Solving for X

Overview

Building on the Science of Reading and other literacy reform momentum, there is a growing urgency to implement similar solutions to improve math learning for students across the country. It requires school leaders, practitioners, and policymakers to unpack math content students of all ages should learn, how best to teach that content, and what the most effective learning pathways are for students with diverse needs and aspirations amid a stark learning reality.

This stocktaking report aims to build a shared, nuanced fact base on the current state of math research, practice, and policy to inform work to improve math education across the country.

Math achievement in the United States is low, stagnant, and marked by inequalities.

• The U.S. ranks lower than most of its peer countries on international assessments of math.
• Only 39% of fourth graders, 27% of eighth graders, and 21% of 12th graders are proficient in math via the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and many students score below even a basic level of foundational knowledge.
• Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps in math are large and mostly unchanged since 2003.

Effective math instruction follows a developmental progression across grade levels. However, not all students have access to instruction aligned with their needs and abilities.

• Math instruction progresses through a standard sequence of content, from foundations of number sense in pre-K to high school, when various math pathways lead to different capstone options with implications for students’ postsecondary options.
• Early math skills are among the strongest predictors of later academic success, college completion, earnings, and life outcomes.

Efforts to improve math learning often face implementation barriers. In recent decades, however, math has been a primary focus of national and state reform efforts.

• States often lack explicit, coherent, and evidence-based policies in mathematics.
• Over the past 30 years, national math policy efforts have focused on standards, accountability, curriculum quality, acceleration, and course access.
• A number of states — such as Maryland, Ohio, and Alabama — have recently enacted policies designed to strengthen early math learning, identify and support struggling learners, improve student access to advanced math, and innovate around high school math pathways. 

Improving math outcomes requires a coherent, cradle-to-career strategy that treats math learning as a cumulative progression.

Key Considerations

Math skills are vital for students’ future academic and socioeconomic outcomes, but performance on math assessments is distressingly low across the country. Progress in math education requires a concerted effort across research, policy, and practice and an honest commitment to grounding in facts, evidence, and data and to viewing math as a cumulative, cradle-to-career progression rather than a series of disconnected courses.

Foundations in quality math policy and practice exist, but implementation is a barrier to improved outcomes.

To effectively improve math learning for all students at all grade levels, school leaders, practitioners, and policymakers must recognize a solid and growing evidence base about what “Science of Math” education can look like for students in different stages of their academic careers, including effective instructional approaches, standard sequences of content and learning progressions, and strategies for targeting instruction to student needs and abilities.

Efforts to reform math policy and practice often confront obstacles such as inadequate teacher preparation, uneven implementation of high-quality instructional materials and aligned professional development, missing or incoherent state policies, and a culture of math anxiety. 

Promising signs are emerging for improving math instruction in the field.

As the national conversation about improving math policy and practice grows, stakeholders should use and strengthen research to deepen understanding of how and when young people most effectively learn math, including identifying the most appropriate and high-impact instructional approaches, content standards, and course sequences across the pre-K through Grade 12 continuum. 

Policymakers and school leaders can invest in high-quality math instruction, including in improved academic standards, accountability systems, educator preparation and in-service support, instructional materials, family engagement, and math pathways aligned with postsecondary options.

Learn more on the current state of math research, practice, and policy in Solving for X.