What kind of training do the math specialists have?
Adrianne Meldrum (our founder and CEO) is a Certified Instructor of Multisensory Math through Marilyn Zecher and ASDEC.org. It takes years to complete it. Did you know there are less than 10 people who are certified to this level? Heather Brand on our team is a Certified Practitioner of Multisensory Math. What does that mean? Essentially, it means that we have the experience and training to lead other educators in appropriately implementing the multisensory math method which is based on years of sound research and evidence.
Team members are brought into Made for Math very carefully. All must have teaching and math backgrounds in order to work with students. Each team member is supervised by Heather Brand and Adrianne Meldrum. We review their work and lesson plans on a consistent basis.
The Made for Math team is training new team members using a modified training course created by Marilyn Zecher.
The 21-hour course includes all the research and rationale, specific work on intervention and word problems, and all the language and methodology. On top of this, our teachers receive over 30 hours of time to practice the method and receive in-depth instruction for working online. All teachers submit their lesson plans and get consistent feedback about how to improve their sessions.
Another difference we have is that all of our team are employees. These are not contractors who took Marilyn's training and maybe practiced the method. We paid them to receive this training. The team is committed to the method.
In short, our entire team is monitored, mentored, and cared for because we care about these kids.
The history of multisensory math instruction like this is short. OG for reading was started back in the 1930s. Multisensory math instruction is in its infancy and will take tremendous time to scale certification like the OG reading approach. There is no governing body for certification at the IDA level. They'd like one, they're kind of working on one but right now their focus is still largely on reading.
You can see our founder Adrianne Meldrum working together with other experts in the field inside the Unlocking Dyscalculia Web Series.