404 Error

Not a math person, you say? If you’re one of the millions who embrace the wild and intense excitement of the NCAA basketball tournament each March, then I beg to differ.

Let’s start with the army of statisticians and experts who apply the complicated formula to land on a bracket of 68 college teams. Follow that up with the extreme anticipation felt by wanna-be analysts — like myself — eager to win the coveted office pool. We watch videos, research injuries and ponder scoring differentials. And then we watch the flurry of games, diligently recording the results and projecting our probability of victory: “If team X loses this game, the most points I could possibly achieve for this region is Y.”

In other words, March Madness involves an awful lot of math.

And yet, kids aren’t doing so well at math right now. In fact, math scores for the nation’s9– and 13-year-olds are at multi-decade lows.

Much of this is due to the pandemic. According to the latest findings from researchers at Harvard and Stanford, only one state, Alabama, has returned to its pre-pandemic achievement levels in math. They found that students made rapid progress last year, but the average student in third through eighth grade is still about one-third of a grade level behind in math, compared with 2019 performance.

Which policies or practices are helping students make the biggest gains in math? Which deserve to stick around or be replicated? These are the questions policymakers should be asking this year, especially as the final round of federal relief funds expires.

To help further that conversation, the Collaborative for Student Success is announcing a tournament of our own — March Mathness.

All month long, we’ll be pitting some of the most promising state and local math practices against one another. We’ve convened a plucky panel of three expert judges — Chad AldemanDale Chu and Jocelyn Pickford — to help us narrow the list and decide which ones deserve to, in legendary coach Jim Valvano’s words, “survive and advance.”

These leading math practices represent a sampling of the ways state leaders, district officials, teachers, parents and families can come together to advance math education for their students.

In the opening round of this Sweet 16, top-seeded statewide legislative efforts like Alabama’s Numeracy Act and Colorado’s Improving Mathematics Outcomes bill will challenge math proposals in the statehouses of Kentucky and West Virginia. Increasingly popular digital learning platforms will face off against innovative models for district tutoring contracts and comprehensive summer learning programs.

The matches will be hosted here on EduProgress.org and the final results will be shared out on The 74 Million next month. Readers can follow along all month or root for their favorites on social media. So stay tuned — the Big (Math) Dance is nearly here!


Here are our top contenders:

AI-powered Khanmigo — The Khan Academy team has created a new AI-powered tool in hopes of providing personalized tutoring for students at a relatively low cost, while enabling teachers to quickly create customized lesson plans or rubrics. Early reviews suggest the tool, called Khanmigo, could be a helpful instructional aid, but others have noted that it has a tendency to make basic mathematical errors

Alabama Numeracy Act — Comprehensive statewide legislation that ensures every elementary school has a math coach; and sets up a process to vet and approve high-quality instructional materials and curricula; creates a task force to help ensure teacher preparation programs are effective for new elementary math educators; establishes academies to help build a pipeline of principals trained in effective math intervention strategies.

Alabama’s Summer Adventures in Learning (SAIL) —Focuses on overcoming summer learning loss by bringing together youth and community groups, faith-based organizations, philanthropy, municipal agencies and schools to pool their knowledge and resources to create summer enrichment programs. In 2023, participating students gained an average of three months in math, marking the 11th straight summer the program has led to academic improvement.

Arkansas LEARNS Act — Signed into law last year, the measure requires that schools develop math intervention plans for third- through eighth-graders not performing at grade level. By the 2024-25 school year, each district must report the type of interventions they’re using and the number of students receiving them.

Automatic enrollment in advanced math courses (Texas and North Carolina) — The use of data to enroll low-income and students of color in advanced math classes  — eliminating the need for parents and caregivers to opt their students into those classes — has helped to double the number of Black and brown students in accelerated math courses in Texas alone.

Colorado HB 23-1231, Improving Mathematics Outcomes in K-12 — Comprehensive statewide legislation that combines free training in evidence-informed practices for elementary school and secondary school mathematics educators, with a focus on the promotion and use of high-quality curricula and assessment. 

Delaware Math Coalition — An alliance of leaders from public school districts, charter schools, colleges, the state Department of Education and the business sector have developed seven programs with the goal of delivering high-quality professional learning opportunities and experiences that advance effective math instruction.

Kentucky HB 162 — While not yet signed into law, this bill is noteworthy for targeting grades 4 to 8, rather than the early grades. The measure calls for increased access to “evidence-based high-quality instructional resources,” mandatory improvement plans for struggling students and universal math screening.

Kentucky’s Math Achievement Fund — Created back in 2005, this effort provides grants for math coaches, the purchase of high-quality materials and extra time for teachers to engage in professional learning of the new mathematics materials purchased. The Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education research that the program’s combination of targeted interventions, peer coaching and educator collaboration improved math achievement in grades K-3. Gains were also seen in other areas, like increased student attendance and decreased disciplinary incidents, and were evident across racial and ethnic groups.

Massachusetts Math Acceleration Academies — These are designed to offer added time on task in small-class settings, with four-plus hours of in-person math instruction for one week per student, during vacation weeks throughout the school year. The academies are required to use multiple forms of assessment to monitor student progress and enable teachers to tailor lessons to meet the needs of the students they are serving.

New Jersey Tutoring & Coaching Supports/Rekindle Education — The New Jersey Tutoring Corps serves students statewide in pre-K through eighth grade during school, after school and over the summer. Following seven to 15 weeks of high-impact tutoring, the program saw a 24 percentage point increase in the number of students performing at or above grade level — and 90% of students emerge from the program say they feel like they could help their friends with math. Complementing the statewide effort is a small pilot program offering math teachers one-on-one and small group coaching on core instructional strategies. 

Performance-based tutoring contracts (Ector County, Texas, et al.) — An innovative approach that uses a “pay for success” model whereby tutoring companies earn more money if students make progress on the district’s interim assessments (MAP tests). This approach encourages providers to become more engaged and to follow up with students if they missed tutoring sessions, all while shifting the burden away from already overworked teachers. 

Play-in Round: California’s Math Framework VS. Louisiana’s “Back to Basics in Math” — In perhaps the most talked-about policy change in math last year, the state of California approved a new learning framework for all public schools. The new framework, in the works for four years, is designed to connect learning to real-world uses of math and data, while helping to ensure that students see themselves in the curriculum and in math-related careers by making instruction more culturally relevant. Louisiana’s 2023 law requires math teachers in grades 4 to 8 to take additional professional development related to numeracy. School districts must report annually on the number who have successfully done so.

Statewide adoption of Zearn (Nebraska, Louisiana, Colorado, Ohio) — These states now offer this high-quality math supplemental resource free to all public school students. Studies show that consistent use of Zearn results in larger student gains on state assessments, including significant proficiency gains for the lowest-performing math students, English learners, Black and Latino students, and those eligible for free and reduced-price lunch.

Texas Math Solution — This interactive tool gives educators real-time data insights about student performance, and its middle school math program is rated all green on EdReports. Muleshoe Independent School District saw a 333% improvement on the state’s annual math assessment after switching to this curriculum. 

West Virginia’s Third Grade Success Act — Establishes an approved list of screeners and math benchmark assessments for K-3 students that must be given in the first 30 days of the school year, midyear and at the end of the year. This is a strong approach to thoughtful use of data to target supports and interventions based on student need and to develop individualized improvement plans for those not meeting benchmarks.

Urgent Action Needed in the States to Reverse K-12 Math Crisis

Governors’ State of the State Addresses Show Need for Greater Focus on Math

Contact: Josh Parrish, jparrish@forstudentsuccess.org

A top priority for the nation’s governors in their current legislative sessions is building a strong economy.  But that will be a tall challenge because U.S. K-12 students lack the foundational math skills required to have a skilled workforce. Ninety-four percent of workers use at least basic math in their jobs, and jobs requiring math and statistics facility are projected to grow by 30 percent over the next decade—much faster than the average for all occupations.

U.S. students can’t fill that demand if current trends are not reversed.

U.S. Performance is Dismal

Far too many K-12 students aren’t equipped with the math skills they need to thrive in the future. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Long-Term Trend Results showed that nine-year-olds’ math achievement declined seven points between 2020 and 2022—the first-ever decline in math since the assessments started in the 1970s.

Just as troubling is that in a 2022 assessment of how well 15-year-old students can apply math to solve real-world problems the U.S. placed 28th out of 38 economically advanced nations, well below many of our country’s international peers. The test was conducted by the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment.

The common misconception that math is only relevant for careers in science or engineering – combined with the stereotype that it is okay to believe that someone “just isn’t a math person” – is the one-two punch that wreaks havoc on America’s approach to math education.

The concern about what the trend portends for the economy and the nation is widespread. Caitlin Codella Low, Vice President of Policy and Programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, shared in part: “Today’s students are the workforce of the future, and American businesses cannot compete on the global stage if our students continue to fall behind in the fundamental skills of reading, science, and math.”

Math Achievement Lags Across the Country

Leaders simply aren’t doing enough to support educators in restoring math achievement back to the level it was before the pandemic—and to boosting it even more to meet the needs of our economy. A recent study of 30 states showed that only Alabama can claim students returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels in math during the 2022-23 school year.

In 17 of the states (AR, CA, CT, IN, KS, KY, MA, MI, NC, NH, NJ, NV, OK, OR, VA, WA and WV) students remained more than one- third of a grade level behind in math, compared to 2019 levels.

Nation’s Governors Must Activate to Address the Problem

Despite the imperative to prepare students with the math skills they need to succeed in life, an analysis of governors’ 2024 State of State addresses demonstrates a severe lack of state-level commitment to improving K-12 math education.

  • Only seven of the 40 governors who have delivered addresses so far have mentioned math in any way.
  • Among the 17 states where math achievement remained far below pre-pandemic levels in 2022-23, only two (New Jersey and Virginia) have governors who made a nod to K-12 math in their 2024 addresses.

These and other states, including Colorado, Rhode Island and South Carolina, should be commended for working to increase the quality of math teaching through access to high-quality instructional resources and curriculum-based professional development, key approaches for reversing declines in student achievement. Yet, with 8 states (Texas and Nevada excluded) left to deliver a gubernatorial address this year, we encourage local advocates to call for increased state leadership and investment. Far too few state leaders are appropriately responding to the math crisis at hand.

Similarly, only a handful of state legislatures have introduced legislation to improve K-12 education in the current session. However, there are some notable exceptions as highlighted in a recent ExcelinEd brief, including:

  • Tennessee lawmakers are considering a bill that would require the state Department of Education to approve a professional development course on math instruction that would be free for K-8 educators; the bill would also mandate an analysis of current math proficiency levels in the state.
  • In Kentucky, a bill will provide universal math screeners for students in grades 4-8 as well as math improvement plans.
  • And in Indiana, legislation would establish requirements for math instructional materials and provide optional screening and interventions for students struggling in math.

It’s time for ALL state leaders to step up and commit to improving K-12 math education for all students. We need strong investments to address lost learning, to accelerate learning, to broaden math opportunities, and to connect math experiences with careers and higher education. Perhaps most importantly, state leaders can and should use their positions to publicly underscore the importance of math to our communities and to champion a belief that everyone truly can be “a math person.”

Join Us in Taking Aim at the Math Crisis

At the Collaborative, we are excited to kick off “March Mathness”—a month where we will focus intensely on the challenges to and promising investments around improving math education.

  • Join us at SXSW EDU in Austin, TX where we’ll be Busting Society’s Math Myth through a live podcast recording with our special guest and Math Guru Vanessa Vakharia.
  • Follow along with us and The 74 Million as we host an NCAA-styled bracket elevating the best math policies and practices across the country.
  • And in April and May, we will keep the drumbeat going by inviting you to join us in taking a range of actions to advocate for a greater focus on improving math education in your state and district.

The time to renew the U.S. relationship with math is now. Join us as we amplify and elevate leading work by educators and leaders to transform math education for our students.

Update: Assessment HQ Updated with 2022-23 State Assessment Scores in Reading, Math

Latest K-8 Assessment Results Show Majority of States that Have Released Data
Providing Complete Picture, with Notable Exceptions

Contact: Josh Parrish, jparrish@forstudentsuccess.org

WASHINGTON (Nov. 14, 2023) — Comprehensive statewide academic assessment results for more than two-thirds of states were unveiled on the Collaborative for Student Success’ Assessment HQ platform — the go-to source for understanding annual K-8 academic assessments and their role in addressing historic learning declines in student academic achievement.

Assessment HQ now features three years of post-pandemic results for most states, providing the clearest picture of statewide testing results and increasing public access to a critical indicator of how schools are serving students. The update comes as states enter the final year before unprecedented levels of federal pandemic aid run out and as schools, parents, researchers, and advocates continue work to identify the most effective strategies to accelerate learning and meet diverse student needs.

The site provides a snapshot of state compliance with the federal reporting requirement (as measured by the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA) to provide participation data for all students and student groups — an important element of full transparency. Currently, 42 states and Washington, D.C. have released their data, of which 26 are fully compliant with federal law. Some notable clarifications:

  • Seven states and Washington, D.C. have not yet released data meeting ESSA score reporting requirements.
    • Three states have yet to provide disaggregated data by student groups (Florida, Missouri, and Montana)
    • Four states and Washington, D.C. have yet to provide data for more than one achievement level (Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Utah)
  • Fifteen states have not yet reported comprehensive student participation rates (Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Wisconsin)

“We now have three years of assessment results which we hope state and district leaders are using in their decision making,” said Jim Cowen, Executive Director of the Collaborative for Student Success. “Annual statewide tests still provide the clearest look at how students are doing across states and nationwide in the wake of the pandemic — and they provide an important check on school systems and leaders to stay hyper-focused on the academic outcomes of students.”

Assessment HQ also features original commentary from K-12 policy expert Dale Chu, which includes in-depth analysis of efforts to innovate K-12 assessments and regular tracking of changes to states’ school accountability systems. “States and districts are eager to use these results to paint a rosy picture of recovery and progress, but absent the transparency provided by key information on disaggregated student performance and participation rates, any celebration must be considered premature.”

With 42 states and D.C. having released their 2022-2023 data thus far, Assessment HQ will continue to publish statewide assessments results as they’re made available. Stay updated at AssessmentHQ.org.

About Assessment HQ
Assessment HQ is an online platform by the Collaborative for Student Success. Assessment HQ provides an accessible, one-stop-shop for understanding statewide annual academic assessments for grades three through eight and commentary on how to put the data to use — as well as what these assessments tell us about students’ mastery of skills and knowledge needed at that level to be successful in the next grade and beyond. To learn more, visit www.assessmenthq.org.

Many states have laws aimed at improving literacy, but few are putting the same weight behind targeting math instruction. A recent study by NWEA found that middle and elementary school students’ math progress stagnated last year. On average, students need the equivalent of an additional four and half months of instruction in math to level the playing field from before the pandemic.

 

The downward trends began years before the health crisis, raising questions about a decade of disappointing results for math students and the economic and civic repercussions to come. Unfortunately, “I’m not good at math,” or, “I’m not a math person,” are common refrains that echo through generations of Americans who have traversed a public school system in the U.S.

 

The downsides of not addressing the problem of math education in the U.S. are steep. Numerate people are needed for the military, for careers in science and medicine, for careers outside science, to close wage gaps among demographic groups and to ensure that the U.S. and all citizens can grow and succeed and stay competitive.

 

Which states are leading the charge to solve the math crisis? How did the coronavirus wreak havoc on math? And how can the United States close the performance gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged student groups?

 

Join the Collaborative for Student Success and The Hill as we convene lawmakers, math advocates, and educators to discuss U.S. math education and why it’s no longer acceptable to laugh off being “bad at math.”
Weigh in on national math efforts
by completing a brief survey:

More on Math

Accelerating Math Learning in Judson Independent School District, Texas

All Kids Are Math Kids: Redefining Our Approach to Math Education

Every Kid is a Math Kid: One Leader’s Mission to Make Math Accessible for All Students

Historic declines in math performance among America’s students mean educators are looking for evidence-based resources, tools, and programs to drive learning. Join the Collaborative for Student Success as they spotlight the use of Zearn to empower teachers and accelerate outcomes for students.

As schools work to address historic declines in student learning, a growing chorus of educators, parents, and advocates say it’s time to end the myth that kids are born either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at math. Hear from Shalinee Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of Zearn math, and Jim Cowen, Executive Director of the Collaborative for Student Success, on the need to transform math education to make it real and relevant for all kids.

Join host Jim Cowen and guest Shalinee Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of Zearn, as they ask what it will take to make math instruction accessible and engaging for all kids. With performance in Algebra being one of the most predictive indicators of a student’s success in careers and life, says Sharma, now is the time to reimagine the nation’s relationship with math.

Join Amanda Aragon of NMKidsCAN and Jim Cowen of the Collaborative for Student Success for a discussion on how they fought for strong student supports during the pandemic and improved instruction and academic opportunities as federal recovery dollars wind down.

Join 2022 Colorado Teacher of the Year Autumn Rivera for a look into the magic of her classroom. Autumn joins Collaborative Director Jim Cowen to discuss the importance of building student experiences and background knowledge and to share how she’s been able to support and connect with educators and leaders from across the nation as a State Teacher of the Year.

The US can no longer laugh off the ‘bad at math’ mentality | The Hill

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently announced an effort to reverse an “anti-math” culture in his country. “We say things like: ‘Oh, maths, I can’t do that, it’s not for me’ — and everyone laughs,” Sunak said. “But we’d never make a joke like that about not being able to read.”

Of course, he was talking about the plight of U.K. children. But the problem is far worse in the U.S., judging by the most recent international rankings of students, which were done pre-pandemic before the wheels really came off math performance….

Read the full article.