Accelerating Mathematics Performance with Practice Strategies for Small Groups (AMPPS-SG) Program

When asked “How does AMPPS-SG work?” educators often want to know what teaching strategies are integrated within the program.

AMPPS-SG strategically combines each of the instructional and motivational strategies most associated with improved outcomes for math fluency instruction. Specifically, AMPPS-SG systematically integrates each of the following teaching and learning strategies, all within an engaging 25-30 minute session with a group of 2-5 students:

• Modeling
• Guided practice
• Visual representations of quantities (e.g., number lines, ten frames, and diagrams)
• Verbalization (e.g., think alouds and choral responding)
• Isolated skill practice (e.g., flashcard drills)
• Explicit timing
• Goal-setting (that is, practicing text until a predetermined performance criterion is met)
• Performance feedback, combined with graphical displays so that students can easily see their progress and improvements
• Cumulative review
• Systematic praise and a structured reward system that highlights students’ accomplishments and increases their motivation to do their best during each AMPPS-SG session

In addition to its integration of the aforementioned strategies, AMPPS-SG is effective because it allows students to work through a rigorously developed sequence of skills (that is, the AMPPS Curriculum). Using specific decision rules for students to complete sub-lessons at a set fluency level, this systematic progression of skills within the AMPPS Curriculum allows students to develop and strengthen their math fluency by building upon what they have learned. Research with AMPPS-SG illustrates that, as a result of receiving the program, students develop improved fluency with addition and subtraction facts. The AMPPS-SG Instructor’s Manual provides additional detail about how the program works and the research behind the program.

Because all students must develop math fluency in order to progress to higher-level math skills, AMPPS-SG can be used with learners of all ages as long as they have at least some conceptual understanding of the computation processes for basic math facts (that is, addition and/or subtraction). Most often, AMPPS-SG is implemented with students in grades 2 through 5. While research has not yet been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of AMPPS-SG specifically with learners in grades 6 and above, there is reason to believe that AMPPS-SG can be effective with learners that have not yet developed proficient fluency with addition and subtraction facts, regardless of age.

AMPPS-SG is a highly structured intervention that can be used by many types of professionally trained educators, including classroom teachers, math specialists, intervention teachers, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists working in schools, librarians, and more.

We have had success with training community volunteers to use our programs with 100% accuracy. However, not all community volunteers will have the ability to successfully manage small groups of students (such as by keeping them all fully engaged and motivated during instruction). For this reason, if community volunteers are needed to use AMPPS-SG, professional educators who are strong AMPPS-SG interventionists should carefully oversee any community volunteer who is trained to use the program and ensure the volunteer can work well with a small group. 

If you want to learn how to implement AMPPS-SG, click one of the links below to get started:

• List of upcoming AMPPS-SG trainings for individuals who want to learn the program.
• Contact us to learn how we can train you and others from your team. Team-based trainings include, for example, multiple educators from one school or school district, or multiple staff or volunteers from a non-school organization that supports student learning (e.g., an after-school program).

We anticipated providing a demonstration video of AMPPS-SG in 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our ability to complete the video. Once we can complete the demonstration video, it will be available on this website so that teachers are able to see an example of what an AMPPS-SG session looks like. Of course, training is required to fully learn how to implement AMPPS-SG accurately and effectively. If you want to learn how to implement AMPPS-SG, click one of the links below to get started:

• List of upcoming AMPPS-SG trainings for individuals who want to learn the program.
• Contact us to learn how we can train you and others from your team. Team-based trainings include, for example, multiple educators from one school or school district, or multiple staff or volunteers from a non-school organization that supports student learning (e.g., an after-school program).

Yes, AMPPS-SG can be implemented virtually. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about using AMPPS-SG in a virtual/remote-learning context.

Yes, AMPPS has been developed for use in both one-on-one (adult-student) and small-group instructional contexts. Thus far there have been a handful of formal research studies evaluating the effectiveness of AMPPS-SG, all of which have indicated that the program can improve students’ fluency with addition and subtraction facts. The page you are reading now focuses on AMPPS-SG, but you can learn more about our AMPPS One-on-One Program here.

Of course, every student has a unique set of characteristics, strengths, learning needs, etc. It is therefore impossible to know how many AMPPS-SG sessions are needed to best support every individual student, but past research with the AMPPS-SG Program has provided some information related to how often it should be used for it to be highly effective for most students. The following summarizes key information on this topic and we encourage you to contact us if you have any questions.

• An AMPPS-SG session can be comfortably implemented in 20-30 minutes once the adult has been well-trained.
• Research shows that AMPPS-SG can significantly improve students’ addition and subtraction fact fluency when 2-3 sessions are provided each week. At this time, we strongly recommend that educators aim for implementation at least 3 times per week.
• It is not recommended to implement more than one AMPPS-SG session in a day; instead, when improving math fluency, it is important to spread out the sessions over several days.
• Although research shows that students who receive 2-3 sessions per week make significant improvements in their math fluency over time, students can certainly benefit by getting more than 3 sessions per week if that is preferred by the educator.

The AMPPS-SG Instructor’s Manual provides even more information about how frequently to use the program as well as considerations for assessing its effectiveness with individual students and groups of students.

We anticipated providing the AMPPS-SG Instructor’s Manual and AMPPS-SG Training Video for free, downloadable access in 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our ability to complete these materials. Without these materials, it is much less likely teachers would be able to successfully learn and use all the AMPPS-SG implementation procedures.

For this reason, we are offering online AMPPS-SG training workshops and attendees of those workshops will receive the downloadable Implementation Protocols and Instructional Materials for free. Alternatively, if requested, workshop attendees can receive a print-version of the Implementation Protocols and Instructional Materials at a discounted cost. 

Please click here to learn more and register for a low-cost AMPPS-SG training.

If a school uses a tiered approach to providing struggling learners with interventions (such as RTI or MTSS models of intervention), AMPPS-SG can easily be used within a tiered intervention model. For instance, AMPPS-SG might be used at Tiers 1 and 2 of common 3-tier models, and the AMPPS One-on-One Program might be used at Tiers 2 and 3.

For more information about using AMPPS-SG in a tiered intervention model, please contact us.

Although the AMPPS Programs were originally designed for students in elementary school grades, we are aware that educators may want to use AMPPS for students in grades 6 and above who do not yet have proficient math fluency. However, to use AMPPS-SG with students in grades 6 and above, the teacher will need to ensure that the motivational strategies integrated within the program are age-appropriate. The AMPPS-SG Instructor’s Manual provides guidance about age-appropriate considerations and adaptations.

We can also support teachers with supplemental materials. For more information and/or support for using the one-on-one or small-group AMPPS Programs with students in grades 6 and up, please contact us.

During the research and development of the AMPPS Programs, attention was paid to cultural and linguistic inclusivity. For instance, the names and scenarios used in story problems were intentionally designed to be culturally inclusive. There is also diversity among the students and teachers who have participated in both formal and informal evaluation studies.

Further, various components of the AMPPS-SG Program can be flexibly implemented to support the math fluency development of English Language Learners (ELLs). For example, during math “think aloud” processes, students can be encouraged to think or write in their dominant language. Additionally, during group work, students who speak the same dominant language can be paired together to discuss how to solve math problems in their preferred language.

AMPPS is designed to meet Common Core Standards in the following two domains: (a) Operations & Algebraic Thinking, and (b) Number & Operations in Base Ten. The details below specify exactly how AMPPS is designed to meet these standards. 

• The standards within Operations & Algebraic Thinking are addressed as follows:
  • Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction
    • (1.OA.A.1; 1.OA.A.2; 2.OA.A.1)
  • Understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction 
    • (1.OA.B.3; 1.OA.B.4)
  • Add and subtract within 20 
    • (1.OA.C.5; 1.OA.C.6; 1.OA.D.7; 1.OA.D.8; 2.OA.B.2)
  • Solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic 
    • (3.OA.D.8.; 3.OA.D.9)

• The standards within Number & Operations in Base Ten are addressed as follows:
  • Understand place value 
    • (1.NBT.B.2; 2.NBT.A.1; 1.NBT.B.3; 2.NBT.A.3; 2.NBT.A.4)
  • Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract 
    • (1.NBT.C.4; 1.NBT.C.5; 1.NBT.C.6; 2.NBT.B.5; 2.NBT.B.6; 2.NBT.B.8; 2.NBT.B.9)
  • Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic 
    • (3.NBT.A.1; 3.NBT.A.2)
  • Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers 
    • (4.NBT.A.1; 4.NBT.A.2; 4.NBT.A.3)
  • Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi digit arithmetic 
    • (4.NBT.B.4)