At Liberty Elementary School, about 50 miles outside of Fresno, CA, school leaders have been rolling out a new strategic plan in response to declining math scores post-COVID, a problem that has persisted in schools across the nation.
Liberty Elementary is a small K–8 school district that has multiple assessment and instructional solutions; teachers were using different solutions from one classroom to the next. Learning Director Lisa Nelson recognized that they needed continuity and a way to streamline the data in order to better equip teachers to inform instruction. She and other school leaders had two specific goals in mind: Streamline instructional resources and increase math scores to set students on the path to success.
To meet these goals, they began using HMH Performance Suite with Into Math in the 2024–25 school year, and scores show that student performance has improved. On average, students in Grades 6–8 experienced growth that was approximately 18% higher than typical end-of-year expectations. By the end of the school year, about 2 in every 5 middle school students achieved more than 150% of typical growth.
We recently sat down for a conversation with Lisa Nelson to hear more about how the implementation is going.
A full transcript of the interview appears below; it has been edited for length and clarity. The views expressed in this article are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily represent those of HMH.
HMH: Tell us a little about yourself and Liberty School District.
Lisa Nelson: My name is Lisa Nelson. I'm the learning director here at Liberty Elementary School. Liberty is a K–8 grade school. We're a single school district and we enroll 850 students [at present].
HMH: What would you say are the school's biggest needs? Paint the picture of Liberty.
Lisa Nelson: Yes, we have a very small EL population. It's under ten percent. The demographics here are a little different than if you go to a bigger school district nearby. We're a close-knit [community]. Our students and our families are very involved on campus.
HMH: What are some challenges teachers face, and what were you seeing in the district that led you to HMH and this newer solution?
Lisa Nelson: In the classroom, our district goal was math because over the past several years prior to HMH Performance Suite with Into Math, our math scores were just plummeting. I think a lot of districts were seeing that once we were hit by COVID. We really didn't have the resources to support our students' needs.
There was so much going on. Our teachers had so many platforms that they bounced around on. We had our curriculum platform, and then from there, they went to an assessment platform, and from there, they went to a resource platform, and then all the way back into our grading system. Our teachers—and ultimately our students—were bouncing around from resource to resource. It caused us to be all over the place. It wasn't streamlined.
Unfortunately, the instructional experience also differed from classroom to classroom. And then, as you went through the grade levels—one grade level did something, while another didn't. Sometimes our students were taught the concepts in a completely different way as they moved through our grades. At Liberty, that was a big concern.
HMH: Can you give us an example of some math models that we're supposed to be building upon where it was out of order or didn't flow?
Lisa Nelson: Math fluency was all over the place because those routines weren't built in the foundation grades. That was huge. It wasn't consistent in that area. We had to find a solution that worked site-wide.
HMH: Do you think that the lack of math fluency was because of COVID and those interrupted years?
Lisa Nelson: I think it could have played a factor, but it was there prior to COVID.
HMH: COVID widened the gap. What was it about HMH Performance Suite with Into Math that appealed to you as a solution?
Lisa Nelson: When we were first introduced to it, it sounded magical. Like I said, we had all these platforms. I've only been in this admin role for two years, and I was there with our teachers going through this, but HMH Performance Suite with Into Math was a one-stop shop. Our teachers, along with our students, had to log on to one platform to access the curriculum, view assessments, explore resources—it was all there for us. That was a huge selling point for us, because we didn't have to go look for resources, strategies, or assessments, or create our own to make it more rigorous. It was already there. That was really appealing to us as a district.
HMH: What do you think some of the biggest factors in meeting needs today are?
Lisa Nelson: The exposure of the math content and [concepts] building upon each other. We all know now that everybody's using the same curriculum, the same resources, the same assessments. Our students are being exposed to the content just like the grade level below or the classroom next door. The consistency of the content is huge for us.
HMH: What has made HMH Performance Suite with Into Math different from other core classroom solutions that you've used?
Lisa Nelson: I would have to say the streamlining and the real-life data. And I'm probably going to say that over and over again throughout our time together. It's the real-life data that we get—not only from the module assessments, but also the assignments, the check for understanding, all of those little assignments that go in—we get that data immediately.
Our teachers are pushing this out to the kids. The kids respond and our teachers intervene within the lesson. It can change the trajectory of the lesson in real time because, as an educator, I see that my kids didn't get it, so I'm going to spend more time on it.
Before, it would be: I have to turn in an assignment; I have to grade the assignments; I have to see what my students were lacking—and then I wouldn't be able to address it until the next day. It's saving us a lot of time as well—just making sure that we are keeping an eye on that data and moving in the direction our students need.
HMH: I love hearing about that data usage. How has the use of the program impacted how teachers plan?
Lisa Nelson: The data definitely helps us. Even for me as an admin, it's been a game changer. We're constantly looking at the data. We're constantly on the Ed platform and seeing what our students need. It breaks it down for us beautifully because it tells us, on a module assessment, what items were missed the most or where did we score on that particular standard. I can see right away how my students are doing and it drives our instruction. I want to say first through eighth grade I can speak confidently on. Kindergarten is different. They're still looking at the data, but they're looking at it in a different way.
HMH: Are you hearing anything from the teachers about their time planning? Is it changing how they spend their time, the amount of time they spend, or what they focus on during the planning?
Lisa Nelson: They have more time to actually do small-group instruction, because it alleviates much of the time spent on planning and doing that on their own. Instead of focusing on grading, compiling the data, and determining the next steps, that's already done for them, so then they can really focus on the intervention piece.
HMH: Earlier you talked about how it's a one-stop shop, and teachers don't have to go somewhere else for resources or strategies. How is that changing their experience or giving them time back?
Lisa Nelson: It's giving them back time because, if you're familiar with TPT [Teachers Pay Teachers], you could spend hours searching for the right resource, and then you're paying for it. Instead of them scrolling through TPT, Pinterest, a website, or whatever else they chose, which takes up time, all the resources are already there.
Data from the module assessments, along with the Planning Assistant resources, are given to our teachers right off the bat. We can go on Discover and see the next steps, which has been a big issue at Liberty. We didn't know what the next steps were. We had our data, but we didn't know what to do with it, and a lot of teachers didn't know either.
They would come to me in PLCs and ask, "We have this, but we don't know what to do with it." That took up a lot of our time, too. Now, they know: "Okay, this is the data, these are the next steps," and it addresses the needs of all our students. It supports students who are on target, those who need a challenge, and those who require reteaching.
Our teachers don't have to go scrolling for those resources and pay for additional resources because it's literally all there. If it's not in the Planning Assistant, we can go on Discover as a grade level, or even I can go as an admin and search for things for them because it's organized, and I know exactly what I'm looking for.
HMH: That's great. What changes have you seen in the student experience and learning experience?
Lisa Nelson: I feel that they're more engaged. They want to go up and manipulate the screen. Their engagement has, I feel, soared a little bit from what we've had in the past.
I think that they have the confidence, and it gives them hints. If they are not understanding something, they don't need to call the teacher right away. They press that hint button and it gives them the help they need. Ultimately, this gives our teachers more time because they're not being pulled into all these different individualized questions, and it pushes them along. I think the student engagement has moved in a more positive light where they're taking ownership of their own learning, which is great to see.
HMH: I just want to say that's so awesome to hear. It makes my heart sing. Thank you for sharing. If we think about the implementation, when you started HMH Performance Suite with Into Math, how has that progressed over the last several months—as far as growth with your teachers, with you as a learner?
Lisa Nelson: At the beginning there was a lot of dragging of the feet. But the progression has been good. I think with any new implementation of curriculum, there's hesitation. It was a lot of "well, this program used to do this," because we were comfortable with that program. Now we're trying to see what it means with this program.
A lot of patience was needed. A lot of guidance. On my part, and from my teachers as well. My teachers taught me stuff that I wasn't aware of and vice versa. Communication was key. Diving into the program, setting aside that time, giving up our PLC time to look at data for that one instant, and saying, "Okay, this is more important for us to understand where the program is going" or "What is it asking of our students? Let's look at this resource and figure out how we can implement it as a grade level or as a site." It's taken a lot of patience and a lot of communication, but now that the teachers, the students, and even our parents are familiar with the format of the curriculum, it has become much easier and faster.
When we debriefed with [a teacher], she said, "My lesson went so much faster. The way I was doing it before was taking me much longer, but just implementing this one piece, my lesson moved—and I even had time for my small groups." She mentioned that sometimes she didn't even get to small groups before.
As we're learning this and we're sharing our little wins along the way, it motivates us as a site to say, "Oh, well I want to experience that too. What do you mean you had time to do small groups today? I am going to try that, too." We're learning from each other, giving ourselves grace, and allowing ourselves to go at our own pace. We're allowing our teachers to go through it at their pace, while also nudging them too and saying, "Let's try this for just one day."
The progression has been slow and steady, but the results have been really exciting because the teachers are having those "aha moments." They're seeing their students respond really well with it. Then the data piece comes into it. They're seeing it in their data. It's been a great progression.
HMH: Wow, that's amazing. I love how the teachers are learning from each other, supporting each other, and the fact that you're giving them grace to get through this process.
Lisa Nelson: We have to. We have to give them grace. We know as an educator that it's not going to be perfect the first year. This is trial and error. We're seeing what works and what can we do next time to make it better, or what resources we can add in to help us.
HMH: If we want to model for our kids to become lifelong learners, then that's what we have to do. For you as an admin, how is the experience going?
Lisa Nelson: I'm really enjoying HMH Performance Suite with Into Math, because I have everything at my fingertips. Before, I couldn't access my teacher's data, because we were all over the place. I didn't know what platform they were assessing on that time, and I didn't have access to certain things. I had to ask my teachers, "Bring me your data. Come to me." Now I can simply log on, and I know what grade level I'm going to meet with next week. I pull up their data, and everything's there for me. I'm able to take something off my teacher's plate by accessing the data myself. I see the items that were most missed and find the commonalities amongst the grade level. I know how they're mastering that standard, and then that runs our PLCs.
It saves me so much time because I'm not bouncing around from site to site, asking, "Wait, what did they say? What platform was this?" and trying to memorize that for eight different grade levels. It's all there for me. It breaks it down. I can find information I need and then bring it to my grade level with resources in hand, saying "Hey, have you guys tried this?" Then teachers come back with feedback, saying, "Oh yeah, we didn't like that." So we ask: "Why not? What group of students would this benefit?" It's breaking everything down for me, allowing us to have more time during our PLCs, because we're not sitting there analyzing data. It's streamlined, because we all know that all assessments are from HMH Performance Suite with Into Math. We know it's all similar. No one's using a different assessment.
For me as an admin, it's made my life so much easier in regard to PLCs, data and resources. Before we went started using HMH Performance Suite with Into Math, I had to look for resources for my teachers, because I knew that they were lacking somewhere; I wanted to save them time. I would ask, "What am I going to bring to the table?" The program does that for me, which is really nice.
HMH: How is the partnership you have with HMH going?
Lisa Nelson: Oh my word. I could not do this without them. My team has been amazing. It is a true partnership. I can tell them the worst of worst, and I could tell them the best of best, and they're there. If it's the worst of worst, I can call, text, or email them saying, "I'm having this issue. I need help now." Then they'll respond, "Okay, how do we fix it?" They're immediately on a call with me. They're responding to me.
And the beauty of it, as I worked with them throughout this school year, is that their goal is also our student success—which is so beautiful. It's not just, "I'm selling you a product—good luck with it. See you next year when you are resubscribing." It's more like, "This isn't working for your students? Let us change that," or, "Hey, have you tried this resource? Are you aware of this?" It's a true partnership, where I can go to them, and they give me resources and ideas on how to help our teachers—which ultimately helps our students succeed in the program. I would not have been able to make it through this year without them. I cannot speak highly enough of them.
HMH: That's awesome. We always love to hear that. Where have you seen the biggest growth in student performance?
Lisa Nelson: I'm going to focus on the independence and confidence that our students have. Before—both as an educator and now as an admin—you would go into a math lesson, and with our prior curriculum, it was mostly focused on fluency. You had your addition facts, multiplication, whatever was appropriate for the grade level, you did it. Then, when you got to the word problems, our students froze. Hands would shoot up, and they didn't know what to do. But now, because the rigor of HMH Performance Suite with Into Math—and when I say rigor, it's a lot of word problems—it's flipped. You see nothing but word problems and very little fluency. Our students now have the skills and the confidence to break down these word problems, dig deeper, find the information, and solve it on their own—skills they didn't have before.
Don't get me wrong, that didn't come with ease. At the beginning of the year, I think students, teachers, and even parents were freaking out, saying, "Oh my word, it is all word problems. There's no time for fluency practice." But as we went through the progression of the program, teachers started having those little "aha moments" like, "Oh wow, my students can break this down now," or "They have a deeper understanding of the math concepts." I think that's huge for our students.
If we pose a word problem on the board, there's no more freaking out. There is no more shutting down. There is, "Okay, how do we tackle this?" For me as an admin, having my students independent and confident—even though they may be wrong—just having that growth mindset going into these problems, I think that's the biggest growth we have seen from our students this year.
HMH: When you talk about the more intrinsic growth that I think everybody wants to see in their students, that is absolutely amazing. I'm curious though if you are seeing any growth in your data.
Lisa Nelson: Absolutely. I can speak on our MAP Growth because that's what I really go through with the fine-tooth comb because I want to know how we're doing as a site and how is this going to impact our state results. We have students jumping bands with our MAP Growth within a short amount of time. We are seeing it. Grade levels are making huge growth as well because of it. We are seeing it academically, where we want to see it, which is great. But I wanted to highlight the importance of the confidence our students are getting because without that confidence, they aren't going to tackle these problems, and that ultimately affects their scores. If they see something and they shut down because they don't have the confidence or the skills, then it's going to affect them in the long run.
We had a board meeting where we invited the kids who had the most growth site-wide, and we also recognized the teachers in the grade levels with the most growth. This is a new program, and we understand how grueling it can be—but there's a purpose to it, and that's our student success. And we wouldn't be able to do that without our teachers buying in.
HMH: How did the kids react to being at a ceremony like that?
Lisa Nelson: They loved it. Some of these kids brought their entire family, including their extended family, because they were so proud. The beauty of it too is that some of these kids were kids that never would've been recognized. They were always down in the reds, and we had kids jump all the way from the red to the green bands, jumping 50 points.
We wanted to make sure that we took the time to acknowledge them, not only the students and the parents, but the teachers as well because it all goes together. We're a partnership. We need to make sure that these students know there's a team behind them. We're not just here saying "Do your work, do your work, do your work"—even though we are doing that. But when we see that growth, we're acknowledging it and letting them know how proud we are of them.
Liberty has been through a lot. It's been an emotional roller coaster. From, "What are we doing? Oh my gosh, we have no idea," to "But there's results and these kids are jumping leaps and bounds." We're doing something right.
HMH: That's amazing. It probably is a certain amount of growing pains as you're going through this, and it's hard to see the results until the results come through and then you're like, "Oh, it's positive." Even though it might feel tough while you're in it, and I think it's always that way in a first year. I want to ask you what are three reasons that you love HMH Performance Suite with Into Math? And ask a few questions in terms of threes.
Lisa Nelson: The reason why I love it is that it saves me time. As an admin and even as a teacher, anyone in the educational field, all we want is time. It's easy. I know that I don't have to spend a whole entire day looking at data. I can do it in an hour. Saving time, real-time data, and then the resources are huge for me as an admin.
HMH: Why do your students love it?
Lisa Nelson: Oh, I have to tell you this. I interviewed my students, because I don't want to speak for my students at all. Because I could sit here and be like, "Oh, they love it." I called in my seventh graders, because they're our hardest class on campus.
I sat them down in the room with me and I said, "I'm going to ask you some questions. I just want to know your thoughts on HMH Performance Suite with Into Math. How is it going?" and I told them, "I want you to be honest. I want you to say, 'Mrs. Nelson, this stinks. I don't like it at all.' You're not going to get in trouble." The responses I got—there were four of them. I was blown away. They love it. They love the program. They said that the flow of the lesson makes it really easy for them to understand the concepts of what is being taught.
They also said that the use of feedback and the pictures really helped to clarify what the problem is asking. They like how it breaks it down step by step because some students need that visual. It's not just guessing like, "Oh, I don't know if I don't have my teacher's help"—it literally guides them, so they feel independent. That's where that confidence piece comes in.
HMH: What have your colleagues said about HMH Performance Suite with Into Math?
Lisa Nelson: I asked my teachers too because I never want to speak for anybody. I went to several of my math teams. It goes back to the data. Streamlining the data and resources, that is a big win for them. And then they really appreciate the automatic grouping that happens after an assessment. That's going to be played around with, but taking the guesswork out of it and having it already formatted and then being able to shift is really nice for them. The resources are really huge for Liberty. Like I said, teachers spent hours looking for resources and they don't have to anymore. They really appreciate the resources that are available to our students at multiple levels.
HMH: This segues a little bit into how is it helping with differentiation in the classroom.
Lisa Nelson: Well, for the upper grade it's easier. Actually it's weird to say that it's easier for the upper grade, because when we think of differentiation, we think of primary. For the upper grade, and I think this is really important for me, because we really don't have an intervention program for our upper grade students. I feel that our upper grade division is usually forgotten about. We have all these great ideas in place, but then they really just affect our K to five. Our six to eight have been neglected, to be honest with you.
Having the program group the kids for them is really eye-opening for these teachers, and then the next step resources for them. It actually is running our intervention time. Our upper grade teachers have an intervention time block that was never utilized correctly because we didn't have the resources for it. We didn't have curriculum for them. They didn't know how to group kids.
You go from 25 kids to 100 kids in upper grade and you have to think how to service them. It takes the guesswork out of it. It groups them grade-level-wide, and it also pushes the resources. The teachers and students feel confident now because they're familiar with the curriculum, the pacing, and the verbiage of it. When they go into these intervention classes, teachers can actually do small group in our upper grade division now, which is beautiful. We've never had that before because again, it's pulling resources. Our sixth-through eighth-grade math teachers are able to run small group or reteach a whole group class that's struggling on a certain skill because of the information that the program gives us.
HMH: That's fantastic. If you were to recommend HMH Performance Suite with Into Math to another district leader, what would you highlight?
Lisa Nelson: I keep going back to the data. It's huge. That's how our schools run. We're a business of data—we thrive on it. The integration of the data and the streamline between the curriculum and the assessment piece. The next steps. What do we do? We have the data, now you have the next step. It does all that for you. Then streamlining it. It's all in one spot. I don't have to bounce from website to website. It's all there. I know if I'm on this, I can have access to everything.
HMH: Yeah. That's great. I feel like maybe we've talked about this a bit, but I'll just recap with these last questions. HMH Performance Suite with Into Math brings together the results of your interim and the program assessments to help inform instruction. How has this impacted the teaching experience for your teachers?
Lisa Nelson: It drives our instruction and because it's real-time, it's faster for us, which is great. Then because it's faster, our teachers can intervene faster instead of waiting.
HMH: What about the biggest impact for you as an admin?
Lisa Nelson: Again, everything's in one spot. It gives me all the information I need to make sure that my grade levels are successful. It helps me intervene as well. I can step in and say, "Hey, I noticed that student scores aren't where we would like them to be. How can I help you?" Then I can come in and coach—maybe it was an off day and half the class was sick or the power went out. But it helps me intervene and have those conversations with the teachers and pull in those next step resources.
HMH: If you were to give advice about the program to another admin leader from another district, what would be your advice about it?
Lisa Nelson: My biggest thing would be patience and communication. I feel that communication is key. Giving your teachers—and yourself, as an admin—time to go through the program and have small mini goals. This month, this is our focus. This is all we're going to master this month with the program. Then build upon that with your teachers and make sure that you are constantly communicating. Anytime I learn something new, I immediately made time for my teachers and say, "Hey, look at this resource," or "Let's look at this together. What are our thoughts?" It would drive our meetings. We looked at this and we gave it time. How is it impacting our teaching? Just communicating, patience, and giving yourself grace.
HMH: In your experience, if they do those things, how could they benefit like you have benefited?
Lisa Nelson: They're going to see the outcome because their teachers are going to become more confident with the program and more comfortable with it. That's going to trickle down to our students. If you are not giving your teachers time to explore resources or the curriculum, then they're not going to master the skills that their students are expected to, which impacts our students. It's just going to be beneficial for everyone in the long run.
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