Kristen Musgrove goes to great lengths to make sure students at Florida’s Hilliard Middle-Senior High School excel in mathematics. The sixth-grade team leader, Musgrove led the school’s shift toward small group instruction, with activities students find rigorous but fun. Her math lessons incorporate deductive reasoning, strategically infused problem-solving, project-based learning and Kagan structures, with formative assessments daily, weekly and monthly to monitor students’ progress. When Musgrove must miss class, she pre-records lessons to make sure learning continues. To entice students to attend after-school tutoring, Musgrove worked with administration to create weekly invitation-only “math camp” sessions with math games and snacks. Attendance increased, students raved about the experience and those who needed extra help thrived. Her methods work: In 2018 her students led the district, with 97% of her sixth-graders demonstrating proficiency and 94% showing learning gains.
Energetic and always in command of her classroom, Musgrove is committed to refining her own practice and pedagogy as well as helping colleagues. She is the go-to mentor for new math teachers on campus and often models lessons for both new and veteran teachers through instructional rounds. Musgrove leads professional development for the district’s math teachers and serves as a key leader in implementing systemic curriculum mapping for secondary mathematics for the school and district. Through collaborative planning, coaching and encouragement, Musgrove supports her fellow math teachers as they work together to provide effective instruction. When the math department ended up short an instructor mid-year, Musgrove expanded her small group model and helped modify the department’s instructional delivery to make sure student achievement wasn’t affected.
Musgrove’s personal connections with students and families give her important insight into students’ needs. When one of her students was assigned to an alternative learning environment, she stuck a laptop on her desk and kept the student “in class” via Google Hangouts. Musgrove holds students accountable firmly but lovingly, with high expectations they strive to meet and exceed.
Musgrove earned a bachelor’s in elementary education in 2006 from the University of North Florida.
Press release: Math Success Multiplies Student Opportunities, Adds Up to a $25,000 Milken Educator Award for Teacher Kristen Musgrove
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