruction, yet many struggled to break ideas down conceptually or explain why mathematical ideas work the way they do.
Improving Coherence and Consistency Across the District
Leander ISD is located north of Austin, with 30 elementary schools and more than 40,000 students. Our district has prioritized building strong math foundations through a conceptual curriculum, rich discourse, and ongoing professional learning.
Elementary teachers are caring, skilled professionals who know how to support young learners, but many have never experienced conceptual math teaching themselves.
As a result, some instruction relied on shortcuts or rule sets that become obsolete in higher levels of math. Students often arrived at correct answers, but they still struggled to explain their thinking or connect ideas across grade levels.
Over time, these gaps hinder students’ ability to build steady math foundations, and many eventually hit a wall in middle school or Algebra 1.
An Unexpected Spark: A Podcast That Changed Our Path
Surprisingly, the practice-based learning approach that would address these challenges surfaced in an unexpected place: a podcast.
Our math team listened to a discussion about how students develop mathematical understanding through clear learning progressions. When the podcast mentioned the Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP)—an intensive, research-based program focused on diagnosing student thinking—it immediately caught our attention. We all thought: This is what we’ve been trying to do!
After sharing the podcast with district leaders, we decided to learn more about this professional learning model. Its emphasis on understanding how students build mathematical ideas, spotting underlying misconceptions, and using student work as a window into reasoning aligned perfectly with the challenges we were seeing in classrooms.
Within months, we secured funding for our first professional learning cohort—a four-day additive reasoning training for 25 teachers and math specialists from nine elementary school campuses.
The Turning Point: From ‘Right Answers’ to Real Understanding
This particular professional learning initiative isn’t tied to a curriculum; it’s deep professional learning that helps teachers understand how mathematical thinking develops and how to diagnose reasoning in real time.
The four-day training is intensive by design. Teachers analyze authentic student work, study research-based learning progressions, explore visual models, and learn to identify misconceptions before they appear on assessments.
This depth and analysis is what makes this professional learning stand out. To teach responsively, teachers must know not only whether a student is correct, but why. Gaining that insight shifts instruction from “delivering lessons” to “guiding thinking.”
Transforming Teacher Confidence and Clarity
Our first cohort included everything from first-year teachers to teachers who'd been teaching over 20 years. Some were unsure at first, but by the end of day one, they could tell this particular professional learning would change their practice.
They leaned in, asked questions, and shared discoveries. Many were seeing for the first time why certain student errors persist and how early misconceptions can snowball into bigger challenges. The program reframed their understanding of conceptual instruction and equipped them to teach more responsively.
A Grassroots Movement to Expand the Program
Within weeks of our first training, word spread quickly. Teachers were raving about it in their PLCs and planning meetings, and their principals wanted to know more. A group of principals soon requested their own meeting to explore additional training opportunities.
What happened next was remarkable: these principals joined forces and began their own grassroots expansion of the program right away. They saw the impact on their teachers and wanted more staff to experience it. By December, almost 60 additional teachers, interventionists, and instructional coaches were scheduled for multiplicative reasoning training. And by January, 50 additional teachers and campus support personnel were scheduled for additive reasoning training.
The Results We’re Seeing In Classrooms
This professional learning offering is still new in Leander ISD, but we’re already seeing powerful shifts.
Teachers are choosing tasks intentionally to elicit student thinking, asking students to explain their reasoning, challenge ideas, and use models to justify thinking. As students learn to articulate their understanding, teachers are learning how to deliver more responsive instruction. Teachers are having in-depth conversations with colleagues about student work, allowing them to diagnose misconceptions earlier and adjust instruction to keep learners on track.
The program has strengthened teachers’ conceptual coherence and created a more consistent instructional approach districtwide. These shifts align with district initiatives focused on deeper student engagement. It fuels that practice by equipping teachers to understand why students think the way they do.
How Professional Learning Changed Everything
The biggest lesson we’ve learned is this: when teachers understand math differently, students learn math differently. And when professional learning empowers teachers and gives them confidence and clarity, the momentum that follows is contagious.
About the Author
Jennifer Ruschhaupt is the Elementary Math Coordinator for Leander ISD (TX).
