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Actuary Provides Second Brain - Mentoring Program Helps Boost Students' Math Comprehension Program

For Immediate Release: February, 2003
Contact: Eileen Streu, CAE
847.706.3535
Eileen.streu@actfnd.org

Schaumburg, IL - Two years ago, teachers at Prosperity Heights Elementary School in St. Paul, Minn., took a look at their 5th-graders' math skills and saw anything but prosperity. In math terms, they saw a problem that needed solving.

Fortunately for the school and its students, the Actuarial Foundation had a solution waiting for a problem. With a generous grant from the Foundation and a community of actuarial volunteer-mentors, this school found its solution.

By hooking up with the Actuarial Foundation's Advancing Student Achievement program, the school launched its Solve It! program during the 2001-2002 school year. Every Thursday, a group of 12 actuaries came to the school with one goal in mind: Make math fun for 5th-graders, only half of whom were able to complete their Minnesota graduation standards and performance packages.

In a time when math understanding and learning are suffering nationwide÷only 25 percent of the nation's 4th- and 5th-graders are performing at or above proficient levels in math, according to the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress÷the need to help students improve their mathematical reasoning is clear. In his recent State of the Union Address, President Bush made a renewed push for more mentors nationwide and more good teachers for impoverished schools.

Judging from students' responses, the Actuarial Foundation's program is adding up for them just right. One group of students wrote, Thank you for helping us by donating $16,000 to our school. The mentors you have sent us are a second brain. They are very helpful with our math.

After just one school year, 90 percent of the school's 5th-graders completed their standardized performance evaluations, and every participating student achieved a rating of developing at a proficient or superior level.

This remarkable turnaround is due in no small part to the dedication and hard work shown by our actuarial volunteers, said Jennifer Anderson, technology coordinator at Prosperity Heights. In fact, many of those prospering students would be going in the opposite direction without their actuarial mentors.

“These kids feel special,” Prosperity Heights Principal John Ashmead said. They feel like somebody cares÷there are people out there who think [they are] worth putting some time and effort into.

If your school would be interested in participating or learning more about the Advancing Student Achievement program, please contact Eileen Streu, CAE, director of The Actuarial Foundation, at 847-706-3535 or eileen.streu@actfnd.org or for more information on the Foundation's available school math grants, log on to the ASA website.

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