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Vol. 1, No. 2, January 2013, pp. 103-110   

 

 
 
 
 
SunBay Digital Mathematics: A Scalable Collaboration 

Vivian Fueyo and George Roy 
University of South Florida St. Petersburg 
 
Phillip Vahey 
SRI 
 
 

Abstract 
 

By leveraging the strengths and commitments of each of the partners, a university, a private non-

profit, and a middle-sized urban school district, collaborated to impact student learning of key 

concepts in middle-grade mathematics and to change mathematics teaching. The project targeted 

middle grades mathematics because success in it is the greatest predictor of later school 

achievement. In well-researched learning modules, students visualize, interact with, and analyze 

mathematical representations connected to dynamic simulations of real-life phenomena in a 

curricular learning system comprising dynamic technologies, curriculum replacement units, and 

professional development. Through planned professional development, teachers have the 

technological skills, pedagogical skills and mathematical content knowledge required to engage 

their students in an interaction between the software, the curriculum materials, and the 

mathematics. Student learning gains and changes in teacher pedagogical, technological, and 

mathematical content knowledge provide evidence of the project’s continued success after three 

years. Concomitant institutional changes in each of the partnering organizations attest to the 

project’s sustainable impact. 

  



104     V. Fueyo, G. Roy and P. Vahey 

 

 

 
SunBay Digital Mathematics: A Scalable Collaboration 

 
SunBay Digital Mathematics (SunBay Math) represents a unique public-private 

collaboration among SRI International (SRI), the USF St. Petersburg College of Education 
(USFSP), and the Pinellas County Schools (PCS). Designed to address the national crisis of 
young people with insufficient mathematics skills unable to enter or complete college or attain 
high-paying, high-value jobs, this partnership has been positively impacting student learning of 
key concepts in middle grades mathematics since 2009.  By engaging teachers in a coherent 
sequence of professional development, SunBay Math has also been changing how middle grades 
mathematics is taught.  

Leveraging the strengths and commitments of each, the partners embraced the 
opportunity to create the first implementation site for a research-based project on middle grades 
mathematics, since SRI completed a year-long random-control study in Texas, with results 
showing learning gains for all students in the treatment group (Roschelle, et al., 2010). As a 
result of the success of the yearlong randomized control group research project, SRI was seeking a 
site in which to assess the viability of the project in a non-controlled research setting.  

During the 2009-2010 school year, the project, now known as SunBay Math, was 
implemented in PCS, the 25th largest school district in the US (Sable, Plotts, & Mitchell, 2010), 
following a series of engaged conversations among the CEO of SRI International, the President 
of St. Petersburg’s Downtown Partnership, the PCS School Superintendent, and the Dean of the 
USFSP College of Education. SunBay Math began as a pilot project with all volunteer teachers 
in seven middle schools with 13 teachers and 246 middle grades students. The project team 
modified a set of technology-based algebra materials and related assessments used in Texas to 
meet the needs of Pinellas County and provided ongoing professional development to all of the 
teachers in the effective use of these materials (Roy, Vanover, Fueyo, & Vahey, 2012). In a 
personal communication, SRI’s CEO Curt Carlson asserted the preeminence of the digitally-
enhanced mathematics project for SRI (Carlson, personal communication, 2009). 

Only by dramatically revamping how we teach mathematics can we prepare more 
students to succeed in and contribute to our emerging innovation economy. The 
importance of our children’s education cannot be overstated; indeed, the SunBay 
education program is the most important endeavor at SRI.  
 
In 2010-2011, the project developed a second track of professional development for those 

teachers wanting the opportunity for deeper professional growth. USFSP initiated a graduate 
certificate in Middle Grades Digitally-Enhanced Mathematics Education (MGDEME) to more 
fully engage SunBay teachers in both the pedagogy and the mathematics required to teach 
innovative, digitally-enhanced mathematics (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). In 2011-2012, SunBay 
Math was implemented in nine middle schools, with 25 teachers and more than 2000 middle 
school students in the Pinellas County Schools. Since its inception in 2009, the project has 
served 11 middle schools, 39 middle grades mathematics teachers, and more than 3000 PCS 
middle grades students.  

	
  
 
 



Sunbay Digital Mathematics   105 

 

What is SunBay Math? 
 
       Within a curricular activity system (Roschelle, Knudsen, & Hegedus, 2010) represented in 
Figure 1, SunBay Math systematically integrates curriculum modules tied to mathematics 
content standards, technology-based dynamic representations that deepen mathematics learning, 
and teacher professional development. Students build mathematical meaning by thinking 
critically to solve complex problems and understand rate, proportionality, and linear functions in 
a connected and coherent way. By leveraging technology, students visualize, interact with, and 
analyze mathematical representations (i.e., graphs, tables, algebraic expressions, verbal 
descriptions, and pictorial representations) connected to dynamic simulations of real-life 
phenomena. Through a planned sequence of professional development, teachers are engaged in 
mastering essential knowledge and skills in mathematics. As a result, when teaching the learning 
modules, the teachers have the knowledge and skills to engage their students in this interaction 
between the software, the materials, and the mathematics that lead to increases in student 
learning (Vahey, Roy, and Fueyo, in press). 
 
 

 

 
Curricular Alignment and Replacement Modules 
 

There are currently three SunBay Math replacement learning modules for grades six 
through eight: Managing the Soccer Team, a module on rate and proportionality; Captured in 
St. Petersburg, a module on geometric similarity; and Designing Mobile Games, a module on 
linear functions. The mathematics content of the units aligns with both the Next Generation 
Sunshine State Standards (Florida Department of Education, n.d) as well as Common Core 
State Standards for Mathematics (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & 
Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). The methods of instruction in the learning 
modules align equally well with the mathematical practices called for in the Common Core. In 
addition, the SunBay learning modules are also carefully aligned with the FCAT 2.0 reporting 
categories. The project’s goal is to develop two replacement modules for each of the middle 
grades--two for sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. 



106     V. Fueyo, G. Roy and P. Vahey 

 

 

Because of the project’s goal of sustainable change, the modules are designed as 
replacement units. SunBay is neither interested in developing nor seeking to develop a 
textbook series. As replacement units, the SunBay modules can be used with a district’s 
adopted textbook series to teach mathematics in the middle grades. It is the teachers, all of 
whom have been engaged in extensive professional development, who will select which 
sections of the existing mathematics textbook to replace with the SunBay learning modules. 
The timing and curricular coherence is determined by the professional teacher who knows best 
his or her students. The project’s intent is to provide well-researched and proven methods and 
materials and leave it up to the teachers when best to implement the modules. SunBay’s well-
researched learning modules and teacher professional development directly address Carnine’s 
lament: “Education is the only profession in which its professionals are not guaranteed the 
effectiveness of the tools they have been given to work with” (1992, p. 13). 

 
Pilot Results in 2009-2010 
 

In 2009-2010, the project’s pilot year, the SunBay team showed the effectiveness of the 
SunBay Digital Mathematics approach across a range of teachers, topics, and student 
characteristics in the Pinellas County Schools. The team recruited and trained 13 middle school 
mathematics teachers from Pinellas County, and each has had significant and ongoing 
participation in the program. Table 1 shows the classroom mean gain scores for all the teachers 
who participated in Florida, as well as all the teachers who participated in SRI’s earlier 
successful experiment in the state of Texas. This graph shows that students of teachers using 
the SunBay intervention, in both Texas and Florida, to teach the key mathematical topics of 
proportionality and rate showed consistently higher learning gains than students in Control 
classrooms who were taught by more traditional means. 

 
Table 1: The spread of mean classroom student gains shows the consistent effectiveness of 
the SunBay approach in both Florida and Texas 

 
 
Our analysis also shows that learning gains were consistent regardless of prior math 



Sunbay Digital Mathematics   107 

 

achievement and student ethnicity, providing evidence that the SunBay Digital Mathematics 
materials can be effective for the wide range of students and teachers found in Pinellas County. 
The approach was also found to be effective for a new geometry unit developed to meet the 
needs of PCS. The SunBay team is currently analyzing results for 2011-2012, comprising both 
pre- and post-test gains and comparison scores for non-SunBay teachers and students on the 
state’s high stakes assessment. 
 

Sustainable Institutional Changes 
 

Each of the partners has implemented institutional changes to sustain the impact and 
viability of this educational intervention known as SunBay Digital Mathematics. USFSP created 
a graduate certificate in Middle Grades-Digitally Enhanced Mathematics Education to serve the 
teachers' needs for more in-depth learning. To ensure the opportunity was available to as many 
teachers as possible, USFSP engaged a long-standing, community partner, the Progress Energy 
Foundation, to provide funding for the teachers' tuition.  Since 2010, this public-private 
partnership continues to support the graduate certificate in Middle Grades-Digitally Enhanced 
Mathematics Education, the enhanced teacher development component of SunBay.  

The local school district also demonstrated its institutional commitment to SunBay Math 
by making it one of its strategic priorities for the middle grades strategic plan. The third partner, 
SRI International, has invested more than a decade of research into the development of the 
learning modules; and SunBay remains a strategic initiative for SRI.  

The partners continue to seek external funding to support the needed research to develop 
the remaining learning modules and evaluate the most effective teacher professional 
development models. Our shared goal is to develop a comprehensive “package,” comprising the 
learning modules, the professional development, and the dynamic technology, to offer interested 
districts in Florida and throughout the United States. As a result of this remarkable, synergistic 
partnership, SunBay Digital Mathematics is closer than ever to achieving its goal. 
  



108     V. Fueyo, G. Roy and P. Vahey 

 

 

 
References 

 
Carnine, D. (1992). Expanding the notion of teachers’ rights: Access to tools that work. Journal 

of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25(1) 13-19. 

Florida Department of Education (n.d.).  Next generation sunshine state standards: Mathematics. 

Retrieved March 14, 2010, from 

http://floridastandards.org/Standards/FLStandardSearch.aspx 

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School 

Officers. (2010). Common core state standards for mathematics. Washington D.C.: 

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School 

Officers. 

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A 

framework of teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. 

Roschelle, J., Knudsen, J., & Hegedus, S. (2010). From new technological infrastructures to 

curricular activity systems: Advanced designs for teaching and learning. In M. J. Jacobson 

& P. Reimann (Eds.), Designs for Learning Environments of the Future: International 

Perspectives from the Learning Sciences (pp. 233-262). NY: Springer. 

Roschelle, J., Shechtman, N., Tatar, D., Hegedus, S., Hopkins, B., Empson, S., & Gallagher, L. 

(2010). Integration of technology, curriculum, and professional development for advancing 

middle school mathematics: Three large-scale studies. American Educational Research 

Journal, 47(4), 833-878. 

Roy, G. J., Vanover, C., Fueyo, V., & Vahey, P. (2012). Providing professional support to 

teachers who are implementing a middle school mathematics digital unit. Contemporary 



Sunbay Digital Mathematics   109 

 

Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 12(2). Retrieved from 

http://www.citejournal.org/vol11/iss3/mathematics/article1.cfm 

Sable, J., Plotts, C., and Mitchell, L. (2010). Characteristics of the 100 Largest Public 

Elementary and Secondary School Districts in the United States: 2008–09 (NCES 2011-

301). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, 

DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 

Vahey, P., Roy, G., & Fueyo, V. (in press). Sustainable use of dynamic representational 

environments: Toward a district-wide adoption of SimCalc-based materials. In S. Hegedus 

& J. Roschelle (Eds.), Democratizing access to important mathematics through dynamic 

representations: Contributions and visions from the SimCalc research program. New 

York, NY: Springer. 

  



110     V. Fueyo, G. Roy and P. Vahey 

 

 

 

Author Note 

Vivian Fueyo, College of Education, University of South Florida St. Petersburg; George 
Roy, College of Education, University of South Florida St. Petersburg; Phil Vahey, SRI 
International 

SunBay Digital Mathematics 2011-2012 was supported by a grant from EDUCAUSE 
provided by the Next Generation Learning Challenges. The authors would also like to 
acknowledge the considerable contributions of Zafer Unal, Charles Vanover, Nicole Collier, and 
Susan Holderness at USF St. Petersburg; all our partners at SRI International; and Laurel Rotter, 
Rose Mack, and all the SunBay teachers and students in the Pinellas County Schools. Without 
them, this work would not have been possible. 

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Vivian Fueyo, College of 
Education, University of South Florida St. Petersburg, 140 7th Avenue South, St Petersburg, FL 
33701. 

E-mail: vfueyo@mail.usf.edu 
 

 


