Topic: Mathematics Instruction

Overview

Mathematics Instruction

Developing strong foundations in mathematics at early age is a key component to overall student success. By continuing to build math skills, middle and high schools can help prepare students for in-demand STEM careers that are critical to local economies. SREB offers analysis, reports and recommendations to help states improve mathematic instruction in their classrooms.

Blog post Samantha DurranceSREB Policy Analyst
Graph with percentages of teachers with a degree in math or math education in 2018.

Giving Elementary Teachers the Tools to Teach Math Well
Broad preparation can leave math-specific knowledge lacking

Math cartoon - "Just a darn minute -- yesterday your said that X equals two!" It’s no secret that aspiring teachers with strong math backgrounds tend to be drawn toward the secondary grades, where they can just teach math. In fact, results of the 2018 National Survey of Science and Math Education showed that just 3 percent of elementary teachers surveyed held a degree in mathematics or math education, compared with 45 percent of middle grades math teachers and 79 percent of high school math teachers.

Blog post Samantha DurranceSREB Policy Analyst

Why Do We Say “I’m Bad at Math”?
How math anxiety affects performance, and what we can do about it

We’ve all likely heard someone say, “I’m bad at math,” or even “I hate math.” In the United States, math is too often considered a subject that either comes naturally or doesn’t — there are “math people,” and everyone else can expect to struggle with it. If you stop and think, though, this makes as much sense as saying we’re all naturally good (or bad) at sports, or music, or writing. It’s true that becoming skilled in any of these areas may come more easily to some people than others, but we generally understand that no one becomes expert at baseball without learning the game and spending a lot of time practicing.

Blog post Dave Raney, SREB Chief Editor

Not Made for Math? Think Again
How to Turn Every Student Into a Math Person

Adrienne Dumas has heard it from kids for years, like so many teachers and parents: “I just don’t have a math brain.”

A math teacher at Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood, Mississippi, Dumas disagrees, and with good reason — her Algebra 1 and geometry students have a 100 percent passing rate for the past three years on the state test. Dumas and other teachers offer their tips for math success in a recent SREB High Schools That Work newsletter.

Publication March 2018 80 pages (18V04)
Report cover: Making Math Matter

Making Math Matter
High-Quality Assignments That Help Students Solve Problems and Own Their Learning

This report presents results of teacher and student surveys on how powerful Mathematics Design Collaborative practices are shifting how teachers teach. It also summarizes student achievement data from schools using the strategies in four states. In vignettes and testimonials, teachers who completed SREB professional development on MDC share how they have grown as teachers and how their students’ understanding of math concepts has improved.

Blog post David Raney, SREB Chief Editor

Math Classroom Strategies Steal the Show

Joy Hofmeister, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Schools, visited Moore High School in December to look at its technology program. And she did, but she also got a pleasant surprise when principal Mike Coyle showed her to an Algebra 2 classroom.

Mathematics department chair Nancy Nix reported that the superintendent was “blown away by the level of student engagement and mathematical discourse.”

Blog post Lauri Johnson, Director of School Leader Development, SREB

Math and Literacy Teaching Strategies Have Deep, Lasting Effect

Want to see where good teaching happens? Watch what students are doing in the classroom. Sounds obvious, maybe, but as SREB senior vice president Gene Bottoms says, “We observe teachers and what they’re doing all the time — but we miss a big piece of the puzzle if we don’t see what the kids are doing as a result.”

So SREB asked My Student Survey to see how our training in powerful literacy and math teaching tools is paying off in the classroom.

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Building Critical Math Skills in the Early Grades

Teacher and elementary school students solve math problems at a whiteboard

When children in primary grades study math, they are learning more than how to add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers. Solving math problems helps students develop strong analytical and problem-solving skills that are vital for academic and personal success. In Early Math Matters, SREB explores why early math is so important and provides recommendations on how state leaders can raise the math achievement of their students.