DIRECTV Congratulates 2015 Math Challenge Winners

DIRECTV celebrated the close of the 2014-2015 academic year by honoring the winners of the third annual DIRECTV Math Challenge, a collaborative effort with the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools that engages students, teachers, school leaders and parents in driving student math achievement at the elementary level.   

Top awards went to 99th Street Elementary School and Griffith-Joyner Elementary School in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Grand Prize for the school with the highest math achievement scores among all six elementary schools managed by the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools went to 99^th Street Elementary. Griffith-Joyner Elementary earned the title of Most Improved School.

The DIRECTV Math Challenge is at the heart of DIRECTV’s efforts to inspire K-12 students to love math.  During the 2014-2015 school year, the challenge focused on math fluency, or mastery of the basic math facts appropriate to each grade level. Results were measured by student performance on assessments administered at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. 

Each of the six Partnership elementary schools saw growth in student proficiency over the course of the 2014-2015 school year, with average student proficiency more than doubling and more than one-third of Partnership elementary students becoming proficient in math fluency (as compared to 4% at the start of the  school year). 

To celebrate each school’s success, DIRECTV sponsored math field days at both campuses. Students participated in math-themed playground games and art activities.  At a special awards assembly, DIRECTV announced individual winners in the Math Challenge’s teacher, parent and school leader categories. Prizes included complimentary DIRECTV® Service packages, Samsung Galaxy tablets for classroom use and Target gift cards. 

Prior grand prize winners of the DIRECTV Math Challenge are Sunrise Elementary School in Boyle Heights (2014) and Ritter Elementary School in Watts (2013). 

DIRECTV and the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
The Partnership for L.A. Schools is a non-profit built in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). As one of the largest urban turnaround organizations in the nation, the Partnership is transforming 16 of LAUSD’s lowest-performing schools in Boyle Heights, Watts and South Los Angeles, bringing innovations to scale with an in-district reform model that benefits more than 15,000 students.

DIRECTV was an early corporate partner to the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, beginning in 2008 when DIRECTV underwrote the Parent Centers on campus at the first 10 Partnership schools – a tradition that has continued with each new campus to joins the Partnership. DIRECTV has also brought luminaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Herbie Hancock, and Oprah Winfrey to speak to and inspire students at Partnership high schools. In April 2015, the Partnership’s Santee High School hosted DIRECTV’s inaugural MATHx event with Teach For America, where hundreds of students, teachers and representatives from STEM-based organizations celebrated the importance of Math education through TED-style talks and interactive demonstrations.

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