Montgomery Blair High School student Rishik Shenolikar turned a small pandemic tutoring effort into Potomac PiRates Inc., a nonprofit helping elementary students overcome math anxiety through games, puzzles and mental‑math activities.
During the pandemic, Rishik Shenolikar offered to help tutor neighborhood kids in his garage.
It was a small group of elementary schoolers, and he used a mental math book that intrigued him. He helped the kids with their homework, explaining different tricks and using engaging math puzzles.
Shenolikar, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, has enjoyed math ever since he was a kid. He hoped to spread that excitement, and was successful. Some of the younger students wanted to discuss the puzzles with their parents over dinner.
What started as a kind gesture while in-person schools were closed has evolved into a nonprofit.
Shenolikar created Potomac PiRates Inc., which aims to help students recognize that math can be a lot more than formulas and equations.
“It’s such a useful skill,” Shenolikar said. “There’s so many careers that involve math, but it also just helps your brain in so many different ways.”
The group, which started about two years ago, offers tutoring support to elementary schools and other local organizations. It’s an official partner with the Montgomery County Recreation Center and supports their “Club Adventure” after-school program. They’re also offering math support to students with disabilities.
The sessions usually involve a lot of games, puzzles and mental math tricks. They aim to empower students to arrive at an answer faster than they would have otherwise. They often get feedback from teachers too.
“The main point is to help students with math anxiety because I’ve noticed a lot that I enjoy math a lot, but a lot of kids out there just don’t find it that fun,” Shenolikar said.
Separately, the nonprofit has sent nearly 1,000 math kits to students in underresourced communities. The contents of the kits depends on who they’re going to, but they typically include basic math supplies and a logic puzzle, such as a Rubik’s Cube.
Recently, they created and shipped 60 kits to a classroom “of very smart kids in Africa who, unfortunately, don’t have the resources to get into math,” Shenolikar said.
He’s planning to travel to Africa this summer to meet those kids and offer them some tutoring help.
Shenolikar first paid for the work using money he earned judging debate tournaments. But now, the group of 15 kids has been using funds from a grant it received through the Dodge Family Foundation. Moving forward, they’re hoping to collaborate with small businesses.
The work, he said, is making a difference.
“The best sign of our impact … where they start out not liking math, but eventually it grows on them, because they enjoy the games,” Shenolikar said.
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Deepak Agarwal, Principal Scientist, Khan Academy India
India has made remarkable progress in getting children into school. But learning outcomes—especially in mathematics—remain a challenge. Many students move from grade to grade without mastering foundational concepts, and the gaps keep widening over time.
Over the past few years, education technology has emerged as a potential solution, but evidence from schools across India and globally shows that its impact depends heavily on how it is used.
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) led by University of Toronto researcher Philip Oreopoulos shows that when Khan Academy’s technology-based learning platform is implemented as intended, students learn significantly more than otherwise comparable students.
What is a randomized controlled trial (RCT)?
A randomized controlled trial is the most rigorous way to answer the key question: Did this program cause an increase in student learning or would the same thing have happened anyway? Imagine you want to test whether a new math program causes students to learn more. You take a group of schools that are broadly similar—same grades, similar backgrounds, same syllabus—and then randomly assign some schools to implement the program. These schools are called “Treatment” schools. Other schools continue with business as usual and are called “Control” schools. The program is implemented in the Treatment schools during the school year and also within the school’s timetable. If at the end of the program, on average, students in the Treatment schools outperform students in the Control schools, the difference can be attributed to the program.
The intervention: Regular use of Khan Academy for math practice, with the support of lab in-charges
In partnership with the Uttar Pradesh Department of Social Welfare, Khan Academy was implemented in 74 residential schools for students in Grades 6–8. Classroom teaching continued as usual in all schools. Khan Academy was used as a supplement to support practice, not to replace instruction. Twice a week in the computer lab, teachers and students were recommended to use Khan Academy for lesson-aligned practice and remediation using syllabus-matched exercises and videos. Students used individual devices (computers or tablets) for independent practice in online mode during designated timetable slots and under teacher supervision. This allowed for personalized pace and progression.
“Khan Academy was used as a supplement to support practice, not to replace instruction.”
Out of the 74 total schools in the study, 24 schools were randomly selected to be part of the Treatment group, and the remaining 50 schools made up the Control group. The schools in the Treatment group received additional implementation support in the form of non-instructional facilitators who visited treatment schools twice a week, referred to in this study as lab in-charges. Their responsibilities were to ensure two Khan Academy sessions per week, troubleshoot technical- and program-related challenges, monitor student progress data, and work with school leadership to integrate Khan Academy practice into mandatory curriculum time. The Control schools had access to Khan Academy, but the Khan Academy program was not actively promoted in the Control schools during the intervention period.
Over the course of seven months, the study included approximately 2,000students in the Treatment condition and 3,500 students in the Control condition. Students’ learning outcomes were measured through baseline and endline mathematics assessments administered to students in grades 6-8. An independent assessment agency developed grade-specific tests aligned with both CBSE and UP Board curricula and administered in Hindi.
“The schools in the Treatment group received additional implementation support in the form of non-instructional facilitators who visited treatment schools twice a week, referred to in this study as lab in-charges.”
Clear evidence of learning gains
Students in Treatment schools scored 0.44 to 0.47 standard deviations higher than students in the control group on the end-of-year mathematics assessment. To contextualize these magnitudes, a 0.44 to 0.47 standard deviation gain represents moving an average student from the 50th percentile to approximately the 67th or 68th percentile.
Why did students learn more? Because they practiced more. Students in the Treatment group used Khan Academy for an average of ~47 minutes per week to practice math content that was closely integrated with the classroom curriculum. When there is clear ownership, monitoring, and motivation to use the program, usage increases. Many edtech platforms do not see students achieving meaningful levels of practice time. This study shows one means to achieve that.
More practice led to more learning—even 15 minutes per week made a difference
During the study, students in the Treatment group used Khan Academy twice per week for an average of 47 minutes, but the amount of time they spent was not uniform across the board. Some students used Khan Academy more while others used it less. We analyzed this variation in time spent by each student and correlated it with the associated learning gains (see figure below). This analysis shows that even 15 minutes of usage each week can help students make considerable progress. What’s more, learning gains are proportional to the amount of time students spend practicing on the platform. In other words, more practice means more learning.
Learning gains were consistent across grades and genders, as well as for students at different starting points
Another highly important and desirable feature of Khan Academy implementation is that its benefits were not limited to a small subset of students. Learning gains for the Treatment group were consistent across grades, genders, and performance levels, indicating that students of all backgrounds and ability levels can benefit from using the Khan Academy (see figure below).
What this means
This randomized controlled trial shows that when there is support for implementation, students can reach desired levels of usage and realize significant learning gains. Digital learning tools can deliver large gains when schools are given enough support to use them efficiently—even in challenging real-world settings.
When thoughtful structures are put in place to ensure regular practice and logistical challenges are addressed, it creates an environment in which technology usage translates to improved skill mastery and ultimately results in test-score gains. In such a setting, students engage more deeply with their studies and learn more effectively. The technology becomes a vehicle for activating the processes necessary for facilitating deep learning.
“This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that, with adequate implementation support, students can achieve target levels of dosage and realize significant learning gains.”
Khan Academy supported such an intervention by providing mastery-based, curriculum-aligned practice in Hindi, enabling students to learn at their own pace while giving teachers and lab in-charges visibility into student progress. The combination of content delivered in their native language, regular practice time, sustained engagement, and efficient practice time successfully converted platform access into meaningful skill development. The results demonstrate that when digital learning tools are thoughtfully integrated into the curriculum, they can deliver large and equitable gains.
**
Read Dr. Oreopoulous’ working paper with the findings here.
1 Standard deviation is a common way researchers compare learning gains across different tests and settings. It measures how much scores shift relative to the typical spread of student performance. Reporting results in standard deviation units allows learning gains to be compared across studies, even when assessments differ.
When you walk into a math classroom in Charleston County School District, you can feel the difference. Students aren’t just memorizing steps–they’re reasoning through problems, explaining their thinking, and debating solutions with their peers. Teachers aren’t rushing to cover content, because their clear understanding of students’ natural learning progressions allows them to spend more time exploring the why behind the math.
This cultural shift didn’t come from adopting a new curriculum or collecting more data. Instead, we transformed math education by investing deeply in our educators through OGAP (The Ongoing Assessment Project) professional learning–an approach that has reshaped not only instruction, but the confidence and professional identity of our teachers.
Why we needed a change
Charleston County serves more than 50,000 students across more than 80 schools. For years, math achievement saw small gains, but not the leaps we hoped for. Our teachers were dedicated, and we had high-quality instructional materials, but something was missing.
The gap wasn’t our teacher’s effort. It was their insight–understanding the content they taught flexibly and deeply.
Too often, instruction focused on procedures rather than understanding. Teachers could identify whether a student got a problem right or wrong, but not always why they responded the way they did. To truly help students grow, we needed a way to uncover their thinking and guide next steps more intentionally.
What makes this professional learning different
Unlike traditional PD that delivers a set of strategies to “try on Monday,” this learning model takes educators deep into how students develop mathematical ideas over time.
Across four intensive days, teachers explore research-based learning progressions in additive, multiplicative, fractional, and proportional reasoning. They examine real student work to understand how misconceptions form and what those misconceptions reveal about a learner’s thought process. It is also focused on expanding and deepening teachers’ understanding of the content they teach so they are more flexible in their thinking. Teachers appreciate that the training isn’t abstract; it’s rooted in everyday classroom realities, making it immediately meaningful.
Instead of sorting responses into right and wrong, teachers ask a more powerful question: What does this show me about how the student is reasoning?
That shift changes everything. Teachers leave with:
A stronger grasp of content
The ability to recognize error patterns
Insight into students’ conceptual gaps
Renewed confidence in their instructional decisions
The power of understanding the “why”
Our district uses conceptual math curricula, including Eureka Math², Reveal Math, and Math Nation. These “HQIM” programs emphasize reasoning, discourse, and models–exactly the kind of instruction our students need.
But conceptual materials only work when teachers understand the purpose behind them.
Before this professional learning, teachers sometimes felt unsure about lesson sequencing and the lesson intent, including cognitive complexity. Now, they understand why lessons appear in a specific order and how models support deeper understanding. It’s common to hear teachers say: “Oh, now I get why it’s written that way!” They are also much more likely to engage deeply with the mathematical models in the programs when they understand the math education research behind the learning progressions that curriculum developers use to design the content.
That insight helps them stay committed to conceptual instruction even when students struggle, shifting the focus from “Did they get it?” to “How are they thinking about it?”
Transforming district culture
The changes go far beyond individual classrooms.
We run multiple sessions of this professional learning each year, and they fill within days. Teachers return to their PLCs energized, bringing exit tickets, student work, and new questions to analyze together.
We also invite instructional coaches and principals to attend. This builds a shared professional language and strengthens communication across the system. The consistency it creates is particularly powerful for new teachers who are still building confidence in their instructional decision-making.
The result?
Teachers now invite feedback.
Coaches feel like instructional partners, not evaluators.
Everyone is rowing in the same direction.
This shared understanding has become one of the most transformative parts of our district’s math journey.
Results we can see
In the past five years, Charleston County’s math scores have climbed roughly 10 percentage points. But the most meaningful growth is happening inside classrooms:
Students are reasoning more deeply.
Teachers demonstrate stronger content knowledge and efficacy in using math models.
PLC conversations focus on evidence of student thinking.
Instruction is more intentional and responsive.
Teachers are also the first to tell you whether PD is worth their time…and our teachers are asking for more. Many return to complete a second or third strand, and sometimes all four. We even have educators take the same strand more than once just to pick up on something they may have missed the first time. The desire to deepen their expertise shows just how impactful this learning has been. Participants also find it powerful to engage in a room where the collective experience spans multiple grade levels. This structure supports our goal of strengthening vertical alignment across the district.
Prioritizing professional learning that works
When professional learning builds teacher expertise rather than compliance, everything changes. This approach doesn’t tell teachers what to teach; it helps them understand how students learn.
And once teachers gain that insight, classrooms shift. Conversations deepen. Confidence grows. Students stop memorizing math and start truly understanding it.
Jason Aldridge, Charleston County School District
Jason Aldridge is the District Senior Math Coordinator – K-12, Charleston County School District (SC).
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BATON ROUGE, La. —About two dozen second graders sat on the carpet at the front of Jacquelyn Anthony’s classroom, reviewing how to make tens. “Two needs eight!” the students yelled out together. “Six needs four!”
“The numbers may get a little trickier,” Anthony told them next. “But remember, the numbers we need to make 10 are still there.” The students then turned confidently to bigger calculations: Forty-six needs four ones to make a new number divisible by 10; 128 needs two to make 13 tens.
At the end of the hour, the second graders slung on their backpacks, gathered their Chromebooks and lined up at the door before heading to English and social studies class across the hall. While most schools wait until middle school to transition students from one class to another, kids at Louisiana’s Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts do so starting at age 6 or 7. It’s part of a strategy known as departmentalizing, or platooning.
Anthony, rather than teaching all four core subjects, specializes in math. The school’s new facility, built in 2025, was designed with departmentalizing in mind: The classrooms have huge glass windows, so teachers can see their next class preparing to line up in the hallway.
“Teaching today is so different than it was a long time ago, and there are so many demands on them. And the demand to be an expert in your content area is very high,” said Sydney Hebert, magnet site coordinator for the art-focused public school in the East Baton Rouge Parish school district. “We want to make sure that our teachers are experts in what they’re teaching so that they can do a good job of teaching it to the kids.”
As schools contend with a decades-long slump in math scores — exacerbated by the pandemic — some are turning to this classroom strategy even for very young students. In recent years, more elementary schools have opted to departmentalize some grade levels in an attempt to boost academic achievement. The share of fourth and fifth grade classrooms operating on this schedule has doubled since the year 2000, from 15 percent to 30 percent in 2021. Often, that means educators will specialize in one or two subjects at most, such as fourth grade English language arts and social studies, or fifth grade math and science. The theory is that teachers who specialize will be more familiar with the content and better able to teach it.
That may be particularly important for math: Studies have shown that some early elementary school teachers experience anxiety about the subject and question their ability to teach it. Educators also say that the curriculum and standards for math and English in the early grades are changing rapidly in some districts and have become more complicated over time. In a departmentalized setup, it’s also far less likely that math instruction will get shortchanged by an educator who prefers spending time on other subjects.
Jacquelyn Anthony teaches second grade students math at Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts on Dec. 9, 2025, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Credit: Annie Flanagan for The Hechinger Report
But while some schools swear by this model, the research on it is mixed.
One prominent 2018 study on the practice in Houston public schools found it had a negative effect on test scores, behavior and attendance. The study doesn’t explain why that was the case, but the researcher said it could be because teachers on this schedule spend less time with individual students.
Another study published in 2024 analyzing Massachusetts schools had different outcomes: Researchers found moderate gains in academic achievement for ELA and a significant boost to science scores for students in departmentalized classes. The results in math, however, showed few gains.
Generally, teachers specialize in the subject they are most comfortable teaching. When a school departmentalizes for the first time, principals typically look at each educator’s test score data over time to determine whether they should specialize in math or reading.
“There are some arguments that, at least if it’s someone who likes the subject, who is passionate about the subject, you have a greater chance of them doing a better job of delivering instruction,” said Latrenda Knighten, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. “But you’ll find mixed reviews.”
Yet there are a few reasons why the strategy is typically reserved for students in older grades, according to school leaders: Spending all day with one teacher increases the bond between the teacher and student, which is important for younger children. In Baton Rouge, Anthony teaches 50 students throughout the day instead of the same 25 students all day.
“Teachers want to get to know their students,” said Dennis Willingham, superintendent of Walker County Schools in Alabama. The district departmentalized some fifth grade classrooms decades ago, but recently added third and fourth grade classes on this schedule. “You tend to see less departmentalization below third grade because of the nurturing element.”
It’s also generally more challenging for young students to quickly change classrooms, even for electives, which means lost instructional time. Smaller elementary schools may also struggle to hire enough teachers to schedule all of them on a departmentalized setup.
But increasingly, schools that are satisfied with this approach for older grade levels are trying it out with their younger grades, too.
After the pandemic, the San Tan Heights Elementary School in Arizona changed its curriculum to one that was more rigorous, and it became harder for the third grade educators to master the standards of all four subject areas, said Henry Saylor-Scheetz, principal at the time.
He proposed that third graders be taught by separate math, English language arts and reading teachers. “I told them, let’s try it for a semester. If it doesn’t work at the end of the year, we’ll go back,” Saylor-Scheetz said.
Ten days into the experiment, teachers told him they never wanted to return to the old schedule. In the subsequent years, the school added more classrooms on this model until, by 2023, all K-8 students were departmentalized. For the last few years, teacher retention at the school was 95 percent, according to Saylor-Scheetz.
Saylor-Scheetz, who last year became principal of a nearby middle school, credited the change for helping the school improve from a C rating on its state report card — a rating it had stagnated at every year since 2018 — to a B rating as of 2022. Since then, more schools in his Arizona school district have shifted to this schedule.
“I’d love to see this become something we do as a nation, but it is a paradigm shift,” Saylor-Scheetz said. “There’s merit in doing it, but there has to be a commitment to it.”
At Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts, students in first through third grades have two partner teachers, one for math and science and another for ELA and social studies. The school has been operating on this schedule for third through fifth grade students for more than a decade. Eight years ago, its leaders decided to try it for first and second grade students, too, and were pleased with the results.
On a December morning at the school, young students talked quietly with each other in the hall as they lined up to go from math class to English language arts. All told, the switch took less than five minutes. “We’re at the end of the second nine weeks, so we’ve had a lot of practice,” said GiGi Boudreaux, the assistant principal.
The strategy has not always been successful, though.
During the pandemic, administrators also attempted to departmentalize its kindergarten classes. It didn’t work as they’d hoped: It was a challenge to get the 5-year-olds to quickly change classes and focus on classwork again once they did. Parents also didn’t like it. The school then tried moving teachers from classroom to classroom instead of moving students, but the educators hated it.
“It was too much, so we didn’t do it after that,” said Hebert.
The Baton Rouge school doesn’t have comparison data to show that students perform better in a departmentalized setup, but most educators in the school prefer it, Hebert said. Third grade test scores from 2015 — before the school departmentalized its younger grade levels — showed 73 percent scored “advanced” and “mastery” level on the state ELA test, and 56 percent scored advanced or mastery on the math test. In 2025, 80 percent of third grade students scored advanced or mastery in ELA and 55 percent in math.
“I know that the teachers like it better, and the kids have adapted to it,” Hebert said.
Teachers meet weekly with their partner teachers and grade-level counterparts to discuss their classes and progress on the state standards. Once a quarter, all of the math teachers across the grades meet to talk about strategies and student performance.
At Deer Valley Unified School District in Arizona, departmentalizing some classrooms has helped reduce teacher turnover, said Superintendent Curtis Finch, particularly for early career educators, who can find it challenging to master the content and standards of all four subjects.
“If you’re not confident in your subject, then you don’t have good examples off the top of your head. You can’t control the room, can’t pull the students in,” Finch said.
Jacquelyn Anthony specializes in second grade math and science at the Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts, a public elementary school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Credit: Annie Flanagan for The Hechinger Report
There are drawbacks though, Finch acknowledged. In a self-contained classroom, teachers can more easily integrate their different lessons, so that a math lesson might refer back to a topic covered in reading.
And even though Anthony, the second grade math and science teacher in Baton Rouge, loves teaching math, she also misses the extra time she could spend with each student when she had the same 25 children in her class all day for the entire school year.
“It was a joy for me to be self-contained and to build that little family,” Anthony said. “I think the social emotional needs of students are best met in that type of environment. But being solely a math teacher, I do get to just dig in and focus on the nuance of the content.”
For Anthony’s partner teacher across the hall, Holley McArthur, teaching 50 students ELA and social studies is easier than having to teach 25 students math.
“This is my thing: reading books, comprehending and finding answers, meeting their goals,” said McArthur, who has taught in both kinds of classrooms over three decades in education.
While McArthur’s kids were at recess this mid-December day, the veteran teacher was grading their reading worksheets. A new student had transferred in from out of state midyear, and she was still evaluating his reading skills.
“I think you still get to know the kids, even if you just have them for three hours a day, because I’m not doing the hard math with them.”
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eSchool News is counting down the 10 most-read stories of 2025. Story #4 focuses on making math instruction more relevant to students.
Key points:
How much longer will we keep trying to solve our nation’s dismal math proficiency problem by writing new math problems? Clearly, if that was the answer, it would have worked by now–but it hasn’t, as evidenced by decades of low proficiencies, historic declines post-COVID, and the widest outcome gaps in the world.
The real question students are asking is, “When am I ever going to use this?” As a former math teacher, I learned that addressing this question head-on made all the difference. Students’ success in math wasn’t found in a book–it was found in how math applied to them, in its relevance to their future career plans. When math concepts were connected to real-world scenarios, they transformed from distant and abstract ideas into meaningful, tangible skills.
My first-hand experience proved the premise of education innovator Dr. Bill Daggett’s “rigor-relevance-relationship” framework. If students know what they’re learning has real-life implications, meaning and purpose will ensure that they become more motivated and actively engaged in their learning.
Years later, I founded the nonprofit Pathway2Careers with a commitment to use education research to inform good policy and effective practice. From that foundation, we set out on a path to develop a first-of-its-kind approach to math instruction that led with relevance through career-connected learning (CCL).
In our initial pilot study in 2021, students overwhelmingly responded positively to the curriculum. After using our career-connected math lessons, 100 percent of students reported increased interest in learning math this way. Additionally, they expressed heightened curiosity about various career pathways–a significant shift in engagement.
In a more comprehensive survey of 537 students spanning grades 7–11 (with the majority in grades 8 and 9) in 2023, the results reinforced this transformation. Students reported a measurable increase in motivation, with:
48 percent expressing “much more” or “slightly more” interest in learning math
52 percent showing greater curiosity about how math skills are applied in careers
55 percent indicating newfound interest in specific career fields
60 percent wanting to explore different career options
54 percent expressing a stronger desire to learn how other skills translate to careers
Educators also noted significant benefits. Teachers using the curriculum regularly–daily or weekly–overwhelmingly rated it as effective. Specifically, 86 percent indicated it was “very effective” or “somewhat effective” in increasing student engagement, and 73 percent highlighted improved understanding of math’s relevance to career applications. Other reported benefits included students’ increased interest in pursuing higher education and gaining awareness of various postsecondary options like certificates, associate degrees, and bachelor’s degrees.
Building on these promising indicators of engagement, we analyzed students’ growth in learning as measured by Quantile assessments administered at the start and end of the academic year. The results exceeded expectations:
In Pre-Algebra, students surpassed the national average gain by 101 Quantiles (141Q vs. 40Q)
Algebra I students achieved more than triple the expected gains (110Q vs. 35Q)
Geometry learners outpaced the average by 90 Quantiles (125Q vs. 35Q)
Algebra II showed the most significant growth, with students outperforming the norm by 168 Quantiles (198Q vs. 30Q)
These outcomes are a testament to the power of relevance in education. By embedding math concepts within real-world career contexts, we transformed abstract concepts into meaningful, tangible skills. Students not only mastered math content at unprecedented levels but also began to see the subject as a critical tool for their futures.
What we found astounded even us, though we shouldn’t have been surprised, based on decades of research that indicated what would happen. Once we answered the question of when students would use this, their mastery of the math content took on purpose and meaning. Contextualizing math is the path forward for math instruction across the country.
And there’s no time to waste. As a recent Urban Institute study indicated, students’ math proficiencies were even more significant than reading in positively impacting their later earning power. If we can change students’ attitudes about math, not just their math problems, the economic benefits to students, families, communities, and states will be profound.
Dr. Joseph Goins, Pathway2Careers
Dr. Joseph Goins is the founder and CEO of Pathway2Careers, LLC, and a former Tennessee Teacher of the Year nominee. To learn more about Pathway2Careers, visit www.p2c.org.
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TONIGHT, A STORY ABOUT RUNNING OUTRUNNING RATHER LIMITS WHILE DEFYING THE ODDS FOR ONE ALABAMA TEENAGER. THIS ALL BEGAN THOUSANDS OF MILES FROM HERE. ONLY ON 13 TONIGHT, BRITTANY DECKER INTRODUCES YOU TO AN OAK MOUNTAIN STUDENT ON THE FAST TRACK. AFTER A JOURNEY THAT SPANS THE GLOBE. I’M GOING TO FOLLOW YOU. DON’T GO TOO FAST. OKAY? BEFORE CHASE EVEN RAN A RACE, BEFORE HE SPOKE A WORD OF ENGLISH. BEFORE HE HAD A FAMILY CHEERING IN THE STANDS. HE HAD THIS. A BRACELET, LEATHER WITH A SINGLE THREAD GIVEN TO A LITTLE BOY IN A CHINESE ORPHANAGE BY THE MAN WHO FIRST TAUGHT HIM HOW TO WALK. NO ONE KNOWS HIS TITLE. THERAPIST. CARE WORKER. ALL THEY KNOW IS HE SAW POTENTIAL IN A CHILD. THE SYSTEM HAD ALREADY GIVEN UP ON. THEY KIND OF DEEM A PERSON WITH ANY TYPE OF DISABILITY AS JUST NOT AT THE HIGH ENOUGH LEVEL FOR SOCIETY. NOW IT’S IN HIS HAND, A REMINDER OF THE MILES BEHIND HIM AND EVERYTHING HE’S STILL CHASING. AFTER ALL, THAT NAME WASN’T AN ACCIDENT. I WANTED TO INCORPORATE HIS CHINESE NAME, WHICH IS TAOTAO, AND SO WE KEPT TAO’S MIDDLE NAME. BUT I TOLD HIM I WAS LIKE, I THINK WE NEED TO KEEP CHASE BECAUSE I THINK GOD WANTS US TO CHASE AFTER HIM. WE KNEW, LIKE, YOU KNOW, GOD HAD CALLED US TO ADOPT A BOY OLDER THAN THEY EXPECTED. 11 AT THE TIME, NOT THE 5 TO 7 YEARS OLD THEY PLANNED FOR A BOY WHOSE FIRST ADOPTION HAD FALLEN THROUGH. A BOY WHO IN CHINA WAS MONTHS AWAY FROM AGING OUT FOREVER. BUT THIS FAMILY REFUSED TO GIVE UP. WE REALLY HAD TO ADVOCATE AND SAY WE WANT HIM APPROVED. IN LATE 2019. HOME. IN JANUARY 2020, JUST DAYS BEFORE FLIGHTS SHUT DOWN, WE WERE ACTUALLY THE LAST FAMILY WITH LIFELINE TO COME BACK FROM CHINA. HE JUMPED ON IN OUR FAMILY AND HADN’T SKIPPED A BEAT. YOU KNOW, WE JUST IMMERSED HIM JUST INTO OUR FAMILY IMMEDIATELY AND HE ADAPTED WELL. HE WAS READY TO GO TO SCHOOL, READY TO MEET NEW PEOPLE. CHASE IN THE ORPHANAGE. CHASE SAYS EDUCATION WASN’T AN OPTION. WITHOUT EDUCATION. YOU CANNOT YOU CANNOT REALLY DO MUCH. BUT IN THE CLASSROOM AT OAK MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL, HE THRIVES. I MET CHASE ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO. OKAY, HERE YOU GO, CHASE. ONE DAY I WAS IN MY ROOM. YOU READY? YES. THERE YOU GO. AND I WAS GOING TO ERASE SOME MATH PROBLEMS OFF THE BOARD. AND CHASE WALKED IN AND HE STARTED ASKING ABOUT THEM. AND A LOT OF THE PROBLEMS I HAD UP THERE WERE AP PRE-CALCULUS AND AP CALCULUS. I CAN DO ARE 12 ANIMALS. PRETTY GOOD? THAT’S GREAT. GOOD JOB. HE’S HARD WORKING AND HE’S VERY DETERMINED AT SCHOOL ON THE TRACK. IN LIFE, NOTHING KEEPS CHASE DOWN, POP BACK UP, BLOODY AND ALL RAN AND FINISHED THAT RACE. AND THEN THEY GAVE HIM THE CHASE LEVEL AWARD. HE DOES HAVE SOME LIMITATIONS, BUT TO BE HONEST WITH YOU, YOU DON’T SEE HIM ON THE TRACK AT ALL. AND IT’S NICE BECAUSE I THINK HE’S A LOT OF TEAMS RECOGNIZE WHO HE IS. AND SO WHEN HE GOES TO MEETS, IT’S A LOT OF CHASE, CHASE, CHASE. HE JUST THE DESIRE THAT HE HAS TO MAKE IT ONCE WITH NO FAMILY, HE NOW WAVES TO HIS OWN IN THE BLEACHERS, A BRACELET IN HIS HAND, A FINISH LINE AHEAD AND A LIFE HE STILL QUITE LITERALLY CHASING. HIS JOURNEY WAS RECOGNIZED STATEWIDE RECENTLY, WHEN THE GOVERNOR HONORED CHASE AT THE ALABAMA GOVERNOR’S COMMITT
A young man’s journey from Chinese orphanage to high school track star
Before Chase Lovell ever ran a race, spoke a word of English or had a cheering family in the stands, he had a bracelet.Leather, worn, with a single thread. It was given to him in a Chinese orphanage by the man who first taught him how to walk. No one knew the man’s official title, therapist or caretaker, but he saw potential in a child the system had already given up on.“They kind of deem a person with any kind of disability as just not at the high enough level for society,” said Adam Lovell, Chase’s adoptive father.The bracelet stayed with Chase, a reminder of the miles behind him and everything he’s still chasing. His name, “Chase,” wasn’t chosen by accident.“We kept his Chinese name, Tao Tao, as his middle name, but ‘Chase’? I told him I think God wants us to chase after him,” said Miranda Lovell, his mother.Chase’s adoption was not simple. His family initially planned to adopt a 5 to 7-year-old, but Chase was 11. A previous adoption had fallen through, and he was months away from aging out of the system. But the Lovells refused to give up. “We really had to advocate and say we want him. I wrote more words to China than I ever have, telling them I’m a speech pathologist, we have resources, therapies — we can give him everything he needs,” Miranda Lovell said.Approved in late 2019, Chase arrived home in January 2020, just days before flights shut down worldwide.“He jumped on in our family and hadn’t skipped a beat,” Miranda said.In China, Chase had little access to education.“Without education, you cannot really do much,” he said.But at Oak Mountain High School, he thrives in math, in the classroom, and on the track.One teacher recalls, “I met Chase about two years ago. One day, I was erasing math problems off the board, and Chase walked over asking about them — a lot of the problems were AP pre-calculus and AP calculus.” Chase said, “I can do 12th-grade math pretty good.”On the track, nothing keeps him down. When he fell during a race, the crowd held its breath — but he popped back up and finished strong. His determination earned him the Chase Lovell Award. “He does have some limitations, but you don’t see them on the track. A lot of teams recognize who he is and so when he goes to meets, it’s a lot of, ‘Chase! Chase! Chase!’” said his coach.Once told that “family isn’t for you,” Chase now waves to one in the bleachers. With a bracelet in hand, a finish line ahead, and a life he’s still quite literally chasing, his story is far from over.
Before Chase Lovell ever ran a race, spoke a word of English or had a cheering family in the stands, he had a bracelet.
Leather, worn, with a single thread. It was given to him in a Chinese orphanage by the man who first taught him how to walk. No one knew the man’s official title, therapist or caretaker, but he saw potential in a child the system had already given up on.
“They kind of deem a person with any kind of disability as just not at the high enough level for society,” said Adam Lovell, Chase’s adoptive father.
The bracelet stayed with Chase, a reminder of the miles behind him and everything he’s still chasing. His name, “Chase,” wasn’t chosen by accident.
“We kept his Chinese name, Tao Tao, as his middle name, but ‘Chase’? I told him I think God wants us to chase after him,” said Miranda Lovell, his mother.
Chase’s adoption was not simple. His family initially planned to adopt a 5 to 7-year-old, but Chase was 11. A previous adoption had fallen through, and he was months away from aging out of the system. But the Lovells refused to give up.
“We really had to advocate and say we want him. I wrote more words to China than I ever have, telling them I’m a speech pathologist, we have resources, therapies — we can give him everything he needs,” Miranda Lovell said.
Approved in late 2019, Chase arrived home in January 2020, just days before flights shut down worldwide.
“He jumped on in our family and hadn’t skipped a beat,” Miranda said.
In China, Chase had little access to education.
“Without education, you cannot really do much,” he said.
But at Oak Mountain High School, he thrives in math, in the classroom, and on the track.
One teacher recalls, “I met Chase about two years ago. One day, I was erasing math problems off the board, and Chase walked over asking about them — a lot of the problems were AP pre-calculus and AP calculus.”
Chase said, “I can do 12th-grade math pretty good.”
On the track, nothing keeps him down. When he fell during a race, the crowd held its breath — but he popped back up and finished strong. His determination earned him the Chase Lovell Award.
“He does have some limitations, but you don’t see them on the track. A lot of teams recognize who he is and so when he goes to meets, it’s a lot of, ‘Chase! Chase! Chase!’” said his coach.
Once told that “family isn’t for you,” Chase now waves to one in the bleachers. With a bracelet in hand, a finish line ahead, and a life he’s still quite literally chasing, his story is far from over.
When my oldest child was a 2-year-old, we relocated to a new state and I found myself back at square one with my search for child care. In my new city, I now had a very good problem: There was an abundance of programs with availability, and I had a choice of where to enroll my son. As I toured a half-dozen of them, however, I worried that even as an early childhood reporter, I wasn’t asking the right questions or paying attention to the right thing.
A few months later, our early childhood team at Hechinger launched a project digging into the elements of a high-quality preschool. That article and the corresponding video became a quick and easy guide as I looked at options for my second child. It’s what I sent to friends who asked me for advice while navigating their own searches.
While I love telling stories from the field, my colleagues and I are also passionate about providing helpful tools and guides for teachers and caregivers. Here are a few of my favorite early ed “cheat sheets” from our decade of reporting on early childhood.
1. The five elements of a good preschool: What should you look for when you step inside a preschool classroom? What clues can you find on the walls or bookshelves? What questions should you ask teachers and school administrators? This video and article break it down. While classrooms and programs will vary by setting, many of these elements, like the way teachers talk to children and an emphasis on play, apply everywhere.
2. Cracking down on unsafe sleep products: As an anxious new parent, nothing scared me more than hearing about infant deaths due to unsafe sleep products. Still, when desperate and exhausted, I tried several items that I heard would help my babies sleep, including some that the American Academy of Pediatrics later discouraged in updated safe sleep guidelines in 2022. While reporting this article, I was stunned by the lack of evidence and oversight of products that many parents like myself believe are tested before they are available to buy.
3. How to boost math skills by talking about math with your kids: Most parents know how important it is to read to children. But did you know that there are easy ways caregivers can develop math skills? Earlier this year, my colleague Jill Barshay looked at a wave of research from the past dozen years on simple things adults can do to lay an early foundation in math.
4. How to answer tough questions about race and racism with your children: Research shows racial stereotypes start early, and that’s why it’s important to talk to young children about different races and read books and offer toys that have diverse characters. Many parents feel ill equipped for these conversations, however. In 2020, I asked three experts how they would respond to real questions from young kids about race and racism so adults feel better prepared for the questions that children inevitably ask.
5. How parents can support their kids with play: With all the challenges of being a parent, it can be hard to hear there’s yet another thing we should be doing. But this 2023 conversation with researcher Charlotte Anne Wright helped me reframe the way I think about play and my role in it with my own children. While it’s important to give children opportunities for free play, Wright’s research shows “guided play,” or play with a learning goal in mind and light support from a parent, can have benefits for children, too. It’s not as heavy of a lift as it sounds, and Wright provides simple ways parents can engage in playful learning with their children on bus rides and trips to the laundromat.
This story about preschoolers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
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When we imagine the future of America’s workforce, we often picture engineers, coders, scientists, and innovators tackling the challenges of tomorrow. However, the truth is that a student’s future does not begin in a college classroom, or even in high school–it starts in the earliest years of a child’s education.
Early exposure to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) builds the foundation for critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. Research indicates that children introduced to STEAM concepts before the age of eight are significantly more likely to pursue STEM-related fields later in life. Yet for too many children, especially neurodivergent learners and those in underserved communities, STEAM education comes too late or not at all. That gap represents a missed opportunity not only for those children, but also for the industries and communities that will rely on their talents in the future.
The missed opportunity in early education
In most school systems, STEAM instruction ramps up in middle school or high school, long after the formative years when children are naturally most curious and open to exploring. By waiting until later grades, we miss the chance to harness early curiosity, which is the spark that drives innovation.
This late introduction disproportionately affects children with disabilities or learning differences. These learners often benefit from structured, hands-on exploration and thrive when provided with tools to connect abstract concepts to real-world applications. Without early access, they may struggle to build confidence or see themselves as capable contributors to fields like aerospace, technology, or engineering. If STEAM employers fail to cultivate neurodivergent learners, they miss out on theirunique problem-solving skills, specialized strengths, and diverse thinking that drives true innovation. Beyond shrinking the talent pipeline, this oversight risks stalling progress in fields like aerospace, energy, and technology while weakening their competitive edge.
The result is a long-term underrepresentation of neurodivergent individuals in high-demand, high-paying fields. Without access to an early STEAM curriculum, both neurodivergent students and employers will miss opportunities for advancement.
Why neurodivergent learners benefit most
Neurodivergent learners, such as children with autism, ADHD, or dyslexia, often excel when lessons are tactile, visual, and inquiry-based. Early STEAM education naturally aligns with these learning styles. For example, building a simple bridge with blocks is more than play; it’s an exercise in engineering, problem-solving, and teamwork. Programming a toy robot introduces logic, sequencing, and cause-and-effect.
These types of early STEAM experiences also support executive functioning, improve social-emotional development, and build persistence. These are crucial skills in STEM careers, where theories often fail, and continued experimentation is necessary. Additionally, building these skills helps children see themselves as creators and innovators rather than passive participants in their education.
When neurodivergent children are given access to STEAM at an early age, they are not only better equipped academically but also more confident in their ability to belong in spaces that have traditionally excluded them.
Houston as a case study
Here in Houston, we recognize the importance of early STEAM education in shaping our collective future. As the world’s Energy Capital and a hub for aerospace innovation, Houston’s economy will continue to rely on the next generation of thinkers, builders and problem-solvers. That pipeline begins not in a university laboratory, but in preschool classrooms and afterschool programs.
At Collaborative for Children, we’ve seen this firsthand through our Collab-Lab, a mobile classroom that brings hands-on STEAM experiences to underserved neighborhoods. In these spaces, children experiment with coding, explore engineering principles, and engage in collaborative problem-solving long before they reach middle school. For neurodivergent learners in particular, the Collab-Lab provides an environment where curiosity is encouraged, mistakes are celebrated as part of the learning process, and every child has the chance to succeed. Additionally, we are equipping the teachers in our 125 Centers of Excellence throughout the city in practical teaching modalities for neurodivergent learners. We are committed to creating equal opportunity for all students.
Our approach demonstrates what is possible when early childhood education is viewed not just as childcare, but as workforce development. If we can prioritize early STEAM access in Houston, other cities across the country can also expand access for all students.
A national priority
To prepare America’s workforce for the challenges ahead, we must treat early STEAM education as a national priority. This requires policymakers, educators and industry leaders to collaborate in new and meaningful ways.
Here are three critical steps we must take:
Expand funding and resources for early STEAM curriculum. Every preschool and early elementary program should have access to inquiry-based materials that spark curiosity in young learners.
Ensure inclusion of neurodivergent learners in program design. Curricula and classrooms must reflect diverse learning needs so that all children, regardless of ability, have the opportunity to engage fully.
Forge stronger partnerships between early education and industry. Employers in aerospace, energy, and technology should see investment in early childhood STEAM as part of their long-term workforce strategy.
The stakes are high. If we delay STEAM learning until later grades, we risk leaving behind countless children and narrowing the talent pipeline that will fuel our nation’s most critical industries. But if we act early, we unlock not just potential careers, but potential lives filled with confidence, creativity and contribution.
Closing thoughts
The innovators of tomorrow are sitting in preschool classrooms today. They are building with blocks, asking “why,” and imagining worlds we cannot yet see. Among them are children who are neurodivergent–who, with the proper support, may go on to design spacecrafts, engineer renewable energy solutions, or code the next groundbreaking technology.
If we want a future that is diverse, inclusive, and innovative, the path is clear: We must start with STEAM education in the earliest years, for every child.
Dr. Melanie Johnson, Collaborative for Children
Dr. Melanie Johnson is the President & CEO of the Collaborative for Children.
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Far too many students enter math class expecting to fail. For them, math isn’t just a subject–it’s a source of anxiety that chips away at their confidence and makes them question their abilities. A growing conversation around math phobia is bringing this crisis into focus. A recentarticle, for example, unpacked the damage caused by the belief that “I’m just not a math person” and argued that traditional math instruction often leaves even bright, capable students feeling defeated.
When a single subject holds such sway over not just academic outcomes but a student’s sense of self and future potential, we can’t afford to treat this as business as usual. It’s not enough to explore why this is happening. We need to focus on how to fix it. And I believe the answer lies in rethinking how we teach math, aligning instruction with the way the brain actually learns.
Context first, then content
A key shortcoming of traditional math curriculum–and a major contributor to students’ fear of math–is the lack of meaningful context. Our brains rely on context to make sense of new information, yet math is often taught in isolation from how we naturally learn. The fix isn’t simply throwing in more “real-world” examples. What students truly need is context, and visual examples are one of the best ways to get there. When math concepts are presented visually, students can better grasp the structure of a problem and follow the logic behind each step, building deeper understanding and confidence along the way.
In traditional math instruction, students are often taught a new concept by being shown a procedure and then practicing it repeatedly in hopes that understanding will eventually follow. But this approach is backward. Our brains don’t learn that way, especially when it comes to math. Students need context first. Without existing schemas to draw from, they struggle to make sense of new ideas. Providing context helps them build the mental frameworks necessary for real understanding.
Why visual-first context matters
Visual-first context gives students the tools they need to truly understand math. A curriculum built around visual-first exploration allows students to have an interactive experience–poking and prodding at a problem, testing ideas, observing patterns, and discovering solutions. From there, students develop procedures organically, leading to a deeper, more complete understanding. Using visual-first curriculum activates multiple parts of the brain, creating a deeper, lasting understanding. Shifting to a math curriculum that prioritizes introducing new concepts through a visual context makes math more approachable and accessible by aligning with how the brain naturally learns.
To overcome “math phobia,” we also need to rethink the heavy emphasis on memorization in today’s math instruction. Too often, students can solve problems not because they understand the underlying concepts, but because they’ve memorized a set of steps. This approach limits growth and deeper learning. Memorization of the right answers does not lead to understanding, but understanding can lead to the right answers.
Take, for example, a third grader learning their times tables. The third grader can memorize the answers to each square on the times table along with its coordinating multipliers, but that doesn’t mean they understand multiplication. If, instead, they grasp how multiplication works–what it means–they can figure out the times tables on their own. The reverse isn’t true. Without conceptual understanding, students are limited to recall, which puts them at a disadvantage when trying to build off previous knowledge.
Learning from other subjects
To design a math curriculum that aligns with how the brain naturally learns new information, we can take cues from how other subjects are taught. In English, for example, students don’t start by memorizing grammar rules in isolation–they’re first exposed to those rules within the context of stories. Imagine asking a student to take a grammar quiz before they’ve ever read a sentence–that would seem absurd. Yet in math, we often expect students to master procedures before they’ve had any meaningful exposure to the concepts behind them.
Most other subjects are built around context. Students gain background knowledge before being expected to apply what they’ve learned. By giving students a story or a visual context for the mind to process–breaking it down and making connections–students can approach problems like a puzzle or game, instead of a dreaded exercise. Math can do the same. By adopting the contextual strategies used in other subjects, math instruction can become more intuitive and engaging, moving beyond the traditional textbook filled with equations.
Math doesn’t have to be a source of fear–it can be a source of joy, curiosity, and confidence. But only if we design it the way the brain learns: with visuals first, understanding at the center, and every student in mind. By using approaches that provide visual-first context, students can engage with math in a way that mirrors how the brain naturally learns. This shift in learning makes math more approachable and accessible for all learners.
Nigel Nisbet, Mind Education
Armed with a mathematics degree and early success as a rock musician, Nigel Nisbet moved to the US to teach mathematics, AP Physics and AP Computer Science at Van Nuys Senior High, where he pioneered integrating technology into the classroom. After a spell in district mathematics leadership at the Los Angeles Unified School District, Nisbet joined the nonprofit Mind Education team as the vice president of content creation. To continue reading about how the brain learns, visit https://www.mindeducation.org/.
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But in some ways, the proof was a bit unsatisfying. Jitomirskaya and Avila had used a method that only applied to certain irrational values of alpha. By combining it with an intermediate proof that came before it, they could say the problem was solved. But this combined proof wasn’t elegant. It was a patchwork quilt, each square stitched out of distinct arguments.
Moreover, the proofs only settled the conjecture as it was originally stated, which involved making simplifying assumptions about the electron’s environment. More realistic situations are messier: Atoms in a solid are arranged in more complicated patterns, and magnetic fields aren’t quite constant. “You’ve verified it for this one model, but what does that have to do with reality?” said Simon Becker, a mathematician at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
These more realistic situations require you to tweak the part of the Schrödinger equation where alpha appears. And when you do, the 10-martini proof stops working. “This was always disturbing to me,” Jitomirskaya said.
The breakdown of the proof in these broader contexts also implied that the beautiful fractal patterns that had emerged—the Cantor sets, the Hofstadter butterfly—were nothing more than a mathematical curiosity, something that would disappear once the equation was made more realistic.
Avila and Jitomirskaya moved on to other problems. Even Hofstadter had doubts. If an experiment ever saw his butterfly, he’d written in Gödel, Escher, Bach, “I would be the most surprised person in the world.”
But in 2013, a group of physicists at Columbia University captured his butterfly in a lab. They placed two thin layers of graphene in a magnetic field, then measured the energy levels of the graphene’s electrons. The quantum fractal emerged in all its glory. “Suddenly it went from a figment of the mathematician’s imagination to something practical,” Jitomirskaya said. “It became very unsettling.”
In Illinois, the Chicago Teachers Union won a contract with the city’s schools to add solar panels on some buildings and clean energy career pathways for students, among other actions. In Minnesota, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators demanded that the district create a task force on environmental issues and provide free metro passes for students. And in California, the Los Angeles teachers union’s demands include electrifying the district’s bus fleet and providing electric vehicle charging stations at all schools.
Those are among the examples in a new report on how unionized teachers are pushing their school districts to take action on the climate crisis, which is damaging school buildings and disrupting learning. The report — produced by the nonprofit Building Power Resource Center, which supports local governments and leaders, and the Labor Network for Sustainability, a nonprofit that seeks to unite labor and climate groups — describes how educators can raise demands for climate action when they negotiate labor contracts with their districts. By emphasizing the financial case for switching to renewable energy, educators can simultaneously act on climate change, improve conditions in schools and save districts money, it says.
As federal support and financial incentives for climate action wither, this sort of local action is becoming more difficult — but also more urgent, advocates say. Chicago Public Schools has relied on funding for electric buses that has been sunsetted by the Trump administration, said Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. But the district is also seeking other local and state funding and nonprofit support.
Bradley Marianno, an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said that educator unions embracing climate action is part of a move started about 15 years ago in which more progressive unions — like those in Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere — focus on “collective good bargaining,” or advocating for changes that are good for their members but also the broader community. But this approach is unlikely to catch on everywhere: “The risk lies in members feeling that core issues like wages and working conditions are being overlooked in favor of more global causes,” he wrote in an email.
I recently caught up with Potter, the CTU vice president, about the report and his union’s approach to bargaining for climate action. Collaborating with local environmental and community groups, the Chicago Teachers Union ultimately succeeded in winning a contract that calls for identifying schools for solar panels and electrification, expanding indoor air quality monitoring, helping educators integrate climate change into their curriculum, and establishing training for students in clean energy jobs, among other steps.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The report talks about contract negotiations being an underused — and effective — lever for demanding climate action. Why do you see that process as such an opportunity for climate action?
On the local level, our schools are 84, 83 years old on average. There is lead paint, lead pipes, mold, asbestos, PCBs, all kinds of contamination in the HVAC system and the walls that require upgrades. By our estimate, the district needs $30 billion worth of upgrades, and right now I think they spend $500 million a year to just do patch-up work. We’re at a point where it’s a system fail of epic proportions if we can’t figure out a way to transition and make things healthier. And so if you’re going to do a roof repair, put solar on it, have independence from fossil fuels, clean air in areas that have faced environmental racism and contamination.
We’re also dealing with a legacy of discrimination and harm, and that is true of the nation. So how do we get out of this and also save the planet and also prevent greater climate events that further destabilize vulnerable communities and put people at risk? It made sense for us to use our contract as a path to do both things — deal with this local crisis that was screaming for new solutions and ideas, in a moment when the climate is on fire, literally.
How challenging was it to get educators to view climate issues as a priority? There are so many other things, around pay and other issues, on the table.
When we started, it almost felt like people in the membership, in the community, viewed it as a niche issue. Like, ‘Oh, isn’t that cute, you care about green technology.’ As we figured out how to think about it and talk about it and probe where people were having issues in their schools, it became really obvious that when you started talking about asbestos, lead and mold remediation — and helping communities that have been hit the hardest with cumulative impacts and carcinogens and how those things are present in schools — that became much more tangible. Or even quality food and lunch and breakfast for students who are low-income. It went from bottom of the list to top of the list, instantaneously.
Your contract calls for a number of climate-related actions, including green pathways for students and agreements with building trade unions to create good jobs for students. Tell me about that.
We’re trying to use the transformation of our facilities as another opportunity for families and students in these communities that have been harmed the most to get the greatest benefit from the transformation. So if we can install solar, we want our students to be part of that project on the ground in their schools, gaining the skills and apprenticeship credentials to become the electricians of the future. And using that as a project labor agreement [which establishes the terms of work on a certain project] with the trades to open doors and opportunities. The same goes for all the other improvements — whether it’s heat pumps, HVAC systems, geothermal. And for EV — we have outdated auto shop programming that’s exclusively based on the combustible engine reliant on fossil fuels, whereas in [the nearby city of] Belvidere they are building electric cars per the United Auto Workers’ new contract. Could we gain a career path on electric vehicles that allows students to gain that mechanical knowledge and insight and prepares them for the vehicles of the future?
The report talks about the Batesville School District in Arkansas that was able to increase teacher salaries because of savings from solar. Have you tried to make the case for higher teacher salaries because of these climate steps?
The $500 million our district allocates for facility upgrades annually comes out of the general fund, so we haven’t at all thought about it in terms of salary. We’ve thought about it in terms of having a school nurse, social worker, mental health interventions at a moment when there is so much trauma. We see this as a win-win: The fewer dollars the district has to spend on facility needs means the more dollars they can spend on instructional and social-emotional needs for students. In terms of the Arkansas model, it’s pretty basic. If you get off the fossil fuel pipelines and electric lines and you become self-sufficient, essentially, powering your own electric and heat, there is going to be a boon, particularly if there are up-front subsidies.
Math and climate change
When temperatures rise in classrooms, students have more trouble concentrating and their learning suffers — in math, in particular. That’s according to a new report from NWEA, an education research and testing company.
The report, part of a growing body of evidence of the harms of extreme heat on student performance, found that math scores declined when outdoor temperatures on test days rose above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Students in high-poverty schools, which are less likely to have air conditioning, saw declines up to twice as large as those in wealthier schools.
The learning losses grew as temperatures rose. Students who took tests on 101-degree days scored roughly 0.06 standard deviations below students who tested when temperatures were 60 degrees, the equivalent of about 10 percent of the learning a fifth grader typically gains in a school year.
It’s not entirely clear why student math scores suffer more than reading when temperatures rise. But Sofia Postell, an NWEA research analyst, said that on math tests, students must problem-solve and rely on their memories, and that kind of thinking is particularly difficult when students are hot and tired. Anxiety could be a factor too, she wrote in an email: “Research has also shown that heat increases anxiety, and some students may experience more testing anxiety around math exams.”
The study was based on data from roughly 3 million scores on NWEA’s signature MAP Growth test for third to eighth graders in six states.
The report urged school, district and state officials to take several steps to reduce the effects of high heat on student learning and testing. Ideally, tests would be scheduled during times of the year when it wasn’t so hot, it said, and also during mornings, when temperatures are cooler. Leaders also need to invest in updating HVAC systems to keep kids cool.
“Extreme heat has already detrimentally impacted student learning and these effects will only intensify without action,” wrote Postell.
Mea culpa: A quick note to say I got two things wrong in my last newsletter — the name of the Natural Resources Defense Council was incorrect, as was the number of hours of learning California students have missed so far this year. It’s more than 54,000.
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.
This story about teachers unions was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter on climate and education.
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Social emotional learning — lessons in soft skills like listening to people you disagree with or calming yourself down before a test — has become a flashpoint in the culture wars.
The conservative political group Moms for Liberty opposes SEL, as it is often abbreviated, telling parents that its “goal is to psychologically manipulate students to accept the progressive ideology that supports gender fluidity, sexual preference exploration, and systemic oppression.” Critics say that parents should discuss social and emotional matters at home and that schools should stick to academics. Meanwhile, some advocates on the left say standard SEL classes don’t go far enough and should include such topics as social justice and anti-racism training.
While the political battle rages on, academic researchers are marshalling evidence for what high-quality SEL programs actually deliver for students. The latest study, by researchers at Yale University, summarizes 12 years of evidence, from 2008 to 2020, and it finds that 30 different SEL programs, which put themselves through 40 rigorous evaluations involving almost 34,000 students, tended to produce “moderate” academic benefits.
Related: Our free weekly newsletter alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.
The meta-analysis, published online Oct. 8 in the peer-reviewed journal Review of Educational Research, calculated that the grades and test scores of students in SEL classes improved by about 4 percentile points, on average, compared with students who didn’t receive soft-skill instruction. That’s the equivalent of moving from the 50th percentile (in the middle) to the 54th percentile (slightly above average). Reading gains were larger (more than 6 percentile points) than math gains (fewer than 4 percentile points). Longer-duration SEL programs, extending more than four months, produced double the academic gains — more than 8 percentile points.
“Social emotional learning interventions are not designed, most of the time, to explicitly improve academic achievement,” said Christina Cipriano, one of the study’s four authors and an associate professor at Yale Medical School’s Child Study Center. “And yet we demonstrated, through our meta-analytic report, that explicit social emotional learning improved academic achievement and it improved both GPA and test scores.”
Cipriano also directs the Education Collaboratory at Yale, whose mission is to “advance the science of learning and social and emotional development.”
The academic boost from SEL in this 2025 paper is much smaller than the 11 percentile points documented in an earlier 2011 meta-analysis that summarized research through 2007, when SEL had not yet gained widespread popularity in schools. That has since changed. More than 80 percent of principals of K-12 schools said their schools used an SEL curriculum during the 2023-24 school year, according to a survey by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the RAND Corporation.
The Yale researchers only studied a small subset of the SEL market, programs that subjected themselves to a rigorous evaluation and included academic outcomes. Three-quarters of the 40 studies were randomized-controlled trials, similar to pharmaceutical trials, where schools or teachers were randomly assigned to teach an SEL curriculum. The remaining studies, in which schools or teachers volunteered to participate, still had control groups of students so that researchers could compare the academic gains of students who did not receive SEL instruction.
The SEL programs in the Yale study taught a wide range of soft skills, from mindfulness and anger management to resolving conflicts and setting goals. It is unclear which soft skills are driving the academic gains. That’s an area for future research.
“Developmentally, when we think about what we know about how kids learn, emotional regulation is really the driver,” said Cipriano. “No matter how good that curriculum or that math program or reading curriculum is, if a child is feeling unsafe or anxious or stressed out or frustrated or embarrassed, they’re not available to receive the instruction, however great that teacher might be.”
Cipriano said that effective programs give students tools to cope with stressful situations. She offered the example of a pop quiz, from the perspective of a student. “You can recognize, I’m feeling nervous, my blood is rushing to my hands or my face, and I can use my strategies of counting to 10, thinking about what I know, and use positive self talk to be able to regulate, to be able to take my test,” she said.
The strongest evidence for SEL is in elementary school, where the majority of evaluations have been conducted (two-thirds of the 40 studies). For young students, SEL lessons tend to be short but frequent, for example, 10 minutes a day. There’s less evidence for middle and high school SEL programs because they haven’t been studied as much. Typically, preteens and teens have less frequent but longer sessions, a half hour or even 90 minutes, weekly or monthly.
Cipriano said that schools don’t need to spend “hours and hours” on social and emotional instruction in order to see academic benefits. A current trend is to incorporate or embed social and emotional learning within academic instruction, as part of math class, for example. But none of the underlying studies in this paper evaluated whether this was a more effective way to deliver SEL. All of the programs in this study were separate stand-alone SEL lessons.
Advice to schools
Schools are inundated by sales pitches from SEL vendors. Estimates of the market size range wildly, but a half dozen market research firms put it above $2 billion annually. Not all SEL programs are necessarily effective or can be expected to produce the academic gains that the Yale team calculated.
Cipriano advises schools not to be taken in by slick marketing. Many of the effective programs have no marketing at all and some are free. Unfortunately, some of these programs have been discontinued or have transformed through ownership changes. But she says school leaders can ask questions about which specific skills the SEL program claims to foster, whether those skills will help the district achieve its goals, such as improving school climate, and whether the program has been externally evaluated.
“Districts invest in things all the time that are flashy and pretty, across content areas, not just SEL,” said Cipriano. “It may never have had an external evaluation, but has a really great social media presence and really great marketing.”
Cipriano has also built a new website, improvingstudentoutcomes.org, to track the latest research on SEL effectiveness and to help schools identify proven programs.
Cipriano says parents should be asking questions too. “Parents should be partners in learning,” said Cipriano. “I have four kids, and I want to know what they’re learning about in school.”
This meta-analysis probably won’t stop the SEL critics who say that these programs force educators to be therapists. Groups like Moms for Liberty, which holds its national summit this week, say teachers should stick to academics. This paper rejects that dichotomy because it suggests that emotions, social interaction and academics are all interlinked.
Before criticizing all SEL programs, educators and parents need to consider the evidence.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
Since their discovery in 1982, exotic materials known as quasicrystals have bedeviled physicists and chemists. Their atoms arrange themselves into chains of pentagons, decagons, and other shapes to form patterns that never quite repeat. These patterns seem to defy physical laws and intuition. How can atoms possibly “know” how to form elaborate nonrepeating arrangements without an advanced understanding of mathematics?
“Quasicrystals are one of those things that as a materials scientist, when you first learn about them, you’re like, ‘That’s crazy,’” said Wenhao Sun, a materials scientist at the University of Michigan.
Recently, though, a spate of results has peeled back some of their secrets. In one study, Sun and collaborators adapted a method for studying crystals to determine that at least some quasicrystals are thermodynamically stable—their atoms won’t settle into a lower-energy arrangement. This finding helps explain how and why quasicrystals form. A second study has yielded a new way to engineer quasicrystals and observe them in the process of forming. And a third research group has logged previously unknown properties of these unusual materials.
Historically, quasicrystals have been challenging to create and characterize.
“There’s no doubt that they have interesting properties,” said Sharon Glotzer, a computational physicist who is also based at the University of Michigan but was not involved with this work. “But being able to make them in bulk, to scale them up, at an industrial level—[that] hasn’t felt possible, but I think that this will start to show us how to do it reproducibly.”
Vikram Gavini, Sambit Das, Woohyeon Baek, Wenhao Sun, and Shibo Tan hold examples of geometric shapes that appear in quasicrystals. The University of Michigan researchers have shown that at least some quasicrystals are thermodynamically stable.
Photograph: Marcin Szczepanski Michigan Engineering
‘Forbidden’ Symmetries
Nearly a decade before the Israeli physicist Dan Shechtman discovered the first examples of quasicrystals in the lab, the British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose thought up the “quasiperiodic”—almost but not quite repeating—patterns that would manifest in these materials.
Penrose developed sets of tiles that could cover an infinite plane with no gaps or overlaps, in patterns that do not, and cannot, repeat. Unlike tessellations made of triangles, rectangles, and hexagons—shapes that are symmetric across two, three, four or six axes, and which tile space in periodic patterns—Penrose tilings have “forbidden” fivefold symmetry. The tiles form pentagonal arrangements, yet pentagons can’t fit snugly side by side to tile the plane. So, whereas the tiles align along five axes and tessellate endlessly, different sections of the pattern only look similar; exact repetition is impossible. Penrose’s quasiperiodic tilings made the cover of Scientific American in 1977, five years before they made the jump from pure mathematics to the real world.
Every year, Hispanic Heritage Month offers the United States a chance to honor the profound and varied contributions of Latino communities. We celebrate scientists like Ellen Ochoa, the first Latina woman in space, and activists like Dolores Huerta, who fought tirelessly for workers’ rights. We use this month to recognize the cultural richness that Spanish-speaking families bring to our communities, including everything from vibrant festivals to innovative businesses that strengthen our local economies.
But there’s a paradox at play.
While we spotlight Hispanic heritage in public spaces, many classrooms across the country require Spanish-speaking students to set aside the very heart of their cultural identity: their language.
This contradiction is especially personal for me. I moved from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States as an adult in hopes of building a better future for myself and my family. The transition was far from easy. My accent often became a challenge in ways I never expected, because people judged my intelligence or questioned my education based solely on how I spoke. I could communicate effectively, yet my words were filtered through stereotypes.
Over time, I found deep fulfillment working in a state that recognizes the value of bilingual education. Texas, where I now live, continues to expand biliteracy pathways for students. This commitment honors both home languages and English, opening global opportunities for children while preserving ties to their history, family, and identity.
That commitment to expanding pathways for English Learners (EL) is urgently needed. Texas is home to more than 1.3 million ELs, which is nearly a quarter of all students in the state, the highest share in the nation. Nationwide, there are more than 5 million ELs comprising nearly 11 percent of the U.S. public school students; about 76 percent of ELs are Spanish speakers. Those figures represent millions of children who walk into classrooms every day carrying the gift of another language. If we are serious about celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, we must be serious about honoring and cultivating that gift.
A true celebration of Hispanic heritage requires more than flags and food. It requires acknowledging that students’ home languages are essential to their academic success, not obstacles to overcome. Research consistently shows that bilingualism is a cognitive asset. Those who are exposed to two languages at an early age outperform their monolingual peers on tests of cognitive function in adolescence and adulthood. Students who maintain and develop their native language while learning English perform better academically, not worse. Yet too often, our educational systems operate as if English is the only language that matters.
One powerful way to shift this mindset is rethinking the materials students encounter every day. High-quality instructional materials should act as both mirrors and windows–mirrors in which students see themselves reflected, and windows through which they explore new perspectives and possibilities. Meeting state academic standards is only part of the equation: Materials must also align with language development standards and reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of our communities.
So, what should instructional materials look like if we truly want to honor language as culture?
Instructional materials should meet students at varying levels of language proficiency while never lowering expectations for academic rigor.
Effective materials include strategies for vocabulary development, visuals that scaffold comprehension, bilingual glossaries, and structured opportunities for academic discourse.
Literature and history selections should incorporate and reflect Latino voices and perspectives, not as “add-ons” during heritage month, but as integral elements of the curriculum throughout the year.
But materials alone are not enough. The process by which schools and districts choose them matters just as much. Curriculum teams and administrators must center EL experiences in every adoption decision. That means intentionally including the voices of bilingual educators, EL specialists, and, especially, parents and families. Their life experiences offer insights into the most effective ways to support students.
Everyone has a role to play. Teachers should feel empowered to advocate for materials that support bilingual learners; policymakers must ensure funding and policies that prioritize high-quality, linguistically supportive instructional resources; and communities should demand that investments in education align with the linguistic realities of our students.
Because here is the truth: When we honor students’ languages, we are not only affirming their culture; we are investing in their future. A child who is able to read, write, and think in two languages has an advantage that will serve them for life. They will be better prepared to navigate an interconnected world, and they carry with them the ability to bridge communities.
This year, let’s move beyond celebrating what Latino communities have already contributed to America and start investing in what they can become when we truly support and honor them year-round. That begins with valuing language as culture–and making sure our classrooms do the same.
Altagracia “Grace” Delgado, Texas Association for Bilingual Education & Assessment for Good
Altagracia “Grace” Delgado has devoted 30 years to education, serving as a bilingual teacher, literacy coach, and both a school and central office administrator. A passionate advocate for students in special populations, she collaborates with various organizations to ensure they receive the support and resources they need. Grace serves as a Board Member of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education and an Advisory Board Member for Assessment for Good, a project of the Advanced Education Research & Development Fund, as well as the Houston Christian University’s Women in Leadership Program.
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Altagracia “Grace” Delgado, Texas Association for Bilingual Education & Assessment for Good
Hollywood can be a tough time for a lot of actors out there, and getting to be a recognizable face doesn’t exactly eliminate a lot of the anxieties around success. Danica McKellar was a household name in the United States after playing Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years from 1988 to 1993. For five years, she was basically the modern TV template for a “school aged crush” for a lot of Gen X viewers. However, McKellar left Hollywood after The Wonder Years concluded.
Just a couple of days ago, the actress sat down with Hey Dude… The 90s Called! to talk about her life’s work in and out of Hollywood. McKellar told Christine Taylor and David Lascher that math became her true calling and that Tinseltown just wasn’t in the plans for her. That’s actually perfectly fine with The Wonder Years star.
McKellar mused that she needed to find some personal meaning beyond just being Winnie Cooper. She talked about people constantly asking her, “Aren’t you that girl, Winnie? Aren’t you that girl from TV?”
“You’re trying to figure out who you are as a teenager, and everyone else is telling you who you are, and it’s like a thing that doesn’t exist anymore.” McKellar elaborated. “You guys are aware there’s all the insecurity that comes from having a lot of success early on, and then you don’t have that thing anymore. And you’re like, ‘Who am I now? Where do I get my validation?’”
Hollywood isn’t for everybody and that’s okay
(Hulu)
Stories like the one McKellar tells here have become super commonplace over the last 5 years. People taking a step back from their careers, no matter what they are, to reassess and plot out what their future plans. There’s nothing quite like things being upended by things that you can’t control to trigger some introspection. (Some of it good, and some of it…well…not so great!) But yeah, there’s room for everyone when it comes to finding out what your purpose is and pursuing that! In fact, we should probably applaud that entire process more than we do currently.
During the podcast, the Winnie Cooper actress shared how a hard exam at UCLA changed the course of the rest of her life. Basically, McKellar believed that she had bombed the test pretty hard. When in actuality, the exam was designed to see who in the class was the most prepared for the rigor of a Math degree ahead. Despite posting a seemingly low score, she got the highest marks in the class. It felt good for the Wonder Years star to have some sort of triumph that had nothing to do with her time on TV. And, she leaned into numbers and never looked back.
Thirty-two years ago today, the finale of #TheWonderYears aired on ABC. ? These are personal shots from the last day of filming… the end of an era! . . I graduated from high school a couple months later and went to @ucla… oh the many adventures ahead for that teenager, and… pic.twitter.com/60tw5uDayJ
It’s nice to read stories like this because there really is a life out there for all of us. No matter how niche the pursuit seems on the surface, there’s something that your special talent can do for another person. Even if it seems obscure, there’s someone waiting to hear what you have to say, look at your art, or discuss the work you do everyday. That’s where our true purposes come into play. It probably feels amazing to be recognized as the math author as well as Winnie Cooper. It’s all a matter of perspective when you really drill down into it.
As a teacher, I heard it all the time: “I’m not a math person.”
I would be in line at the grocery store, wearing a math T-shirt one of my students got for me, and I’d hear it: “Algebra? Who needs it?”
I would ask the person if they’d shopped with a coupon, bought a cheaper store brand, looked at the unit price on toilet paper or if they’d mentally calculated their total before heading to the checkout line.
I’d smile and say — “All of that is algebraic thinking.”
Despite my assurances, the idea that “I am just not into math” was, and still is, pervasive. Sometimes the thought comes from students, often from parents or colleagues, and more often than not it is said with a kind of resignation — as if math were a club you either got into early or missed forever.
That mindset has never been more insidious than it is now, when mathematics knowledge is needed more than ever. Every day we rely on math to interpret data, whether it’s tracking public health trends, forecasting weather, making financial decisions or navigating technology.
The ability to reason quantitatively, spot patterns and make decisions based on evidence has become integral to how we all navigate the world. Yet recent national data shows we’re falling short. Fewer than one in three eighth graders are on grade level in math, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores.
Across nearly every industry, from agriculture to aerospace, mathematical reasoning is becoming more essential. Employers across sectors increasingly need people who can interpret data, test ideas and solve unfamiliar problems.
If we want more young people to access these growing opportunities, we need to rapidly expand access to the after-school and summer programs that help them develop the confidence and curiosity to build math skills.
Right now, too many young people are missing out. After-school and summer learning programs are rarely included in state or federal improvement plans, even though research shows that they are proven to reinforce classroom learning and build student confidence.
In addition, educators in these programs could benefit from training and resources to help young people connect more fully with math.
With the right support from funders and policymakers, these challenges can be addressed, and millions more students can build the math skills they’ll need. Every student deserves the chance to build confidence in math, not just those who excel early.
The stakes are far too high to keep throwing the same solutions at the problem. We need to think differently — not just about how we teach math, but how and where young people experience it.
After-school and summer programs give young people a chance to engage with math in low-pressure settings that don’t feel like an extension of school. They aren’t bound by curriculum or high-stakes test prep.
In these programs, educators can naturally bring math into real-life experiences — budgeting for a community project, designing a video game, planning the route for a field trip or understanding the data behind a favorite sport or song.
These programs also create opportunities to engage families in everyday math and to elevate older youth as peer mentors or tutors — making math feel more personal, social and relevant.
Out-of-school experiences mean students aren’t expected to memorize a formula before they can explore an idea. They’re encouraged to ask questions, try things out and see what happens.
And, importantly, they can take time to try, reflect and try again, without fear of being wrong.
When mistakes are treated as part of the mathematical reasoning process, students start to take more risks. They begin trusting themselves to navigate challenges, which builds their confidence.
That shift is especially important for students who have internalized the message that math isn’t for them, and it will carry them much further than an emphasis on better test scores and grades.
At STEM Next, we’re working to foster that shift by supporting after-school and summer programs, training informal educators and strengthening the learning environments where math confidence takes root.
Our recent publication offers a closer look at how after-school and summer programs are helping students experience math differently, and why that shift matters now more than ever.
Expanding access to these programs isn’t just to help kids grow math skills today, it’s a long-term investment in our workforce and our future.
Camsie McAdams is director of the Institute for a STEM Ready America at STEM Next Opportunity Fund.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
Students from the class of 2024 had historically low scores on a major national test administered just months before they graduated.
Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, released September 9, show scores for 12th graders declined in math and reading for all but the highest performing students, as well as widening gaps between high and low performers in math. More than half of these students reported being accepted into a four-year college, but the test results indicate that many of them are not academically prepared for college, officials said.
“This means these students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago, and this is happening at a time when rapid advancements in technology and society demand more of future workers and citizens, not less,” said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board. “We have seen progress before on NAEP, including greater percentages of students meeting the NAEP proficient level. We cannot lose sight of what is possible when we use valuable data like NAEP to drive change and improve learning in U.S. schools.”
In a statement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the results show that federal involvement has not improved education, and that states should take more control.
“If America is going to remain globally competitive, students must be able to read proficiently, think critically, and graduate equipped to solve complex problems,” she said. “We owe it to them to do better.”
The students who took this test were in eighth grade in March of 2020 and experienced a highly disrupted freshman year of high school because of the pandemic. Those who went to college would now be entering their sophomore year.
Roughly 19,300 students took the math test and 24,300 students took the reading test between January and March of 2024.
The math test measures students’ knowledge in four areas: number properties and operations; measurement and geometry; data analysis, statistics, and probability; and algebra. The average score was the lowest it has been since 2005, and 45% of students scored below the NAEP Basic level, even as fewer students scored at NAEP Proficient or above.
NAEP Proficient typically represents a higher bar than grade-level proficiency as measured on state- and district-level standardized tests. A student scoring in the proficient range might be able to pick the correct algebraic formula for a particular scenario or solve a two-dimensional geometric problem. A student scoring at the basic level likely would be able to determine probability from a simple table or find the population of an area when given the population density.
Only students in the 90th percentile — the highest achieving students — didn’t see a decline, and the gap between high- and low-performing students in math was higher than on all previous assessments.
This gap between high and low performers appeared before the pandemic, but has widened in most grade levels and subject areas since. The causes are not entirely clear but might reflect changes in how schools approach teaching as well as challenges outside the classroom.
Testing officials estimate that 33% of students from the class of 2024 were ready for college-level math, down from 37% in 2019, even as more students said they intended to go to college.
In reading, students similarly posted lower average scores than on any previous assessment, with only the highest performing students not seeing a decline.
The reading test measures students’ comprehension of both literary and informational texts and requires students to interpret texts and demonstrate critical thinking skills, as well as understand the plain meaning of the words.
A student scoring at the basic level likely would understand the purpose of a persuasive essay, for example, or the reaction of a potential audience, while a students scoring at the proficient level would be able to describe why the author made certain rhetorical choices.
Roughly 32% of students scored below NAEP Basic, 12 percentage points higher than students in 1992, while fewer students scored above NAEP Proficient. An estimated 35% of students were ready for college-level work, down from 37% in 2019.
In a survey attached to the test, students in 2024 were more likely to report having missed three or more days of school in the previous month than their counterparts in 2019. Students who miss more school typically score lower on NAEP and other tests. Higher performing students were more likely to say they missed no days of school in the previous month.
Students in 2024 were less likely to report taking pre-calculus, though the rates of students taking both calculus and algebra II were similar in 2019 and 2024. Students reported less confidence in their math abilities than their 2019 counterparts, though students in 2024 were actually less likely to say they didn’t enjoy math.
Students also reported lower confidence in their reading abilities. At the same time, higher percentages of students than in 2024 reported that their teachers asked them to do more sophisticated tasks, such as identifying evidence in a piece of persuasive writing, and fewer students reported a low interest in reading.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
>> NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CAPES. SOME HAVE A PENCIL, TALENT AND A CREATIVE APPROACH TO GET KIDS EXCITED ABOUT MATH. GULF COAST NEWS BRIT SHOWS US HOW IT ALL ADDS UP IN TONIGHT’S STORY TO SHARE. >> AND THEY KNOW WHO THIS GUY IS GOING TO >> INSIDE THE DIMENSIONS OF A HERO IN THE MAKING JERRY TO CARE LIGHTS THE PAGE WITH PASSION. YOU PUT SO MUCH WORK INTO IT. YOU’RE SO GOOD AT IT. NOW THAT IT’S IN ITS COMES TO. SO NATURALLY, IT IS JUST FUND. THAT’S THE POINT YOU WANT TO GET PUT THROUGH MARVEL’S UNIVERSE AND CHANCES ARE YOU’LL MARVEL AT HIS WORK. EXCELLENT FOR WOLVERINE PUNISHER CONE IN NICK FURY, AGENT SHIELD HAWKEYE DEAD POOL. >> EVEN TIME, CAMEOS OF DR. STRANGE IRONMAN. >> WHO ELSE? >> BELIEVE IT OR NOT, HIS DRAWINGS WEREN’T ALWAYS COVER WORD THE THIS BUT BUT I DON’T MEAN TO BUT THIS IS GARBAGE. BUT AFTER 4 YEARS OF STUBBORN, PERSISTENCE AND SKETCHES, HE WAS OFFERED TO DRAW ON X MEN ANNUAL SERIES. AND I SAID THE >> SHE COULD YOU GIVE ME A FANTASTIC 4 INSTEAD AND I’M THE GUY GOES, LISTEN, I’LL GIVE IT TO SOMEBODY ELSE. YOU KNOW, AND I SAID TAKE IT. YOU WITH MORE THAN 10 SUCCESSFUL MARVEL COMICS UNDER HIS BELT, HIS FAVORITE AUDIENCE ISN’T AT COMICON ANYMORE. YOU CAN DROP YOU IN THE CYLINDER FROM PRETTY MUCH YOU KNOW, BELIEVE THAT A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE, YOU CAN IMAGINE YOU CAN DRAW ANYTHING. HIS WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES ACROSS AMERICAN MIX. MARVEL WITH MATT. THEY THINK SUPERHEROES A COOL LITTLE THING. MATHIS TO COOL. SO WHEN YOU COMBINE THOSE 2 THAT KIND OF ALL OF A SUDDEN MATHIS KIND OF COOL, WHICH IS WHAT THE MATH TEACHER WANTS FOR THEM. >> WHILE JERRY LOVES DRAWING MUSCLES LIKE THE NEXT COMIC. HIS WORK IS ABOUT STRENGTHENING CONFIDENCE. YOU KNOW SOMETHING TO BE AWARE TO JUST SET YOURSELF APART RIGHT FROM SUPERHEROES TO STUDENTS. HE’S TEACHING NEXT GENERATION THEIR OWN KIND OF SUPERPOWER THAT CAN DO. YOU CAN LOOK REALLY GOOD. AND SO I KN
Sketching the outlines of a hero in the making, Jerry DeCaire lights the page with passion.”You put so much work into it that you’re so good at it now,” said DeCaire. “And it comes so naturally that it’s just fun, that’s the point you want to get to.”Flip through Marvel’s comics universe, and chances are, you’ll marvel at his work.X-Men, Thor, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Iron Man — these are just a few comics he’s worked on.Believe it or not, his drawings weren’t always cover-worthy.”He says, ‘Hey buddy, I don’t mean to break your heart, but this is garbage,’” said DeCaire, describing what his mentor, comics legend John Buscema, told him when he was starting out.But four years of stubborn persistence and sketches later, he got an offer to draw an X-Men annual series.Now, with more than 10 successful Marvel comics under his belt, his favorite audience isn’t at Comic-Con anymore.”If you can draw a cube and a cylinder from pretty much any angle you can imagine or perspective you can imagine, you can draw anything,” said DeCaire.His workshops in schools and public libraries across America mix Marvel with math.”They think superheroes are cool. They don’t think math is too cool. So, all of a sudden, math is cool — which is what the teacher wants,” said Jerry.While DeCaire loves drawing muscles like the next comics artist, his work is about strengthening confidence.”Sometimes just being weird and setting yourself apart, right?” said DeCaire.
Sketching the outlines of a hero in the making, Jerry DeCaire lights the page with passion.
“You put so much work into it that you’re so good at it now,” said DeCaire. “And it comes so naturally that it’s just fun, that’s the point you want to get to.”
Flip through Marvel’s comics universe, and chances are, you’ll marvelat his work.
X-Men, Thor, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Iron Man — these are just a few comics he’s worked on.
Believe it or not, his drawings weren’t always cover-worthy.
“He says, ‘Hey buddy, I don’t mean to break your heart, but this is garbage,’” said DeCaire, describing what his mentor, comics legend John Buscema, told him when he was starting out.
But four years of stubborn persistence and sketches later, he got an offer to draw an X-Men annual series.
Now, with more than 10 successful Marvel comics under his belt, his favorite audience isn’t at Comic-Con anymore.
“If you can draw a cube and a cylinder from pretty much any angle you can imagine or perspective you can imagine, you can draw anything,” said DeCaire.
His workshops in schools and public libraries across America mix Marvel with math.
“They think superheroes are cool. They don’t think math is too cool. So, all of a sudden, math is cool — which is what the teacher wants,” said Jerry.
While DeCaire loves drawing muscles like the next comics artist, his work is about strengthening confidence.
“Sometimes just being weird and setting yourself apart, right?” said DeCaire.
Over 60,000 students have benefited from the math program built on how the brain naturally learns
A new analysis shows that students using ST Math at Phillips 66-funded schools are achieving more than twice the annual growth in math performance compared to their peers. A recent analysis by MIND Research Institute, which included 3,240 students in grades 3-5 across 23 schools, found that this accelerated growth gave these schools a 12.4 percentile point advantage in spring 2024 state math rankings.
These significant outcomes are the result of a more than 10-year partnership between Phillips 66 and MIND Research Institute. This collaboration has brought ST Math, created by MIND Education, the only PreK–8 supplemental math program built on the science of how the brain learns, fully funded to 126 schools, 23 districts, and more than 60,000 students nationwide. ST Math empowers students to explore, make sense of, and build lasting confidence in math through visual problem-solving.
“Our elementary students love JiJi and ST Math! Students are building perseverance and a deep conceptual understanding of math while having fun,” said Kim Anthony, Executive Director of Elementary Education, Billings Public Schools. “By working through engaging puzzles, students are not only fostering a growth mindset and resilience in problem-solving, they’re learning critical math concepts.”
The initiative began in 2014 as Phillips 66 sought a STEM education partner that could deliver measurable outcomes at scale. Since then, the relationship has grown steadily, and now, Phillips 66 funds 100% of the ST Math program in communities near its facilities in California, Washington, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, and New Jersey. Once involved, schools rarely leave the program.
To complement the in-class use of ST Math, Phillips 66 and MIND introduced Family Math Nights. These events, hosted at local schools, bring students, families, and Phillips 66 employee volunteers together for engaging, hands-on activities. The goal is to build math confidence in a fun, interactive setting and to equip parents with a deeper understanding of the ST Math program and new tools to support their child’s learning at home.
“At Phillips 66, we believe in building lasting relationships with the communities we serve,” said Courtney Meadows, Manager of Social Impact at Phillips 66. “This partnership is more than a program. It’s a decade of consistent, community-rooted support to build the next generation of thinkers and improve lives through enriching educational experiences.”
ST Math has been used by millions of students across the country and has a proven track record of delivering a fundamentally different approach to learning math. Through visual and interactive puzzles, the program breaks down math’s abstract language barriers to benefit all learners, including English Learners, Special Education students, and Gifted and Talented students.
“ST Math offers a learning experience that’s natural, intuitive, and empowering—while driving measurable gains in math proficiency,” said Brett Woudenberg, CEO of MIND Education. “At MIND, we believe math is a gateway to brighter futures. We’re proud to partner with Phillips 66 in expanding access to high-quality math learning for thousands of students in their communities.”
About MIND Education MIND Education engages, motivates and challenges students towards mathematical success through its mission to mathematically equip all students to solve the world’s most challenging problems. MIND is the creator of ST Math, a pre-K–8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain’s innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems; and InsightMath, a neuroscience-based K-6 curriculum that transforms student learning by teaching math the way every brain learns so all students are equipped to succeed. Since its inception in 1998, MIND Education and ST Math has served millions and millions of students across the country. Visit MINDEducation.org.
About Phillips 66 Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) is a leading integrated downstream energy provider that manufactures, transports and markets products that drive the global economy. The company’s portfolio includes Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, Marketing and Specialties, and Renewable Fuels businesses. Headquartered in Houston, Phillips 66 has employees around the globe who are committed to safely and reliably providing energy and improving lives while pursuing a lower-carbon future. For more information, visit phillips66.com or follow @Phillips66Co on LinkedIn.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
But just how much harder? In 1962, the mathematician Tibor Radó invented a new way to explore this question through what he called the busy beaver game. To play, start by choosing a specific number of rules—call that number n. Your goal is to find the n-rule Turing machine that runs the longest before eventually halting. This machine is called the busy beaver, and the corresponding busy beaver number, BB(n), is the number of steps that it takes.
In principle, if you want to find the busy beaver for any given n, you just need to do a few things. First, list out all the possible n-rule Turing machines. Next, use a computer program to simulate running each machine. Look for telltale signs that machines will never halt—for example, many machines will fall into infinite repeating loops. Discard all these non-halting machines. Finally, record how many steps every other machine took before halting. The one with the longest runtime is your busy beaver.
In practice, this gets tricky. For starters, the number of possible machines grows rapidly with each new rule. Analyzing them all individually would be hopeless, so you’ll need to write a custom computer program to classify and discard machines. Some machines are easy to classify: They either halt quickly or fall into easily identifiable infinite loops. But others run for a long time without displaying any obvious pattern. For these machines, the halting problem deserves its fearsome reputation.
The more rules you add, the more computing power you need. But brute force isn’t enough. Some machines run for so long before halting that simulating them step by step is impossible. You need clever mathematical tricks to measure their runtimes.
“Technology improvements definitely help,” said Shawn Ligocki, a software engineer and longtime busy beaver hunter. “But they only help so far.”
End of an Era
Busy beaver hunters started chipping away at the BB(6) problem in earnest in the 1990s and 2000s, during an impasse in the BB(5) hunt. Among them were Shawn Ligocki and his father, Terry, an applied mathematician who ran their search program in the off hours on powerful computers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2007, they found a six-rule Turing machine that broke the record for the longest runtime: The number of steps it took before halting had nearly 3,000 digits. That’s a colossal number by any ordinary measure. But it’s not too big to write down. In 12-point font, those 3,000 digits will just about cover a single sheet of paper.
In 2022, Shawn Ligocki discovered a six-rule Turing machine whose runtime has more digits than the number of atoms in the universe.
Photograph: Kira Treibergs
Three years later, a Slovakian undergraduate computer science student named Pavel Kropitz decided to tackle the BB(6) hunt as a senior thesis project. He wrote his own search program and set it up to run in the background on a network of 30 computers in a university lab. After a month he found a machine that ran far longer than the one discovered by the Ligockis—a new “champion,” in the lingo of busy beaver hunters.
“I was lucky, because people in the lab were already complaining about my CPU usage and I had to scale back a bit,” Kropitz wrote in a direct message exchange on the Busy Beaver Challenge Discord server. After another month of searching, he broke his own record with a machine whose runtime had over 30,000 digits—enough to fill about 10 pages.
