Math education across the country is in urgent need of redesign, and recent NAEP scores confirm there is no time to waste, with students showing the largest decline in math scores for 4th and 8th graders since 1990.
Recent findings from the EdWeek Research Center offer school leaders a good place to start. They note the deep tension between theory and practice in math education. This persistent disconnect leads too many teachers to grapple with translating complex pedagogical approaches into tangible classroom outcomes, often impacting student learning.
As leader of the Bank Street Education Center, a key focus of my work is improving math education for students in schools across New York City. Through partnerships with school leaders and educators in pre-K through high school settings, our work has uncovered three crucial strategies essential to improving math learning: increased instructional time, investments in teachers’ continuous improvement, and centering student voices.
These interconnected strategies reinforce and complement each other. They are curriculum-agnostic and provide school leaders with specific structures and processes that build off the existing strengths of teachers and students to help drive deeper levels of student learning.
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Related MDRC report Long-Term Effects of Enhanced Early Childhood Math Instruction: The Impacts of Making Pre-K Count and High 5s on Third-Grade Outcomes
