"If you were to just give students this problem, they would groan," she said to the 16 teachers sitting before her. "It's a word problem. It has a fraction and it has a whole number, and we know a lot of students have problems with fractions."

Favre has a solution. It's called model drawing and is a component of the Singapore Math teaching method. Favre discovered it a few years ago, convinced her principal at the Washington Avenue School in Pleasantville to let her attend a training workshop and has now been training other teachers in the district in how it works.

To solve the above problem, students draw five boxes. Since they know one-fifth of the total is eight, they put that number in each box. From there they can multiply to get the total.

"So many students are visual learners," said Michelle McCline, math facilitator at the North Main Street School.

"But they lack basic number sense," Favre said. "This makes the process visual and makes them better problem solvers. It helps special education students, and bilingual students who may still be struggling with English."

Singapore has consistently scored at the top on international rankings of student math performance. The math strategies used there are now being integrated into some American curricula to help students better understand and solve word problems. Even algebra concepts are included, just broken down to accommodate younger learners.

Favre and McCline's workshop attracted teachers at both the elementary and middle school level, and the lessons included problems for kindergarten through sixth grade. Both McCline and Favre have had success with helping teachers adapt to different student learning styles and are now spreading the word.

This year both Washington Avenue and North Main Street Schools had excellent results on their NJASK4, the state tests given to students in grade four. Almost 93 percent of the fourth-graders at the two schools passed the math portion of the test. That's above the state average of almost 85 percent, and far above the 69.3 percent average for the 31 special-needs urban Abbott school districts, which include Pleasantville.

The goal now is to spread the success to all of the district's math classes.

"Our math curriculum is up for review next year, and we are heading in a good direction," Favre said.

Statewide, elementary school test scores have been steadily improving. State officials have credited public preschool with giving students a good start, and more effective alignment of classwork with the state standards for better preparing students for the tests.

Professional development for teachers has also been stressed, and Deputy Education Commissioner Willa Spicer said this week that improved test results at the elementary level indicates that training teachers does trickle down to improving student performance.

"I think we are getting better at teaching and reaching all children," she said.

Favre and McCline know that more than one strategy may be needed in urban districts which grapple with high percentages of students who are very poor, don't speak English well and move a lot.

"Even reading levels are an issue in math today with all the word problems," Favre said. "Kids will give up. The model drawing helps them break it down."

Statewide elementary level test results have been improving, especially among the special education students and minority groups. Passing rates on the fourth grade math test have increased from 60 percent in 1999 to almost 85 percent in 2007. More students are also scoring in the advanced level - 41 percent in 2007 compared with 16.2 percent in 1999.

Language arts scores, which started out better, have stayed stable. In 1999 79 percent of fourth-graders passed the language arts test. In 2007 that percentage was 81 percent, although slightly fewer students are scoring at the advanced level.

The federal No Child Left Behind goal is for every child to pass, and that will mean finding strategies to help students with disabilities and language barriers. Poor children still perform far worse than their wealthier counterparts. On the fourth-grade test, students identified as economically disadvantaged failed the fourth-grade test at three times the rate of other students.

Favre and McCline also have math workshops for parents, sitting with interpreters so the non-English speaking parents can learn how to help their children at home.

"The parents want to help their children," Favre said. "But often they don't know how."

To e-mail Diane D'Amico at The Press:

DDamico@pressofac.com

SEE HOW EACH SCHOOL DID

For a breakdown of how Atlantic County schools scored on the third- and fourth-grade tests, click here