window.__IS_SSR__=true
window.__INITIAL_STATE__={
"attachmentsReducer": {
"audio_0": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_0",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background0.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_1": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_1",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background1.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_2": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_2",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background2.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_3": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_3",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background3.jpg"
}
}
},
"audio_4": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "audio_4",
"imgSizes": {
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/themes/KQED-unified/img/audio_bgs/background4.jpg"
}
}
},
"placeholder": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "placeholder",
"imgSizes": {
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"height": 512,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-lrg": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"height": 1024,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-med": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"fd-sm": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"height": 533,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"height": 576,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xxsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 107,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xsmall": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"small": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"height": 372,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"xlarge": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"height": 680,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"height": 1280,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-32": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 32,
"height": 32,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-50": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 50,
"height": 50,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-64": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 64,
"height": 64,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-96": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 96,
"height": 96,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"guest-author-128": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 128,
"height": 128,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"detail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-1333x1333-1-160x160.jpg",
"width": 160,
"height": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg"
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KQED-Default-Image-816638274-2000x1333-1.jpg",
"width": 2000,
"height": 1333
}
}
},
"mindshift_63384": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_63384",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "63384",
"found": true
},
"parent": 63375,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846.jpg",
"width": 1254,
"height": 837
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846-1020x681.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 681
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846-800x534.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 534
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/iStock-484766846-768x513.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 513
}
},
"publishDate": 1710874157,
"modified": 1710874198,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "young school girl in front of blackboard with math formulas written in chalk",
"credit": "Halfpoint/iStock",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_63279": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_63279",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "63279",
"found": true
},
"parent": 63278,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image1-780x576.jpg",
"width": 780,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image1-160x120.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 120
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image1.jpg",
"width": 780,
"height": 585
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image1-768x576.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
}
},
"publishDate": 1709321293,
"modified": 1709321365,
"caption": "In an experiment on how best to study for a math test, learning through errors was pitted against working through practice problems in a Barron’s study guide, pictured here.",
"description": null,
"title": "image1",
"credit": "Jill Barshay/The Hechinger Report",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "page of a math test book with a pencil resting on it",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_63060": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_63060",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "63060",
"found": true
},
"parent": 63058,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-160x76.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 76
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1223
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-2048x979.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 979
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-1020x487.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 487
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-1536x734.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 734
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-1920x917.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 917
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-800x382.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 382
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity09-FEAT-768x367.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 367
}
},
"publishDate": 1706901467,
"modified": 1706901558,
"caption": "Sixth graders Zoe and Amoni, right, work together during Kelly Woodfin’s advanced math class in Union Public Schools. The Tulsa-area school district for about a decade has tried to increase enrollment, especially among underrepresented groups, in advanced math while providing them extra support.",
"description": null,
"title": "HECwoodfin27218",
"credit": "Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62839": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62839",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62839",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62834,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-160x104.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 104
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1669
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-2048x1335.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1335
},
"large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-1020x665.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 665
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-1536x1001.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1001
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-1920x1252.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1252
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-800x522.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 522
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2023/12/iStock-1419065993-768x501.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 501
}
},
"publishDate": 1702181181,
"modified": 1702181228,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Wooden toy blocks. School supplies, math fractions, pencils, numbers, on beige background. Back to school, education concept background",
"credit": "iStock/Nataliia Tymofieieva",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Wooden toy blocks. School supplies, math fractions, pencils, numbers, on beige background",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62725": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62725",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62725",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62724,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366.jpg",
"width": 2121,
"height": 1414
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-2048x1365.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1365
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 680
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1024
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1280
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/11/iStock-1362670366-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 512
}
},
"publishDate": 1699645520,
"modified": 1699645589,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "math",
"credit": "iStock/BRO Vector",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Two students writing algebraic equations on chalk board.",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62664": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62664",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62664",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62663,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-160x118.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 118
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248.jpg",
"width": 2013,
"height": 1490
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-1020x755.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 755
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-1536x1137.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1137
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-1920x1421.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1421
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-800x592.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 592
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/iStock-1360234248-768x568.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 568
}
},
"publishDate": 1698609664,
"modified": 1698609746,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "addition flash cards",
"credit": "iStock/Michael Burrell",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "a blue flash card with white numbers 9 + 4 on top of a stack of colorful flash cards",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62441": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62441",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62441",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62436,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135.jpg",
"width": 2121,
"height": 1414
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-2048x1365.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1365
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 680
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1024
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1280
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-498998135-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 512
}
},
"publishDate": 1695693394,
"modified": 1695693422,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Excited student jumping on gap",
"credit": "iStock/CreativaImages",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": "Female student jumping in classroom through gap on the blackboard illustration",
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62395": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62395",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62395",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62392,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-160x106.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 106
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1703
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-2048x1363.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1363
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-1020x679.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 679
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-1536x1022.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1022
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-1920x1277.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1277
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-800x532.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 532
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/iStock-1460973676-768x511.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 511
}
},
"publishDate": 1694755966,
"modified": 1694756018,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Excerpt from a school report with very good grades in English language",
"credit": "iStock/Ralf Geithe",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62366": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62366",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62366",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62365,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-1038x576.jpeg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-160x107.jpeg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-672x372.jpeg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-scaled.jpeg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1707
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-2048x1365.jpeg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1365
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-1020x680.jpeg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 680
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-1536x1024.jpeg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1024
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-1920x1280.jpeg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1280
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-800x533.jpeg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/barshay-edtech-768x512.jpeg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 512
}
},
"publishDate": 1694364129,
"modified": 1694364170,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Barshay edtech",
"credit": "Zachary Clingenpeel for The Hechinger Report",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_62272": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_62272",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62272",
"found": true
},
"parent": 62271,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1709
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-2048x1367.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1367
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-1020x681.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 681
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-1536x1025.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1025
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-1920x1282.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1282
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-800x534.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 534
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled-1-768x513.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 513
}
},
"publishDate": 1693053012,
"modified": 1693053028,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "PP-pandemicrecovery-FEAT-scaled",
"credit": "Lily Estella for The Hechinger Report",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_61854": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_61854",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "61854",
"found": true
},
"parent": 61848,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1707
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-2048x1365.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1365
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-1020x680.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 680
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-1536x1024.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1024
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-1920x1280.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1280
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-800x533.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 533
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/GettyImages-1322365703-768x512.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 512
}
},
"publishDate": 1686932838,
"modified": 1686932869,
"caption": "Ainye Long (left) math teacher works with a student at a white board during math class at Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 in San Francisco, Calif.",
"description": null,
"title": "Ainye Long (left) math teacher works with a student at a white board during math class at Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 in San Francisco, Calif.",
"credit": "Photo By Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
},
"mindshift_61716": {
"type": "attachments",
"id": "mindshift_61716",
"meta": {
"index": "attachments_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "61716",
"found": true
},
"parent": 61712,
"imgSizes": {
"twentyfourteen-full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-1038x576.jpg",
"width": 1038,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 576
},
"thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-160x107.jpg",
"width": 160,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 107
},
"post-thumbnail": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-672x372.jpg",
"width": 672,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 372
},
"kqedFullSize": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-scaled.jpg",
"width": 2560,
"height": 1709
},
"2048x2048": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-2048x1367.jpg",
"width": 2048,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1367
},
"large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-1020x681.jpg",
"width": 1020,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 681
},
"1536x1536": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-1536x1025.jpg",
"width": 1536,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1025
},
"full-width": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-1920x1281.jpg",
"width": 1920,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 1281
},
"medium": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-800x534.jpg",
"width": 800,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 534
},
"medium_large": {
"file": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/05/iStock-901389874-768x513.jpg",
"width": 768,
"mimeType": "image/jpeg",
"height": 513
}
},
"publishDate": 1685209579,
"modified": 1685209613,
"caption": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Educational concepts, boy studying hard",
"credit": "iStock/takasuu",
"status": "inherit",
"altTag": null,
"isLoading": false,
"fetchFailed": false
}
},
"audioPlayerReducer": {
"postId": "stream_live",
"isPaused": true,
"isPlaying": false,
"pfsActive": false,
"pledgeModalIsOpen": true,
"playerDrawerIsOpen": false,
"liveAudioPlayStartedAt": 0,
"liveAudioPlayContext": ""
},
"authorsReducer": {
"byline_mindshift_63375": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_63375",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_63375",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_63278": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_63278",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_63278",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_63058": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_63058",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_63058",
"name": "Neal Morton, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_62834": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_62834",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_62834",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_62724": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_62724",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_62724",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_62663": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_62663",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_62663",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_62392": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_62392",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_62392",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_62365": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_62365",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_62365",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_62271": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_62271",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_62271",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_61848": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_61848",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_61848",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"byline_mindshift_61712": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "byline_mindshift_61712",
"meta": {
"override": true
},
"slug": "byline_mindshift_61712",
"name": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"isLoading": false
},
"kdnewhouse": {
"type": "authors",
"id": "11487",
"meta": {
"index": "authors_1716337520",
"id": "11487",
"found": true
},
"name": "Kara Newhouse",
"firstName": "Kara",
"lastName": "Newhouse",
"slug": "kdnewhouse",
"email": "knewhouse@kqed.org",
"display_author_email": false,
"staff_mastheads": [],
"title": "MindShift Editor",
"bio": null,
"avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3dceed6fb271527113abfa9a8e9df34e?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twitter": null,
"facebook": null,
"instagram": null,
"linkedin": null,
"sites": [
{
"site": "",
"roles": [
"editor"
]
},
{
"site": "mindshift",
"roles": []
}
],
"headData": {
"title": "Kara Newhouse | KQED",
"description": "MindShift Editor",
"ogImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3dceed6fb271527113abfa9a8e9df34e?s=600&d=blank&r=g",
"twImgSrc": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/3dceed6fb271527113abfa9a8e9df34e?s=600&d=blank&r=g"
},
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/author/kdnewhouse"
}
},
"pagesReducer": {
"mindshift_tag_math": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_392",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "392",
"score": 8.7966
},
"featImg": null,
"name": "math",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "math Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 393,
"slug": "math",
"isLoading": false,
"title": "math",
"pageMeta": {
"site": "mindshift",
"WpPageTemplate": "page-topic-editorial",
"currentPage": 2
},
"blocks": [
{
"blockName": "kqed/post-list",
"attrs": {
"layout": "cardArticle2",
"query": "posts/mindshift?tag=math",
"seeMore": false,
"paginated": true,
"page": 2
}
},
{
"blockName": "kqed/ad"
}
]
}
},
"pfsSessionReducer": {},
"postsReducer": {
"stream_live": {
"type": "live",
"id": "stream_live",
"audioUrl": "https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio",
"title": "Live Stream",
"excerpt": "Live Stream information currently unavailable.",
"link": "/radio",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "KQED Live",
"link": "/"
}
},
"stream_kqedNewscast": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "stream_kqedNewscast",
"audioUrl": "https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1",
"title": "KQED Newscast",
"featImg": "",
"label": {
"name": "88.5 FM",
"link": "/"
}
},
"mindshift_63375": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_63375",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "63375",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1711360830000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1711360830,
"format": "standard",
"title": "How COVID-19 Narrowed the STEM Pipeline",
"headTitle": "How COVID-19 Narrowed the STEM Pipeline | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p7\">Universities, philanthropies and even the U.S. government are all trying to encourage more young Americans to pursue careers in STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Many business sectors, from high tech to manufacturing, are plagued with \u003ca href=\"https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/resource/understanding-the-gaps-in-the-us-stem-labor-market/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">shortages of workers with technical skills\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. In New York City, where I live, the subway is frequently plastered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.rit.edu/news/rit-expands-advertising-new-york-citys-grand-central-station-and-metro-north-rail-lines\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">advertisements\u003c/span>\u003c/a> carrying the message that \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1769363055341604947?s=20\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">STEM fields pay well\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. But studying STEM requires more than an interest in science or a desire to make good money. Students also need adequate training, even in elementary and middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">That’s why it’s concerning that high-achieving students, who’ve received less public attention than lower achieving students, were also set back by remote learning and pandemic uncertainty. Fewer students with math skills shrinks the pool of people who are likely to cultivate an expertise in science, engineering and technology a decade from now. In other words, the STEM pipeline – a metaphor for the development of future scientists, engineers and other high tech workers – likely starts with a narrower funnel in the post-pandemic era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The stakes are high not only for Gen Z, as they age out of school and enter the workforce, but also for the future of the U.S. economy, which needs skilled scientists and engineers to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The leading indicators of STEM troubles ahead are apparent within the 2022 scores from a national test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The immediate headlines from that first post-pandemic test focused on the fact that two decades of academic progress had been suddenly erased. Low-achieving children, who tend to be poor, had lost the most ground. An alarming number of American children – as high as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/nation/achievement/?grade=8\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">38%\u003c/span>\u003c/a> of eighth graders – were functioning below the “basic” level in math, meaning that they didn’t have even the most rudimentary math skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Statisticians at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have continued to dig into the 2022 data, and they’ve been also turning their attention to students at the top. These children are on grade level, but the eighth grade NAEP assessment shows that far fewer of them are hitting an advanced performance level, or even a proficient one. Math scores among top performers dropped as steeply as scores did among low performers. Even the scores of students at Catholic schools, who otherwise weathered the pandemic well, plummeted in eighth grade math.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">We don’t have data for other private schools because they have refused to participate in NAEP testing, but the eighth grade math declines among both high-achieving public school and Catholic school students are not good signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">NAEP tests reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades every two years in order to track educational progress. It’s one of the only tests that can be used for comparisons across states and generations. More than \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/?grade=4\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">400,000 students\u003c/span>\u003c/a> are specially selected to represent the regions and demographic characteristics of the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Among the four NAEP tests, eighth grade math showed the sharpest pandemic drop. Math took a bigger hit than reading because kids can still read at home, while math is something that students primarily learn at school. If you didn’t read “The Hobbit” in your seventh grade English class because you were out sick with Covid, you can still be a good lifelong reader But not getting enough practice with rates, ratios and percentages in middle school can derail someone who might have otherwise excelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Why eighth grade math was hit harder than fourth grade math is a bit less obvious. One explanation is that the concepts that students need to learn are more difficult. Square roots and exponents are possibly more challenging to master than multiplication and division. And fewer parents are able to assist with homework as the math increases in complexity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Yet another explanation is a psychological one. These eighth graders were in sixth grade when the pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020. This is a critical time in adolescent development when children are figuring out who they are and where they belong. A lot of this development occurs through social interaction. The isolation may have stunted psychological development and that ultimately affected motivation, study skills and the ability to delay gratification – all necessary to excel in math.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Let’s walk through the numbers together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003cb>Highest achieving students lost ground in eighth grade math\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63378\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63378\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-800x437.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-800x437.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-1020x557.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-160x87.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-768x419.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1.png 1410w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: NAEP Report Card Mathematics 2022\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This \u003cspan class=\"s2\">chart\u003c/span> shows that the highest performing students, those at the top 10% and the top 25%, lost as much as low-achieving students at the bottom in eighth grade math. These eighth graders were in the spring of sixth grade when the pandemic hit in 2020, and it’s possible that they didn’t master important prerequisite skills, such as rates and ratios. These kids at the top are performing at grade level, but not as high performing as past eighth graders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003cb>Fewer eighth grade students hit advanced and proficient levels\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63379\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63379\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-800x175.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-800x175.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-1020x223.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-160x35.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-768x168.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1.png 1364w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: NAEP Report Card Mathematics 2022\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This \u003cspan class=\"s2\">bar chart\u003c/span> shows that before the pandemic 10% of the nation’s eighth graders were performing at an advanced level in math. That fell to 7%. And the number of students deemed proficient in eighth grade math fell even more, from 24% to 20%. Before the pandemic, arguably, 34% of the eighth grade population was on track to pursue advanced math in high school and a future STEM career if they wanted one. After the pandemic in 2022, only 27% were well prepared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Students at Catholic schools are generally much higher performing than students at public schools. In large part, that’s because of family income; wealthier students tend to have higher test scores than poorer students. Catholic school students tend to be wealthier; their families can afford private school tuition. In recent years, the Catholic Church has closed hundreds of schools that catered to low-income families, leaving a higher income population in its remaining classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>Catholic schools outperformed public schools but also dropped \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63377\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63377\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4.png 780w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4-160x85.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4-768x408.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: NAEP Report Card Mathematics 2022\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This \u003cspan class=\"s2\">chart\u003c/span> shows that Catholic school students, depicted by the diamonds, outperformed public school students, depicted by the circles, in eighth grade math. But it was still a sharp five-point decline in eighth grade math performance for Catholic school students, almost as large as the eight-point decline for public school students. Scores of white students at Catholic schools declined five points; scores of students at Catholic schools in the suburbs declined seven points. Almost a quarter of Catholic school students are now functioning below a basic level in math for their grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Despite the good academic reputation of Catholic schools and the praise Catholic schools received for resuming in-person instruction sooner, math scores suggest a problem. And it’s a problem that potentially extends to the whole private school universe, where \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgc/private-school-enrollment\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">9% of students are enrolled\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, according to the most recently available data from 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">I talked with Ron Reynolds, the executive director of the California Association of Private School Organizations, who explained that not just Catholic schools, but also many other private schools suffered even if they hadn’t been closed for long. Reynolds said that private schools were still hit by illnesses, deaths and absences and that might have affected instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">“Private schools are tightly knit communities in which teachers tend to be more intertwined in the lives of the children and families they serve,” he said. “When you have a crisis, and so many people experiencing stress and loss, that can certainly impact the teacher in some significant ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how other private schools fared during the pandemic because they have refused to participate in the NAEP tests for the past decade. Reynolds, who serves on the governing board that oversees the NAEP exam, has been trying to lobby more private schools to participate, but so far, to no avail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Together private schools, selective public schools and affluent suburban schools have been important training grounds for the nation’s future scientists and engineers. Of course, it is possible that these high achieving students, now 10th graders, will catch up. Many of them are from wealthier families who can afford tutors, or attend well-resourced schools. But I am not seeing much evidence that schools have had the ability to think about the pipeline of advanced students when many students are so needy. And with post-pandemic grade inflation, students and parents may not be getting the signals they need to seek extra help independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The administration of the 2024 NAEP test wrapped up in March, but results won’t be known for many months. I’ll be keeping an eye on eighth grade math and on SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement scores in the years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003ci>This story about\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-how-covid-narrowed-the-stem-pipeline/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>math scores\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>The Hechinger Report\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>Proof Points newsletter\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1543,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 2
},
"modified": 1711667787,
"excerpt": "Math scores declined for both Catholic school and high-achieving public school students in the 2022 NAEP test.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "mindshift_63384",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "mindshift_63384",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Math scores declined for both Catholic school and high-achieving public school students in the 2022 NAEP test.",
"socialDescription": "Math scores declined for both Catholic school and high-achieving public school students in the 2022 NAEP test.",
"title": "How COVID-19 Narrowed the STEM Pipeline | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How COVID-19 Narrowed the STEM Pipeline",
"datePublished": "2024-03-25T03:00:30-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-03-28T16:16:27-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "how-covid-19-narrowed-the-stem-pipeline",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"sticky": false,
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/63375/how-covid-19-narrowed-the-stem-pipeline",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p7\">Universities, philanthropies and even the U.S. government are all trying to encourage more young Americans to pursue careers in STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Many business sectors, from high tech to manufacturing, are plagued with \u003ca href=\"https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/resource/understanding-the-gaps-in-the-us-stem-labor-market/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">shortages of workers with technical skills\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. In New York City, where I live, the subway is frequently plastered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.rit.edu/news/rit-expands-advertising-new-york-citys-grand-central-station-and-metro-north-rail-lines\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">advertisements\u003c/span>\u003c/a> carrying the message that \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1769363055341604947?s=20\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">STEM fields pay well\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. But studying STEM requires more than an interest in science or a desire to make good money. Students also need adequate training, even in elementary and middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">That’s why it’s concerning that high-achieving students, who’ve received less public attention than lower achieving students, were also set back by remote learning and pandemic uncertainty. Fewer students with math skills shrinks the pool of people who are likely to cultivate an expertise in science, engineering and technology a decade from now. In other words, the STEM pipeline – a metaphor for the development of future scientists, engineers and other high tech workers – likely starts with a narrower funnel in the post-pandemic era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The stakes are high not only for Gen Z, as they age out of school and enter the workforce, but also for the future of the U.S. economy, which needs skilled scientists and engineers to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The leading indicators of STEM troubles ahead are apparent within the 2022 scores from a national test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The immediate headlines from that first post-pandemic test focused on the fact that two decades of academic progress had been suddenly erased. Low-achieving children, who tend to be poor, had lost the most ground. An alarming number of American children – as high as \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/nation/achievement/?grade=8\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">38%\u003c/span>\u003c/a> of eighth graders – were functioning below the “basic” level in math, meaning that they didn’t have even the most rudimentary math skills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Statisticians at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) have continued to dig into the 2022 data, and they’ve been also turning their attention to students at the top. These children are on grade level, but the eighth grade NAEP assessment shows that far fewer of them are hitting an advanced performance level, or even a proficient one. Math scores among top performers dropped as steeply as scores did among low performers. Even the scores of students at Catholic schools, who otherwise weathered the pandemic well, plummeted in eighth grade math.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">We don’t have data for other private schools because they have refused to participate in NAEP testing, but the eighth grade math declines among both high-achieving public school and Catholic school students are not good signs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">NAEP tests reading and math in both fourth and eighth grades every two years in order to track educational progress. It’s one of the only tests that can be used for comparisons across states and generations. More than \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/?grade=4\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">400,000 students\u003c/span>\u003c/a> are specially selected to represent the regions and demographic characteristics of the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Among the four NAEP tests, eighth grade math showed the sharpest pandemic drop. Math took a bigger hit than reading because kids can still read at home, while math is something that students primarily learn at school. If you didn’t read “The Hobbit” in your seventh grade English class because you were out sick with Covid, you can still be a good lifelong reader But not getting enough practice with rates, ratios and percentages in middle school can derail someone who might have otherwise excelled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Why eighth grade math was hit harder than fourth grade math is a bit less obvious. One explanation is that the concepts that students need to learn are more difficult. Square roots and exponents are possibly more challenging to master than multiplication and division. And fewer parents are able to assist with homework as the math increases in complexity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Yet another explanation is a psychological one. These eighth graders were in sixth grade when the pandemic erupted in the spring of 2020. This is a critical time in adolescent development when children are figuring out who they are and where they belong. A lot of this development occurs through social interaction. The isolation may have stunted psychological development and that ultimately affected motivation, study skills and the ability to delay gratification – all necessary to excel in math.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Let’s walk through the numbers together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003cb>Highest achieving students lost ground in eighth grade math\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63378\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63378\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-800x437.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-800x437.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-1020x557.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-160x87.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1-768x419.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image3-1.png 1410w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: NAEP Report Card Mathematics 2022\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This \u003cspan class=\"s2\">chart\u003c/span> shows that the highest performing students, those at the top 10% and the top 25%, lost as much as low-achieving students at the bottom in eighth grade math. These eighth graders were in the spring of sixth grade when the pandemic hit in 2020, and it’s possible that they didn’t master important prerequisite skills, such as rates and ratios. These kids at the top are performing at grade level, but not as high performing as past eighth graders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003cb>Fewer eighth grade students hit advanced and proficient levels\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63379\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63379\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-800x175.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-800x175.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-1020x223.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-160x35.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1-768x168.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image2-1.png 1364w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: NAEP Report Card Mathematics 2022\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This \u003cspan class=\"s2\">bar chart\u003c/span> shows that before the pandemic 10% of the nation’s eighth graders were performing at an advanced level in math. That fell to 7%. And the number of students deemed proficient in eighth grade math fell even more, from 24% to 20%. Before the pandemic, arguably, 34% of the eighth grade population was on track to pursue advanced math in high school and a future STEM career if they wanted one. After the pandemic in 2022, only 27% were well prepared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Students at Catholic schools are generally much higher performing than students at public schools. In large part, that’s because of family income; wealthier students tend to have higher test scores than poorer students. Catholic school students tend to be wealthier; their families can afford private school tuition. In recent years, the Catholic Church has closed hundreds of schools that catered to low-income families, leaving a higher income population in its remaining classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>Catholic schools outperformed public schools but also dropped \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63377\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63377\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4.png 780w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4-160x85.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/03/image4-768x408.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: NAEP Report Card Mathematics 2022\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This \u003cspan class=\"s2\">chart\u003c/span> shows that Catholic school students, depicted by the diamonds, outperformed public school students, depicted by the circles, in eighth grade math. But it was still a sharp five-point decline in eighth grade math performance for Catholic school students, almost as large as the eight-point decline for public school students. Scores of white students at Catholic schools declined five points; scores of students at Catholic schools in the suburbs declined seven points. Almost a quarter of Catholic school students are now functioning below a basic level in math for their grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Despite the good academic reputation of Catholic schools and the praise Catholic schools received for resuming in-person instruction sooner, math scores suggest a problem. And it’s a problem that potentially extends to the whole private school universe, where \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgc/private-school-enrollment\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">9% of students are enrolled\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, according to the most recently available data from 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">I talked with Ron Reynolds, the executive director of the California Association of Private School Organizations, who explained that not just Catholic schools, but also many other private schools suffered even if they hadn’t been closed for long. Reynolds said that private schools were still hit by illnesses, deaths and absences and that might have affected instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">“Private schools are tightly knit communities in which teachers tend to be more intertwined in the lives of the children and families they serve,” he said. “When you have a crisis, and so many people experiencing stress and loss, that can certainly impact the teacher in some significant ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how other private schools fared during the pandemic because they have refused to participate in the NAEP tests for the past decade. Reynolds, who serves on the governing board that oversees the NAEP exam, has been trying to lobby more private schools to participate, but so far, to no avail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Together private schools, selective public schools and affluent suburban schools have been important training grounds for the nation’s future scientists and engineers. Of course, it is possible that these high achieving students, now 10th graders, will catch up. Many of them are from wealthier families who can afford tutors, or attend well-resourced schools. But I am not seeing much evidence that schools have had the ability to think about the pipeline of advanced students when many students are so needy. And with post-pandemic grade inflation, students and parents may not be getting the signals they need to seek extra help independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The administration of the 2024 NAEP test wrapped up in March, but results won’t be known for many months. I’ll be keeping an eye on eighth grade math and on SAT, ACT and Advanced Placement scores in the years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003ci>This story about\u003c/i> \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-how-covid-narrowed-the-stem-pipeline/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>math scores\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>The Hechinger Report\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>Proof Points newsletter\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/63375/how-covid-19-narrowed-the-stem-pipeline",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_63375"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21345",
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21343",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_93"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_63384",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_63278": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_63278",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "63278",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1709550029000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1709550029,
"format": "standard",
"title": "The Surprising Effectiveness of Having Kids Study Why They Failed",
"headTitle": "The Surprising Effectiveness of Having Kids Study Why They Failed | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p7\">For a few weeks in the spring of 2016, nearly all the eighth graders at a small \u003ca href=\"https://www.columbiasecondary.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">public school affiliated with Columbia University\u003c/span>\u003c/a> agreed to stay late after school to study math. They were preparing for a critical test, the New York State’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/testing/ny-state-high-school-regents-exams\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Regents examination\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in algebra. Half of the kids came from families that lived below the poverty line in Harlem and upper Manhattan. They attended a selective middle school and were advanced enough to be taking algebra in eighth instead of ninth grade. Many others were the children of Columbia professors, and none of them – rich or poor – really needed help passing the test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">But researchers set up a review class to test a theory about the best way to study for a test. For the first eight sessions, half the students had a traditional review class. They were given a Barron’s Regents review study guide with lots of practice problems. Their teachers worked through the first half of the problems, explaining how to solve them step by step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The other half of their classmates studied the same algebra topics in a different way. They spent the first 45-minute session taking a mini practice test. They received no instruction and worked independently. The following day, their teachers went over the students’ errors. The students had four test-and-review cycles like this, for a total of four mini tests and four sessions of error review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Then, the two groups swapped. The kids who had been taught via traditional, explicit instruction switched to reviewing the remaining algebra topics through their errors. And the kids who had been correcting their errors received eight sessions of traditional test prep. Their teachers taught both ways too, so that differences between the two modes couldn’t be attributed to a particular teacher. The following year, the same four teachers repeated the entire experiment with a fresh group of eighth graders. All told, 175 kids participated in the experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Which method worked best?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">On the surface, it was a tie. Students improved by about the same amount – 12% – whether they learned through explicit instruction or error review. Students had taken tests before and after the test prep course. Noting how much they improved on various algebra topics, researchers were able to trace those gains back to whether students learned that topic through explicit instruction or through their errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">There was one big difference, however. Learning through errors was twice as powerful based on instructional time. Teachers had to teach all eight sessions in the traditional instruction condition, totaling 360 minutes of instructional time. But teachers only had to teach every other session when students learned through errors, adding up to only 180 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">“You get more bang from your teacher buck, if you will, from the learning from errors condition,” said Janet Metcalfe, a psychologist at Columbia University who led the study, which was \u003ca href=\"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjep.12651\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">published online in the British Journal of Educational Psychology\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in January 2024. (\u003ci>The Hechinger Report is an independent news organization based at Teachers College, Columbia University, but has no relationship with the middle school or the researchers involved in the study.\u003c/i>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Of course, students might not see it that way. They still had to be in class for the full 360 minutes after school, with half the time spent taking practice tests in order to generate the errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The study is not a repudiation of explicit instruction. The students were also taking an algebra class during the school day where they had likely had a lot of explicit instruction and were already familiar with the concepts. Metcalfe said that having this background knowledge is critical for learning by errors to work. The students aren’t just guessing, but they’re making common mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">“They’re just doing one little thing wrong,” said Metcalfe. “And once they understand what that one little thing is, and remember not to fall into a habit where they’ll make the same mistake, they can overcome it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Metcalfe offered the example of fractions. A student might mistakenly think that a large denominator means it’s a large number, but then remembers discussing the error in a review session and knows that a fraction with a large denominator might actually be a tiny number. The memory of discussing the error stops the student from making it again, she explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Learning from errors, however, was inconsistent. One of the four teachers produced more than twice the test score gains for students than a colleague. It’s not that this teacher was much better than the others. All four teachers produced almost identical test score gains when they taught explicitly how to solve problems. They were all good explainers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">But being a good explainer is not always the same thing as being a good teacher. Metcalfe and her team analyzed videos and transcripts of the review sessions to understand what the teachers were doing differently. And it turns out there are multiple ways to teach through errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The teacher who got the best results employed a sort of Socratic method. “Okay, you guys got this wrong? Why would somebody get this wrong?” recalled Metcalfe. “And he did very little lecturing, almost none.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This teacher asked his students to talk about how they had solved the problem and why they did it that way.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>He asked them to talk about what they found difficult. Students would often explain their thinking to each other. Finally, the teacher would ask his students to come up with ideas on how to recognize and avoid such mistakes in the future. This teacher had a knack for maintaining a fast pace and getting through a lot of problems from the previous day’s mini test. His students’ test scores jumped by far more than 12% when he taught this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">By contrast, the teacher who produced the lowest test score gains tended to lecture students on the correct way to solve the problems that they had gotten wrong. The focus was on the corrections, not the errors. His classes weren’t very interactive.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>His students’ test scores improved by only 6% instead of 12%. Still, on a per minute basis, he was as effective teaching through errors as he had been teaching traditionally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Another teacher was extremely slow paced. “I was convinced when I was watching the teachers that the second teacher would have no success at all,” recalled Metcalfe. “He would take five minutes on one problem, and just let them mull over it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Her prediction was wrong. “His students did really well,” Metcalfe said, laughing. Like the star teacher, he didn’t lecture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">It’s worth emphasizing again that these were highly motivated, high-achieving students who cared about their Regents exam scores. This method might not work with less motivated students who are struggling in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Even with ideal students, it also seems like it takes a special teacher to pull off this kind of teaching. It reminds me of other progressive teaching approaches, from inquiry learning to project-based learning, for which researchers have documented remarkable results with masterful teachers. But maybe it’s asking too much of the average teacher to teach this way, thinking of questions on the fly that will magically steer students to the right answers. Should we be promoting ways of teaching that only a small minority of teachers can realistically do well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">My big takeaway from this study is for students. When preparing for a math exam, they should take a practice test, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/53524/how-revising-math-exams-turns-students-into-learners-not-processors\">go over mistakes and make sure they understand\u003c/a> why they made them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003ci>This story about \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-surprising-effectiveness-of-having-kids-study-why-they-failed/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>test prep\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>The Hechinger Report\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>Proof Points newsletter\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1342,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 2
},
"modified": 1714323927,
"excerpt": "An experiment reveals that reviewing and understanding your errors is an effective way to study.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "An experiment reveals that reviewing and understanding your errors is an effective way to study.",
"socialDescription": "An experiment reveals that reviewing and understanding your errors is an effective way to study.",
"title": "The Surprising Effectiveness of Having Kids Study Why They Failed | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "The Surprising Effectiveness of Having Kids Study Why They Failed",
"datePublished": "2024-03-04T03:00:29-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-04-28T10:05:27-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "the-surprising-effectiveness-of-having-kids-study-why-they-failed",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"sticky": false,
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/63278/the-surprising-effectiveness-of-having-kids-study-why-they-failed",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p7\">For a few weeks in the spring of 2016, nearly all the eighth graders at a small \u003ca href=\"https://www.columbiasecondary.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">public school affiliated with Columbia University\u003c/span>\u003c/a> agreed to stay late after school to study math. They were preparing for a critical test, the New York State’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.schools.nyc.gov/learning/testing/ny-state-high-school-regents-exams\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Regents examination\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in algebra. Half of the kids came from families that lived below the poverty line in Harlem and upper Manhattan. They attended a selective middle school and were advanced enough to be taking algebra in eighth instead of ninth grade. Many others were the children of Columbia professors, and none of them – rich or poor – really needed help passing the test.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">But researchers set up a review class to test a theory about the best way to study for a test. For the first eight sessions, half the students had a traditional review class. They were given a Barron’s Regents review study guide with lots of practice problems. Their teachers worked through the first half of the problems, explaining how to solve them step by step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The other half of their classmates studied the same algebra topics in a different way. They spent the first 45-minute session taking a mini practice test. They received no instruction and worked independently. The following day, their teachers went over the students’ errors. The students had four test-and-review cycles like this, for a total of four mini tests and four sessions of error review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Then, the two groups swapped. The kids who had been taught via traditional, explicit instruction switched to reviewing the remaining algebra topics through their errors. And the kids who had been correcting their errors received eight sessions of traditional test prep. Their teachers taught both ways too, so that differences between the two modes couldn’t be attributed to a particular teacher. The following year, the same four teachers repeated the entire experiment with a fresh group of eighth graders. All told, 175 kids participated in the experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Which method worked best?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">On the surface, it was a tie. Students improved by about the same amount – 12% – whether they learned through explicit instruction or error review. Students had taken tests before and after the test prep course. Noting how much they improved on various algebra topics, researchers were able to trace those gains back to whether students learned that topic through explicit instruction or through their errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">There was one big difference, however. Learning through errors was twice as powerful based on instructional time. Teachers had to teach all eight sessions in the traditional instruction condition, totaling 360 minutes of instructional time. But teachers only had to teach every other session when students learned through errors, adding up to only 180 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">“You get more bang from your teacher buck, if you will, from the learning from errors condition,” said Janet Metcalfe, a psychologist at Columbia University who led the study, which was \u003ca href=\"https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjep.12651\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">published online in the British Journal of Educational Psychology\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in January 2024. (\u003ci>The Hechinger Report is an independent news organization based at Teachers College, Columbia University, but has no relationship with the middle school or the researchers involved in the study.\u003c/i>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Of course, students might not see it that way. They still had to be in class for the full 360 minutes after school, with half the time spent taking practice tests in order to generate the errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The study is not a repudiation of explicit instruction. The students were also taking an algebra class during the school day where they had likely had a lot of explicit instruction and were already familiar with the concepts. Metcalfe said that having this background knowledge is critical for learning by errors to work. The students aren’t just guessing, but they’re making common mistakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">“They’re just doing one little thing wrong,” said Metcalfe. “And once they understand what that one little thing is, and remember not to fall into a habit where they’ll make the same mistake, they can overcome it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Metcalfe offered the example of fractions. A student might mistakenly think that a large denominator means it’s a large number, but then remembers discussing the error in a review session and knows that a fraction with a large denominator might actually be a tiny number. The memory of discussing the error stops the student from making it again, she explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Learning from errors, however, was inconsistent. One of the four teachers produced more than twice the test score gains for students than a colleague. It’s not that this teacher was much better than the others. All four teachers produced almost identical test score gains when they taught explicitly how to solve problems. They were all good explainers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">But being a good explainer is not always the same thing as being a good teacher. Metcalfe and her team analyzed videos and transcripts of the review sessions to understand what the teachers were doing differently. And it turns out there are multiple ways to teach through errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">The teacher who got the best results employed a sort of Socratic method. “Okay, you guys got this wrong? Why would somebody get this wrong?” recalled Metcalfe. “And he did very little lecturing, almost none.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">This teacher asked his students to talk about how they had solved the problem and why they did it that way.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>He asked them to talk about what they found difficult. Students would often explain their thinking to each other. Finally, the teacher would ask his students to come up with ideas on how to recognize and avoid such mistakes in the future. This teacher had a knack for maintaining a fast pace and getting through a lot of problems from the previous day’s mini test. His students’ test scores jumped by far more than 12% when he taught this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">By contrast, the teacher who produced the lowest test score gains tended to lecture students on the correct way to solve the problems that they had gotten wrong. The focus was on the corrections, not the errors. His classes weren’t very interactive.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>His students’ test scores improved by only 6% instead of 12%. Still, on a per minute basis, he was as effective teaching through errors as he had been teaching traditionally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Another teacher was extremely slow paced. “I was convinced when I was watching the teachers that the second teacher would have no success at all,” recalled Metcalfe. “He would take five minutes on one problem, and just let them mull over it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Her prediction was wrong. “His students did really well,” Metcalfe said, laughing. Like the star teacher, he didn’t lecture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">It’s worth emphasizing again that these were highly motivated, high-achieving students who cared about their Regents exam scores. This method might not work with less motivated students who are struggling in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Even with ideal students, it also seems like it takes a special teacher to pull off this kind of teaching. It reminds me of other progressive teaching approaches, from inquiry learning to project-based learning, for which researchers have documented remarkable results with masterful teachers. But maybe it’s asking too much of the average teacher to teach this way, thinking of questions on the fly that will magically steer students to the right answers. Should we be promoting ways of teaching that only a small minority of teachers can realistically do well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">My big takeaway from this study is for students. When preparing for a math exam, they should take a practice test, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/53524/how-revising-math-exams-turns-students-into-learners-not-processors\">go over mistakes and make sure they understand\u003c/a> why they made them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003ci>This story about \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-surprising-effectiveness-of-having-kids-study-why-they-failed/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>test prep\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>The Hechinger Report\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003ci>Proof Points newsletter\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/63278/the-surprising-effectiveness-of-having-kids-study-why-they-failed",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_63278"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_21775"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_63279",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_63058": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_63058",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "63058",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1707127253000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "how-one-district-has-diversified-its-advanced-math-classes-without-the-controversy",
"title": "How One District Diversified Its Advanced Math Classes — Without the Controversy",
"publishDate": 1707127253,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "How One District Diversified Its Advanced Math Classes — Without the Controversy | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about math equity was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TULSA, Okla. — Amoni and Zoe scattered the contents of a sandwich bag full of fruit-flavored candy across their desks as part of a math lesson on ratios.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What does it mean to have 50%?” their teacher, Kelly Woodfin, asked the sixth graders in her advanced math class. “What does it mean to have half?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amoni and Zoe, both 11, ate just one piece of candy each, as they converted the share of green apples or pink strawberries from their bag into fractions, decimals and percents. When they got stumped on a strategy for turning a decimal into a percentage, the pair’s arms shot in the air.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think, you go two steps over, and to the left,” Amoni said, her voice trailing into a question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You’ve been doing this for two weeks, sister,” Woodfin playfully chided her. “I don’t know why you’re doubting yourself.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Years ago, when Woodfin attended \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.unionps.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union Public Schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from kindergarten through eighth grade, she sat in fairly homogenous classrooms. Woodfin recalled her peers as predominantly white, a legacy of families moving to the suburbs as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED145054\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tulsa schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> desegregated during the 1950s. But when she returned to teach at Union in 2012, the white student population had shrunk to a little more than half of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/scschoolfiles/1967/annual_report_12-13.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">total enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Until recently, however, students in Union’s advanced math classes remained mostly white. The accelerated track in middle and high school drew mostly from elementary schools in affluent neighborhoods, where students tended to perform better on a pre-algebra placement test that they had one chance to take as fifth graders. But on a recent winter day, only two of Woodfin’s students identified as white and more than a third were still learning English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63071\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelly Woodfin, once a student at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Okla., teaches advanced math to a class of sixth graders. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The transformation of Woodfin’s class rosters represent more than a general shift in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oklaschools.com/district/72I009/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who attends Union schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where today only one in four students is white. It’s also the result of a years-long campaign to identify and promote more students from underrepresented backgrounds into the district’s most challenging math courses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elsewhere, concerns about who gets access to advanced math have led districts to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/articles/does-detracking-promote-educational-equity/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">end the tracking\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of students into different math classes by perceived ability or to remove accelerated classes altogether in the name of equity. Union, by contrast, has attempted to find a middle ground. The district, which overlaps part of Tulsa and its southeast suburbs, continues to track students into separate math classes beginning in sixth grade. But it has also added new ways beyond the one-time placement test for students to qualify for higher level math courses, and increased support — including in-school tutoring and longer class periods — for students who’ve shown promise in the subject.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment data suggest the effort to make higher-level math accessible to more students had started to yield results before the pandemic. But there have been challenges: In the last few years, fewer students overall have enrolled in advanced math classes, although the declines for Black and Hispanic students have been less steep than for other groups. Anti-teacher sentiment, on top of Oklahoma’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/addressing-the-teacher-shortage-oklahoma-to-offer-bonuses-up-to-50-000/article_1e6ee1a2-e39e-11ed-85c5-efc1e0044b5c.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">low teacher salaries\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, have made it difficult to hire math educators, administrators here say. At Union High School, an Algebra 2 position remained vacant for more than a year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the district remains committed to its changes. Recently, principals and veteran math educators have persuaded some former students to join Union’s teaching ranks. Shannan Bittle, a secondary math specialist for Union, said new academic programs — like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fox23.com/news/local/union-public-schools-starts-new-year-launches-aeronautics-program/article_9b39dde6-3c62-11ee-b26c-23ea4f636a91.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">aviation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1216770762027851\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">construction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — could offer students more ways to apply higher levels of math in lucrative jobs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We try really, really hard not to keep people out” of accelerated math, she said. “But we do our best to give them the tools to succeed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63061\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel, right, helps Josue with an exercise on graphing coordinates during Kelly Woodfin’s sixth-grade math class. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taking algebra or higher in middle school places a student on the path to calculus in high school, which opens the door to selective colleges and is considered a gateway course for many high-paying STEM careers. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov/profile/us?surveyYear=2020\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Federal education data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows white students enroll in high school calculus at nearly eight times the rate of their Black peers and about triple the average for Hispanic students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds who have demonstrated an aptitude and are yearning for more — yet they are systemically denied access to advanced math courses,” wrote the authors of a December 2023 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Advanced-Math-V9.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from nonprofits Education Trust and Just Equations. “This practice — and mindset — must change.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, approaches school districts have taken to increase diversity in math have inspired controversy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In San Francisco, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/education/the-lawsuit-that-could-change-california-math-education/article_a5b5e9c8-af1c-11ed-9b0f-07c7d381b5f1.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">school district\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> eliminated accelerated math at middle and high schools in 2014 to end the segregating of classrooms by ability, prompting parental outcry. Three years later, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/07/18/cambridge-schools-are-divided-over-middle-school-algebra/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cambridge Public Schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Massachusetts began dismantling its policy of tracking students into either accelerated or grade-level math. Near Detroit, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2023/05/17/troy-board-votes-to-eliminate-middle-school-honors-classes/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Troy school board\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> voted to remove advanced math for middle schools beginning later this year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63068\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-63068\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1020x1530.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">1/24/24 10:19:25 AM — A student works at her desk during Kelly Woodfin’s 6th grade math class at the Union Schools 6th and 7th Grade Center in Tulsa, Okla.\u003cbr>Photo by Shane Bevel \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Similarly, the California state board of education last year adopted new curriculum guidelines that, among other ideas, encourage schools to delay algebra until ninth grade. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr23/yr23rel54.asp\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">board insisted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the framework “affirms California’s commitment to ensuring equity and excellence in math learning for all students.” But critics — including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/california-adopts-controversial-new-math-framework-heres-whats-in-it/2023/07\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math and science professors\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — have suggested it does the opposite, by denying students the academic preparation they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I see the value, in theory,” Rebecka Peterson, a Union High math teacher and 2023 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ntoy.ccsso.org/rebecka-peterson-2023-national-teacher-of-the-year/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Teacher of the Year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, said of efforts like California’s. But, she added, “Kids are so unique, and one size fits all — as a mom, it’s not what I want for my son.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peterson started working for Union schools about 12 years ago, teaching math classes ranging from intermediate algebra to advanced placement calculus. Early on, Peterson noticed the demographic split in her classes: “We’re a very culturally rich district, and yet, my calculus classes were mostly white,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She decided to talk with her principal at the time, Lisa Witcher. The pair discovered that, although Union High enrolled students from all 13 elementary campuses, Peterson’s calculus students primarily started at just three — the whitest and wealthiest of Union’s elementaries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shortly after, district administration tapped Witcher to spearhead a new \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://uhs.unionps.org/college-career/edge\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">early college program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. She began recruiting students who had completed geometry as freshmen, but found only a tenth of Black freshmen in Union were eligible to enroll in that class. They hadn’t taken the prerequisite, Algebra 1, in eighth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That sparked some uncomfortable conversations,” said Witcher, who retired from the district in 2021.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, administrators traced the cause of the narrow pipeline into advanced middle and high school math to the fifth grade. That’s when schools administered a heavily word-based exam, which students had one chance to pass. District officials said the high-stakes exam disadvantaged two growing populations in Union schools: kids who were still learning English, and children from low-income families, whose parents couldn’t afford private tutors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This discovery prompted a series of changes, beginning about a decade ago. The school district did not eliminate the fifth-grade exam as an entryway into advanced math, but students can now attempt the test multiple times. Elementary schools offer math tutors starting in the third grade, with after-school programs for students struggling in the subject. Teachers can refer promising students for sixth grade advanced math, regardless of how they did on the placement exam. A central administrator also reviews student grades and growth on proficiency exams to automatically enroll students into an accelerated class. (Parents are sent a letter notifying them of the automatic enrollment, at which point they can choose to opt out.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We hunt them down from every corner of the school district,” said Todd Nelson, a former math teacher who now oversees data, research and testing for the district.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2016, the diversity of students enrolled in the district’s advanced math courses has increased. Hispanic students now make up 29% of enrollment, up from 18%; Black and multiracial students each represent 10% of enrollment, up from about 8% in 2016.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grader Jonathan works a problem on the smart board during Kelly Woodfin’s advanced math class. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More recently, however, participation in higher-level math has dipped in Union schools, across all student subgroups. District data show the trend, especially in high school, started before the pandemic. But administrators say the disruption of school lockdowns contributed to a lingering aversion to signing up for challenging courses. Still, the share of Black, Hispanic and multiracial students enrolling in Union’s advanced math classes has fallen at much lower rates than those of Asian and white students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We see this as the long-term process of the work that we’re doing, as opposed to fixing the problem in one year,” Nelson added.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Woodfin’s sixth grade class, 11-year-old Vianca wasn’t sure how she got into advanced math. She remembered taking a “super hard” test as a fifth grader and registered for regular math in middle school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I guess I was just placed in here,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vianca said the subject has been a struggle this year. But a recent shift in sixth grade schedules to add more time for math means she has 90 minutes — instead of just 45 — with Woodfin each day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“She always slows down” when it feels like too much, Vianca said of her teacher. “I can ask for help.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63063\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63063\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-800x492.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"492\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-800x492.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-1020x627.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-768x472.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-1536x945.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-2048x1260.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-1920x1181.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grade teacher Kelly Woodfin uses sports metaphors to help her students during an advanced math at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Okla. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doubling the amount of math that both sixth graders take in Union has come with a cost. Some parents bristled at the reduction of extracurriculars, like art or music. The change required doubling the number of secondary math teachers, and principals already had a hard time recruiting teachers for those subjects. (Last school year, the turnover rate for Oklahoma teachers reached 24%, the highest rate in a decade, according to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sde.ok.gov/comprehensive-teacher-pay-reform\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lack of teacher diversity also complicates the district’s overall mission of increasing diversity in advanced math, Bittle acknowledged. Only two out of about 90 middle and high school math teachers identify as Black, and efforts to recruit at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.langston.edu/education-behavioral-sciences\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Langston University\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the state’s only historically Black university, have yet to prove successful. Bittle added that Oklahoma’s low pay for teachers doesn’t help: Schools in neighboring states tend to offer much more than the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/careertech/educators/agricultural-education/program-funding/Salary%20Schedule%20for%202023-2024.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">roughly $40,000\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> starting salary for teachers in the Sooner State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research on the detracking debate presents a complicated picture. About the same time that the district made its changes, one international study suggested steering bright students into accelerated classes could \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/schools-exacerbate-the-growing-achievement-gap-between-rich-and-poor-a-33-country-study-finds/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">exacerbate the rich-poor divide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in schools. Another paper, published by the Brookings Institution in 2016, found that Black and Hispanic students \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/finding-benefits-tracking/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scored better on Advanced Placement exams\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in states that tracked more eighth graders into different ability levels in math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This will remain murky,” said Kristen Hengtgen, a senior analyst with the Education Trust. “Detracking seems to have good intentions, but we just haven’t seen it work conclusively yet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63069\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63069\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grader Jayda works at her desk in an advanced math class in Union Public Schools. The Tulsa-area school district has tried to increase the diversity of students on its accelerated math track. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union remains committed to its efforts, though. And in a pin-drop quiet calculus class, where only the hum of the HVAC system disrupted the scratching of pencils, students remained committed to their own hard work.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lizeth Rosas sat in the back row. Wearing bright blue smocks for a nursing program she had later in the day, the 18-year-old scribbled notes on how to find the average value of friction with a given interval.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Any questions?” her teacher invited. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only eight of the 22 students in the class identified as white. Rosas first got into an advanced math as a seventh grader, she said. Last year, to her surprise, a teacher recommended she take the Advanced Placement course.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In the beginning, I questioned myself — a lot,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was ready. It’s kind of a lot to process, and we move so fast.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rosas plans to work as a licensed practical nurse after graduation, and expects conversions of medications and IV fluids will require math. Her father, who runs his own remodeling company, can’t help with her calculus work, she said. But, her nursing program, part of a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://tulsatech.edu/about-the-district/locations/high-school-extension-programs/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">high school extension program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at the nearby Tulsa Technology Center, offers academic tutoring.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t really need it,” Rosas said. “The teachers here are really helpful. They just kind of help me. They remind me I can do it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/how-one-district-has-diversified-its-advanced-math-classes-without-the-controversy/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math equity\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Fights over ‘detracking’ math classes have roiled other districts. But Union Public Schools, in Oklahoma, took a middle ground, adding tutoring and non-test-based ways for students to qualify for advanced math.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1720533137,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 47,
"wordCount": 2439
},
"headData": {
"title": "How One District Diversified Its Advanced Math Classes — Without the Controversy | KQED",
"description": "Fights over ‘detracking’ math classes have roiled some districts. But an Oklahoma district has found success with a middle ground approach.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"socialDescription": "Fights over ‘detracking’ math classes have roiled some districts. But an Oklahoma district has found success with a middle ground approach.",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How One District Diversified Its Advanced Math Classes — Without the Controversy",
"datePublished": "2024-02-05T02:00:53-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-07-09T06:52:17-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Neal Morton, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/63058/how-one-district-has-diversified-its-advanced-math-classes-without-the-controversy",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about math equity was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TULSA, Okla. — Amoni and Zoe scattered the contents of a sandwich bag full of fruit-flavored candy across their desks as part of a math lesson on ratios.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What does it mean to have 50%?” their teacher, Kelly Woodfin, asked the sixth graders in her advanced math class. “What does it mean to have half?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amoni and Zoe, both 11, ate just one piece of candy each, as they converted the share of green apples or pink strawberries from their bag into fractions, decimals and percents. When they got stumped on a strategy for turning a decimal into a percentage, the pair’s arms shot in the air.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think, you go two steps over, and to the left,” Amoni said, her voice trailing into a question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You’ve been doing this for two weeks, sister,” Woodfin playfully chided her. “I don’t know why you’re doubting yourself.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Years ago, when Woodfin attended \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.unionps.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union Public Schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from kindergarten through eighth grade, she sat in fairly homogenous classrooms. Woodfin recalled her peers as predominantly white, a legacy of families moving to the suburbs as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED145054\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tulsa schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> desegregated during the 1950s. But when she returned to teach at Union in 2012, the white student population had shrunk to a little more than half of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/scschoolfiles/1967/annual_report_12-13.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">total enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Until recently, however, students in Union’s advanced math classes remained mostly white. The accelerated track in middle and high school drew mostly from elementary schools in affluent neighborhoods, where students tended to perform better on a pre-algebra placement test that they had one chance to take as fifth graders. But on a recent winter day, only two of Woodfin’s students identified as white and more than a third were still learning English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63071\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity01-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kelly Woodfin, once a student at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Okla., teaches advanced math to a class of sixth graders. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The transformation of Woodfin’s class rosters represent more than a general shift in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oklaschools.com/district/72I009/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who attends Union schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, where today only one in four students is white. It’s also the result of a years-long campaign to identify and promote more students from underrepresented backgrounds into the district’s most challenging math courses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Elsewhere, concerns about who gets access to advanced math have led districts to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/articles/does-detracking-promote-educational-equity/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">end the tracking\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of students into different math classes by perceived ability or to remove accelerated classes altogether in the name of equity. Union, by contrast, has attempted to find a middle ground. The district, which overlaps part of Tulsa and its southeast suburbs, continues to track students into separate math classes beginning in sixth grade. But it has also added new ways beyond the one-time placement test for students to qualify for higher level math courses, and increased support — including in-school tutoring and longer class periods — for students who’ve shown promise in the subject.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment data suggest the effort to make higher-level math accessible to more students had started to yield results before the pandemic. But there have been challenges: In the last few years, fewer students overall have enrolled in advanced math classes, although the declines for Black and Hispanic students have been less steep than for other groups. Anti-teacher sentiment, on top of Oklahoma’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/education/addressing-the-teacher-shortage-oklahoma-to-offer-bonuses-up-to-50-000/article_1e6ee1a2-e39e-11ed-85c5-efc1e0044b5c.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">low teacher salaries\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, have made it difficult to hire math educators, administrators here say. At Union High School, an Algebra 2 position remained vacant for more than a year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the district remains committed to its changes. Recently, principals and veteran math educators have persuaded some former students to join Union’s teaching ranks. Shannan Bittle, a secondary math specialist for Union, said new academic programs — like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fox23.com/news/local/union-public-schools-starts-new-year-launches-aeronautics-program/article_9b39dde6-3c62-11ee-b26c-23ea4f636a91.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">aviation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1216770762027851\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">construction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — could offer students more ways to apply higher levels of math in lucrative jobs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We try really, really hard not to keep people out” of accelerated math, she said. “But we do our best to give them the tools to succeed.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63061\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63061\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity11-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel, right, helps Josue with an exercise on graphing coordinates during Kelly Woodfin’s sixth-grade math class. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taking algebra or higher in middle school places a student on the path to calculus in high school, which opens the door to selective colleges and is considered a gateway course for many high-paying STEM careers. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://civilrightsdata.ed.gov/profile/us?surveyYear=2020\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Federal education data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shows white students enroll in high school calculus at nearly eight times the rate of their Black peers and about triple the average for Hispanic students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There are many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds who have demonstrated an aptitude and are yearning for more — yet they are systemically denied access to advanced math courses,” wrote the authors of a December 2023 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Advanced-Math-V9.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from nonprofits Education Trust and Just Equations. “This practice — and mindset — must change.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, approaches school districts have taken to increase diversity in math have inspired controversy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In San Francisco, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/education/the-lawsuit-that-could-change-california-math-education/article_a5b5e9c8-af1c-11ed-9b0f-07c7d381b5f1.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">school district\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> eliminated accelerated math at middle and high schools in 2014 to end the segregating of classrooms by ability, prompting parental outcry. Three years later, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/07/18/cambridge-schools-are-divided-over-middle-school-algebra/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cambridge Public Schools\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Massachusetts began dismantling its policy of tracking students into either accelerated or grade-level math. Near Detroit, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theoaklandpress.com/2023/05/17/troy-board-votes-to-eliminate-middle-school-honors-classes/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Troy school board\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> voted to remove advanced math for middle schools beginning later this year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63068\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-63068\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1020x1530.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-1920x2880.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity03-scaled.jpg 1707w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">1/24/24 10:19:25 AM — A student works at her desk during Kelly Woodfin’s 6th grade math class at the Union Schools 6th and 7th Grade Center in Tulsa, Okla.\u003cbr>Photo by Shane Bevel \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Similarly, the California state board of education last year adopted new curriculum guidelines that, among other ideas, encourage schools to delay algebra until ninth grade. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr23/yr23rel54.asp\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">board insisted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> the framework “affirms California’s commitment to ensuring equity and excellence in math learning for all students.” But critics — including \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/california-adopts-controversial-new-math-framework-heres-whats-in-it/2023/07\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math and science professors\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — have suggested it does the opposite, by denying students the academic preparation they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I see the value, in theory,” Rebecka Peterson, a Union High math teacher and 2023 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ntoy.ccsso.org/rebecka-peterson-2023-national-teacher-of-the-year/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Teacher of the Year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, said of efforts like California’s. But, she added, “Kids are so unique, and one size fits all — as a mom, it’s not what I want for my son.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Peterson started working for Union schools about 12 years ago, teaching math classes ranging from intermediate algebra to advanced placement calculus. Early on, Peterson noticed the demographic split in her classes: “We’re a very culturally rich district, and yet, my calculus classes were mostly white,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She decided to talk with her principal at the time, Lisa Witcher. The pair discovered that, although Union High enrolled students from all 13 elementary campuses, Peterson’s calculus students primarily started at just three — the whitest and wealthiest of Union’s elementaries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shortly after, district administration tapped Witcher to spearhead a new \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://uhs.unionps.org/college-career/edge\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">early college program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. She began recruiting students who had completed geometry as freshmen, but found only a tenth of Black freshmen in Union were eligible to enroll in that class. They hadn’t taken the prerequisite, Algebra 1, in eighth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That sparked some uncomfortable conversations,” said Witcher, who retired from the district in 2021.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, administrators traced the cause of the narrow pipeline into advanced middle and high school math to the fifth grade. That’s when schools administered a heavily word-based exam, which students had one chance to pass. District officials said the high-stakes exam disadvantaged two growing populations in Union schools: kids who were still learning English, and children from low-income families, whose parents couldn’t afford private tutors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This discovery prompted a series of changes, beginning about a decade ago. The school district did not eliminate the fifth-grade exam as an entryway into advanced math, but students can now attempt the test multiple times. Elementary schools offer math tutors starting in the third grade, with after-school programs for students struggling in the subject. Teachers can refer promising students for sixth grade advanced math, regardless of how they did on the placement exam. A central administrator also reviews student grades and growth on proficiency exams to automatically enroll students into an accelerated class. (Parents are sent a letter notifying them of the automatic enrollment, at which point they can choose to opt out.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We hunt them down from every corner of the school district,” said Todd Nelson, a former math teacher who now oversees data, research and testing for the district.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2016, the diversity of students enrolled in the district’s advanced math courses has increased. Hispanic students now make up 29% of enrollment, up from 18%; Black and multiracial students each represent 10% of enrollment, up from about 8% in 2016.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63064\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63064\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity07-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grader Jonathan works a problem on the smart board during Kelly Woodfin’s advanced math class. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More recently, however, participation in higher-level math has dipped in Union schools, across all student subgroups. District data show the trend, especially in high school, started before the pandemic. But administrators say the disruption of school lockdowns contributed to a lingering aversion to signing up for challenging courses. Still, the share of Black, Hispanic and multiracial students enrolling in Union’s advanced math classes has fallen at much lower rates than those of Asian and white students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We see this as the long-term process of the work that we’re doing, as opposed to fixing the problem in one year,” Nelson added.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Woodfin’s sixth grade class, 11-year-old Vianca wasn’t sure how she got into advanced math. She remembered taking a “super hard” test as a fifth grader and registered for regular math in middle school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I guess I was just placed in here,” she said. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vianca said the subject has been a struggle this year. But a recent shift in sixth grade schedules to add more time for math means she has 90 minutes — instead of just 45 — with Woodfin each day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“She always slows down” when it feels like too much, Vianca said of her teacher. “I can ask for help.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63063\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63063\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-800x492.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"492\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-800x492.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-1020x627.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-768x472.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-1536x945.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-2048x1260.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity08-1920x1181.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grade teacher Kelly Woodfin uses sports metaphors to help her students during an advanced math at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Okla. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Doubling the amount of math that both sixth graders take in Union has come with a cost. Some parents bristled at the reduction of extracurriculars, like art or music. The change required doubling the number of secondary math teachers, and principals already had a hard time recruiting teachers for those subjects. (Last school year, the turnover rate for Oklahoma teachers reached 24%, the highest rate in a decade, according to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sde.ok.gov/comprehensive-teacher-pay-reform\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state data\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lack of teacher diversity also complicates the district’s overall mission of increasing diversity in advanced math, Bittle acknowledged. Only two out of about 90 middle and high school math teachers identify as Black, and efforts to recruit at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.langston.edu/education-behavioral-sciences\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Langston University\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the state’s only historically Black university, have yet to prove successful. Bittle added that Oklahoma’s low pay for teachers doesn’t help: Schools in neighboring states tend to offer much more than the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/careertech/educators/agricultural-education/program-funding/Salary%20Schedule%20for%202023-2024.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">roughly $40,000\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> starting salary for teachers in the Sooner State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research on the detracking debate presents a complicated picture. About the same time that the district made its changes, one international study suggested steering bright students into accelerated classes could \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/schools-exacerbate-the-growing-achievement-gap-between-rich-and-poor-a-33-country-study-finds/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">exacerbate the rich-poor divide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in schools. Another paper, published by the Brookings Institution in 2016, found that Black and Hispanic students \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/finding-benefits-tracking/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">scored better on Advanced Placement exams\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in states that tracked more eighth graders into different ability levels in math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This will remain murky,” said Kristen Hengtgen, a senior analyst with the Education Trust. “Detracking seems to have good intentions, but we just haven’t seen it work conclusively yet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_63069\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-63069\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2024/02/morton-calculus-equity02-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sixth grader Jayda works at her desk in an advanced math class in Union Public Schools. The Tulsa-area school district has tried to increase the diversity of students on its accelerated math track. \u003ccite>(Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Union remains committed to its efforts, though. And in a pin-drop quiet calculus class, where only the hum of the HVAC system disrupted the scratching of pencils, students remained committed to their own hard work.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lizeth Rosas sat in the back row. Wearing bright blue smocks for a nursing program she had later in the day, the 18-year-old scribbled notes on how to find the average value of friction with a given interval.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Any questions?” her teacher invited. “Speak now, or forever hold your peace.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only eight of the 22 students in the class identified as white. Rosas first got into an advanced math as a seventh grader, she said. Last year, to her surprise, a teacher recommended she take the Advanced Placement course.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In the beginning, I questioned myself — a lot,” she said. “I didn’t know if I was ready. It’s kind of a lot to process, and we move so fast.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rosas plans to work as a licensed practical nurse after graduation, and expects conversions of medications and IV fluids will require math. Her father, who runs his own remodeling company, can’t help with her calculus work, she said. But, her nursing program, part of a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://tulsatech.edu/about-the-district/locations/high-school-extension-programs/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">high school extension program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at the nearby Tulsa Technology Center, offers academic tutoring.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t really need it,” Rosas said. “The teachers here are really helpful. They just kind of help me. They remind me I can do it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/how-one-district-has-diversified-its-advanced-math-classes-without-the-controversy/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math equity\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/63058/how-one-district-has-diversified-its-advanced-math-classes-without-the-controversy",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_63058"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21357",
"mindshift_21579"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_912",
"mindshift_276",
"mindshift_21322",
"mindshift_21846",
"mindshift_21699",
"mindshift_20701",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_20841"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_63060",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_62834": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62834",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62834",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1702292442000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "theres-a-worldwide-problem-in-math-and-its-not-just-about-the-pandemic",
"title": "There's a Worldwide Problem in Math, and It’s Not Just About the Pandemic",
"publishDate": 1702292442,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "There’s a Worldwide Problem in Math, and It’s Not Just About the Pandemic | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Numbers don’t lie, right? But they also don’t always tell the whole story. That’s the case with the most recent results from a key global education test, the Program for International Student Assessment or PISA. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the past, PISA results have often spurred anguished discussion about why U.S. students are so far behind other countries like Finland, Korea and Poland. But the most recent rankings, released in December 2023, indicated that U.S. 15-year olds moved up in the international rankings for all three subjects – \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Math-rankings-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Reading-rankings-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reading\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Science-rankings-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">science\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona credited the largest federal investment in education in history – roughly $200 billion – for keeping the United States “\u003ca href=\"https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/bulletins/37e3e90\">in the game\u003c/a>” during the pandemic. (The tests were administered in 2022.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that rosy spin hides a much grimmer picture. Rankings may have risen, but test scores did not. The only reason the U.S. rose is because academic performance in once higher ranking countries, such as Iceland, fell by even more since the previous testing round in 2018. Neither India nor China, which topped the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/what-2018-pisa-international-rankings-tell-us-about-u-s-schools/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rankings in 2018\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, participated in the 2022 PISA. In math, the U.S. rose from 29th place to 28th place, still in the bottom half of economically advanced nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international organization of 38 member countries that oversees the PISA exam. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The deterioration in math was particularly devastating. American students scored 13 points lower than in 2018, equivalent to losing two-thirds of a year of education in the subject. These were the lowest U.S. math scores recorded in the history of the PISA math test, which began in 2003. More than a third of U.S. 15-year-olds (mostly 10th graders) are considered to be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-07-at-1.28.02-PM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">low performers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, unable to compare distances between two routes or convert prices into a different currency. Over the past decade, the share of U.S. students in this lowest level has swelled; back in 2012, a little over a quarter of U.S. students were considered to be low performers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only 7% of American students can do math at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-07-at-1.28.02-PM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">advanced levels\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The United States has more students in the bottom group and fewer students in the top group than most other industrialized countries that are part of the OECD. (Click here to see an international ranking of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/PISA-2022-low-and-top.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">low and top performers in each country\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The results also confirmed the widespread inequalities in U.S. education. Black and Hispanic students, on average, scored far below Asian and white students. Those from low-income backgrounds scored lower than their more affluent peers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills at the OECD, emphasized that the inequities in the U.S. are often misunderstood to be a problem of weak schools in poor neighborhoods. His analysis indicates that low math performance is common throughout U.S. schools. Some students are performing much worse than others within the same school, and that range between low and advanced students within U.S. schools is much greater than the range in scores between schools. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This new PISA test is the first major international education indicator since the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and disrupted education. Test scores declined all around the world, but the OECD found there was only a small relationship between \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/School-closures-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">how long schools were closed and their students’ performance\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on the PISA test. School closures explained only 11% of the variation in countries’ test scores; nearly 90% is attributable to other, unclear reasons. However, the OECD looked at the absolute level of test scores and not how much test scores fell or rose. More analysis is needed to see if there’s a stronger link between school closures and test score changes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if school closures eventually prove to be a more important factor, the pandemic isn’t the only reason students are struggling. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-08-at-8.19.02-AM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Global scores have generally been declining for the past two decades\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. One hypothesis is that technology is distracting teenagers. Students were asked about technology distraction for the first time on the 2022 PISA. Forty-five percent of students said they feel anxious if their phones are not near them. Sixty-five percent report being distracted by digital devices during math lessons. Up to an hour a day of computer time for leisure was associated with higher performance. But heavy users, those who spent five to seven hours on computers for fun, had lower academic performance, even after adjusting for family and school socioeconomic profiles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another factor could be the rise in migration across the world. Perhaps declining test scores reflect the challenge of educating new immigrants. However, the OECD didn’t find a statistically significant correlation between \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-08-at-8.22.06-AM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">immigration and academic performance\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on average. In the United States, immigrants outscored students with native-born parents in math after adjusting for socio-economic status. There was no difference between immigrants and non-immigrants in reading.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Japan was one of the few countries to defy the trends. Both its math and reading scores rose considerably between 2018 and 2022. Akihiko Takahashi, professor emeritus of mathematics and mathematics education at Chicago’s DePaul University, said schools were closed for a shorter period of time in Japan and that helped, but he also credits the collective spirit among Japanese teachers. In his conversations with Japanese teachers, Takahashi learned how teachers covered for each other during school closures to make sure no students in their schools fell behind. Some went house to house, correcting student homework. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s tempting to look at the terrible PISA math scores and say they are evidence that the U.S. needs to change how it teaches math. But the PISA results don’t offer clear recommendations on which math approaches are most effective. Even Japan, one of the top performing nations, has a mixed approach. Takahashi says that students are taught with a more progressive approach in elementary school, often asking students to solve problems on their own without step-by-step instructions and to develop their own mathematical reasoning. But by high school, when this PISA exam is taken, direct, explicit instruction is more the norm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The new results also highlighted the continued decline of a former star. For years, Finland was a role model for excellent academic performance. Education officials visited from around the world to learn about its progressive approaches. But the country has dropped 60 points over the past few testing cycles – equivalent to losing three full school years of education. I suspect we won’t be hearing calls to teach the Finnish way anymore. “You have to be careful because the leaders of today can be the laggards of tomorrow,” said Tom Loveless, an independent education researcher who studies international assessments.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was one bright spot for American students. Fifteen-year-olds scored comparatively well on the PISA reading test, with their scores dropping by just one point while other countries experienced much steeper declines. But that good news is also tempered by the most recent scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) test, often called the Nation’s Report Card. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-several-surprises-in-gloomy-naep-report/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading scores of fourth and eighth graders\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> deteriorated over the last two testing cycles in 2019 and 2022.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Overall, the PISA results provide additional confirmation that U.S. students are in trouble, especially in math, and we can’t put all the blame on the pandemic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-there-is-a-worldwide-problem-in-math-and-its-not-just-about-the-pandemic/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2022 PISA results\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Although U.S. rankings rose for the 2022 PISA test, students actually scored worse than ever in math.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1720204874,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 18,
"wordCount": 1302
},
"headData": {
"title": "There's a Worldwide Problem in Math, and It’s Not Just About the Pandemic | KQED",
"description": "Although U.S. rankings rose for the 2022 PISA test, students actually scored worse than ever in math.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"socialDescription": "Although U.S. rankings rose for the 2022 PISA test, students actually scored worse than ever in math.",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "There's a Worldwide Problem in Math, and It’s Not Just About the Pandemic",
"datePublished": "2023-12-11T03:00:42-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-07-05T11:41:14-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62834/theres-a-worldwide-problem-in-math-and-its-not-just-about-the-pandemic",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Numbers don’t lie, right? But they also don’t always tell the whole story. That’s the case with the most recent results from a key global education test, the Program for International Student Assessment or PISA. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the past, PISA results have often spurred anguished discussion about why U.S. students are so far behind other countries like Finland, Korea and Poland. But the most recent rankings, released in December 2023, indicated that U.S. 15-year olds moved up in the international rankings for all three subjects – \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Math-rankings-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Reading-rankings-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">reading\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Science-rankings-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">science\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona credited the largest federal investment in education in history – roughly $200 billion – for keeping the United States “\u003ca href=\"https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USED/bulletins/37e3e90\">in the game\u003c/a>” during the pandemic. (The tests were administered in 2022.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But that rosy spin hides a much grimmer picture. Rankings may have risen, but test scores did not. The only reason the U.S. rose is because academic performance in once higher ranking countries, such as Iceland, fell by even more since the previous testing round in 2018. Neither India nor China, which topped the\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/what-2018-pisa-international-rankings-tell-us-about-u-s-schools/\"> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rankings in 2018\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, participated in the 2022 PISA. In math, the U.S. rose from 29th place to 28th place, still in the bottom half of economically advanced nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international organization of 38 member countries that oversees the PISA exam. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The deterioration in math was particularly devastating. American students scored 13 points lower than in 2018, equivalent to losing two-thirds of a year of education in the subject. These were the lowest U.S. math scores recorded in the history of the PISA math test, which began in 2003. More than a third of U.S. 15-year-olds (mostly 10th graders) are considered to be \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-07-at-1.28.02-PM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">low performers\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, unable to compare distances between two routes or convert prices into a different currency. Over the past decade, the share of U.S. students in this lowest level has swelled; back in 2012, a little over a quarter of U.S. students were considered to be low performers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Only 7% of American students can do math at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-07-at-1.28.02-PM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">advanced levels\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The United States has more students in the bottom group and fewer students in the top group than most other industrialized countries that are part of the OECD. (Click here to see an international ranking of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/PISA-2022-low-and-top.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">low and top performers in each country\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The results also confirmed the widespread inequalities in U.S. education. Black and Hispanic students, on average, scored far below Asian and white students. Those from low-income backgrounds scored lower than their more affluent peers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills at the OECD, emphasized that the inequities in the U.S. are often misunderstood to be a problem of weak schools in poor neighborhoods. His analysis indicates that low math performance is common throughout U.S. schools. Some students are performing much worse than others within the same school, and that range between low and advanced students within U.S. schools is much greater than the range in scores between schools. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This new PISA test is the first major international education indicator since the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and disrupted education. Test scores declined all around the world, but the OECD found there was only a small relationship between \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/School-closures-PISA-2022.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">how long schools were closed and their students’ performance\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on the PISA test. School closures explained only 11% of the variation in countries’ test scores; nearly 90% is attributable to other, unclear reasons. However, the OECD looked at the absolute level of test scores and not how much test scores fell or rose. More analysis is needed to see if there’s a stronger link between school closures and test score changes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if school closures eventually prove to be a more important factor, the pandemic isn’t the only reason students are struggling. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-08-at-8.19.02-AM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Global scores have generally been declining for the past two decades\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. One hypothesis is that technology is distracting teenagers. Students were asked about technology distraction for the first time on the 2022 PISA. Forty-five percent of students said they feel anxious if their phones are not near them. Sixty-five percent report being distracted by digital devices during math lessons. Up to an hour a day of computer time for leisure was associated with higher performance. But heavy users, those who spent five to seven hours on computers for fun, had lower academic performance, even after adjusting for family and school socioeconomic profiles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another factor could be the rise in migration across the world. Perhaps declining test scores reflect the challenge of educating new immigrants. However, the OECD didn’t find a statistically significant correlation between \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Screen-Shot-2023-12-08-at-8.22.06-AM.png\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">immigration and academic performance\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on average. In the United States, immigrants outscored students with native-born parents in math after adjusting for socio-economic status. There was no difference between immigrants and non-immigrants in reading.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Japan was one of the few countries to defy the trends. Both its math and reading scores rose considerably between 2018 and 2022. Akihiko Takahashi, professor emeritus of mathematics and mathematics education at Chicago’s DePaul University, said schools were closed for a shorter period of time in Japan and that helped, but he also credits the collective spirit among Japanese teachers. In his conversations with Japanese teachers, Takahashi learned how teachers covered for each other during school closures to make sure no students in their schools fell behind. Some went house to house, correcting student homework. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s tempting to look at the terrible PISA math scores and say they are evidence that the U.S. needs to change how it teaches math. But the PISA results don’t offer clear recommendations on which math approaches are most effective. Even Japan, one of the top performing nations, has a mixed approach. Takahashi says that students are taught with a more progressive approach in elementary school, often asking students to solve problems on their own without step-by-step instructions and to develop their own mathematical reasoning. But by high school, when this PISA exam is taken, direct, explicit instruction is more the norm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The new results also highlighted the continued decline of a former star. For years, Finland was a role model for excellent academic performance. Education officials visited from around the world to learn about its progressive approaches. But the country has dropped 60 points over the past few testing cycles – equivalent to losing three full school years of education. I suspect we won’t be hearing calls to teach the Finnish way anymore. “You have to be careful because the leaders of today can be the laggards of tomorrow,” said Tom Loveless, an independent education researcher who studies international assessments.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was one bright spot for American students. Fifteen-year-olds scored comparatively well on the PISA reading test, with their scores dropping by just one point while other countries experienced much steeper declines. But that good news is also tempered by the most recent scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) test, often called the Nation’s Report Card. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-several-surprises-in-gloomy-naep-report/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading scores of fourth and eighth graders\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> deteriorated over the last two testing cycles in 2019 and 2022.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Overall, the PISA results provide additional confirmation that U.S. students are in trouble, especially in math, and we can’t put all the blame on the pandemic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-there-is-a-worldwide-problem-in-math-and-its-not-just-about-the-pandemic/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2022 PISA results\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62834/theres-a-worldwide-problem-in-math-and-its-not-just-about-the-pandemic",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_62834"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21345",
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21539",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_21864",
"mindshift_205"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62839",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_62724": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62724",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62724",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1699873234000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "professors-say-high-school-math-doesnt-prepare-most-students-for-their-college-majors",
"title": "Professors Say High School Math Doesn’t Prepare Most Students For Their College Majors",
"publishDate": 1699873234,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Professors Say High School Math Doesn’t Prepare Most Students For Their College Majors | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The typical ambitious high school student takes advanced algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus. None of that math may be necessary for the vast majority of undergraduates who don’t intend to major in science or another STEM field. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But those same students don’t have many of the math skills that professors think they actually do need. In a survey, humanities, arts and social science professors say they really want their students to be able to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58326/could-data-science-diversify-the-stem-field-why-courses-designed-this-century-feel-so-relevant-to-all-students\">analyze data, create charts and spreadsheets and reason mathematically\u003c/a> – skills that high school math courses often skip or rush through.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We still need the traditional algebra-to-calculus curriculum for students who are intending a STEM major,” said Gary Martin, a professor of mathematics education at Auburn University in Alabama who led the team that conducted this survey of college professors. “But that’s maybe 20%. The other 80%, what about them?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin said that the survey showed that high schools should stress “reasoning and critical thinking skills, decrease the emphasis on specific mathematical topics, and increase the focus on data analysis and statistics.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This damning assessment of the content of high school math comes from a survey of about 300 Alabama college professors who oversee majors and undergraduate degree programs at both two-year and four-year public colleges in the humanities, arts, social sciences and some natural sciences. Majors that require calculus were excluded. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2021 survey prompted Alabama’s public colleges and universities to allow more students to meet their math requirements by taking a statistics course instead of a traditional math class, such as college algebra or calculus. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin and his colleagues later realized that the survey had implications for high school math too, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://conference-handouts.s3.amazonaws.com/2023-ncsm-washington-dc/files/0930_0_Martin_3111.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">presented these results at an Oct. 26, 2023 session\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference in Washington D.C. Full survey results are slated to be published in the winter 2024 issue of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://amatyc.org/page/MathAMATYCEducator\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MathAMATYC Educator\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the survey, professors were asked \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">detailed questions\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about which mathematical concepts and skills students need in their programs. Many high school math topics were unimportant to college professors. For example, most professors said they wanted students to understand functions, particularly linear and exponential functions, which are used to model trends, population changes or compound interest. But Martin said that non-STEM students didn’t really need to learn trigonometric functions, which are used in satellite navigation or mechanical engineering. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">College professors were more keen on an assortment of what was described as mathematical “practices,” including the ability to “interpret quantitative information,” “strategically infer, evaluate and reason,” “apply the mathematics they know to solve everyday life, society and the workplace,” and to “look for patterns and relationships and make generalizations.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Teachers are so focused on covering all the topics that they don’t have time to do the practices when the practices are what really matters,” said Martin.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Understanding statistics was high on the list. An overwhelming majority of college professors said students in their programs needed to be familiar with statistics and data analysis, including concepts like correlation, causation and the importance of sample size. They wanted students to be able to “interpret displays of data and statistical analyses to understand the reasonableness of the claims being presented.” Professors say students need to be able to produce bar charts, histograms and line charts. Facility with spreadsheets, such as Excel, is useful too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Statistics is what you need,” said Martin. “Yet, in many K-12 classrooms, statistics is the proverbial end-of-the-year unit that you may or may not get to. And if you do, you rush through it, just to say you did it. But there’s not this sense of urgency to get through the statistics, as there is to get through the math topics.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though the survey took place only in Alabama and professors in other states might have different thoughts on the math that students need, Martin suspects that there are more similarities than differences.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mismatch between what students learn in high school and what they need in college isn’t easy to fix. Teachers generally don’t have time for longer statistics units, or the ability to go deeper into math concepts so that students can develop their reasoning skills, because high school math courses have become bloated with too many topics. However, there is no consensus on which algebra topics to jettison.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Encouraging high school students to take statistics classes during their junior and senior years is also fraught. College admissions officers value calculus, almost as a proxy for intelligence. And college admissions tests tend to emphasize math skills that students will practice more on the algebra-to-calculus track. A diversion to data analysis risks putting students at a disadvantage. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The thorniest problem is that revamping high school math could force students to make big choices in school before they know what they want to study in college. Students who want to enter STEM fields still need calculus and the country needs more people to pursue STEM careers. Taking more students off of the calculus track could close doors to many students and ultimately weaken the U.S. economy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin said it’s also important to remember that vocational training is not the only purpose of math education. “We don’t have students read Shakespeare because they need it to be effective in whatever they’re going to do later,” he said. “It adds something to your life. I felt that it really gave me breadth as a human being.” He wants high school students to study some math concepts they will never need because there’s a beauty to them. “Appreciating mathematics is a really intriguing way of looking at the world,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin and his colleagues don’t have any definitive solutions, but their survey is a helpful data point in demonstrating how too few students are getting the mathematical foundations they need for the future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-professors-say-high-school-math-doesnt-prepare-most-students-for-their-college-majors/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">high school math\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "In a survey, non-STEM professors said they really want their students to be able to analyze data, create charts and spreadsheets and reason mathematically.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1723562994,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 21,
"wordCount": 1100
},
"headData": {
"title": "Professors Say High School Math Doesn’t Prepare Most Students For Their College Majors | KQED",
"description": "In a survey, non-STEM professors said they really want their students to be able to analyze data, create charts and spreadsheets and reason mathematically.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"socialDescription": "In a survey, non-STEM professors said they really want their students to be able to analyze data, create charts and spreadsheets and reason mathematically.",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Professors Say High School Math Doesn’t Prepare Most Students For Their College Majors",
"datePublished": "2023-11-13T03:00:34-08:00",
"dateModified": "2024-08-13T08:29:54-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62724/professors-say-high-school-math-doesnt-prepare-most-students-for-their-college-majors",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The typical ambitious high school student takes advanced algebra, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus. None of that math may be necessary for the vast majority of undergraduates who don’t intend to major in science or another STEM field. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But those same students don’t have many of the math skills that professors think they actually do need. In a survey, humanities, arts and social science professors say they really want their students to be able to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58326/could-data-science-diversify-the-stem-field-why-courses-designed-this-century-feel-so-relevant-to-all-students\">analyze data, create charts and spreadsheets and reason mathematically\u003c/a> – skills that high school math courses often skip or rush through.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We still need the traditional algebra-to-calculus curriculum for students who are intending a STEM major,” said Gary Martin, a professor of mathematics education at Auburn University in Alabama who led the team that conducted this survey of college professors. “But that’s maybe 20%. The other 80%, what about them?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin said that the survey showed that high schools should stress “reasoning and critical thinking skills, decrease the emphasis on specific mathematical topics, and increase the focus on data analysis and statistics.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This damning assessment of the content of high school math comes from a survey of about 300 Alabama college professors who oversee majors and undergraduate degree programs at both two-year and four-year public colleges in the humanities, arts, social sciences and some natural sciences. Majors that require calculus were excluded. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2021 survey prompted Alabama’s public colleges and universities to allow more students to meet their math requirements by taking a statistics course instead of a traditional math class, such as college algebra or calculus. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin and his colleagues later realized that the survey had implications for high school math too, and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://conference-handouts.s3.amazonaws.com/2023-ncsm-washington-dc/files/0930_0_Martin_3111.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">presented these results at an Oct. 26, 2023 session\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference in Washington D.C. Full survey results are slated to be published in the winter 2024 issue of the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://amatyc.org/page/MathAMATYCEducator\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MathAMATYC Educator\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the survey, professors were asked \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">detailed questions\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> about which mathematical concepts and skills students need in their programs. Many high school math topics were unimportant to college professors. For example, most professors said they wanted students to understand functions, particularly linear and exponential functions, which are used to model trends, population changes or compound interest. But Martin said that non-STEM students didn’t really need to learn trigonometric functions, which are used in satellite navigation or mechanical engineering. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">College professors were more keen on an assortment of what was described as mathematical “practices,” including the ability to “interpret quantitative information,” “strategically infer, evaluate and reason,” “apply the mathematics they know to solve everyday life, society and the workplace,” and to “look for patterns and relationships and make generalizations.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Teachers are so focused on covering all the topics that they don’t have time to do the practices when the practices are what really matters,” said Martin.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Understanding statistics was high on the list. An overwhelming majority of college professors said students in their programs needed to be familiar with statistics and data analysis, including concepts like correlation, causation and the importance of sample size. They wanted students to be able to “interpret displays of data and statistical analyses to understand the reasonableness of the claims being presented.” Professors say students need to be able to produce bar charts, histograms and line charts. Facility with spreadsheets, such as Excel, is useful too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Statistics is what you need,” said Martin. “Yet, in many K-12 classrooms, statistics is the proverbial end-of-the-year unit that you may or may not get to. And if you do, you rush through it, just to say you did it. But there’s not this sense of urgency to get through the statistics, as there is to get through the math topics.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though the survey took place only in Alabama and professors in other states might have different thoughts on the math that students need, Martin suspects that there are more similarities than differences.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The mismatch between what students learn in high school and what they need in college isn’t easy to fix. Teachers generally don’t have time for longer statistics units, or the ability to go deeper into math concepts so that students can develop their reasoning skills, because high school math courses have become bloated with too many topics. However, there is no consensus on which algebra topics to jettison.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Encouraging high school students to take statistics classes during their junior and senior years is also fraught. College admissions officers value calculus, almost as a proxy for intelligence. And college admissions tests tend to emphasize math skills that students will practice more on the algebra-to-calculus track. A diversion to data analysis risks putting students at a disadvantage. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The thorniest problem is that revamping high school math could force students to make big choices in school before they know what they want to study in college. Students who want to enter STEM fields still need calculus and the country needs more people to pursue STEM careers. Taking more students off of the calculus track could close doors to many students and ultimately weaken the U.S. economy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin said it’s also important to remember that vocational training is not the only purpose of math education. “We don’t have students read Shakespeare because they need it to be effective in whatever they’re going to do later,” he said. “It adds something to your life. I felt that it really gave me breadth as a human being.” He wants high school students to study some math concepts they will never need because there’s a beauty to them. “Appreciating mathematics is a really intriguing way of looking at the world,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Martin and his colleagues don’t have any definitive solutions, but their survey is a helpful data point in demonstrating how too few students are getting the mathematical foundations they need for the future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-professors-say-high-school-math-doesnt-prepare-most-students-for-their-college-majors/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">high school math\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62724/professors-say-high-school-math-doesnt-prepare-most-students-for-their-college-majors",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_62724"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21504",
"mindshift_21694"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_276",
"mindshift_998",
"mindshift_21846",
"mindshift_21261",
"mindshift_21189",
"mindshift_21403",
"mindshift_21446",
"mindshift_68",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_21845",
"mindshift_47"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62725",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_62663": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62663",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62663",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1698660019000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1698660019,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Flash cards prevail over repetition in memorizing multiplication tables",
"headTitle": "Flash cards prevail over repetition in memorizing multiplication tables | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Young students around the world struggle to memorize multiplication tables, but the effort pays off. Cognitive scientists say that learning 6 x 7 and 8 x 9 by heart frees up the brain’s working memory so that students can focus on the more demanding aspects of problem solving. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Math teachers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">debate the best way to make multiplication automatic\u003c/a>. Some educators argue against drills and say fluency will develop with everyday usage. Others insist that schools should devote time to helping children memorize times tables. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even among proponents of memorization, it’s unclear which methods are the most effective. Should kids draw \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2IQB9I7zX0\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">their own color-coded tables\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and study them, or copy their multiplication facts out dozens of times? Should they play \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSRRAHvSQBo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">multiplication songs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and videos? Should they learn mnemonic tricks, like how the digits of the multiples of nine add up to nine (1+8, 2+7, 3+6, etc.)? My daughter’s gym teacher used to make students shout “7 x 5 is 35” and “6 x 8 is 48” as they did jumping jacks. (It was certainly a way to make jumping less monotonous.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To help advise teachers, a team of learning scientists compared two common methods: chanting and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60868/many-students-are-using-study-strategies-that-dont-work-and-better-options-exist\">flash cards\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2022 experiment took place in four second grade classrooms in the Netherlands. The teachers began by delivering a lesson on multiplying by three. Using the same scripted lesson, they explained multiplication concepts, such as: “If I grab three apples, and I do this only one time, how many apples do I have?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the lesson, half the classrooms practiced by reciting equations displayed on a whiteboard: “One times three is three, two times three is six…” through to 10. The other half practiced with flash cards. Students had their own personal sets with answers on the reverse side. Both groups spent five minutes practicing three times during the week for a total of 15 minutes. (More details on the experiment’s design \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.4141?campaign=wolearlyview\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the teachers moved on to multiplication by fours, the groups switched. The chanters quizzed themselves with flash cards, and the flash card kids started chanting. All the students practiced memorizing both ways. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The results added up to a clear winner. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a pre-test before the lesson, the second graders got an average of three math facts right. Afterwards, the chanters tended to double their accuracy, answering six facts correctly. But the flash card users averaged eight correct. Students were tested again a full week later without any additional practice sessions, and the strong advantage for flash card users didn’t fade. It was a sign that flash card practice not only produces better short-term memories, but also better long-term ones – the ultimate goal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62665 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2.png\" alt=\"Grayscale bar chart showing pre-test, post-test short term and post-test long term results. The gap between student scores for pre-test is small and widens on the bars for post-test. The post-test bars for the retrieval practices group are higher than the restudy group, indicating better student test scores.\" width=\"780\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2-160x86.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2-768x414.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students scored higher on a multiplication test after practicing through flash cards (retrieval practice) than by chanting aloud (restudy). \u003ccite>(Source: Figure 1 of “The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting,” (2023) Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The study, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.4141\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” was published online in October 2023 in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology. Though a small study of 48 students, this classroom experiment is a good example of the power of what cognitive scientists call “spaced retrieval practice,” in which the act of remembering consolidates information and helps the brain form long-term memories.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Retrieval practice can seem counterintuitive. One might think that students should study before being assessed or quizzing themselves. But there’s a growing body of evidence that trying to recall something is itself a powerful tool for learning, particularly when you are given the correct answer immediately after making a stab at it and then get a chance to try again. Testing your memory – even when you draw a blank – is a way to build new memories. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many experiments have shown that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-021-09595-9\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">retrieval practice produces better long-term memories\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> than studying. Flash cards are one way to try retrieval practice. Quizzes are another option because they also require students to retrieve new information from memory. Indeed, many teachers opt for speed drills, asking students to race through a page of multiplication problems in a minute. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flash cards can be less anxiety provoking, provide students immediate feedback with answers on the reverse side and allow students to repeat the retrieval practice immediately, running through the deck more than once. Still, kids are kids and they easily drift off task during independent practice time. With a timed quiz, the teacher can be more confident that everyone has benefited from a round of retrieval practice. I’d be curious to see flash cards and quizzes pitted against each other in a future classroom experiment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As charming as multiplication songs are – I have a soft spot for \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSRRAHvSQBo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">School House Rock\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and my editor fondly recalls her \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PQf88h3sqE\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Billy Leach multiplication records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> – they are unlikely to be as effective as flash cards because they don’t involve retrieval practice, according to Gino Camp, a professor of learning sciences at Open University in the Netherlands and one of the researchers on the study.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That doesn’t mean we should jettison the songs or all the other memorization methods just because some aren’t as effective as others. Researchers may eventually find that a combination of techniques is even more powerful. Still, there are limited minutes in the school day, and knowing which learning methods are the most effective can help everyone – teachers, parents and students – use their time wisely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-flashcards-prevail-over-repetition-in-memorizing-multiplication-tables/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">multiplication flash cards\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1004,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 18
},
"modified": 1698612626,
"excerpt": "A team of learning scientists compared two common methods for learning multiplication facts: chanting and flash cards. The results add to the evidence for “spaced retrieval practice” in classrooms.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "A team of learning scientists compared two common methods for learning multiplication facts: chanting and flash cards.",
"socialDescription": "A team of learning scientists compared two common methods for learning multiplication facts: chanting and flash cards.",
"title": "Flash cards prevail over repetition in memorizing multiplication tables | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Flash cards prevail over repetition in memorizing multiplication tables",
"datePublished": "2023-10-30T03:00:19-07:00",
"dateModified": "2023-10-29T13:50:26-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "flash-cards-prevail-over-repetition-in-memorizing-multiplication-tables",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62663/flash-cards-prevail-over-repetition-in-memorizing-multiplication-tables",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Young students around the world struggle to memorize multiplication tables, but the effort pays off. Cognitive scientists say that learning 6 x 7 and 8 x 9 by heart frees up the brain’s working memory so that students can focus on the more demanding aspects of problem solving. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Math teachers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">debate the best way to make multiplication automatic\u003c/a>. Some educators argue against drills and say fluency will develop with everyday usage. Others insist that schools should devote time to helping children memorize times tables. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even among proponents of memorization, it’s unclear which methods are the most effective. Should kids draw \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2IQB9I7zX0\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">their own color-coded tables\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and study them, or copy their multiplication facts out dozens of times? Should they play \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSRRAHvSQBo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">multiplication songs\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and videos? Should they learn mnemonic tricks, like how the digits of the multiples of nine add up to nine (1+8, 2+7, 3+6, etc.)? My daughter’s gym teacher used to make students shout “7 x 5 is 35” and “6 x 8 is 48” as they did jumping jacks. (It was certainly a way to make jumping less monotonous.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To help advise teachers, a team of learning scientists compared two common methods: chanting and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60868/many-students-are-using-study-strategies-that-dont-work-and-better-options-exist\">flash cards\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2022 experiment took place in four second grade classrooms in the Netherlands. The teachers began by delivering a lesson on multiplying by three. Using the same scripted lesson, they explained multiplication concepts, such as: “If I grab three apples, and I do this only one time, how many apples do I have?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After the lesson, half the classrooms practiced by reciting equations displayed on a whiteboard: “One times three is three, two times three is six…” through to 10. The other half practiced with flash cards. Students had their own personal sets with answers on the reverse side. Both groups spent five minutes practicing three times during the week for a total of 15 minutes. (More details on the experiment’s design \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.4141?campaign=wolearlyview\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the teachers moved on to multiplication by fours, the groups switched. The chanters quizzed themselves with flash cards, and the flash card kids started chanting. All the students practiced memorizing both ways. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The results added up to a clear winner. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a pre-test before the lesson, the second graders got an average of three math facts right. Afterwards, the chanters tended to double their accuracy, answering six facts correctly. But the flash card users averaged eight correct. Students were tested again a full week later without any additional practice sessions, and the strong advantage for flash card users didn’t fade. It was a sign that flash card practice not only produces better short-term memories, but also better long-term ones – the ultimate goal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62665 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2.png\" alt=\"Grayscale bar chart showing pre-test, post-test short term and post-test long term results. The gap between student scores for pre-test is small and widens on the bars for post-test. The post-test bars for the retrieval practices group are higher than the restudy group, indicating better student test scores.\" width=\"780\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2-160x86.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/10/image2-768x414.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students scored higher on a multiplication test after practicing through flash cards (retrieval practice) than by chanting aloud (restudy). \u003ccite>(Source: Figure 1 of “The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting,” (2023) Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The study, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/acp.4141\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The effect of retrieval practice on fluently retrieving multiplication facts in an authentic elementary school setting\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” was published online in October 2023 in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology. Though a small study of 48 students, this classroom experiment is a good example of the power of what cognitive scientists call “spaced retrieval practice,” in which the act of remembering consolidates information and helps the brain form long-term memories.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Retrieval practice can seem counterintuitive. One might think that students should study before being assessed or quizzing themselves. But there’s a growing body of evidence that trying to recall something is itself a powerful tool for learning, particularly when you are given the correct answer immediately after making a stab at it and then get a chance to try again. Testing your memory – even when you draw a blank – is a way to build new memories. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many experiments have shown that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-021-09595-9\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">retrieval practice produces better long-term memories\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> than studying. Flash cards are one way to try retrieval practice. Quizzes are another option because they also require students to retrieve new information from memory. Indeed, many teachers opt for speed drills, asking students to race through a page of multiplication problems in a minute. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flash cards can be less anxiety provoking, provide students immediate feedback with answers on the reverse side and allow students to repeat the retrieval practice immediately, running through the deck more than once. Still, kids are kids and they easily drift off task during independent practice time. With a timed quiz, the teacher can be more confident that everyone has benefited from a round of retrieval practice. I’d be curious to see flash cards and quizzes pitted against each other in a future classroom experiment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As charming as multiplication songs are – I have a soft spot for \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSRRAHvSQBo\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">School House Rock\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and my editor fondly recalls her \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PQf88h3sqE\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Billy Leach multiplication records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> – they are unlikely to be as effective as flash cards because they don’t involve retrieval practice, according to Gino Camp, a professor of learning sciences at Open University in the Netherlands and one of the researchers on the study.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That doesn’t mean we should jettison the songs or all the other memorization methods just because some aren’t as effective as others. Researchers may eventually find that a combination of techniques is even more powerful. Still, there are limited minutes in the school day, and knowing which learning methods are the most effective can help everyone – teachers, parents and students – use their time wisely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-flashcards-prevail-over-repetition-in-memorizing-multiplication-tables/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">multiplication flash cards\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a> \u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://hechingerreport.us2.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=66c306eebb323868c3ce353c1&id=d3ee4c3e04\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62663/flash-cards-prevail-over-repetition-in-memorizing-multiplication-tables",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_62663"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21830",
"mindshift_21829",
"mindshift_21832",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_20556",
"mindshift_21641",
"mindshift_21828",
"mindshift_21152",
"mindshift_21831",
"mindshift_21438"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62664",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_62436": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62436",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62436",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1695722443000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class",
"title": "How Listening to Students’ Stories Can Improve Math Class",
"publishDate": 1695722443,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "How Listening to Students’ Stories Can Improve Math Class | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"term": 21942,
"site": "mindshift"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>View the full episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking into her sophomore year math class, Taylor Paris was nervous. She’d had a rocky relationship with the subject ever since long division showed up in elementary school. “I knew I didn’t understand math concepts very well. I knew that it was something that took me a longer time (than classmates),” she recalled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she was pleasantly surprised when one of the first assignments from teacher Sarah Strong required no calculating. Instead, Strong asked the class to write a letter to math – as if it were a person. These \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60108/using-dear-math-letters-to-overcome-dread-in-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Dear Math” letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are a tool that Strong developed as a way to understand students’ relationship to math, which researchers call \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/jmetc/article/view/9187/4897\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mathematical identity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. What Strong learns from these letters informs how she teaches individual students and whole classes throughout the year. Often that means working to disrupt the negative beliefs that students hold about their math abilities, which tend to revolve around comparisons to classmates, like “fast” vs. “slow” or “math person” vs. “not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong models the Dear Math activity by reading her own letter to math. Then she gives students prompts, such as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who is now 20, was excited to apply her writing skills in math, but also to unpack some of her deeply rooted emotions about math. “I was finally able to write all of the things that made me sad and things that made me mad, like everything into one letter, addressing math directly,” she said. Here’s what she wrote in 10th grade: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me through every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me ‘maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Paris, having a teacher acknowledge emotions in math class was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54980/why-teachers-want-math-with-more-human-ties\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanizing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating,” Paris said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong devotes a few hours to reading the letters, making notes about broad patterns and individual details. “It’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Hierarchy in math education\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong teaches at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">High Tech High\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and its Graduate School of Education in San Diego. She developed the Dear Math routine almost a decade ago, and she published a book about it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.10publications.com/dear-math\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, co-authored by her former\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">student Gigi Butterfield. In it, the teacher and former student reflect on the themes across hundreds of letters. One pervasive theme is hierarchy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade are defining themselves as good at math or not good at math,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/amynoelleparks\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an elementary math education researcher at Michigan State University. Much of that definition comes from how they rank among classmates – from timed tests, to ‘high’ and ‘low’ groups, to subtle cues in teachers’ language. “I’ve been in classrooms where teachers have had kids line up by how many questions they answered or how many things they got right,” Parks said. “These hierarchies get reinforced so often and in so many different ways it’s almost overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many kids, the comparisons add up to a negative self-perception around math. And by the time they reach high school, that mathematical identity can feel immutable. But math class doesn’t have to be this way. “Teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mathematizing4all.com/about-the-author/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a professor and researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a stubborn cultural \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that some of us are “math people” and some of us aren’t\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This idea gets repeated explicitly all the time, and often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6524\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implicitly with gendered and racialized associations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But neuroscience shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youcubed.org/resources/brain-science/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">everyone is capable of learning math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Lambert said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57997/how-to-build-students-math-confidence-with-culturally-sustaining-teaching-practices\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it matters that kids hear that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Students connect subjects to teachers in a pretty intense way that I think as adults we often forget. So if they feel their math teacher believes in them as a human being and believes in their competence in mathematics, that can make a huge difference,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s classroom, listening to students’ stories is the first step toward disrupting those hierarchies. She also looks for ways to highlight students’ mathematical thinking on a daily basis. One way she does this is by having multiple students write their problem-solving ideas on the whiteboard and asking other students to comment on what they like about the strategies they see. Another routine is an exit ticket that asks students to share something they learned from a classmate that day. She might share the details the next day with a student who was mentioned or with the whole class if there’s a bigger lesson in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Math is for everyone\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela Avila, another of Strong’s former students, said these kinds of practices created a sense of community: “It was never even like a question of did you get it right or wrong. It just seemed like we were always just all learning together as a class.” She had Strong as a teacher twice and wrote Dear Math letters both times. In her letter as a sophomore, her self-doubts showed up in the first sentence:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her letter as a senior, Avila wrote about her math growth over the prior two years:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Avila got to the highly competitive environment of Johns Hopkins University, however, the usual order of things returned. “I really struggled a lot with comparing myself, especially in math,” she said, discussing her freshman year. “And I just found that to be super, super counterproductive for both my learning and my self esteem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong said her own math story has had a lot of highs and lows, too. Though she can’t protect students from the ways math is taught and talked about beyond her classroom, her hope is that before they leave high school, “they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Avila, the persistence she developed in high school did pay off in the long, emotionally tough hours of college calculus. “I feel like how you think about yourself and how fast you are to get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fast and slow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, Strong’s former student who liked expressing her emotions in a Dear Math letter, still remembers the heart-racing stress that accompanied \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">timed multiplication tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in third grade. In Strong’s classroom, she said, there was never a timer. When Paris needed extra support, Strong brought out old algebra textbooks to reinforce foundational concepts. She designed projects where Paris could make connections between math and art – a subject that she already loved. Most importantly, Strong helped Paris learn how to break down complex problems into smaller steps. “Which is such a simple concept, but it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math,” said Paris. “And that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Many students have this conception that they’re the only one who’s taking time to understand this concept, that everybody around them has already got it,” said Lambert, the UC Santa Barbara professor. Lambert suggested that teachers can reduce the rush of the pacing calendar by thinking of it not as going slowly but choosing where to invest time. “You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s view, this requires shifting away from math instruction that is built around the ideas the teacher wants to get to in a given period. Student-centered instruction requires a lot more listening, she said: “Listening first off to their stories and how they’re showing up to class, and then second off (listening to) the ways that they are thinking of and understanding and making sense of mathematical ideas.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who had Strong as a teacher for three years, said that time transformed her. She now works at a bridal shop, where she was recently promoted from stylist to sales manager – a role that involves a lot of math. “If I want to teach my stylists how to increase their productivity in their sales, then I need to think like a mathematician and come up with the ways that I can do that,” she explained. In tenth grade, that would have scared her. Not now. “There’s no reason for me to be afraid of math because I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can do it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8301605465&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re talking about math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it involves numbers and formulas, we often think of math as straightforward and objective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But learning math is actually packed with emotions. I met a high school teacher who starts the year with an unusual assignment. She has her students write a letter to math, describing their feelings about the subject. Here’s that teacher, Sarah Strong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Dear Math letter is a letter that students write to math as if math were personified sitting across the table from them. … And it really helps inform teachers better understand the students stories and experiences that they’re coming to class with so that teachers can better design math experiences for students to thrive and flourish in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ll hear more from Sarah later in the episode. First, here’s part of a Dear Math letter from one of her former students, Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear math, Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me throughout every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me, ‘Maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head, and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The anxiety and frustration that Taylor described in her letter are familiar feelings for many young people. And by the time students get to high school, it can feel like if they don’t understand math now, they never will.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But math doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we get back from the break, we’ll hear more about Dear Math letters and how they help students like Taylor strengthen their mathematical identities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor Paris graduated high school a few years ago, but she still remembers the first week of tenth grade math with her teacher Sarah Strong. That’s when students wrote letters to math, as if it were a person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I remember being so excited because basically you’re writing in math, and that’s never the case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interdisciplinary learning allows students to think about a subject from new perspectives. For Taylor, writing the Dear Math letter gave her a chance to reflect on how her early school years shaped her relationship to math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember, my first, like, scariness of math was long division, because it was like so abstract to me, and everyone around me understood it and was just like, ‘Yeah, well that’s just the way it is and that’s totally fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing about those memories was cathartic. It also helped Taylor feel connected to her teacher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have never had a math teacher talk about emotions behind math ever. Like, truly ever … She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her teacher, Sarah Strong, also made it clear that it was okay for those feelings to surface throughout the year. Which made it possible for Taylor to focus on actually learning math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She did a great job at making me feel like I could take a really complex problem and break it down to the bare bones of it, which is such a simple concept. But it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math and that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician. And that’s what mathematicians did, was take their time and work on problems slowly to really understand every aspect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I met Taylor, she had just been promoted from a stylist to a sales manager at a bridal shop in San Diego. That’s a fashion job that involves a lot of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So stylists are responsible for obviously, you know, the customer service side of things, but on the sales side, there is a certain goal that you need to meet or would ideally meet day to day and kind of week to day, month to day. …\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when you think about it, sales is like one big math problem every day because there’s a question, there’s an answer that you have to get to, and then there’s variables that go into, you know, the answer to your problem, essentially.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor is 20. Not that long ago, doing a math-related job would have been unimaginable to her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you told sophomore year Taylor that I would be doing something that was directly correlated with math and numbers all the time, I would be terrified and probably laugh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor had Sarah Strong as a math teacher from 10th grade through 12th grade. She said that those years totally changed her view of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so while I may have been scared to take a sales manager position at, you know, in my sophomore year, it makes a ton of sense for me now because what I do is help people find their wedding dress. And who would have thought that math was in finding a wedding dress?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor now sees herself as a doer of math. This is what’s called mathematical identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did an episode featuring Chris Emdin, who talked about students’ STEM identities. Mathematical identity is one form of a STEM identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mathematical identity is a way that students see themselves as a mathematician, and therefore it connects to the ways that they enter into mathematical spaces and connect with other mathematicians around them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s teacher Sarah Strong again. She created the Dear Math activity during a bigger project where students were exploring their mathematical identities. They were using different types of math as metaphors for their experiences. And Sarah wanted to add a writing component to that project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one of my colleagues shared with me the idea of writing letters to a thing like books or basketball, and how she’d heard of that practice. And she thought I could do Dear Math letters, and I thought that was an amazing idea. So I ran with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters were powerful. And Sarah realized that having students write them at the beginning of the year could help her teach each class better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s how she does it now. She introduces the assignment during the first week of school. She reads her own Dear Math letter as a model, because most students aren’t used to writing in math class. Hearing her letter also lets them know that even though she teaches math, it hasn’t always been easy for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading her letter, Sarah gives her students prompts for writing their own. Questions like…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They spend 15 to 30 minutes writing in class. Anyone who wants to write more can finish at home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then Sarah reads the letters on her own. She says this is the most important step.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘Cause it’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She first looks for broad patterns across the class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I’ve got a disproportionate amount of students that hate math, don’t think they’re mathematicians, that I have to be really intentional about my class design, where I am regularly noticing and calling out their mathematical strengths and giving them opportunities to see themselves as mathematicians and see each other as mathematicians.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or do I have a lot of students who, who feel like ‘I am a really strong mathematician. Ever since I was young, I get all the right answers. I’m really fast.’ Then I can note that that’s a trend in the class and be thinking how I can continue to push those students while also broadening their understanding of how they are mathematical and how important it is to also listen to other students’ ways of being mathematical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She also reads the letters for individual details about things students love and things that trip them up. She might make a few notes and …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check in with students like, ‘Gosh, I remember you said that you had a really hard time with the idea of percents and like whenever percents come up, you panic. Well, tomorrow we’re going to need some percents in our work with exponential functions. And so I wanted to make sure that you knew that I believe that you’ve got this. If you want to do a little practice beforehand, we can do that because I want you to feel confident. I don’t want some story from sixth grade impacting your confidence in what we’re working on right now.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah said that getting to know students was always important to her. Even before she created the Dear Math assignment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would often try to connect with them in a variety of ways and I would hear their comments here and there that were both positive and negative. And I always tried to be a really good listener and understand my students’ feelings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But she wasn’t always getting a full picture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I think I was being a little delusional before I got to hear their whole stories because I would think, ‘Oh, they had really negative experiences. They don’t like math, but now that they’re in my class, everything’s going to be fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters helped her take off her rose-colored glasses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t until I started having them write Dear Math letters that I got to hear more complete stories and gain a bigger picture for their previous experience and how those experiences were informing the ways they were showing up to my class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That knowledge enables her to help students grow as math learners throughout the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My biggest hope is that they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nimah, it would be great if writing a Dear Math letter helped all students see themselves as capable of doing math – the way it did for Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would. But of course not every student’s math story is linear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No… Some math stories go up and down over time, like a periodic function. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice math analogy! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I got that one from Sarah Strong. She described her own math story that way. It also applies to another of her former students, Isabela Avila. Here’s the start of a Dear Math letter Isabela wrote in tenth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In previous math classes, Isabela felt pressure to always be fast and have the right answer. But she told me that expectation wasn’t there in Sarah Strong’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was never even like a question of like, did you get it right or wrong? It was just seemed like we were always just all learning together, as a class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That sense of togetherness mattered. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like, I think that really helped me like number one, like, think highly of myself as like a problem solver and also … be confident in my ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela had Sarah Strong as a teacher twice, and she wrote a Dear Math letter both times. You can hear her increased confidence in the letter she wrote as a senior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] The most mathematical growth I feel I have ever experienced was during my junior year. I felt confident in my algebra skills for the first time ever. … My mindset also shifted drastically. I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future. Sincerely, Isabela Avila.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Isabela actually got to college, the transition was rocky. She’s a pre-med major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our like math department is known for being like notoriously hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All around her, Isabela saw classmates who had come from elite high schools and seemed to understand calculus more easily than she did.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really struggled a lot with like comparing myself, especially in math. And I just found that to be super, super counter-productive for both my learning and like my self esteem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes she would break down crying while doing homework, which could take eight hours to complete. In class, she didn’t participate as much as she had hoped to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just really didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about or like, not that I don’t belong there, but I don’t know. It was just, everyone around me was so smart. And I know, like, tests don’t define you, but everyone around me, like, even if they were starting in calc one, they, like, got fives on like the AP calc exams and did exceptionally well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in high school, Isabela had written in one of her letters that she’d had a lot of highs and lows with math. Freshman year of college was definitely another low.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to her during her sophomore year at Johns Hopkins, being a premed major was still very stressful. Something that helped, though, was making friends who didn’t talk about grades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We don’t talk about, like, what score we got. We don’t talk about how we’re doing in the class. We don’t talk about — honestly we don’t talk that much about like our actual like school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she said the persistence that she developed in high school did help her get through calculus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially in math here in college, like, I feel like how you think about yourself and like how fast you are to like, get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, the way Isabela compared herself to her calculus classmates isn’t unique to being at a university full of high achievers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s right. Sarah Strong said those comparisons have been pervasive in students’ Dear Math letters. And according to experts, this kind of thinking starts early.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Researchers say even kindergarteners start to notice their spot in the pecking order of math ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often starts with those one-minute math quizzes that so many of us remember.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of pencils scribbling and slamming down\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students might hear their classmates furiously scribbling answers and slamming their pencils down when they finish. They equate that with being “good” at math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there are lots of other ways in school that students are ranked and sorted. In younger grades, teachers often group students by ability when they’re practicing math. In upper grades, students may get tracked into ‘regular’ and ‘advanced’ classes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers will even publicly display kids’ progress in certain math skills. This can look like a bulletin board that uses paper ice cream scoops to represent how many multiplication facts each student knows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One researcher I talked to had a lot of ideas about how to disrupt hierarchies in math education. This is Rachel Lambert, from University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think if there’s one one thing I’d like to communicate, it’s that teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel shared five tips that teachers can use to help kids stop comparing themselves to others in math. The first tip is to change the narrative about who can do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students would tell me how much it mattered to them to hear their teacher say, ‘There is no difference in who can be good at math.’ Like very clear messages around race and gender and the clear message that there is no one group of people that is better in math than other people, those students told me that was helpful to them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Changing the narrative isn’t just about what we say to kids. It’s also about how teachers talk to each other. And how they group students in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We might think as teachers – and I was a teacher for over 10 years – that kids don’t know that we might be calling them low kids or high kids when we’re having lunch with other teachers. … But they know, they always know and they know how they’re being grouped and classified and seen. … If we decide that kids are going to do well in mathematics, we do a lot of things in our teaching to set them up for success day after day. If we think kids will fail when we hand them a mathematical task, we’re doing subtle things to set them up for failure every single time we do that. So if we put them in groups that never change, we’re teaching them who they are and we’re also affecting who they become, because we’re only allowing them opportunities to do things quote-unquote at their level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel’s second tip for teachers is to stop focusing on speed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it not as a matter of going slow. Think of it as investing in certain things. So you can’t hit everything on your pacing calendar. You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment and what is worth extra time, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her third tip is to normalize mistakes. It can help students learn from each other’s thinking when you have them share their mistakes. Rachel told me about a teacher who did this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would even put a little heart next to a mistake and she’d be, ‘This was my favorite mistake of the day.’ And she drew a little heart next to it. And the kids would go, ‘awww.’ It’s adorable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tip number four is to give students problems that can be approached from multiple angles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I see that some kids really love to engage in the visual aspect of a problem. Other students like to make, say, an organized list. And that doesn’t mean – there’s no such thing as learning styles; it doesn’t mean that that’s the way they’re going to approach every problem, but it does mean that a problem that draws on multiple ways of engaging can be more rich mathematically and also disrupt ideas of who’s the best at math and who isn’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert’s fifth and final tip is to make supports available to everyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is the one of the simplest interventions you can do in math to make it more equitable … And it doesn’t send any negative messages to kids because they are choosing if they want to use a calculator. They are choosing if they want to hear the directions a second time. They are choosing if they use manipulatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making these resources available to everyone takes the teacher’s assumptions out of the equation. And it helps kids develop the skills to recognize what they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, there are some people who say math teachers should just focus on content. That activities like writing letters to math are more about self-esteem than learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These goals don’t have to be separate. Direct instruction and problem-solving practice are essential parts of math education. But like we said at the beginning, doing math involves emotions. Although we’ve heard a lot about the frustrating parts of math, it can also evoke positive emotions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids who are absorbed in math problem-solving often express wonder and excitement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listening to young people’s stories and honoring all of these emotions allows students to be more human in math class. And that doesn’t just make them \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">believe \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in their math abilities, it empowers them to learn math and to do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Sarah Strong. To learn more about Dear Math letters, you can read the book she wrote with her former student, Gigi Butterfield. The book is called, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math and What Teachers Can Do About It.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Taylor Paris, Isabela Avila, Rachel Lambert and Amy Parks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/mindshift\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kqed.org/mindshift\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. We’re taking a little break, but we’ll be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show or subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "In this math class, students write letters about their math history. The process can change their future.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1726872322,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": true,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 135,
"wordCount": 5839
},
"headData": {
"title": "How Listening to Students’ Stories Can Improve Math Class | KQED",
"description": "In this math class, students write letters about their math history. The process can change their future.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"socialDescription": "In this math class, students write letters about their math history. The process can change their future.",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "How Listening to Students’ Stories Can Improve Math Class",
"datePublished": "2023-09-26T03:00:43-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-09-20T15:45:22-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"audioUrl": "https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC8301605465.mp3?updated=1695679399",
"sticky": false,
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003cem>View the full episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Walking into her sophomore year math class, Taylor Paris was nervous. She’d had a rocky relationship with the subject ever since long division showed up in elementary school. “I knew I didn’t understand math concepts very well. I knew that it was something that took me a longer time (than classmates),” she recalled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So she was pleasantly surprised when one of the first assignments from teacher Sarah Strong required no calculating. Instead, Strong asked the class to write a letter to math – as if it were a person. These \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/60108/using-dear-math-letters-to-overcome-dread-in-math-class\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Dear Math” letters\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> are a tool that Strong developed as a way to understand students’ relationship to math, which researchers call \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/jmetc/article/view/9187/4897\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mathematical identity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. What Strong learns from these letters informs how she teaches individual students and whole classes throughout the year. Often that means working to disrupt the negative beliefs that students hold about their math abilities, which tend to revolve around comparisons to classmates, like “fast” vs. “slow” or “math person” vs. “not a math person.”\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong models the Dear Math activity by reading her own letter to math. Then she gives students prompts, such as:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who is now 20, was excited to apply her writing skills in math, but also to unpack some of her deeply rooted emotions about math. “I was finally able to write all of the things that made me sad and things that made me mad, like everything into one letter, addressing math directly,” she said. Here’s what she wrote in 10th grade: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me through every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me ‘maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Paris, having a teacher acknowledge emotions in math class was \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54980/why-teachers-want-math-with-more-human-ties\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">humanizing\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating,” Paris said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong devotes a few hours to reading the letters, making notes about broad patterns and individual details. “It’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Hierarchy in math education\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong teaches at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.hightechhigh.org/about/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">High Tech High\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and its Graduate School of Education in San Diego. She developed the Dear Math routine almost a decade ago, and she published a book about it, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.10publications.com/dear-math\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math And What Teachers Can Do About It\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, co-authored by her former\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">student Gigi Butterfield. In it, the teacher and former student reflect on the themes across hundreds of letters. One pervasive theme is hierarchy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Kids as young as kindergarten and first grade are defining themselves as good at math or not good at math,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/amynoelleparks\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amy Parks\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an elementary math education researcher at Michigan State University. Much of that definition comes from how they rank among classmates – from timed tests, to ‘high’ and ‘low’ groups, to subtle cues in teachers’ language. “I’ve been in classrooms where teachers have had kids line up by how many questions they answered or how many things they got right,” Parks said. “These hierarchies get reinforced so often and in so many different ways it’s almost overwhelming.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many kids, the comparisons add up to a negative self-perception around math. And by the time they reach high school, that mathematical identity can feel immutable. But math class doesn’t have to be this way. “Teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things,” said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mathematizing4all.com/about-the-author/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a professor and researcher at University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a stubborn cultural \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54389/3-ways-to-shape-math-into-a-positive-experience\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that some of us are “math people” and some of us aren’t\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This idea gets repeated explicitly all the time, and often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah6524\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">implicitly with gendered and racialized associations\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But neuroscience shows that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youcubed.org/resources/brain-science/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">everyone is capable of learning math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and Lambert said \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/57997/how-to-build-students-math-confidence-with-culturally-sustaining-teaching-practices\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">it matters that kids hear that\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Students connect subjects to teachers in a pretty intense way that I think as adults we often forget. So if they feel their math teacher believes in them as a human being and believes in their competence in mathematics, that can make a huge difference,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s classroom, listening to students’ stories is the first step toward disrupting those hierarchies. She also looks for ways to highlight students’ mathematical thinking on a daily basis. One way she does this is by having multiple students write their problem-solving ideas on the whiteboard and asking other students to comment on what they like about the strategies they see. Another routine is an exit ticket that asks students to share something they learned from a classmate that day. She might share the details the next day with a student who was mentioned or with the whole class if there’s a bigger lesson in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cb>Math is for everyone\u003c/b>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela Avila, another of Strong’s former students, said these kinds of practices created a sense of community: “It was never even like a question of did you get it right or wrong. It just seemed like we were always just all learning together as a class.” She had Strong as a teacher twice and wrote Dear Math letters both times. In her letter as a sophomore, her self-doubts showed up in the first sentence:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her letter as a senior, Avila wrote about her math growth over the prior two years:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 40px\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Avila got to the highly competitive environment of Johns Hopkins University, however, the usual order of things returned. “I really struggled a lot with comparing myself, especially in math,” she said, discussing her freshman year. “And I just found that to be super, super counterproductive for both my learning and my self esteem.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Strong said her own math story has had a lot of highs and lows, too. Though she can’t protect students from the ways math is taught and talked about beyond her classroom, her hope is that before they leave high school, “they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Avila, the persistence she developed in high school did pay off in the long, emotionally tough hours of college calculus. “I feel like how you think about yourself and how fast you are to get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fast and slow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, Strong’s former student who liked expressing her emotions in a Dear Math letter, still remembers the heart-racing stress that accompanied \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">timed multiplication tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in third grade. In Strong’s classroom, she said, there was never a timer. When Paris needed extra support, Strong brought out old algebra textbooks to reinforce foundational concepts. She designed projects where Paris could make connections between math and art – a subject that she already loved. Most importantly, Strong helped Paris learn how to break down complex problems into smaller steps. “Which is such a simple concept, but it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math,” said Paris. “And that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Many students have this conception that they’re the only one who’s taking time to understand this concept, that everybody around them has already got it,” said Lambert, the UC Santa Barbara professor. Lambert suggested that teachers can reduce the rush of the pacing calendar by thinking of it not as going slowly but choosing where to invest time. “You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Strong’s view, this requires shifting away from math instruction that is built around the ideas the teacher wants to get to in a given period. Student-centered instruction requires a lot more listening, she said: “Listening first off to their stories and how they’re showing up to class, and then second off (listening to) the ways that they are thinking of and understanding and making sense of mathematical ideas.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paris, who had Strong as a teacher for three years, said that time transformed her. She now works at a bridal shop, where she was recently promoted from stylist to sales manager – a role that involves a lot of math. “If I want to teach my stylists how to increase their productivity in their sales, then I need to think like a mathematician and come up with the ways that I can do that,” she explained. In tenth grade, that would have scared her. Not now. “There’s no reason for me to be afraid of math because I’ve proven to myself time and time again that I can do it,” she said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC8301605465&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Welcome to MindShift, where we explore the future of learning and how we raise our kids. I’m Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Nimah Gobir.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today we’re talking about math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because it involves numbers and formulas, we often think of math as straightforward and objective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But learning math is actually packed with emotions. I met a high school teacher who starts the year with an unusual assignment. She has her students write a letter to math, describing their feelings about the subject. Here’s that teacher, Sarah Strong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Dear Math letter is a letter that students write to math as if math were personified sitting across the table from them. … And it really helps inform teachers better understand the students stories and experiences that they’re coming to class with so that teachers can better design math experiences for students to thrive and flourish in math class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’ll hear more from Sarah later in the episode. First, here’s part of a Dear Math letter from one of her former students, Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear math, Oh, do I have some things to say to you. You’ve followed me throughout every school year, caused me the worst headaches, and given me numerous counts of anxiety just thinking about you … The memories of my seventh grade math teacher telling me, ‘Maybe you’re just not a math person’ still ringing in my head, and the constant Bs and Cs are still imprinted in my mind. You’ve been a never ending challenge and struggle, and it’s always been hard to understand you. No matter how many times my friends and teachers explain you, I never grasp you completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The anxiety and frustration that Taylor described in her letter are familiar feelings for many young people. And by the time students get to high school, it can feel like if they don’t understand math now, they never will.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But math doesn’t have to be this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we get back from the break, we’ll hear more about Dear Math letters and how they help students like Taylor strengthen their mathematical identities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor Paris graduated high school a few years ago, but she still remembers the first week of tenth grade math with her teacher Sarah Strong. That’s when students wrote letters to math, as if it were a person.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I remember being so excited because basically you’re writing in math, and that’s never the case.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Interdisciplinary learning allows students to think about a subject from new perspectives. For Taylor, writing the Dear Math letter gave her a chance to reflect on how her early school years shaped her relationship to math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember, my first, like, scariness of math was long division, because it was like so abstract to me, and everyone around me understood it and was just like, ‘Yeah, well that’s just the way it is and that’s totally fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Writing about those memories was cathartic. It also helped Taylor feel connected to her teacher.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have never had a math teacher talk about emotions behind math ever. Like, truly ever … She recognized my experience as a part of this really big experience that so many other people have. And that was really validating.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her teacher, Sarah Strong, also made it clear that it was okay for those feelings to surface throughout the year. Which made it possible for Taylor to focus on actually learning math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She did a great job at making me feel like I could take a really complex problem and break it down to the bare bones of it, which is such a simple concept. But it didn’t even cross my mind that I could do that in math and that taking my time in math meant that I was being a mathematician. And that’s what mathematicians did, was take their time and work on problems slowly to really understand every aspect.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I met Taylor, she had just been promoted from a stylist to a sales manager at a bridal shop in San Diego. That’s a fashion job that involves a lot of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So stylists are responsible for obviously, you know, the customer service side of things, but on the sales side, there is a certain goal that you need to meet or would ideally meet day to day and kind of week to day, month to day. …\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when you think about it, sales is like one big math problem every day because there’s a question, there’s an answer that you have to get to, and then there’s variables that go into, you know, the answer to your problem, essentially.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taylor is 20. Not that long ago, doing a math-related job would have been unimaginable to her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you told sophomore year Taylor that I would be doing something that was directly correlated with math and numbers all the time, I would be terrified and probably laugh.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor had Sarah Strong as a math teacher from 10th grade through 12th grade. She said that those years totally changed her view of math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Taylor Paris: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so while I may have been scared to take a sales manager position at, you know, in my sophomore year, it makes a ton of sense for me now because what I do is help people find their wedding dress. And who would have thought that math was in finding a wedding dress?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taylor now sees herself as a doer of math. This is what’s called mathematical identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We did an episode featuring Chris Emdin, who talked about students’ STEM identities. Mathematical identity is one form of a STEM identity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mathematical identity is a way that students see themselves as a mathematician, and therefore it connects to the ways that they enter into mathematical spaces and connect with other mathematicians around them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s teacher Sarah Strong again. She created the Dear Math activity during a bigger project where students were exploring their mathematical identities. They were using different types of math as metaphors for their experiences. And Sarah wanted to add a writing component to that project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And one of my colleagues shared with me the idea of writing letters to a thing like books or basketball, and how she’d heard of that practice. And she thought I could do Dear Math letters, and I thought that was an amazing idea. So I ran with it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters were powerful. And Sarah realized that having students write them at the beginning of the year could help her teach each class better. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s how she does it now. She introduces the assignment during the first week of school. She reads her own Dear Math letter as a model, because most students aren’t used to writing in math class. Hearing her letter also lets them know that even though she teaches math, it hasn’t always been easy for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After reading her letter, Sarah gives her students prompts for writing their own. Questions like…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is one of your greatest mathematical strengths?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How do you plan to engage with math in the future?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What would you like more of in math classrooms?\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They spend 15 to 30 minutes writing in class. Anyone who wants to write more can finish at home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then Sarah reads the letters on her own. She says this is the most important step.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">‘Cause it’s the beginning of an ongoing story between you and the students and their math experience for that semester or year, and it’s really important to start by listening to them well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She first looks for broad patterns across the class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I’ve got a disproportionate amount of students that hate math, don’t think they’re mathematicians, that I have to be really intentional about my class design, where I am regularly noticing and calling out their mathematical strengths and giving them opportunities to see themselves as mathematicians and see each other as mathematicians.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Or do I have a lot of students who, who feel like ‘I am a really strong mathematician. Ever since I was young, I get all the right answers. I’m really fast.’ Then I can note that that’s a trend in the class and be thinking how I can continue to push those students while also broadening their understanding of how they are mathematical and how important it is to also listen to other students’ ways of being mathematical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She also reads the letters for individual details about things students love and things that trip them up. She might make a few notes and …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Check in with students like, ‘Gosh, I remember you said that you had a really hard time with the idea of percents and like whenever percents come up, you panic. Well, tomorrow we’re going to need some percents in our work with exponential functions. And so I wanted to make sure that you knew that I believe that you’ve got this. If you want to do a little practice beforehand, we can do that because I want you to feel confident. I don’t want some story from sixth grade impacting your confidence in what we’re working on right now.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sarah said that getting to know students was always important to her. Even before she created the Dear Math assignment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would often try to connect with them in a variety of ways and I would hear their comments here and there that were both positive and negative. And I always tried to be a really good listener and understand my students’ feelings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But she wasn’t always getting a full picture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes I think I was being a little delusional before I got to hear their whole stories because I would think, ‘Oh, they had really negative experiences. They don’t like math, but now that they’re in my class, everything’s going to be fine.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The letters helped her take off her rose-colored glasses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t until I started having them write Dear Math letters that I got to hear more complete stories and gain a bigger picture for their previous experience and how those experiences were informing the ways they were showing up to my class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That knowledge enables her to help students grow as math learners throughout the year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Strong:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My biggest hope is that they start to see themselves as mathematicians in new ways and that they start to see their peers as mathematically brilliant in new ways.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nimah, it would be great if writing a Dear Math letter helped all students see themselves as capable of doing math – the way it did for Taylor Paris.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It would. But of course not every student’s math story is linear.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No… Some math stories go up and down over time, like a periodic function. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice math analogy! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I got that one from Sarah Strong. She described her own math story that way. It also applies to another of her former students, Isabela Avila. Here’s the start of a Dear Math letter Isabela wrote in tenth grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] Dear Math, I really like you, but you don’t come naturally to me. I have to work extra hard to understand and fully conceptualize what you have to offer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In previous math classes, Isabela felt pressure to always be fast and have the right answer. But she told me that expectation wasn’t there in Sarah Strong’s class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was never even like a question of like, did you get it right or wrong? It was just seemed like we were always just all learning together, as a class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That sense of togetherness mattered. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like, I think that really helped me like number one, like, think highly of myself as like a problem solver and also … be confident in my ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Isabela had Sarah Strong as a teacher twice, and she wrote a Dear Math letter both times. You can hear her increased confidence in the letter she wrote as a senior.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reading letter\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">] The most mathematical growth I feel I have ever experienced was during my junior year. I felt confident in my algebra skills for the first time ever. … My mindset also shifted drastically. I developed a sense of patience and open mindedness for the first time ever. … I know this will help me a lot in college and beyond, and I look forward to using it in the future. Sincerely, Isabela Avila.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Isabela actually got to college, the transition was rocky. She’s a pre-med major at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our like math department is known for being like notoriously hard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All around her, Isabela saw classmates who had come from elite high schools and seemed to understand calculus more easily than she did.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really struggled a lot with like comparing myself, especially in math. And I just found that to be super, super counter-productive for both my learning and like my self esteem.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sometimes she would break down crying while doing homework, which could take eight hours to complete. In class, she didn’t participate as much as she had hoped to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just really didn’t want to sound like I didn’t know what I was talking about or like, not that I don’t belong there, but I don’t know. It was just, everyone around me was so smart. And I know, like, tests don’t define you, but everyone around me, like, even if they were starting in calc one, they, like, got fives on like the AP calc exams and did exceptionally well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Back in high school, Isabela had written in one of her letters that she’d had a lot of highs and lows with math. Freshman year of college was definitely another low.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I talked to her during her sophomore year at Johns Hopkins, being a premed major was still very stressful. Something that helped, though, was making friends who didn’t talk about grades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We don’t talk about, like, what score we got. We don’t talk about how we’re doing in the class. We don’t talk about — honestly we don’t talk that much about like our actual like school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she said the persistence that she developed in high school did help her get through calculus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Isabela Avila:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially in math here in college, like, I feel like how you think about yourself and like how fast you are to like, get back up and keep trying is really, truly so much more important than if you can actually do the math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Kara, the way Isabela compared herself to her calculus classmates isn’t unique to being at a university full of high achievers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s right. Sarah Strong said those comparisons have been pervasive in students’ Dear Math letters. And according to experts, this kind of thinking starts early.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Researchers say even kindergarteners start to notice their spot in the pecking order of math ability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It often starts with those one-minute math quizzes that so many of us remember.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of pencils scribbling and slamming down\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students might hear their classmates furiously scribbling answers and slamming their pencils down when they finish. They equate that with being “good” at math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And there are lots of other ways in school that students are ranked and sorted. In younger grades, teachers often group students by ability when they’re practicing math. In upper grades, students may get tracked into ‘regular’ and ‘advanced’ classes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some teachers will even publicly display kids’ progress in certain math skills. This can look like a bulletin board that uses paper ice cream scoops to represent how many multiplication facts each student knows.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One researcher I talked to had a lot of ideas about how to disrupt hierarchies in math education. This is Rachel Lambert, from University of California, Santa Barbara.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I think if there’s one one thing I’d like to communicate, it’s that teachers and parents can affect the way kids think about these things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel shared five tips that teachers can use to help kids stop comparing themselves to others in math. The first tip is to change the narrative about who can do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Students would tell me how much it mattered to them to hear their teacher say, ‘There is no difference in who can be good at math.’ Like very clear messages around race and gender and the clear message that there is no one group of people that is better in math than other people, those students told me that was helpful to them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Changing the narrative isn’t just about what we say to kids. It’s also about how teachers talk to each other. And how they group students in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We might think as teachers – and I was a teacher for over 10 years – that kids don’t know that we might be calling them low kids or high kids when we’re having lunch with other teachers. … But they know, they always know and they know how they’re being grouped and classified and seen. … If we decide that kids are going to do well in mathematics, we do a lot of things in our teaching to set them up for success day after day. If we think kids will fail when we hand them a mathematical task, we’re doing subtle things to set them up for failure every single time we do that. So if we put them in groups that never change, we’re teaching them who they are and we’re also affecting who they become, because we’re only allowing them opportunities to do things quote-unquote at their level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel’s second tip for teachers is to stop focusing on speed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Think of it not as a matter of going slow. Think of it as investing in certain things. So you can’t hit everything on your pacing calendar. You can’t do every standard every year with your students. You have to figure out what is worth investment and what is worth extra time, and then spend more time with those topics so that students feel that they have enough time learning those things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her third tip is to normalize mistakes. It can help students learn from each other’s thinking when you have them share their mistakes. Rachel told me about a teacher who did this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She would even put a little heart next to a mistake and she’d be, ‘This was my favorite mistake of the day.’ And she drew a little heart next to it. And the kids would go, ‘awww.’ It’s adorable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Tip number four is to give students problems that can be approached from multiple angles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I see that some kids really love to engage in the visual aspect of a problem. Other students like to make, say, an organized list. And that doesn’t mean – there’s no such thing as learning styles; it doesn’t mean that that’s the way they’re going to approach every problem, but it does mean that a problem that draws on multiple ways of engaging can be more rich mathematically and also disrupt ideas of who’s the best at math and who isn’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rachel Lambert’s fifth and final tip is to make supports available to everyone.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rachel Lambert: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That is the one of the simplest interventions you can do in math to make it more equitable … And it doesn’t send any negative messages to kids because they are choosing if they want to use a calculator. They are choosing if they want to hear the directions a second time. They are choosing if they use manipulatives.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making these resources available to everyone takes the teacher’s assumptions out of the equation. And it helps kids develop the skills to recognize what they need to succeed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kara, there are some people who say math teachers should just focus on content. That activities like writing letters to math are more about self-esteem than learning.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These goals don’t have to be separate. Direct instruction and problem-solving practice are essential parts of math education. But like we said at the beginning, doing math involves emotions. Although we’ve heard a lot about the frustrating parts of math, it can also evoke positive emotions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kids who are absorbed in math problem-solving often express wonder and excitement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listening to young people’s stories and honoring all of these emotions allows students to be more human in math class. And that doesn’t just make them \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">believe \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in their math abilities, it empowers them to learn math and to do math.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Music\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode would not have been possible without Sarah Strong. To learn more about Dear Math letters, you can read the book she wrote with her former student, Gigi Butterfield. The book is called, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear Math: Why Kids Hate Math and What Teachers Can Do About It.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks also to Taylor Paris, Isabela Avila, Rachel Lambert and Amy Parks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The MindShift team includes Nimah Gobir, Ki Sung, Marlena Jackson-Retondo and me, Kara Newhouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our editor is Chris Hambrick. Chris Hoff engineered this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">MindShift is supported in part by the generosity of the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and members of KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Nimah Gobir:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you love MindShift, and enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. We really appreciate it. You can also read more or subscribe to our newsletter at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/mindshift\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">kqed.org/mindshift\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kara Newhouse:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you for listening to Season 8 of the MindShift podcast. That’s it for these deep dive episodes. We’re taking a little break, but we’ll be back soon with new episodes featuring conversations about big ideas in education. Be sure to follow the show or subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62436/how-listening-to-students-stories-can-improve-math-class",
"authors": [
"11487"
],
"programs": [
"mindshift_21942"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_192",
"mindshift_21130",
"mindshift_21848",
"mindshift_193"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21794",
"mindshift_20994",
"mindshift_21792",
"mindshift_21611",
"mindshift_21341",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_20893",
"mindshift_21795",
"mindshift_21796",
"mindshift_46",
"mindshift_21640",
"mindshift_21793",
"mindshift_47",
"mindshift_20852",
"mindshift_21642"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62441",
"label": "mindshift_21942"
},
"mindshift_62392": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62392",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62392",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1695031210000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1695031210,
"format": "standard",
"title": "ACT study finds it’s easier and easier to get an A in math",
"headTitle": "ACT study finds it’s easier and easier to get an A in math | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amid the growing debate over \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">how best to teach math\u003c/a>, there is another ballooning problem: grades. They’re becoming increasingly untethered to how much students know. That not only makes it harder to gauge how well students are learning math and catching up from pandemic learning losses, but it’s also making math grades a less reliable indicator of who should be admitted to colleges or take advanced courses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The latest warning sign comes from college admissions test maker ACT, which compared students’ ACT test scores with their self-reported high school grades between 2010 and 2022. Grade inflation struck all high school subjects, ACT found, but it was highest for math, followed by science, English and social studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grade inflation accelerated after 2016 and intensified during the pandemic as schools relaxed standards. But as schools settled back into their usual rhythms in 2021-22, grades didn’t fall back to pre-pandemic norms and remained elevated. Grades continued to rise in math and science even as grade inflation stabilized in English and social studies. For a given score on the math section of the ACT, students said they had earned higher grades than students had reported in previous years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edgar Sanchez, an ACT researcher who conducted the analysis, said the inflation makes it hard to interpret high school grades, especially now that A grades are the norm. “Does 4.0 really mean complete content mastery or not?” Sanchez asked, referring to an A grade on the 0 to 4 grade-point scale.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grade inflation is a big trend across the country. “It’s not just happening in some classrooms or with some teachers, it’s happening across the system,” said Sanchez. “What is happening in the system that is pushing this trend?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58155/grades-have-huge-impact-but-are-they-effective\">Grades represent more than just content mastery\u003c/a>. Many teachers factor in attendance, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62119\">participation\u003c/a> and effort in calculating a final grade. It’s possible that even math teachers are weighing soft skills more heavily with the increasing popularity of social-emotional learning. Or, perhaps high schools have watered down the content in math courses and students are genuinely mastering easier material.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>A’s on the rise\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62393 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1-160x92.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1-768x442.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Percentage of ACT test takers with a grade point average of A, B or C from 2010 to 2022 by subject. Source: \u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf\">ACT Research Report 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sanchez speculates that test optional admissions have elevated the importance of high school grades. He encouraged journalists and other researchers to look into the increased pressures on high school teachers of math and science courses, which Sanchez described as ”pivotal” for getting into competitive STEM college programs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sanchez said he shared his grade inflation findings with college administrators, who told him that incoming STEM students are not as prepared as students in previous years. (The Hechinger Report has also found that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-are-still-struggling-with-basic-math-professors-blame-the-pandemic/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">college students are struggling with basic math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.) But college professors didn’t report a similar academic deterioration with their humanities students. “That was an interesting confirmation of these findings,” Sanchez said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ACT isn’t an unbiased research organization. The nonprofit sells tests and it has been advocating for colleges to re-establish exam requirements. However, neutral observers have also found strong evidence of high school grade inflation. The U.S. Department of Education documented rising grades on high school transcripts between 2009 and 2019, while 12th grade math scores fell on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The National Center for Education Statistics plans to update this transcript study in 2024. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The ACT analysis, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">published in August 2023\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, covered almost 6.9 million high school seniors who took the ACT between 2010 and 2022. They attended over 3,800 different public schools. It was a follow up to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/pdfs/Grade-Inflation-Continues-to-Grow-in-the-Past-Decade-Final-Accessible.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2022 report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-new-evidence-of-high-school-grade-inflation\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">also detected grade inflation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> through 2021. This 2023 update looked at grade inflation by subject and added 2022.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sanchez calculated that average math grades, adjusted for student and school characteristics, increased 0.30 grade points from 3.02 in 2010 to 3.32 in 2022. This translates to a movement from “B” average to above a “B+” average in a decade. During this same time period, science grades increased by 0.24 points, while English and social studies rose by 0.22 points and 0.18 points, respectively. (The analysis excluded bonus points that some high schools award for Advanced Placement and other courses. A 4.0 was the maximum grade.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>Measuring grade inflation: Grades rise as ACT test scores fall\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62394 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2-160x91.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2-768x439.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Observed subject GPA vs. ACT subject score by year. Source: \u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf\">ACT Research Report 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grades are rising against a backdrop of declining achievement. English, math, reading and scientific reasoning ACT scores fell slightly between 2010-22. The sharpest declines were in math, in which the average ACT score dropped from 21.4 to 20.2. Three quarters of this math deterioration has taken place since 2020. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grade inflation may indeed be an unintended consequence of a well-intended policy to de-emphasize testing. More than 1,800 colleges have adopted test-optional or test-blind admissions. That’s increased the importance of grades. The losers here are students who still need to understand math – no matter what their grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-its-easier-and-easier-to-get-an-a-in-math/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">grade inflation in high school\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 922,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 16
},
"modified": 1695145502,
"excerpt": "An ACT researcher found grade inflation has been most pronounced in high school math as colleges de-emphasize test scores in admissions.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "mindshift_62395",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "An ACT researcher found grade inflation has been most pronounced in high school math as colleges de-emphasize test scores in admissions.",
"socialDescription": "An ACT researcher found grade inflation has been most pronounced in high school math as colleges de-emphasize test scores in admissions.",
"title": "ACT study finds it’s easier and easier to get an A in math | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "ACT study finds it’s easier and easier to get an A in math",
"datePublished": "2023-09-18T03:00:10-07:00",
"dateModified": "2023-09-19T10:45:02-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "act-study-finds-its-easier-and-easier-to-get-an-a-in-math",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62392/act-study-finds-its-easier-and-easier-to-get-an-a-in-math",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amid the growing debate over \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn\">how best to teach math\u003c/a>, there is another ballooning problem: grades. They’re becoming increasingly untethered to how much students know. That not only makes it harder to gauge how well students are learning math and catching up from pandemic learning losses, but it’s also making math grades a less reliable indicator of who should be admitted to colleges or take advanced courses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The latest warning sign comes from college admissions test maker ACT, which compared students’ ACT test scores with their self-reported high school grades between 2010 and 2022. Grade inflation struck all high school subjects, ACT found, but it was highest for math, followed by science, English and social studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grade inflation accelerated after 2016 and intensified during the pandemic as schools relaxed standards. But as schools settled back into their usual rhythms in 2021-22, grades didn’t fall back to pre-pandemic norms and remained elevated. Grades continued to rise in math and science even as grade inflation stabilized in English and social studies. For a given score on the math section of the ACT, students said they had earned higher grades than students had reported in previous years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Edgar Sanchez, an ACT researcher who conducted the analysis, said the inflation makes it hard to interpret high school grades, especially now that A grades are the norm. “Does 4.0 really mean complete content mastery or not?” Sanchez asked, referring to an A grade on the 0 to 4 grade-point scale.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grade inflation is a big trend across the country. “It’s not just happening in some classrooms or with some teachers, it’s happening across the system,” said Sanchez. “What is happening in the system that is pushing this trend?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/58155/grades-have-huge-impact-but-are-they-effective\">Grades represent more than just content mastery\u003c/a>. Many teachers factor in attendance, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/62119\">participation\u003c/a> and effort in calculating a final grade. It’s possible that even math teachers are weighing soft skills more heavily with the increasing popularity of social-emotional learning. Or, perhaps high schools have watered down the content in math courses and students are genuinely mastering easier material.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>A’s on the rise\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62393\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62393 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1-160x92.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image1-768x442.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Percentage of ACT test takers with a grade point average of A, B or C from 2010 to 2022 by subject. Source: \u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf\">ACT Research Report 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sanchez speculates that test optional admissions have elevated the importance of high school grades. He encouraged journalists and other researchers to look into the increased pressures on high school teachers of math and science courses, which Sanchez described as ”pivotal” for getting into competitive STEM college programs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sanchez said he shared his grade inflation findings with college administrators, who told him that incoming STEM students are not as prepared as students in previous years. (The Hechinger Report has also found that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-are-still-struggling-with-basic-math-professors-blame-the-pandemic/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">college students are struggling with basic math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.) But college professors didn’t report a similar academic deterioration with their humanities students. “That was an interesting confirmation of these findings,” Sanchez said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ACT isn’t an unbiased research organization. The nonprofit sells tests and it has been advocating for colleges to re-establish exam requirements. However, neutral observers have also found strong evidence of high school grade inflation. The U.S. Department of Education documented rising grades on high school transcripts between 2009 and 2019, while 12th grade math scores fell on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The National Center for Education Statistics plans to update this transcript study in 2024. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The ACT analysis, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">published in August 2023\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, covered almost 6.9 million high school seniors who took the ACT between 2010 and 2022. They attended over 3,800 different public schools. It was a follow up to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/pdfs/Grade-Inflation-Continues-to-Grow-in-the-Past-Decade-Final-Accessible.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2022 report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-new-evidence-of-high-school-grade-inflation\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">also detected grade inflation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> through 2021. This 2023 update looked at grade inflation by subject and added 2022.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sanchez calculated that average math grades, adjusted for student and school characteristics, increased 0.30 grade points from 3.02 in 2010 to 3.32 in 2022. This translates to a movement from “B” average to above a “B+” average in a decade. During this same time period, science grades increased by 0.24 points, while English and social studies rose by 0.22 points and 0.18 points, respectively. (The analysis excluded bonus points that some high schools award for Advanced Placement and other courses. A 4.0 was the maximum grade.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>\u003cb>Measuring grade inflation: Grades rise as ACT test scores fall\u003c/b>\u003c/h4>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62394 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2-160x91.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/09/image2-768x439.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Observed subject GPA vs. ACT subject score by year. Source: \u003ca href=\"https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/secured/documents/Evidence-of-Grade-Inflation-in-English-Math-Social-Studies-and-Science.pdf\">ACT Research Report 2023\u003c/a>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grades are rising against a backdrop of declining achievement. English, math, reading and scientific reasoning ACT scores fell slightly between 2010-22. The sharpest declines were in math, in which the average ACT score dropped from 21.4 to 20.2. Three quarters of this math deterioration has taken place since 2020. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grade inflation may indeed be an unintended consequence of a well-intended policy to de-emphasize testing. More than 1,800 colleges have adopted test-optional or test-blind admissions. That’s increased the importance of grades. The losers here are students who still need to understand math – no matter what their grade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-its-easier-and-easier-to-get-an-a-in-math/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">grade inflation in high school\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62392/act-study-finds-its-easier-and-easier-to-get-an-a-in-math",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_62392"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_194",
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21790",
"mindshift_21261",
"mindshift_21189",
"mindshift_21789",
"mindshift_21110",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_883"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62395",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_62365": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62365",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62365",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1694426439000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1694426439,
"format": "standard",
"title": "One-size-fits-all math homework may be more helpful than you think",
"headTitle": "One-size-fits-all math homework may be more helpful than you think | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p6\">In theory, education technology could redesign school from a factory-like assembly line to an individualized experience. Computers, powered by algorithms and AI, could deliver custom-tailored lessons for each child. Advocates call this concept “personalized learning” but this sci-fi idyll (or dystopia, depending on your point of view) has been slow to catch on in American classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Meanwhile one piece of ed tech, called ASSISTments, takes the opposite approach. Instead of personalizing instruction, this homework website for middle schoolers encourages teachers to assign the exact same set of math problems to the entire class. One size fits all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p9\">Unlike other popular math practice sites, such as Khan Academy, IXL or ALEKS, in which a computer controls the content, ASSISTments keeps the control levers with the teachers, who pick the questions they like from a library of 200,000. Many teachers assign the same familiar homework questions from textbooks and curricula they are already using.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">And this deceptively simple – and free –\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>tool has built an impressive evidence base and a following among middle school math teachers. Roughly 3,000 teachers and 130,000 students were using it during the 2022-23 school year, according to the husband and wife team of Neil and Cristina Heffernan who run ASSISTments, a nonprofit based at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, where Neil is a computer science professor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">After Neil built the platform in 2003, several early studies showed \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-39112-5_122\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">promising results\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, and then a large randomized control trial (RCT) in Maine, published in 2016, \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2332858416673968\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">confirmed them\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. For 1,600 seventh-grade students whose classrooms were randomly selected to use ASSISTments for math homework, math achievement was significantly higher at the end of the year, equivalent to an extra three quarters of a year of schooling, \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/20133000/pdf/20133000.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">according to one estimate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. Both groups – treatment and control – were otherwise using the same textbooks and curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">On the strength of those results, an MIT research organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/9-5-17/exploring-promise-education-technology\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">singled out ASSISTments\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as one of the rare ed tech tools proven to help students. The Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, which reviews education evidence, said the research behind ASSISTments was so strong that it received the \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Study/86375\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">highest stamp of approval:\u003c/span>\u003c/a> “without reservations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Still, Maine is an unusual state with a population that is more than 90% white and so small that everyone could fit inside the city limits of San Diego. It had distributed laptops to every middle school student years before the ASSISTments experiment. Would an online math platform work in conditions where computer access is uneven?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The Department of Education commissioned a \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=2058\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">$3 million replication study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in North Carolina, in which 3,000 seventh graders were randomly assigned to use ASSISTments. The study, set to test how well the students learned math in spring of 2020, was derailed by the pandemic. But a private foundation salvaged it. Before the pandemic, Arnold Ventures had agreed to fund an additional year of the North Carolina study, to see if students would continue to be better at math in eighth grade. (\u003ci>Arnold Ventures is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.\u003c/i>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Those longer-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ASSISTments-Long-Term-Effects-_07-11-23_FINAL-ADA.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">results were published in June 2023\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, and they were good. Even a year later, on year-end eighth grade math tests, the 3,000 students who had used ASSISTments in seventh grade outperformed 3,000 peers who hadn’t. The eighth graders had moved on to new math topics and were no longer using ASSISTments, but their practice time on the platform a year earlier was still generating dividends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Researchers found that the lingering effect of practicing math on ASSISTments was similar in size to the long-term benefits of Saga Education’s intensive, in-person tutoring, which costs $3,200 to $4,800 per year for each student. The cost of ASSISTments is a tiny fraction of that, less than $100 per student. (That cost is covered by private foundations and federal grants. Schools use it free of charge.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Another surprising result is that students, on average, benefited from solving the same problems, without assigning easier ones to weaker students and harder ones to stronger students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">How is it that this rather simple piece of software is succeeding while more sophisticated ed tech has often shown mixed results and failed to gain traction?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The studies aren’t able to explain that exactly. ASSISTments, criticized for its \u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsense.org/education/reviews/assistments\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">“bland” design and for sometimes being “frustrating,”\u003c/span>\u003c/a> doesn’t appear to be luring kids to do enormous amounts of homework. In North Carolina, students typically used it for only 18 minutes a week, usually split among two to three sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">From a student’s perspective, the main feature is instant feedback. ASSISTments marks each problem immediately, like a robo grader. A green check appears for getting it right on the first try, and an orange check is for solving it on a subsequent attempt. Students can try as many times as they wish. Students can also just ask for the correct answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Nearly every online math platform gives instant feedback. It’s a well established principle of cognitive science that students learn better when they can see and sort out their mistakes immediately, rather than waiting days for the teacher to grade their work and return it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The secret sauce might be in the easy-to-digest feedback that teachers are getting. Teachers receive a simple data report, showing them which problems students are getting right and wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">ASSISTments encourages teachers to project anonymized homework results on a whiteboard and review the ones that many students got wrong. Not every teacher does that. On the teacher’s back end, the system also highlights common mistakes that students are making. In surveys, teachers said it changes how they review homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Other math platforms generate data reports too, and teachers ought to be able to use them to inform their instruction. But when 30 students are each working on 20 different, customized problems, it’s a lot harder to figure out which of those 600 problems should be reviewed in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There are other advantages to having a class work on a common set of problems. It allows kids to work together, something that motivates many extroverted tweens and teens to do their homework. It can also trigger worthwhile class discussions, in which students explain how they solved the same problem differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">ASSISTments has drawbacks. Many students don’t have good internet connections at home and many teachers don’t want to devote precious minutes of class time to screen time. In the North Carolina study, some teachers had students do the homework in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Teachers are restricted to the math problems that Heffernan’s team has uploaded to the ASSISTments library. It currently includes problems from three middle school math curricula:\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>Illustrative Mathematics, Open Up Resources and Eureka Math (also known as EngageNY). For the Maine and North Carolina studies, the ASSISTments team uploaded math questions that teachers were familiar with from their textbooks and binders. But outside of a study, if teachers want to use their own math questions, they’ll have to wait until next year, when ASSISTments plans to allow teachers to build their own problems or edit existing ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Teachers can assign longer open-response questions, but ASSISTments doesn’t give instant feedback on them. Heffernan is currently testing how to use AI to evaluate students’ written explanations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There are other bells and whistles inside the ASSISTments system too. Many problems have “hints” to help students who are struggling and can show step-by-step worked out examples. There are also optional “skill builders” for students to practice rudimentary skills, such as adding fractions with unlike denominators. It is unclear how important these extra features are. In the North Carolina study, students generally didn’t use them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There’s every reason to believe that students can learn more from personalized instruction, but the research is mixed. Many students don’t spend as much practice time on the software as they should. Many teachers want more control over what the computer assigns to students. Researchers are starting to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61543/how-can-tutors-reach-more-kids-researchers-look-to-ed-tech-paired-with-human-tutors\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">good results in using differentiated practice\u003c/span>\u003c/a> work in combination with tutoring. That could make catching up a lot more cost effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">I rarely hear about “personalized learning” any more in a classroom context. One thing we’ve all learned during the pandemic is that learning has proven to be a profoundly human interaction of give and take between student and teacher and among peers. One-size-fits-all instruction may not be perfect, but it keeps the humans in the picture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003ci>This story about \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-value-of-one-size-fits-all-math-homework/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>ASSISTments\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>Proof Points\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and other \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1504,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 2
},
"modified": 1694806450,
"excerpt": "Research on ASSISTments, a digital math learning tool, suggests it is one of the rare ed tech tools proven to help students.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Research on ASSISTments, a digital math learning tool, suggests it is one of the rare ed tech tools proven to help students.",
"socialDescription": "Research on ASSISTments, a digital math learning tool, suggests it is one of the rare ed tech tools proven to help students.",
"title": "One-size-fits-all math homework may be more helpful than you think | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "One-size-fits-all math homework may be more helpful than you think",
"datePublished": "2023-09-11T03:00:39-07:00",
"dateModified": "2023-09-15T12:34:10-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "one-size-fits-all-math-homework-may-be-more-helpful-than-you-think",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62365/one-size-fits-all-math-homework-may-be-more-helpful-than-you-think",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p6\">In theory, education technology could redesign school from a factory-like assembly line to an individualized experience. Computers, powered by algorithms and AI, could deliver custom-tailored lessons for each child. Advocates call this concept “personalized learning” but this sci-fi idyll (or dystopia, depending on your point of view) has been slow to catch on in American classrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Meanwhile one piece of ed tech, called ASSISTments, takes the opposite approach. Instead of personalizing instruction, this homework website for middle schoolers encourages teachers to assign the exact same set of math problems to the entire class. One size fits all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p9\">Unlike other popular math practice sites, such as Khan Academy, IXL or ALEKS, in which a computer controls the content, ASSISTments keeps the control levers with the teachers, who pick the questions they like from a library of 200,000. Many teachers assign the same familiar homework questions from textbooks and curricula they are already using.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">And this deceptively simple – and free –\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>tool has built an impressive evidence base and a following among middle school math teachers. Roughly 3,000 teachers and 130,000 students were using it during the 2022-23 school year, according to the husband and wife team of Neil and Cristina Heffernan who run ASSISTments, a nonprofit based at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, where Neil is a computer science professor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">After Neil built the platform in 2003, several early studies showed \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-39112-5_122\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">promising results\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, and then a large randomized control trial (RCT) in Maine, published in 2016, \u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2332858416673968\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">confirmed them\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. For 1,600 seventh-grade students whose classrooms were randomly selected to use ASSISTments for math homework, math achievement was significantly higher at the end of the year, equivalent to an extra three quarters of a year of schooling, \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/20133000/pdf/20133000.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">according to one estimate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. Both groups – treatment and control – were otherwise using the same textbooks and curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">On the strength of those results, an MIT research organization \u003ca href=\"https://www.povertyactionlab.org/blog/9-5-17/exploring-promise-education-technology\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">singled out ASSISTments\u003c/span>\u003c/a> as one of the rare ed tech tools proven to help students. The Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, which reviews education evidence, said the research behind ASSISTments was so strong that it received the \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Study/86375\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">highest stamp of approval:\u003c/span>\u003c/a> “without reservations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Still, Maine is an unusual state with a population that is more than 90% white and so small that everyone could fit inside the city limits of San Diego. It had distributed laptops to every middle school student years before the ASSISTments experiment. Would an online math platform work in conditions where computer access is uneven?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The Department of Education commissioned a \u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=2058\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">$3 million replication study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in North Carolina, in which 3,000 seventh graders were randomly assigned to use ASSISTments. The study, set to test how well the students learned math in spring of 2020, was derailed by the pandemic. But a private foundation salvaged it. Before the pandemic, Arnold Ventures had agreed to fund an additional year of the North Carolina study, to see if students would continue to be better at math in eighth grade. (\u003ci>Arnold Ventures is among the many funders of The Hechinger Report.\u003c/i>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Those longer-term \u003ca href=\"https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ASSISTments-Long-Term-Effects-_07-11-23_FINAL-ADA.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">results were published in June 2023\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, and they were good. Even a year later, on year-end eighth grade math tests, the 3,000 students who had used ASSISTments in seventh grade outperformed 3,000 peers who hadn’t. The eighth graders had moved on to new math topics and were no longer using ASSISTments, but their practice time on the platform a year earlier was still generating dividends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Researchers found that the lingering effect of practicing math on ASSISTments was similar in size to the long-term benefits of Saga Education’s intensive, in-person tutoring, which costs $3,200 to $4,800 per year for each student. The cost of ASSISTments is a tiny fraction of that, less than $100 per student. (That cost is covered by private foundations and federal grants. Schools use it free of charge.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Another surprising result is that students, on average, benefited from solving the same problems, without assigning easier ones to weaker students and harder ones to stronger students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">How is it that this rather simple piece of software is succeeding while more sophisticated ed tech has often shown mixed results and failed to gain traction?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The studies aren’t able to explain that exactly. ASSISTments, criticized for its \u003ca href=\"https://www.commonsense.org/education/reviews/assistments\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">“bland” design and for sometimes being “frustrating,”\u003c/span>\u003c/a> doesn’t appear to be luring kids to do enormous amounts of homework. In North Carolina, students typically used it for only 18 minutes a week, usually split among two to three sessions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">From a student’s perspective, the main feature is instant feedback. ASSISTments marks each problem immediately, like a robo grader. A green check appears for getting it right on the first try, and an orange check is for solving it on a subsequent attempt. Students can try as many times as they wish. Students can also just ask for the correct answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Nearly every online math platform gives instant feedback. It’s a well established principle of cognitive science that students learn better when they can see and sort out their mistakes immediately, rather than waiting days for the teacher to grade their work and return it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The secret sauce might be in the easy-to-digest feedback that teachers are getting. Teachers receive a simple data report, showing them which problems students are getting right and wrong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">ASSISTments encourages teachers to project anonymized homework results on a whiteboard and review the ones that many students got wrong. Not every teacher does that. On the teacher’s back end, the system also highlights common mistakes that students are making. In surveys, teachers said it changes how they review homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Other math platforms generate data reports too, and teachers ought to be able to use them to inform their instruction. But when 30 students are each working on 20 different, customized problems, it’s a lot harder to figure out which of those 600 problems should be reviewed in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There are other advantages to having a class work on a common set of problems. It allows kids to work together, something that motivates many extroverted tweens and teens to do their homework. It can also trigger worthwhile class discussions, in which students explain how they solved the same problem differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">ASSISTments has drawbacks. Many students don’t have good internet connections at home and many teachers don’t want to devote precious minutes of class time to screen time. In the North Carolina study, some teachers had students do the homework in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Teachers are restricted to the math problems that Heffernan’s team has uploaded to the ASSISTments library. It currently includes problems from three middle school math curricula:\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>Illustrative Mathematics, Open Up Resources and Eureka Math (also known as EngageNY). For the Maine and North Carolina studies, the ASSISTments team uploaded math questions that teachers were familiar with from their textbooks and binders. But outside of a study, if teachers want to use their own math questions, they’ll have to wait until next year, when ASSISTments plans to allow teachers to build their own problems or edit existing ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Teachers can assign longer open-response questions, but ASSISTments doesn’t give instant feedback on them. Heffernan is currently testing how to use AI to evaluate students’ written explanations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There are other bells and whistles inside the ASSISTments system too. Many problems have “hints” to help students who are struggling and can show step-by-step worked out examples. There are also optional “skill builders” for students to practice rudimentary skills, such as adding fractions with unlike denominators. It is unclear how important these extra features are. In the North Carolina study, students generally didn’t use them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There’s every reason to believe that students can learn more from personalized instruction, but the research is mixed. Many students don’t spend as much practice time on the software as they should. Many teachers want more control over what the computer assigns to students. Researchers are starting to see \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61543/how-can-tutors-reach-more-kids-researchers-look-to-ed-tech-paired-with-human-tutors\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">good results in using differentiated practice\u003c/span>\u003c/a> work in combination with tutoring. That could make catching up a lot more cost effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">I rarely hear about “personalized learning” any more in a classroom context. One thing we’ve all learned during the pandemic is that learning has proven to be a profoundly human interaction of give and take between student and teacher and among peers. One-size-fits-all instruction may not be perfect, but it keeps the humans in the picture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003ci>This story about \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-value-of-one-size-fits-all-math-homework/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>ASSISTments\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>Proof Points\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and other \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cspan class=\"s3\">\u003ci>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62365/one-size-fits-all-math-homework-may-be-more-helpful-than-you-think",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_62365"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21504",
"mindshift_193"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21785",
"mindshift_962",
"mindshift_21294",
"mindshift_563",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_421",
"mindshift_21413"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62366",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_62271": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_62271",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "62271",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1693216816000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1693216816,
"format": "standard",
"title": "Most students are learning at typical pace again, but those who lost ground during COVID-19 aren't catching up",
"headTitle": "Most students are learning at typical pace again, but those who lost ground during COVID-19 aren’t catching up | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p7\">Kids around the country are still suffering academically from the pandemic. But more than three years after schools shut down, it’s hard to understand exactly how much ground students have lost and which children now need the most attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Three new reports offer some insights. All three were produced by for-profit companies that sell assessments to schools. Unlike annual state tests, these interim assessments are administered at least twice a year and help track student progress, or learning, during the year. These companies may have a business motive in sounding an alarm to sell more of their product, but the reports are produced by well-regarded education statisticians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The big picture is that kids at every grade are still behind where they would have been without the pandemic. All three reports look at student achievement in the spring of 2019, before the pandemic, and compare it to the spring of 2023. A typical sixth grader, for example, in the spring of 2023 was generally scoring much lower than a typical sixth grader in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The differences are in the details. One report says that students are still behind the equivalent of four to five months of school, but another says it’s one to three months. A third doesn’t measure months of lost learning, but notices the alarming 50% increase in the number of students who are still performing significantly below grade level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Depending on how you slice and dice the data, older students in middle school and beyond seem to be in the most precarious position and younger children seem to be more resilient and recovering better. Yet, under a different spotlight, you can see troubling signs even among younger children. This includes the very youngest children who weren’t school age when the pandemic hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The most recent data, released on Aug. 28, 2023, is from Curriculum Associates, which sells i-Ready assessments taken by more than 11 million students across the country and focuses on “grade-level” skills.* It counts the number of students in third grade, for example, who are able to read at a third-grade level or solve math problems that a third grader ought to be able to solve. The standards for what is grade-level achievement are similar to what most \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/studies/pdf/2021036.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">states consider to be “proficient” on their annual assessments\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The report concludes that the percentage of students who met grade-level expectations was “flat” over the past school year. This is one way of noting that there wasn’t much of an academic recovery between spring of 2022 and spring of 2023. Students of every age, on average, lagged behind where students had been in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62284\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1-160x85.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1-768x408.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">For example, 69% of fourth graders were demonstrating grade-level skills in math in 2019. That dropped to 55% in 2022 and barely improved to 56% in 2023. (The drop in grade-level performance isn’t as dramatic for seventh and eighth graders, in part, because so few students were meeting grade-level expectations even before the pandemic.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">“It’s dang hard to catch up,” said Kristen Huff, vice president of assessment and research at Curriculum Associates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">To make up for lost ground, students would have to learn more in a year than they typically do. That generally didn’t happen. Huff said this kind of extra learning is especially hard for students who missed foundational math and reading skills during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">While most students learned at a typical pace during the 2022-23 school year, Curriculum Associates noted a starkly different and troubling pattern for children who are significantly below grade level by two or more years. Their numbers spiked during the pandemic and have not gone down. Even worse, these children learned less during the 2022-23 school year than during a typical pre-pandemic year. That means they are continuing to lose ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Huff highlighted three groups of children who need extra attention: poor readers in second, third and fourth grades; children in kindergarten and first grade, and middle school math students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There’s been a stubborn 50% increase in the number of third and fourth graders who are two or more grade levels behind in reading, Huff said. For example, 19% of third graders were that far behind grade level in 2023, up from 12% in 2019. “I find this alarming news,” said Huff, noting that these children were in kindergarten and first grade when the pandemic first hit. “They’re missing out on phonics and phonemic awareness and now they’re thrust into grades three and four,” she said. “If you’re two or more grade levels below in grade three, you’re in big trouble. You’re in big, big, big trouble. We’re going to be seeing evidence of this for years to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The youngest students, who were just two to four years old at the start of the pandemic, are also behind. Huff said that kindergarteners and first graders started the 2022-23 school year at lower achievement levels than in the past. They may have missed out on social interactions and pre-school. “You can’t say my current kindergartener wasn’t in school during the pandemic so they weren’t affected,” said Huff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Math achievement slipped the most after schools shuttered and switched to remote learning. And now very high percentages of middle schoolers are below grade level in the subject. Huff speculates that they missed out on foundational math skills, especially fractions and proportional reasoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p10\">Renaissance administered its Star tests to more than six million students around the country. Its \u003ca href=\"https://www.renaissance.com/resources/how-kids-are-performing/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">spring 2023 report was released on Aug. 9\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. Like Curriculum Associates, Renaissance finds that “growth is back, but performance is not,” according to Gene Kerns, Renaissance’s chief academic officer.* That means students are generally learning at a typical pace at school, but not making up for lost ground. Depending on the subject and the grade, students still need to recover between one and three months of instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62282\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image3.png 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image3-160x99.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62283\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62283 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image2.png 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image2-160x99.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Bars represent the achievement gaps between student scores in spring 2023 and 2019, before the pandemic. Each point is roughly equal to a week of instruction. First grade students in 2023 scored as high in math as first grade students did in 2019; learning losses had been recovered.\u003c/em> (Data source: Renaissance)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Math is rebounding better than reading. “Math went down an alarming amount, but has started to go back up,” Kerns said. “We’ve not seen much rebound to reading.” Reading achievement, however, wasn’t as harmed by school disruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Kerns generally sees a sunnier story for younger children and a more troubling picture for older students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The youngest children in kindergarten and first grade are on par with pre-pandemic history, he said. Middle elementary school grades are a little behind but catching up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">“The older the student, the more lingering the impact,” said Kerns. “The high school data is very alarming. If you’re a junior in high school, you only have one more year. There’s a time clock on this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Seventh and eighth graders showed tiny decreases in annual learning in math and reading. Kerns says he’s “hesitant” to call it a “downward spiral.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The third report come from NWEA, which administers the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment to more than 6 million students. Its \u003ca href=\"https://www.nwea.org/uploads/Educations-long-covid-2022-23-achievement-data-reveal-stalled-progress-toward-pandemic-recovery_NWEA_Research-brief.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">spring 2023 data, released on July 11\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, showed that students on average need four to five months of extra schooling, on top of the regular school year, to catch up. This graph below, is a good summary of how much students are behind as expressed in months of learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p6\">\u003cb>Spring 2023 achievement gaps and months of schooling required to catch up to pre-COVID achievement levels\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62281\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4-160x106.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Like the Renaissance report, the NWEA report shows a bigger learning loss in math than in reading, and indicates that older students have been more academically harmed by the pandemic. They’ll need more months of extra schooling to catch up to where they would have been had the pandemic never happened. It could take years and years to squeeze these extra months of instruction in and many students may never receive them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">From my perspective, Renaissance and NWEA came to similar conclusions for most students. The main difference is that Renaissance has additional assessment data for younger children in kindergarten through second grade, showing a recovery, and high school data, showing a worse deterioration. The discrepancies in their measurement of months of learning loss, whether it’s four to five months or one to three months, is inconsequential. Both companies admit these assumption-filled estimates are imprecise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">One of the most substantial differences among the reports is that Curriculum Associates is sounding an alarm bell for kindergarteners and first graders while Renaissance is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The three reports all conclude that kids are behind where they would have been without the pandemic. But some sub-groups are doing much worse than others. The students who are the most behind and continuing to spiral downward really need our attention. Without extra support, their pandemic slump could be lifelong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003ci>This story about \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-three-views-of-pandemic-learning-loss-and-recovery/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">\u003ci>pandemic recovery\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">\u003ci>Proof Points\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and other \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">\u003ci>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003ci>* Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that more than 3 million students took i-Ready assessments.\u003c/i>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003ci>** Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Gene Kerns’s last name.\u003c/i>\u003c/div>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1645,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 5
},
"modified": 1693246424,
"excerpt": "Kids around the country are still suffering from pandemic learning loss. Three new reports offer some insights about who needs the most support.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Kids around the country are still suffering from pandemic learning loss. Three new reports offer some insights about who needs the most support.",
"socialDescription": "Kids around the country are still suffering from pandemic learning loss. Three new reports offer some insights about who needs the most support.",
"title": "Most students are learning at typical pace again, but those who lost ground during COVID-19 aren't catching up | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Most students are learning at typical pace again, but those who lost ground during COVID-19 aren't catching up",
"datePublished": "2023-08-28T03:00:16-07:00",
"dateModified": "2023-08-28T11:13:44-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "most-students-are-learning-at-typical-pace-again-but-those-who-lost-ground-during-covid-19-arent-catching-up",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/62271/most-students-are-learning-at-typical-pace-again-but-those-who-lost-ground-during-covid-19-arent-catching-up",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p7\">Kids around the country are still suffering academically from the pandemic. But more than three years after schools shut down, it’s hard to understand exactly how much ground students have lost and which children now need the most attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">Three new reports offer some insights. All three were produced by for-profit companies that sell assessments to schools. Unlike annual state tests, these interim assessments are administered at least twice a year and help track student progress, or learning, during the year. These companies may have a business motive in sounding an alarm to sell more of their product, but the reports are produced by well-regarded education statisticians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The big picture is that kids at every grade are still behind where they would have been without the pandemic. All three reports look at student achievement in the spring of 2019, before the pandemic, and compare it to the spring of 2023. A typical sixth grader, for example, in the spring of 2023 was generally scoring much lower than a typical sixth grader in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The differences are in the details. One report says that students are still behind the equivalent of four to five months of school, but another says it’s one to three months. A third doesn’t measure months of lost learning, but notices the alarming 50% increase in the number of students who are still performing significantly below grade level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Depending on how you slice and dice the data, older students in middle school and beyond seem to be in the most precarious position and younger children seem to be more resilient and recovering better. Yet, under a different spotlight, you can see troubling signs even among younger children. This includes the very youngest children who weren’t school age when the pandemic hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The most recent data, released on Aug. 28, 2023, is from Curriculum Associates, which sells i-Ready assessments taken by more than 11 million students across the country and focuses on “grade-level” skills.* It counts the number of students in third grade, for example, who are able to read at a third-grade level or solve math problems that a third grader ought to be able to solve. The standards for what is grade-level achievement are similar to what most \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/studies/pdf/2021036.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">states consider to be “proficient” on their annual assessments\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The report concludes that the percentage of students who met grade-level expectations was “flat” over the past school year. This is one way of noting that there wasn’t much of an academic recovery between spring of 2022 and spring of 2023. Students of every age, on average, lagged behind where students had been in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62284\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"414\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1-160x85.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image1-768x408.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">For example, 69% of fourth graders were demonstrating grade-level skills in math in 2019. That dropped to 55% in 2022 and barely improved to 56% in 2023. (The drop in grade-level performance isn’t as dramatic for seventh and eighth graders, in part, because so few students were meeting grade-level expectations even before the pandemic.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">“It’s dang hard to catch up,” said Kristen Huff, vice president of assessment and research at Curriculum Associates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">To make up for lost ground, students would have to learn more in a year than they typically do. That generally didn’t happen. Huff said this kind of extra learning is especially hard for students who missed foundational math and reading skills during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">While most students learned at a typical pace during the 2022-23 school year, Curriculum Associates noted a starkly different and troubling pattern for children who are significantly below grade level by two or more years. Their numbers spiked during the pandemic and have not gone down. Even worse, these children learned less during the 2022-23 school year than during a typical pre-pandemic year. That means they are continuing to lose ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Huff highlighted three groups of children who need extra attention: poor readers in second, third and fourth grades; children in kindergarten and first grade, and middle school math students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">There’s been a stubborn 50% increase in the number of third and fourth graders who are two or more grade levels behind in reading, Huff said. For example, 19% of third graders were that far behind grade level in 2023, up from 12% in 2019. “I find this alarming news,” said Huff, noting that these children were in kindergarten and first grade when the pandemic first hit. “They’re missing out on phonics and phonemic awareness and now they’re thrust into grades three and four,” she said. “If you’re two or more grade levels below in grade three, you’re in big trouble. You’re in big, big, big trouble. We’re going to be seeing evidence of this for years to come.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The youngest students, who were just two to four years old at the start of the pandemic, are also behind. Huff said that kindergarteners and first graders started the 2022-23 school year at lower achievement levels than in the past. They may have missed out on social interactions and pre-school. “You can’t say my current kindergartener wasn’t in school during the pandemic so they weren’t affected,” said Huff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Math achievement slipped the most after schools shuttered and switched to remote learning. And now very high percentages of middle schoolers are below grade level in the subject. Huff speculates that they missed out on foundational math skills, especially fractions and proportional reasoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p10\">Renaissance administered its Star tests to more than six million students around the country. Its \u003ca href=\"https://www.renaissance.com/resources/how-kids-are-performing/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">spring 2023 report was released on Aug. 9\u003c/span>\u003c/a>. Like Curriculum Associates, Renaissance finds that “growth is back, but performance is not,” according to Gene Kerns, Renaissance’s chief academic officer.* That means students are generally learning at a typical pace at school, but not making up for lost ground. Depending on the subject and the grade, students still need to recover between one and three months of instruction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62282\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image3.png 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image3-160x99.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_62283\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-62283 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image2.png 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image2-160x99.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>Bars represent the achievement gaps between student scores in spring 2023 and 2019, before the pandemic. Each point is roughly equal to a week of instruction. First grade students in 2023 scored as high in math as first grade students did in 2019; learning losses had been recovered.\u003c/em> (Data source: Renaissance)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Math is rebounding better than reading. “Math went down an alarming amount, but has started to go back up,” Kerns said. “We’ve not seen much rebound to reading.” Reading achievement, however, wasn’t as harmed by school disruptions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Kerns generally sees a sunnier story for younger children and a more troubling picture for older students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The youngest children in kindergarten and first grade are on par with pre-pandemic history, he said. Middle elementary school grades are a little behind but catching up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">“The older the student, the more lingering the impact,” said Kerns. “The high school data is very alarming. If you’re a junior in high school, you only have one more year. There’s a time clock on this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Seventh and eighth graders showed tiny decreases in annual learning in math and reading. Kerns says he’s “hesitant” to call it a “downward spiral.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The third report come from NWEA, which administers the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment to more than 6 million students. Its \u003ca href=\"https://www.nwea.org/uploads/Educations-long-covid-2022-23-achievement-data-reveal-stalled-progress-toward-pandemic-recovery_NWEA_Research-brief.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">spring 2023 data, released on July 11\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, showed that students on average need four to five months of extra schooling, on top of the regular school year, to catch up. This graph below, is a good summary of how much students are behind as expressed in months of learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p6\">\u003cb>Spring 2023 achievement gaps and months of schooling required to catch up to pre-COVID achievement levels\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-62281\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4-160x106.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/08/image4-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">Like the Renaissance report, the NWEA report shows a bigger learning loss in math than in reading, and indicates that older students have been more academically harmed by the pandemic. They’ll need more months of extra schooling to catch up to where they would have been had the pandemic never happened. It could take years and years to squeeze these extra months of instruction in and many students may never receive them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">From my perspective, Renaissance and NWEA came to similar conclusions for most students. The main difference is that Renaissance has additional assessment data for younger children in kindergarten through second grade, showing a recovery, and high school data, showing a worse deterioration. The discrepancies in their measurement of months of learning loss, whether it’s four to five months or one to three months, is inconsequential. Both companies admit these assumption-filled estimates are imprecise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">One of the most substantial differences among the reports is that Curriculum Associates is sounding an alarm bell for kindergarteners and first graders while Renaissance is not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">The three reports all conclude that kids are behind where they would have been without the pandemic. But some sub-groups are doing much worse than others. The students who are the most behind and continuing to spiral downward really need our attention. Without extra support, their pandemic slump could be lifelong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p8\">\u003ci>This story about \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-three-views-of-pandemic-learning-loss-and-recovery/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">\u003ci>pandemic recovery\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">\u003ci>Proof Points\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and other \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003cspan class=\"s4\">\u003ci>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/i>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\u003ci>* Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that more than 3 million students took i-Ready assessments.\u003c/i>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003ci>** Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Gene Kerns’s last name.\u003c/i>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/62271/most-students-are-learning-at-typical-pace-again-but-those-who-lost-ground-during-covid-19-arent-catching-up",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_62271"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21345",
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21343",
"mindshift_21766",
"mindshift_21539",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_21704",
"mindshift_550"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_62272",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_61848": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_61848",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "61848",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1687168815000
]
},
"parent": 0,
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"blocks": [],
"publishDate": 1687168815,
"format": "standard",
"title": "What's the best way to teach? It depends on the subject",
"headTitle": "What’s the best way to teach? It depends on the subject | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is the best way to teach? Some educators like to deliver clear explanations to students. Others favor discussions or group work. Project-based learning is trendy. But a June 2023 study from England could override all these debates: the most effective use of class time may depend on the subject.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The researchers found that students who spent more time in class solving practice problems on their own and taking quizzes and tests tended to have higher scores in math. It was just the opposite in English class. Teachers who allocated more class time to discussions and group work ended up with higher scorers in that subject. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There does seem to be a difference between language and math in the best use of time in class,” said Eric Taylor, an economist who studies education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and one of the study’s authors. “I think that is contradictory to what some people would expect and believe.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, the way that the 250 secondary school teachers in this study taught didn’t differ that much between math and English. For example, math teachers were almost as likely to devote most or all of the hour of class time to group discussions as English teachers were: 35 percent compared to 41 percent. Lectures were one of the least common uses of time in both subjects.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The study, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775723000523\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teacher’s use of class time and student achievement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” published in the Economics of Education Review, gives us a rare glimpse inside classrooms thanks to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/712997\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sister experiment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in teacher ratings that provided the data for this study. Teachers observed their colleagues and filled out surveys on how frequently teachers were doing various instructional activities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How secondary school teachers in low-income secondary schools in England allocate class time\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61850\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61850\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"678\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1-160x139.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1-768x668.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this study of 32 English secondary schools, math teachers didn’t allocate class time in a radically different way than English teachers. \u003ccite>(Source: Appendix of Teacher’s use of class time and student achievement, Economics of Education Review, June 2023)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The researchers studied 32 high-poverty English secondary schools and looked at how the allocation of classroom time in years 10 and 11 related to the test scores of 7,000 students. Throughout the United Kingdom, including England where this study took place, 11th year students take General Certificate of Secondary Education [GCSE] exams, which are akin to high school exit exams. (Years 10 and 11 are equivalent to 9th and 10th grades in the United States.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researchers didn’t prove that teachers’ choices on how to spend class time \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">caused\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> GCSE scores to go up. But they were able to control for teacher quality, and they noticed that even among teachers who had the same ratings, those who opted to allocate more time to individual practice work had higher student math scores. Similarly, among English teachers with the same quality ratings, those who opted to allocate more time to discussions and group work had higher student English scores. “Better” teachers who received higher ratings from their peers had a slight tendency to allocate time more effectively (that is, more practice work in math and more discussion time in English), but there were plenty of teachers who had gotten strong ratings from peers who didn’t spend class time this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The researchers did not theorize about why individual practice work is more important in math than in English. I’ve noticed that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61543/how-can-tutors-reach-more-kids-researchers-look-to-ed-tech-paired-with-human-tutors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doing a lot of practice problems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> during school hours is a big part of the algebra tutoring programs that have produced strong results for teens. Advocates of project-based learning once tried to develop a curriculum to teach math, but \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-four-new-studies-bolster-the-case-for-project-based-learning/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">backed off\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when they struggled to come up with good projects for teaching abstract math concepts and skills. But they had success with English, science and social studies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the study took place in England, Taylor sees lessons here for U.S. educators on how to spend their class time. “I suspect that if we repeated this whole setup in high schools in New York or elsewhere in the United States that we would see similar results,” said Taylor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this country many teachers are encouraged to incorporate “math talks” as a way to develop mathematical reasoning and help students see multiple strategies for solving a problem. Progressive math educators might also favor group over individual work. Yet this study found stronger math achievement for students whose teachers devoted less class time to math discussions or group work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Critics might complain that test scores shouldn’t be the ultimate goal of mathematics education. Some teachers care more about developing a love of math or inspiring students to pursue math-heavy fields. We cannot tell from this study if teachers who conduct more math discussions produce other long-term benefits for students. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also unclear from this study exactly what math teachers are doing during the long stretches of independent work time. Some may be milling about offering hints and one-to-one help. Others might be kicking back at their desks, catching up on email or drinking a cup of tea while students complete their homework in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even teachers who devote most of their class time to independent practice work may begin class with five or 10 minutes of lecturing. It’s not as if students are magically teaching themselves math, muddling through on their own, Taylor said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not the only thing that’s going on in these classes,” said Taylor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I suspect that we’re going to have more information on how good teachers spend their precious minutes of class time in the near future, thanks to improvements in artificial intelligence and learning analytics. I can imagine algorithms more accurately analyzing how class time is spent from audio and video recordings, eliminating the need for human observers to code hours of instructional time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Even if we don’t know exactly the recipe to give to teachers today, I think this study does say, ‘Well, hold on a minute, maybe we should be thinking differently about what’s right if we’re teaching math or language’,” said Taylor. These results, he added, should encourage educators to think more about what works best for each subject. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-best-way-to-teach-might-depend-on-the-subject/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math teaching methods\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci> education. Sign up for \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>Proof Points\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and other \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"stats": {
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"hasAudio": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"wordCount": 1133,
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"paragraphCount": 20
},
"modified": 1686954744,
"excerpt": "A U.K. study found that students do better in math classes that devote more time to individual practice while in English class, more discussion yields results.",
"headData": {
"twImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twDescription": "",
"description": "Students do better in math classes with more individual practice while in English class, more discussion yields results, a new study found.",
"socialDescription": "Students do better in math classes with more individual practice while in English class, more discussion yields results, a new study found.",
"title": "What's the best way to teach? It depends on the subject | KQED",
"ogDescription": "",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "What's the best way to teach? It depends on the subject",
"datePublished": "2023-06-19T03:00:15-07:00",
"dateModified": "2023-06-16T15:32:24-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "whats-the-best-way-to-teach-it-depends-on-the-subject",
"status": "publish",
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/61848/whats-the-best-way-to-teach-it-depends-on-the-subject",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is the best way to teach? Some educators like to deliver clear explanations to students. Others favor discussions or group work. Project-based learning is trendy. But a June 2023 study from England could override all these debates: the most effective use of class time may depend on the subject.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The researchers found that students who spent more time in class solving practice problems on their own and taking quizzes and tests tended to have higher scores in math. It was just the opposite in English class. Teachers who allocated more class time to discussions and group work ended up with higher scorers in that subject. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“There does seem to be a difference between language and math in the best use of time in class,” said Eric Taylor, an economist who studies education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and one of the study’s authors. “I think that is contradictory to what some people would expect and believe.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Indeed, the way that the 250 secondary school teachers in this study taught didn’t differ that much between math and English. For example, math teachers were almost as likely to devote most or all of the hour of class time to group discussions as English teachers were: 35 percent compared to 41 percent. Lectures were one of the least common uses of time in both subjects.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The study, “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775723000523\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teacher’s use of class time and student achievement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” published in the Economics of Education Review, gives us a rare glimpse inside classrooms thanks to a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/712997\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sister experiment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in teacher ratings that provided the data for this study. Teachers observed their colleagues and filled out surveys on how frequently teachers were doing various instructional activities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How secondary school teachers in low-income secondary schools in England allocate class time\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_61850\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 780px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-61850\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"678\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1.png 780w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1-160x139.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2023/06/image1-1-768x668.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In this study of 32 English secondary schools, math teachers didn’t allocate class time in a radically different way than English teachers. \u003ccite>(Source: Appendix of Teacher’s use of class time and student achievement, Economics of Education Review, June 2023)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The researchers studied 32 high-poverty English secondary schools and looked at how the allocation of classroom time in years 10 and 11 related to the test scores of 7,000 students. Throughout the United Kingdom, including England where this study took place, 11th year students take General Certificate of Secondary Education [GCSE] exams, which are akin to high school exit exams. (Years 10 and 11 are equivalent to 9th and 10th grades in the United States.)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researchers didn’t prove that teachers’ choices on how to spend class time \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">caused\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> GCSE scores to go up. But they were able to control for teacher quality, and they noticed that even among teachers who had the same ratings, those who opted to allocate more time to individual practice work had higher student math scores. Similarly, among English teachers with the same quality ratings, those who opted to allocate more time to discussions and group work had higher student English scores. “Better” teachers who received higher ratings from their peers had a slight tendency to allocate time more effectively (that is, more practice work in math and more discussion time in English), but there were plenty of teachers who had gotten strong ratings from peers who didn’t spend class time this way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The researchers did not theorize about why individual practice work is more important in math than in English. I’ve noticed that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/61543/how-can-tutors-reach-more-kids-researchers-look-to-ed-tech-paired-with-human-tutors\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">doing a lot of practice problems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> during school hours is a big part of the algebra tutoring programs that have produced strong results for teens. Advocates of project-based learning once tried to develop a curriculum to teach math, but \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-four-new-studies-bolster-the-case-for-project-based-learning/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">backed off\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> when they struggled to come up with good projects for teaching abstract math concepts and skills. But they had success with English, science and social studies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the study took place in England, Taylor sees lessons here for U.S. educators on how to spend their class time. “I suspect that if we repeated this whole setup in high schools in New York or elsewhere in the United States that we would see similar results,” said Taylor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this country many teachers are encouraged to incorporate “math talks” as a way to develop mathematical reasoning and help students see multiple strategies for solving a problem. Progressive math educators might also favor group over individual work. Yet this study found stronger math achievement for students whose teachers devoted less class time to math discussions or group work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Critics might complain that test scores shouldn’t be the ultimate goal of mathematics education. Some teachers care more about developing a love of math or inspiring students to pursue math-heavy fields. We cannot tell from this study if teachers who conduct more math discussions produce other long-term benefits for students. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s also unclear from this study exactly what math teachers are doing during the long stretches of independent work time. Some may be milling about offering hints and one-to-one help. Others might be kicking back at their desks, catching up on email or drinking a cup of tea while students complete their homework in class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even teachers who devote most of their class time to independent practice work may begin class with five or 10 minutes of lecturing. It’s not as if students are magically teaching themselves math, muddling through on their own, Taylor said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s not the only thing that’s going on in these classes,” said Taylor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I suspect that we’re going to have more information on how good teachers spend their precious minutes of class time in the near future, thanks to improvements in artificial intelligence and learning analytics. I can imagine algorithms more accurately analyzing how class time is spent from audio and video recordings, eliminating the need for human observers to code hours of instructional time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Even if we don’t know exactly the recipe to give to teachers today, I think this study does say, ‘Well, hold on a minute, maybe we should be thinking differently about what’s right if we’re teaching math or language’,” said Taylor. These results, he added, should encourage educators to think more about what works best for each subject. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-best-way-to-teach-might-depend-on-the-subject/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math teaching methods\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci> education. Sign up for \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\">\u003ci>Proof Points\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> and other \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\">\u003ci>Hechinger newsletters\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/61848/whats-the-best-way-to-teach-it-depends-on-the-subject",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_61848"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21504",
"mindshift_193"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_21437",
"mindshift_20646",
"mindshift_120",
"mindshift_392"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_61854",
"label": "mindshift"
},
"mindshift_61712": {
"type": "posts",
"id": "mindshift_61712",
"meta": {
"index": "posts_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "61712",
"score": null,
"sort": [
1685440859000
]
},
"guestAuthors": [],
"slug": "do-math-drills-help-children-learn",
"title": "Do Math Drills Help Children Learn?",
"publishDate": 1685440859,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Do Math Drills Help Children Learn? | KQED",
"labelTerm": {
"site": "mindshift"
},
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the most hotly contested teaching practices concerns a single minute of math class. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Should teachers pull out their stopwatches and administer one-page worksheets in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Speed drills are such a routine part of the weekly rhythms of many math classrooms that they’re often called Mad Minute Mondays. Critics say these timed drills aren’t useful and instead provoke math anxiety in many children. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics urges teachers to “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Standards_and_Positions/Position_Statements/PROCEDURAL_FLUENCY.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">avoid” timed tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But advocates insist that these tests, which last one to five minutes, help children memorize math facts, freeing up their brains to tackle more challenging math problems. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This long-running debate captured my attention again because a group of more than a dozen education researchers, who founded an organization they call the “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thescienceofmath.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Science of Math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” declared that the stopwatch skeptics are wrong. The researchers built an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thescienceofmath.com/timed-tests-cause-math-anxiety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">entire webpage\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to set the record straight and devoted a section of a 2022 paper to explaining why it’s a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cis.org.au/publication/myths-that-undermine-maths-teaching/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that timed tests cause anxiety\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. A few readers contacted me after I first wrote about the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-how-a-debate-over-the-science-of-math-could-reignite-the-math-wars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Science of Math movement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> earlier in May 2023, urging me to look at the group’s claims about timed tests. After looking at the research, I think the evidence is not quite as clear as the Science of Math group indicates. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group argues there is no evidence that timed tests cause math anxiety. They also contend that timed tests improve math performance. Some researchers contest both points.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Time tests don’t cause math anxiety?” said Jo Boaler, an education professor at Stanford University who is a prominent opponent of timed tests. “I could counter their studies with many more that show the opposite. And yes, you could conclude it’s a contested field, that there’s different evidence. But you can’t conclude that this is a myth.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Dueling evidence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There isn’t much dispute about the lack of empirical evidence. I interviewed more than a half dozen math experts who confirmed there aren’t well-designed experiments that prove timed tests cause math anxiety. The Science of Math group could find only \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2806671/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two experimental studies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that have attempted to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10864-016-9251-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">test the hypothesis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and neither concluded that tests produce anxiety. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Math anxiety is difficult to measure, and even children who enjoy timed drills may experience an elevated heart rate, an aspect of anxiety, as they race through a sheet of sums. Distinguishing productive adrenaline rush from detrimental anxiety isn’t easy. It’s also complicated to disentangle whether timed tests are making matters worse for children who already have math anxiety from other causes. There’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://news.uchicago.edu/story/math-anxiety-causes-trouble-students-early-first-grade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">evidence for and against\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> even within studies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ideally, you would need to design a multi-year study — where some children were randomly given speed drills and others not, but were all taught the same way — and see what their math achievement and math anxiety levels were at the end of high school. That study doesn’t exist. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What does exist are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of studies that document the stories of people who describe how much they hated timed tests. Interview excerpts like this one from a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA62839422&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=01463934&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=nysl_oweb&isGeoAuthType=true&aty=geo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1999 study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of college students who were training to become math teachers are typical:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If I am timed, I get nervous and forget everything. I do the ones I know, but then I get stressed that I’m not thinking fast enough and forget. I worry about finishing, and I can’t remember it even if I do know it. It is horrible. I get nervous just thinking about it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Others explained how they decided they weren’t a “math person” during these time-pressured moments and lost interest in the subject. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First-person testimonials are sufficient evidence for some that timed tests are harmful. For others, subjective reflections like this, no matter how many and how emotionally compelling, still fall short of scientific proof. At the same time, we also don’t have compelling scientific evidence to prove that timed tests aren’t harming children. I think it remains unknown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Citation clash\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several math education experts questioned the Science of Math group’s scientific evidence on their second claim, that “timed tactics improve math performance.” One critic, Rachel Lambert, an associate professor in both special education and mathematics education at University of California Santa Barbara, had one of her classes analyze the group’s citations about timed tests, as an assignment on how to analyze education research. She showed me a spreadsheet of instances where the citations didn’t back their claims. In some cases, the studies contradicted their claims and found that students performed worse under timed conditions. “They’re calling themselves the Science of Math,” said Lambert. “But they’re not being careful in their citations.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I found several of the citations confusing, too. Corey Peltier, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Oklahoma and one of the founders of the Science of Math group, explained that the primary purpose of the webpage and the article was to dispel the myth that timed tests and other timed activities cause anxiety. “We weren’t writing about how timing affects math performance,” he said via email. “Rather we were writing about whether timing causes math anxiety.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confusing citations or not, the more pressing question for math teachers and parents is whether there is evidence in favor of timed tests. The U.S. Department of Education seems to side with the Science of Math folks and against the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/WWC2021006-Math-PG.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2021 guide for teachers on how to assist elementary school students who struggle with math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> recommends regular timed activities – not necessarily tests – to help children build fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The What Works Clearinghouse, a unit of the Department of Education that vets research, and an expert panel found 27 studies to back timed practice and called that a “strong” level of evidence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Games vs. the stopwatch\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These 27 studies suggest that timed activities – not in isolation, but in conjunction with larger interventions – help children learn math. In one 2013 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779611/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, struggling first graders received math tutoring three times a week and were split into two groups. One played untimed games to reinforce the lessons. The other was subjected to speed practice, where the children worked in groups to try to answer as many math flashcards correctly as possible within 60 seconds. Each time they were encouraged to “meet or beat” their previous score. After 16 weeks, the children in the speed practice group had much higher math achievement than the children who had played untimed games.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Children in the speed group answered more math facts correctly each day, the researchers found. The sheer volume of correct responses helped the children commit more math facts to long-term memory, according to Lynn Fuchs, who led the study. Cognitive scientists call that spaced retrieval practice, a proven way of building long-term memories, and children in the speed group got more of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That gives children an advantage as they progress through the math curriculum,” said Fuchs, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University. “A lot of kids will develop fluency on their own without any fluency building practice. But to say we can’t do that in classrooms is to deny the opportunity to develop fluency for a significant portion of children.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fuchs and other advocates question why timed practice is so controversial in math when it’s common in other fields. Musicians repeat scales by the rapid tick of a metronome and athletes do speed drills to build muscle memory. “In all walks of life, the strongest musicians, the most skillful athletes, they do drills and practice, drill and practice,” said Fuchs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opponents of timed tests also want children to automatically know that seven times eight is 56 instead of conceptually thinking it out each time (7+7+7+7+7+7+7+7), but they say that there are games and other less stressful ways to do it. Fuchs’s study is one of the few to directly test timed versus untimed conditions and we need more studies to replicate her findings before we can conclude that speed is considerably more effective and harmless to children.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Both sides of this debate are concerned with working memory, the ability to temporarily hold information in your head in order to process it, think and solve. One side worries that timed tests can produce so much anxiety that it overwhelms the working memory and prevents a child from learning. The other side wants to free up working memory to handle more complicated math problems by making basic arithmetic calculations automatic, and it believes the most effective road to automaticity is through speed drills. While the causes of math anxiety are debated and mysterious, many in the pro-drill camp suspect that children might feel less math anxiety if they became more proficient in the subject, which is something that drills might help accomplish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Advice for math teachers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What can classroom teachers take away from this debate? I turned to a veteran researcher, Art Baroody, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who spent his career studying the best ways to teach counting, numbers and arithmetic concepts to young children.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He agrees that timed tests can be used effectively, but he is apprehensive about a blanket recommendation for teachers to use them. “Timed tests are an educational tool and like any tool can be used to good, no, or bad effect,” he said. “Unfortunately, the tool is often misused with poor or even devastating results. I have seen the damage timed tests can do to some children.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baroody thinks it’s critical that children first understand conceptually what addition and subtraction mean and develop number sense before they are given timed tests. Too often students are taught mathematical operations through rote memorization, like random numbers, he said, and arithmetic learned this way is easily forgotten, no matter how much it’s drilled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But once a child understands the math, he believes that timed worksheets are beneficial. Baroody said that if he were teaching in an elementary school classroom, he would administer timed tests at least once a week, and even more often depending on the topic and how much children have learned.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fuchs is even more circumspect in her advice to teachers on how to use timed tests effectively without harming children in the process. Not only should students first master concepts, they should have already demonstrated that they know the correct answers in an untimed setting. “You don’t want to give students a page full of problems and they’re kind of lost,” said Fuchs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Immediate feedback is important too. “When you make an error, your teacher or your partner can say, ‘Hey, let’s fix that’,” said Fuchs. “You want to stop a student when they make an error because what you’re trying to do is practice correct responses. You don’t want students to practice incorrect responses.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advocates of timed practice disagree about the details. Some say students should be given long lists of calculations so that no one can finish in time and slam their pencils down, which leaves slower children feeling bad about themselves. However, Fuchs favors flashcards because she fears the sight of a long list of problems overwhelms some children. This is an area that needs more research to guide teachers on best practices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Science of Math group concurs that not all timed practice is good, and says the research shows that timed activities or tests shouldn’t start until after a child can calculate accurately. They also say that teachers should never count these tests toward students’ grades; the tests should be low-stakes practice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Much like any instructional activity, if it is used inappropriately, it will yield minimal benefits and in some cases could be harmful,” said Peltier. Timing students on “a skill they don’t know – not only is this a waste of time, it also can be demoralizing and harmful. Imagine being timed to parallel park a car at the age of 16!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-do-math-drills-help-children-learn/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math drills\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
"blocks": [],
"excerpt": "Advocates insist that timed tests help children memorize math facts, while opponents say they cause math anxiety.",
"status": "publish",
"parent": 0,
"modified": 1724333971,
"stats": {
"hasAudio": false,
"hasVideo": false,
"hasChartOrMap": false,
"iframeSrcs": [],
"hasGoogleForm": false,
"hasGallery": false,
"hasHearkenModule": false,
"hasPolis": false,
"paragraphCount": 33,
"wordCount": 2177
},
"headData": {
"title": "Do Math Drills Help Children Learn? | KQED",
"description": "Timed tests might be a more efficient way to memorize multiplication tables, but even advocates caution that there are many pitfalls.",
"ogTitle": "",
"ogDescription": "",
"ogImgId": "",
"twTitle": "",
"twDescription": "",
"twImgId": "",
"socialDescription": "Timed tests might be a more efficient way to memorize multiplication tables, but even advocates caution that there are many pitfalls.",
"schema": {
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Article",
"headline": "Do Math Drills Help Children Learn?",
"datePublished": "2023-05-30T03:00:59-07:00",
"dateModified": "2024-08-22T06:39:31-07:00",
"image": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"
}
},
"sticky": false,
"nprByline": "Jill Barshay, \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/\" target=\"_blank\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/a>",
"excludeFromSiteSearch": "Include",
"showOnAuthorArchivePages": "No",
"articleAge": "0",
"path": "/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn",
"audioTrackLength": null,
"parsedContent": [
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the most hotly contested teaching practices concerns a single minute of math class. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Should teachers pull out their stopwatches and administer one-page worksheets in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Speed drills are such a routine part of the weekly rhythms of many math classrooms that they’re often called Mad Minute Mondays. Critics say these timed drills aren’t useful and instead provoke math anxiety in many children. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics urges teachers to “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Standards_and_Positions/Position_Statements/PROCEDURAL_FLUENCY.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">avoid” timed tests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But advocates insist that these tests, which last one to five minutes, help children memorize math facts, freeing up their brains to tackle more challenging math problems. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This long-running debate captured my attention again because a group of more than a dozen education researchers, who founded an organization they call the “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thescienceofmath.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Science of Math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” declared that the stopwatch skeptics are wrong. The researchers built an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thescienceofmath.com/timed-tests-cause-math-anxiety\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">entire webpage\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to set the record straight and devoted a section of a 2022 paper to explaining why it’s a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cis.org.au/publication/myths-that-undermine-maths-teaching/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">myth that timed tests cause anxiety\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. A few readers contacted me after I first wrote about the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-how-a-debate-over-the-science-of-math-could-reignite-the-math-wars/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Science of Math movement\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> earlier in May 2023, urging me to look at the group’s claims about timed tests. After looking at the research, I think the evidence is not quite as clear as the Science of Math group indicates. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group argues there is no evidence that timed tests cause math anxiety. They also contend that timed tests improve math performance. Some researchers contest both points.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Time tests don’t cause math anxiety?” said Jo Boaler, an education professor at Stanford University who is a prominent opponent of timed tests. “I could counter their studies with many more that show the opposite. And yes, you could conclude it’s a contested field, that there’s different evidence. But you can’t conclude that this is a myth.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Dueling evidence\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There isn’t much dispute about the lack of empirical evidence. I interviewed more than a half dozen math experts who confirmed there aren’t well-designed experiments that prove timed tests cause math anxiety. The Science of Math group could find only \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2806671/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two experimental studies\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that have attempted to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10864-016-9251-6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">test the hypothesis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and neither concluded that tests produce anxiety. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "fullwidth"
},
"numeric": [
"fullwidth"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Math anxiety is difficult to measure, and even children who enjoy timed drills may experience an elevated heart rate, an aspect of anxiety, as they race through a sheet of sums. Distinguishing productive adrenaline rush from detrimental anxiety isn’t easy. It’s also complicated to disentangle whether timed tests are making matters worse for children who already have math anxiety from other causes. There’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://news.uchicago.edu/story/math-anxiety-causes-trouble-students-early-first-grade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">evidence for and against\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> even within studies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ideally, you would need to design a multi-year study — where some children were randomly given speed drills and others not, but were all taught the same way — and see what their math achievement and math anxiety levels were at the end of high school. That study doesn’t exist. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What does exist are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of studies that document the stories of people who describe how much they hated timed tests. Interview excerpts like this one from a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA62839422&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=01463934&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=nysl_oweb&isGeoAuthType=true&aty=geo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">1999 study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of college students who were training to become math teachers are typical:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If I am timed, I get nervous and forget everything. I do the ones I know, but then I get stressed that I’m not thinking fast enough and forget. I worry about finishing, and I can’t remember it even if I do know it. It is horrible. I get nervous just thinking about it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Others explained how they decided they weren’t a “math person” during these time-pressured moments and lost interest in the subject. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First-person testimonials are sufficient evidence for some that timed tests are harmful. For others, subjective reflections like this, no matter how many and how emotionally compelling, still fall short of scientific proof. At the same time, we also don’t have compelling scientific evidence to prove that timed tests aren’t harming children. I think it remains unknown. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Citation clash\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Several math education experts questioned the Science of Math group’s scientific evidence on their second claim, that “timed tactics improve math performance.” One critic, Rachel Lambert, an associate professor in both special education and mathematics education at University of California Santa Barbara, had one of her classes analyze the group’s citations about timed tests, as an assignment on how to analyze education research. She showed me a spreadsheet of instances where the citations didn’t back their claims. In some cases, the studies contradicted their claims and found that students performed worse under timed conditions. “They’re calling themselves the Science of Math,” said Lambert. “But they’re not being careful in their citations.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I found several of the citations confusing, too. Corey Peltier, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Oklahoma and one of the founders of the Science of Math group, explained that the primary purpose of the webpage and the article was to dispel the myth that timed tests and other timed activities cause anxiety. “We weren’t writing about how timing affects math performance,” he said via email. “Rather we were writing about whether timing causes math anxiety.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confusing citations or not, the more pressing question for math teachers and parents is whether there is evidence in favor of timed tests. The U.S. Department of Education seems to side with the Science of Math folks and against the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. A \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/WWC2021006-Math-PG.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2021 guide for teachers on how to assist elementary school students who struggle with math\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> recommends regular timed activities – not necessarily tests – to help children build fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The What Works Clearinghouse, a unit of the Department of Education that vets research, and an expert panel found 27 studies to back timed practice and called that a “strong” level of evidence.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Games vs. the stopwatch\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These 27 studies suggest that timed activities – not in isolation, but in conjunction with larger interventions – help children learn math. In one 2013 \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779611/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">study\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, struggling first graders received math tutoring three times a week and were split into two groups. One played untimed games to reinforce the lessons. The other was subjected to speed practice, where the children worked in groups to try to answer as many math flashcards correctly as possible within 60 seconds. Each time they were encouraged to “meet or beat” their previous score. After 16 weeks, the children in the speed practice group had much higher math achievement than the children who had played untimed games.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Children in the speed group answered more math facts correctly each day, the researchers found. The sheer volume of correct responses helped the children commit more math facts to long-term memory, according to Lynn Fuchs, who led the study. Cognitive scientists call that spaced retrieval practice, a proven way of building long-term memories, and children in the speed group got more of it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“That gives children an advantage as they progress through the math curriculum,” said Fuchs, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University. “A lot of kids will develop fluency on their own without any fluency building practice. But to say we can’t do that in classrooms is to deny the opportunity to develop fluency for a significant portion of children.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fuchs and other advocates question why timed practice is so controversial in math when it’s common in other fields. Musicians repeat scales by the rapid tick of a metronome and athletes do speed drills to build muscle memory. “In all walks of life, the strongest musicians, the most skillful athletes, they do drills and practice, drill and practice,” said Fuchs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Opponents of timed tests also want children to automatically know that seven times eight is 56 instead of conceptually thinking it out each time (7+7+7+7+7+7+7+7), but they say that there are games and other less stressful ways to do it. Fuchs’s study is one of the few to directly test timed versus untimed conditions and we need more studies to replicate her findings before we can conclude that speed is considerably more effective and harmless to children.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Both sides of this debate are concerned with working memory, the ability to temporarily hold information in your head in order to process it, think and solve. One side worries that timed tests can produce so much anxiety that it overwhelms the working memory and prevents a child from learning. The other side wants to free up working memory to handle more complicated math problems by making basic arithmetic calculations automatic, and it believes the most effective road to automaticity is through speed drills. While the causes of math anxiety are debated and mysterious, many in the pro-drill camp suspect that children might feel less math anxiety if they became more proficient in the subject, which is something that drills might help accomplish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Advice for math teachers\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What can classroom teachers take away from this debate? I turned to a veteran researcher, Art Baroody, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who spent his career studying the best ways to teach counting, numbers and arithmetic concepts to young children.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He agrees that timed tests can be used effectively, but he is apprehensive about a blanket recommendation for teachers to use them. “Timed tests are an educational tool and like any tool can be used to good, no, or bad effect,” he said. “Unfortunately, the tool is often misused with poor or even devastating results. I have seen the damage timed tests can do to some children.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baroody thinks it’s critical that children first understand conceptually what addition and subtraction mean and develop number sense before they are given timed tests. Too often students are taught mathematical operations through rote memorization, like random numbers, he said, and arithmetic learned this way is easily forgotten, no matter how much it’s drilled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But once a child understands the math, he believes that timed worksheets are beneficial. Baroody said that if he were teaching in an elementary school classroom, he would administer timed tests at least once a week, and even more often depending on the topic and how much children have learned.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fuchs is even more circumspect in her advice to teachers on how to use timed tests effectively without harming children in the process. Not only should students first master concepts, they should have already demonstrated that they know the correct answers in an untimed setting. “You don’t want to give students a page full of problems and they’re kind of lost,” said Fuchs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Immediate feedback is important too. “When you make an error, your teacher or your partner can say, ‘Hey, let’s fix that’,” said Fuchs. “You want to stop a student when they make an error because what you’re trying to do is practice correct responses. You don’t want students to practice incorrect responses.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Advocates of timed practice disagree about the details. Some say students should be given long lists of calculations so that no one can finish in time and slam their pencils down, which leaves slower children feeling bad about themselves. However, Fuchs favors flashcards because she fears the sight of a long list of problems overwhelms some children. This is an area that needs more research to guide teachers on best practices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Science of Math group concurs that not all timed practice is good, and says the research shows that timed activities or tests shouldn’t start until after a child can calculate accurately. They also say that teachers should never count these tests toward students’ grades; the tests should be low-stakes practice.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Much like any instructional activity, if it is used inappropriately, it will yield minimal benefits and in some cases could be harmful,” said Peltier. Timing students on “a skill they don’t know – not only is this a waste of time, it also can be demoralizing and harmful. Imagine being timed to parallel park a car at the age of 16!” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
},
{
"type": "component",
"content": "",
"name": "ad",
"attributes": {
"named": {
"label": "floatright"
},
"numeric": [
"floatright"
]
}
},
{
"type": "contentString",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story about \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-do-math-drills-help-children-learn/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">math drills\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> was written by Jill Barshay and produced by \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/special-reports/higher-education/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hechinger Report\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/proofpoints/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proof Points\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and other \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/newsletters/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hechinger newsletters\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
"attributes": {
"named": {},
"numeric": []
}
}
],
"link": "/mindshift/61712/do-math-drills-help-children-learn",
"authors": [
"byline_mindshift_61712"
],
"categories": [
"mindshift_21504"
],
"tags": [
"mindshift_20943",
"mindshift_392",
"mindshift_20893",
"mindshift_21641",
"mindshift_21640",
"mindshift_21541",
"mindshift_21094",
"mindshift_21642"
],
"featImg": "mindshift_61716",
"label": "mindshift"
}
},
"podcastsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"podcasts": {}
},
"radioProgramsReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"radioPrograms": {}
},
"radioSearchSegmentsReducer": {},
"programsReducer": {
"all-things-considered": {
"id": "all-things-considered",
"title": "All Things Considered",
"info": "Every weekday, \u003cem>All Things Considered\u003c/em> hosts Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Ari Shapiro, and Kelly McEvers present the program's trademark mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features. Michel Martin hosts on the weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 1pm-2pm, 4:30pm-6:30pm\u003cbr />SAT-SUN 5pm-6pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/All-Things-Considered-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/all-things-considered/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/all-things-considered"
},
"american-suburb-podcast": {
"id": "american-suburb-podcast",
"title": "American Suburb: The Podcast",
"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/American-Suburb-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 19
},
"link": "/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/RBrW",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=1287748328",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/American-Suburb-p1086805/",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/american-suburb-podcast/feed/podcast",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMzMDExODgxNjA5"
}
},
"baycurious": {
"id": "baycurious",
"title": "Bay Curious",
"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Bay-Curious-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Bay Curious",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/news/series/baycurious",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 3
},
"link": "/podcasts/baycurious",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/category/bay-curious-podcast/feed/podcast",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9a90d476-aa04-455d-9a4c-0871ed6216d4/bay-curious",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/bay-curious",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6O76IdmhixfijmhTZLIJ8k"
}
},
"bbc-world-service": {
"id": "bbc-world-service",
"title": "BBC World Service",
"info": "The day's top stories from BBC News compiled twice daily in the week, once at weekends.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9pm-10pm, TUE-FRI 1am-2am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BBC-World-Service-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_world_service",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "BBC World Service"
},
"link": "/radio/program/bbc-world-service",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/global-news-podcast/id135067274?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/BBC-World-Service-p455581/",
"rss": "https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0gn.rss"
}
},
"californiareport": {
"id": "californiareport",
"title": "The California Report",
"tagline": "California, day by day",
"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareport",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 8
},
"link": "/californiareport",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-the-california-report/id79681292",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/26099305-72af-4542-9dde-ac1807fe36d5/kqed-s-the-california-report",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432285393/the-california-report",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-the-california-report-podcast-8838",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcram/feed/podcast"
}
},
"californiareportmagazine": {
"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-California-Report-Magazine-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The California Report Magazine",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 10
},
"link": "/californiareportmagazine",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/564733126/the-california-report-magazine",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-california-report-magazine",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/tcrmag/feed/podcast"
}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
"tagline": "Your irreverent guide to the trends redefining our world",
"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CAT_2_Tile-scaled.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Close All Tabs",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 1
},
"link": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-all-tabs/id214663465",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC6993880386",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/92d9d4ac-67a3-4eed-b10a-fb45d45b1ef2/close-all-tabs",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/6LAJFHnGK1pYXYzv6SIol6?si=deb0cae19813417c"
}
},
"code-switch-life-kit": {
"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"
}
},
"commonwealth-club": {
"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/commonwealth-club-of-california-podcast/id976334034?mt=2",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Commonwealth-Club-of-California-p1060/"
}
},
"forum": {
"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/forum",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
"link": "/forum",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kqeds-forum/id73329719",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432307980/forum",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqedfm-kqeds-forum-podcast",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9557381633"
}
},
"freakonomics-radio": {
"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Fresh-Air-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Fresh-Air-p17/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
}
},
"here-and-now": {
"id": "here-and-now",
"title": "Here & Now",
"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
"airtime": "MON-THU 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Here-And-Now-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/here-and-now",
"subsdcribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?mt=2&id=426698661",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Here--Now-p211/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/hidden-brain/id1028908750?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/How-I-Built-This-p910896/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
}
},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hyphenaci%C3%B3n/id1191591838",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
"youtube": "https://www.youtube.com/c/kqedarts",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/790253322/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/jerrybrown/feed/podcast/",
"tuneIn": "http://tun.in/pjGcK",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/54C1dmuyFyKMFttY6X2j6r?si=K8SgRCoISNK6ZbjpXrX5-w",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/44420f75-3b0e-4301-ab3b-16da6b09e543/the-political-mind-of-jerry-brown"
}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Latino-USA-p621/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201853034&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/APM-Marketplace-p88/",
"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"
}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/onourwatch",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/0OLWoyizopu6tY1XiuX70x",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-Our-Watch-p1436229/",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
}
},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/political-breakdown/id1327641087",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/political-breakdown",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/07RVyIjIdk2WDuVehvBMoN",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/political-breakdown/feed/podcast"
}
},
"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/possible/id1677184070",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
}
},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "PRI"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pri-the-world",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pris-the-world-latest-edition/id278196007?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/PRIs-The-World-p24/",
"rss": "http://feeds.feedburner.com/pri/theworld"
}
},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/radiolab1400.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/radiolab/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/radiolab",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/radiolab/id152249110?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/RadioLab-p68032/",
"rss": "https://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab"
}
},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Reveal-p679597/",
"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
}
},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rightnowish-Podcast-Tile-500x500-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Rightnowish with Pendarvis Harshaw",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/programs/rightnowish/feed/podcast",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkMxMjU5MTY3NDc4",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I"
}
},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
"title": "Science Friday",
"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
"airtime": "FRI 11am-1pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Science-Friday-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/science-friday",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/science-friday",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=73329284&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Science-Friday-p394/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/science-friday"
}
},
"snap-judgment": {
"id": "snap-judgment",
"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
"airtime": "SAT 1pm-2pm, 9pm-10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Snap-Judgment-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Snap Judgment",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 4
},
"link": "https://snapjudgment.org",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/snap-judgment/id283657561",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/449018144/snap-judgment",
"stitcher": "https://www.pandora.com/podcast/snap-judgment/PC:241?source=stitcher-sunset",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cct7ZWmxHNAtLgBTqjC5v",
"rss": "https://snap.feed.snapjudgment.org/"
}
},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Sold-Out-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/soldout",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 13
},
"link": "/podcasts/soldout",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/911586047/s-o-l-d-o-u-t-a-new-future-for-housing",
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america/id1531354937",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/soldout",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/38dTBSk2ISFoPiyYNoKn1X",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/sold-out-rethinking-housing-in-america",
"tunein": "https://tunein.com/radio/SOLD-OUT-Rethinking-Housing-in-America-p1365871/"
}
},
"spooked": {
"id": "spooked",
"title": "Spooked",
"tagline": "True-life supernatural stories",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Spooked-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Spooked",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 7
},
"link": "https://spookedpodcast.org/",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/spooked/id1279361017",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/549547848/snap-judgment-presents-spooked",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/76571Rfl3m7PLJQZKQIGCT",
"rss": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/TBotaapn"
}
},
"tech-nation": {
"id": "tech-nation",
"title": "Tech Nation Radio Podcast",
"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
"airtime": "FRI 10pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Tech-Nation-Radio-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://technation.podomatic.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "science",
"source": "Tech Nation Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tech-nation",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://technation.podomatic.com/rss2.xml"
}
},
"ted-radio-hour": {
"id": "ted-radio-hour",
"title": "TED Radio Hour",
"info": "The TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, and new ways to think and create.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm, SAT 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/tedRadioHour.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/?showDate=2018-06-22",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/ted-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/8vsS",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=523121474&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/TED-Radio-Hour-p418021/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510298/podcast.xml"
}
},
"thebay": {
"id": "thebay",
"title": "The Bay",
"tagline": "Local news to keep you rooted",
"info": "Host Devin Katayama walks you through the biggest story of the day with reporters and newsmakers.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Bay-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Bay",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/thebay",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 2
},
"link": "/podcasts/thebay",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bay/id1350043452",
"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d800ea4c-7a2c-42f2-b861-edaf78a5db0b/the-bay",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/586725995/the-bay",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-bay",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/4BIKBKIujizLHlIlBNaAqQ",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC8259786327"
}
},
"thelatest": {
"id": "thelatest",
"title": "The Latest",
"tagline": "Trusted local news in real time",
"info": "",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Latest-2025-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Latest",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/thelatest",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 6
},
"link": "/thelatest",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-latest-from-kqed/id1197721799",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1257949365/the-latest-from-k-q-e-d",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/5KIIXMgM9GTi5AepwOYvIZ?si=bd3053fec7244dba",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC9137121918"
}
},
"theleap": {
"id": "theleap",
"title": "The Leap",
"tagline": "What if you closed your eyes, and jumped?",
"info": "Stories about people making dramatic, risky changes, told by award-winning public radio reporter Judy Campbell.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Leap-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Leap",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/theleap",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 17
},
"link": "/podcasts/theleap",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-leap/id1046668171",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/447248267/the-leap",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/the-leap",
"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/3sSlVHHzU0ytLwuGs1SD1U",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/programs/the-leap/feed/podcast"
}
},
"the-moth-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-moth-radio-hour",
"title": "The Moth Radio Hour",
"info": "Since its launch in 1997, The Moth has presented thousands of true stories, told live and without notes, to standing-room-only crowds worldwide. Moth storytellers stand alone, under a spotlight, with only a microphone and a roomful of strangers. The storyteller and the audience embark on a high-wire act of shared experience which is both terrifying and exhilarating. Since 2008, The Moth podcast has featured many of our favorite stories told live on Moth stages around the country. For information on all of our programs and live events, visit themoth.org.",
"airtime": "SAT 8pm-9pm and SUN 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/theMoth.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://themoth.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "prx"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-moth-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moth-podcast/id275699983?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/The-Moth-p273888/",
"rss": "http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast"
}
},
"the-new-yorker-radio-hour": {
"id": "the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"title": "The New Yorker Radio Hour",
"info": "The New Yorker Radio Hour is a weekly program presented by the magazine's editor, David Remnick, and produced by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Each episode features a diverse mix of interviews, profiles, storytelling, and an occasional burst of humor inspired by the magazine, and shaped by its writers, artists, and editors. This isn't a radio version of a magazine, but something all its own, reflecting the rich possibilities of audio storytelling and conversation. Theme music for the show was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-YArDs.",
"airtime": "SAT 10am-11am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-New-Yorker-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/tnyradiohour",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-new-yorker-radio-hour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1050430296",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/New-Yorker-Radio-Hour-p803804/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/newyorkerradiohour"
}
},
"the-sam-sanders-show": {
"id": "the-sam-sanders-show",
"title": "The Sam Sanders Show",
"info": "One of public radio's most dynamic voices, Sam Sanders helped launch The NPR Politics Podcast and hosted NPR's hit show It's Been A Minute. Now, the award-winning host returns with something brand new, The Sam Sanders Show. Every week, Sam Sanders and friends dig into the culture that shapes our lives: what's driving the biggest trends, how artists really think, and even the memes you can't stop scrolling past. Sam is beloved for his way of unpacking the world and bringing you up close to fresh currents and engaging conversations. The Sam Sanders Show is smart, funny and always a good time.",
"airtime": "FRI 12-1pm AND SAT 11am-12pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Sam-Sanders-Show-Podcast-Tile-400x400-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"meta": {
"site": "arts",
"source": "KCRW"
},
"link": "https://www.kcrw.com/shows/the-sam-sanders-show/latest",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feed.cdnstream1.com/zjb/feed/download/ac/28/59/ac28594c-e1d0-4231-8728-61865cdc80e8.xml"
}
},
"the-splendid-table": {
"id": "the-splendid-table",
"title": "The Splendid Table",
"info": "\u003cem>The Splendid Table\u003c/em> hosts our nation's conversations about cooking, sustainability and food culture.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Splendid-Table-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.splendidtable.org/",
"airtime": "SUN 10-11 pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/the-splendid-table"
},
"this-american-life": {
"id": "this-american-life",
"title": "This American Life",
"info": "This American Life is a weekly public radio show, heard by 2.2 million people on more than 500 stations. Another 2.5 million people download the weekly podcast. It is hosted by Ira Glass, produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media, delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange, and has won all of the major broadcasting awards.",
"airtime": "SAT 12pm-1pm, 7pm-8pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/thisAmericanLife.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wbez"
},
"link": "/radio/program/this-american-life",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=201671138&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"rss": "https://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/rss.xml"
}
},
"tinydeskradio": {
"id": "tinydeskradio",
"title": "Tiny Desk Radio",
"info": "We're bringing the best of Tiny Desk to the airwaves, only on public radio.",
"airtime": "SUN 8pm and SAT 9pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/300x300-For-Member-Station-Logo-Tiny-Desk-Radio-@2x.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-52030/tiny-desk-radio",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/tinydeskradio",
"subscribe": {
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/g-s1-52030/rss.xml"
}
},
"wait-wait-dont-tell-me": {
"id": "wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"title": "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!",
"info": "Peter Sagal and Bill Kurtis host the weekly NPR News quiz show alongside some of the best and brightest news and entertainment personalities.",
"airtime": "SUN 10am-11am, SAT 11am-12pm, SAT 6pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Wait-Wait-Podcast-Tile-300x300-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/wait-wait-dont-tell-me",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/Xogv",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=121493804&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/Wait-Wait-Dont-Tell-Me-p46/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/344098539/podcast.xml"
}
},
"weekend-edition-saturday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-saturday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Saturday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Saturday wraps up the week's news and offers a mix of analysis and features on a wide range of topics, including arts, sports, entertainment, and human interest stories. The two-hour program is hosted by NPR's Peabody Award-winning Scott Simon.",
"airtime": "SAT 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-saturday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-saturday"
},
"weekend-edition-sunday": {
"id": "weekend-edition-sunday",
"title": "Weekend Edition Sunday",
"info": "Weekend Edition Sunday features interviews with newsmakers, artists, scientists, politicians, musicians, writers, theologians and historians. The program has covered news events from Nelson Mandela's 1990 release from a South African prison to the capture of Saddam Hussein.",
"airtime": "SUN 5am-10am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Weekend-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/weekend-edition-sunday/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/weekend-edition-sunday"
}
},
"racesReducer": {},
"racesGenElectionReducer": {},
"racesGenElection2026Reducer": {},
"racesGenElection2026PresidentialReducer": {},
"radioSchedulesReducer": {},
"listsReducer": {
"posts/mindshift?tag=math": {
"isFetching": false,
"latestQuery": {
"from": 12,
"size": 12
},
"vitalsOnly": false,
"totalRequested": 12,
"isLoading": false,
"isLoadingMore": true,
"total": {
"value": 154,
"relation": "eq"
},
"items": [
"mindshift_63375",
"mindshift_63278",
"mindshift_63058",
"mindshift_62834",
"mindshift_62724",
"mindshift_62663",
"mindshift_62436",
"mindshift_62392",
"mindshift_62365",
"mindshift_62271",
"mindshift_61848",
"mindshift_61712"
],
"complete": true
}
},
"recallGuideReducer": {
"intros": {},
"policy": {},
"candidates": {}
},
"savedArticleReducer": {
"articles": [],
"status": {}
},
"newslettersReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": false,
"newsletters": {},
"isSubscribing": false,
"isUnsubscribing": false,
"subscribedNewsletters": {}
},
"termsReducer": {
"about": {
"name": "About",
"type": "terms",
"id": "about",
"slug": "about",
"link": "/about",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"arts": {
"name": "Arts & Culture",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"description": "KQED Arts provides daily in-depth coverage of the Bay Area's music, art, film, performing arts, literature and arts news, as well as cultural commentary and criticism.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "arts",
"slug": "arts",
"link": "/arts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"artschool": {
"name": "Art School",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "artschool",
"slug": "artschool",
"link": "/artschool",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareabites": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareabites",
"slug": "bayareabites",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"bayareahiphop": {
"name": "Bay Area Hiphop",
"type": "terms",
"id": "bayareahiphop",
"slug": "bayareahiphop",
"link": "/bayareahiphop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"campaign21": {
"name": "Campaign 21",
"type": "terms",
"id": "campaign21",
"slug": "campaign21",
"link": "/campaign21",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"careers": {
"name": "Careers",
"type": "terms",
"id": "careers",
"slug": "careers",
"link": "/careers",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"checkplease": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "checkplease",
"slug": "checkplease",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"education": {
"name": "Education",
"grouping": [
"education"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "education",
"slug": "education",
"link": "/education",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"elections": {
"name": "Elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "elections",
"slug": "elections",
"link": "/elections",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"events": {
"name": "Events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "events",
"slug": "events",
"link": "/events",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"event": {
"name": "Event",
"alias": "events",
"type": "terms",
"id": "event",
"slug": "event",
"link": "/event",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"filmschoolshorts": {
"name": "Film School Shorts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "filmschoolshorts",
"slug": "filmschoolshorts",
"link": "/filmschoolshorts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"food": {
"name": "KQED food",
"grouping": [
"food",
"bayareabites",
"checkplease"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "food",
"slug": "food",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"forum": {
"name": "Forum",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/forum?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "forum",
"slug": "forum",
"link": "/forum",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"futureofyou": {
"name": "Future of You",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "futureofyou",
"slug": "futureofyou",
"link": "/futureofyou",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"jpepinheart": {
"name": "KQED food",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/food,bayareabites,checkplease",
"parent": "food",
"type": "terms",
"id": "jpepinheart",
"slug": "jpepinheart",
"link": "/food",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"liveblog": {
"name": "Live Blog",
"type": "terms",
"id": "liveblog",
"slug": "liveblog",
"link": "/liveblog",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"livetv": {
"name": "Live TV",
"parent": "tv",
"type": "terms",
"id": "livetv",
"slug": "livetv",
"link": "/livetv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"lowdown": {
"name": "The Lowdown",
"relatedContentQuery": "posts/lowdown?",
"parent": "news",
"type": "terms",
"id": "lowdown",
"slug": "lowdown",
"link": "/lowdown",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift": {
"name": "Mindshift",
"parent": "news",
"description": "MindShift explores the future of education by highlighting the innovative – and sometimes counterintuitive – ways educators and parents are helping all children succeed.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift",
"slug": "mindshift",
"link": "/mindshift",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"news": {
"name": "News",
"grouping": [
"news",
"forum"
],
"type": "terms",
"id": "news",
"slug": "news",
"link": "/news",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"newsletters": {
"name": "newsletters",
"type": "terms",
"id": "newsletters",
"slug": "newsletters",
"link": "/newsletters",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"perspectives": {
"name": "Perspectives",
"parent": "radio",
"type": "terms",
"id": "perspectives",
"slug": "perspectives",
"link": "/perspectives",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"podcasts": {
"name": "Podcasts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "podcasts",
"slug": "podcasts",
"link": "/podcasts",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pop": {
"name": "Pop",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pop",
"slug": "pop",
"link": "/pop",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"pressroom": {
"name": "Pressroom",
"type": "terms",
"id": "pressroom",
"slug": "pressroom",
"link": "/pressroom",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"quest": {
"name": "Quest",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "quest",
"slug": "quest",
"link": "/quest",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"radio": {
"name": "Radio",
"grouping": [
"forum",
"perspectives"
],
"description": "Listen to KQED Public Radio – home of Forum and The California Report – on 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento, 88.3 FM in Santa Rosa and 88.1 FM in Martinez.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "radio",
"slug": "radio",
"link": "/radio",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"root": {
"name": "KQED",
"image": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png",
"imageWidth": 1200,
"imageHeight": 630,
"headData": {
"title": "KQED | News, Radio, Podcasts, TV | Public Media for Northern California",
"description": "KQED provides public radio, television, and independent reporting on issues that matter to the Bay Area. We’re the NPR and PBS member station for Northern California."
},
"type": "terms",
"id": "root",
"slug": "root",
"link": "/root",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"science": {
"name": "Science",
"grouping": [
"science",
"futureofyou"
],
"description": "KQED Science brings you award-winning science and environment coverage from the Bay Area and beyond.",
"type": "terms",
"id": "science",
"slug": "science",
"link": "/science",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"stateofhealth": {
"name": "State of Health",
"parent": "science",
"type": "terms",
"id": "stateofhealth",
"slug": "stateofhealth",
"link": "/stateofhealth",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"support": {
"name": "Support",
"type": "terms",
"id": "support",
"slug": "support",
"link": "/support",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"thedolist": {
"name": "The Do List",
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "thedolist",
"slug": "thedolist",
"link": "/thedolist",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"trulyca": {
"name": "Truly CA",
"grouping": [
"arts",
"pop",
"trulyca"
],
"parent": "arts",
"type": "terms",
"id": "trulyca",
"slug": "trulyca",
"link": "/trulyca",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"tv": {
"name": "TV",
"type": "terms",
"id": "tv",
"slug": "tv",
"link": "/tv",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"voterguide": {
"name": "Voter Guide",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "voterguide",
"slug": "voterguide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"guiaelectoral": {
"name": "Guia Electoral",
"parent": "elections",
"alias": "elections",
"type": "terms",
"id": "guiaelectoral",
"slug": "guiaelectoral",
"link": "/guiaelectoral",
"taxonomy": "site"
},
"mindshift_tag_math": {
"isLoading": true
},
"mindshift_392": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_392",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "392",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "math",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "math Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 393,
"slug": "math",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/math"
},
"mindshift_21345": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21345",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21345",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "COVID-19",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "COVID-19 Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20617,
"slug": "covid-19",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/covid-19"
},
"mindshift_21504": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21504",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21504",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Education research",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Education research Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20776,
"slug": "education-research",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/education-research"
},
"mindshift_21343": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21343",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21343",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "COVID-19",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "COVID-19 Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20615,
"slug": "covid-19",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/covid-19"
},
"mindshift_93": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_93",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "93",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "NAEP",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "NAEP Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 93,
"slug": "naep",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/naep"
},
"mindshift_21775": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21775",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21775",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "mistakes",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "mistakes Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21047,
"slug": "mistakes",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/mistakes"
},
"mindshift_21357": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21357",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21357",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Antiracism",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Antiracism Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20629,
"slug": "antiracism",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/antiracism"
},
"mindshift_21579": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21579",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21579",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Schoolwide Solutions",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Schoolwide Solutions Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20851,
"slug": "schoolwide-solutions",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/schoolwide-solutions"
},
"mindshift_912": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_912",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "912",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Advanced Placement",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Advanced Placement Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 916,
"slug": "advanced-placement",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/advanced-placement"
},
"mindshift_276": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_276",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "276",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "algebra",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "algebra Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 277,
"slug": "algebra",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/algebra"
},
"mindshift_21322": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21322",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21322",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "antiracist",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "antiracist Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20594,
"slug": "antiracist",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/antiracist"
},
"mindshift_21846": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21846",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21846",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "calculus",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "calculus Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21118,
"slug": "calculus",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/calculus"
},
"mindshift_21699": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21699",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21699",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "DEI",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "DEI Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20971,
"slug": "dei",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/dei"
},
"mindshift_20701": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20701",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20701",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "equity",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "equity Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 19978,
"slug": "equity",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/equity"
},
"mindshift_20841": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20841",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20841",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "tracking",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "tracking Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20119,
"slug": "tracking",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/tracking"
},
"mindshift_21539": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21539",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21539",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "learning loss",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "learning loss Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20811,
"slug": "learning-loss",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/learning-loss"
},
"mindshift_21864": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21864",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21864",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Miguel Cardona",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Miguel Cardona Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21136,
"slug": "miguel-cardona",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/miguel-cardona"
},
"mindshift_205": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_205",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "205",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "PISA",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "PISA Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 205,
"slug": "pisa",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/pisa"
},
"mindshift_21694": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21694",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21694",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Higher Education",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Higher Education Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20966,
"slug": "higher-education",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/higher-education"
},
"mindshift_998": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_998",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "998",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "big data",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "big data Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 1003,
"slug": "big-data",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/big-data"
},
"mindshift_21261": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21261",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21261",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "college",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "college Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20533,
"slug": "college",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/college"
},
"mindshift_21189": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21189",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21189",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "college admissions",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "college admissions Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20461,
"slug": "college-admissions",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/college-admissions"
},
"mindshift_21403": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21403",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21403",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "curriculum",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "curriculum Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20675,
"slug": "curriculum",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/curriculum"
},
"mindshift_21446": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21446",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21446",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "data science",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "data science Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20718,
"slug": "data-science",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/data-science"
},
"mindshift_68": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_68",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "68",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Higher Education",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Higher Education Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 68,
"slug": "higher-education",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/higher-education"
},
"mindshift_21845": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21845",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21845",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "statistics",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "statistics Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21117,
"slug": "statistics",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/statistics"
},
"mindshift_47": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_47",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "47",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "STEM",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "STEM Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 47,
"slug": "stem",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/stem"
},
"mindshift_21830": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21830",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21830",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "automaticity",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "automaticity Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21102,
"slug": "automaticity",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/automaticity"
},
"mindshift_21829": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21829",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21829",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "fact fluency",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "fact fluency Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21101,
"slug": "fact-fluency",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/fact-fluency"
},
"mindshift_21832": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21832",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21832",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "flash cards",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "flash cards Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21104,
"slug": "flash-cards",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/flash-cards"
},
"mindshift_20556": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20556",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20556",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "memory",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "memory Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 19833,
"slug": "memory",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/memory"
},
"mindshift_21641": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21641",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21641",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "multiplication",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "multiplication Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20913,
"slug": "multiplication",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/multiplication"
},
"mindshift_21828": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21828",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21828",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "multiplication facts",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "multiplication facts Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21100,
"slug": "multiplication-facts",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/multiplication-facts"
},
"mindshift_21152": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21152",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21152",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "retrieval practice",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "retrieval practice Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20424,
"slug": "retrieval-practice",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/retrieval-practice"
},
"mindshift_21831": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21831",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21831",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "School House Rock",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "School House Rock Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21103,
"slug": "school-house-rock",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/school-house-rock"
},
"mindshift_21438": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21438",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21438",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "working memory",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "working memory Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20710,
"slug": "working-memory",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/working-memory"
},
"mindshift_21942": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21942",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21942",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"name": "Mindshift Podcast",
"slug": "mindshiftpodcast",
"taxonomy": "program",
"description": null,
"featImg": null,
"headData": {
"title": "Mindshift Podcast - KQED Mindshift",
"description": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogDescription": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"twDescription": null,
"twImgId": null
},
"ttid": 21214,
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/program/mindshiftpodcast"
},
"mindshift_192": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_192",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "192",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Big Ideas",
"description": "The latest findings from experts in the field related to the future of learning.",
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "The latest findings from experts in the field related to the future of learning.",
"title": "Big Ideas Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 192,
"slug": "big-ideas",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/big-ideas"
},
"mindshift_21130": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21130",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21130",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": "https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2017/08/Mindshift_KQEDorg_1440x1103_02-1.jpg",
"name": "MindShift Podcast",
"description": "It’s easy to see a child’s education as a path determined by grades, test scores and extra curricular activities. But genuine learning is about so much more than the points schools tally. MindShift explores the future of education by investigating innovations and issues that are shaping how kids learn.\r\nEmotional safety, trust, and relationships: this season, we investigate the intangible, and often overlooked, elements of academic success. You’ll hear how teacher home visits can help parents see themselves as a valued a partner in their child’s education; how far a public high school goes to develop an inclusive experience for the crucial transition to ninth grade; how parents and schools can address childhood trauma so it doesn’t become an obstacle to learning, and what parents and communities can do to help kids grow.\r\nThis podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us @MindShiftKQED or visit us at MindShift.KQED.org.",
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "It’s easy to see a child’s education as a path determined by grades, test scores and extra curricular activities. But genuine learning is about so much more than the points schools tally. MindShift explores the future of education by investigating innovations and issues that are shaping how kids learn. Emotional safety, trust, and relationships: this season, we investigate the intangible, and often overlooked, elements of academic success. You’ll hear how teacher home visits can help parents see themselves as a valued a partner in their child’s education; how far a public high school goes to develop an inclusive experience for the crucial transition to ninth grade; how parents and schools can address childhood trauma so it doesn’t become an obstacle to learning, and what parents and communities can do to help kids grow. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us @MindShiftKQED or visit us at MindShift.KQED.org.",
"title": "MindShift Podcast Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20402,
"slug": "mindshiftpodcast",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/mindshiftpodcast"
},
"mindshift_21848": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21848",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21848",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Podcast",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Podcast Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21120,
"slug": "podcast",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/podcast"
},
"mindshift_193": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_193",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "193",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Teaching Strategies",
"description": "Innovative ideas - projects, processes, curricula, and more - that are transforming how we teach and learn.",
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "Innovative ideas - projects, processes, curricula, and more - that are transforming how we teach and learn.",
"title": "Teaching Strategies Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 193,
"slug": "teaching-strategies",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/teaching-strategies"
},
"mindshift_21794": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21794",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21794",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Amy Parks",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Amy Parks Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21066,
"slug": "amy-parks",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/amy-parks"
},
"mindshift_20994": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20994",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20994",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "complex instruction",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "complex instruction Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20266,
"slug": "complex-instruction",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/complex-instruction"
},
"mindshift_21792": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21792",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21792",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Dear Math",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Dear Math Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21064,
"slug": "dear-math",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/dear-math"
},
"mindshift_21611": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21611",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21611",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "hierarchy",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "hierarchy Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20883,
"slug": "hierarchy",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/hierarchy"
},
"mindshift_21341": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21341",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21341",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "humanizing math",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "humanizing math Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20613,
"slug": "humanizing-math",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/humanizing-math"
},
"mindshift_20893": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20893",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20893",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "math anxiety",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "math anxiety Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20171,
"slug": "math-anxiety",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/math-anxiety"
},
"mindshift_21795": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21795",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21795",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "mathematical identity",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "mathematical identity Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21067,
"slug": "mathematical-identity",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/mathematical-identity"
},
"mindshift_21796": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21796",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21796",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "neuroplasticity",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "neuroplasticity Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21068,
"slug": "neuroplasticity",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/neuroplasticity"
},
"mindshift_46": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_46",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "46",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Neuroscience",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Neuroscience Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 46,
"slug": "neuroscience",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/neuroscience"
},
"mindshift_21640": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21640",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21640",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Rachel Lambert",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Rachel Lambert Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20912,
"slug": "rachel-lambert",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/rachel-lambert"
},
"mindshift_21793": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21793",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21793",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Sarah Strong",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Sarah Strong Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21065,
"slug": "sarah-strong",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/sarah-strong"
},
"mindshift_20852": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20852",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20852",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "student-centered learning",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "student-centered learning Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20130,
"slug": "student-centered-learning",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/student-centered-learning"
},
"mindshift_21642": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21642",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21642",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "timed tests",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "timed tests Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20914,
"slug": "timed-tests",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/timed-tests"
},
"mindshift_194": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_194",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "194",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Culture",
"description": "How trends in technology – social networks, Internet privacy, cyberbullying – influence education.",
"taxonomy": "category",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": "How trends in technology – social networks, Internet privacy, cyberbullying – influence education.",
"title": "Culture Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 194,
"slug": "culture",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/category/culture"
},
"mindshift_21790": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21790",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21790",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "ACT",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "ACT Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21062,
"slug": "act",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/act"
},
"mindshift_21789": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21789",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21789",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "grade inflation",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "grade inflation Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21061,
"slug": "grade-inflation",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/grade-inflation"
},
"mindshift_21110": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21110",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21110",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "grades",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "grades Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20382,
"slug": "grades",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/grades"
},
"mindshift_883": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_883",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "883",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "standardized tests",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "standardized tests Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 886,
"slug": "standardized-tests",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/standardized-tests"
},
"mindshift_21785": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21785",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21785",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "ASSISTments",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "ASSISTments Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21057,
"slug": "assistments",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/assistments"
},
"mindshift_962": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_962",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "962",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "ed tech",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "ed tech Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 967,
"slug": "ed-tech",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/ed-tech"
},
"mindshift_21294": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21294",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21294",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "edtech",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "edtech Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20566,
"slug": "edtech",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/edtech"
},
"mindshift_563": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_563",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "563",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "homework",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "homework Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 566,
"slug": "homework",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/homework"
},
"mindshift_421": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_421",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "421",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "personalized learning",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "personalized learning Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 422,
"slug": "personalized-learning",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/personalized-learning"
},
"mindshift_21413": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21413",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21413",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "tutoring",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "tutoring Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20685,
"slug": "tutoring",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/tutoring"
},
"mindshift_21766": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21766",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21766",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Curriculum Associates",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Curriculum Associates Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 21038,
"slug": "curriculum-associates",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/curriculum-associates"
},
"mindshift_21704": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21704",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21704",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "pandemic",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "pandemic Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20976,
"slug": "pandemic",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/pandemic"
},
"mindshift_550": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_550",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "550",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Reading",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Reading Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 553,
"slug": "reading",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/reading"
},
"mindshift_21437": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21437",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21437",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "direct instruction",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "direct instruction Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20709,
"slug": "direct-instruction",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/direct-instruction"
},
"mindshift_20646": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20646",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20646",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "English Language Arts",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "English Language Arts Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 19923,
"slug": "english-language-arts",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/english-language-arts"
},
"mindshift_120": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_120",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "120",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "language arts",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "language arts Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 120,
"slug": "language-arts",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/language-arts"
},
"mindshift_20943": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_20943",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "20943",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "Jo Boaler",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "Jo Boaler Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20215,
"slug": "jo-boaler",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/jo-boaler"
},
"mindshift_21541": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21541",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21541",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "test anxiety",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "test anxiety Archives - KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20813,
"slug": "test-anxiety",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/test-anxiety"
},
"mindshift_21094": {
"type": "terms",
"id": "mindshift_21094",
"meta": {
"index": "terms_1716263798",
"site": "mindshift",
"id": "21094",
"found": true
},
"relationships": {},
"featImg": null,
"name": "testing",
"description": null,
"taxonomy": "tag",
"headData": {
"twImgId": null,
"twTitle": null,
"ogTitle": null,
"ogImgId": null,
"twDescription": null,
"description": null,
"title": "testing Archives | KQED Mindshift",
"ogDescription": null
},
"ttid": 20366,
"slug": "testing",
"isLoading": false,
"link": "/mindshift/tag/testing"
}
},
"userPermissionsReducer": {
"wpLoggedIn": false
},
"eventsReducer": {},
"fssReducer": {},
"tvDailyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvWeeklyScheduleReducer": {},
"tvPrimetimeScheduleReducer": {},
"tvMonthlyScheduleReducer": {},
"userAccountReducer": {
"user": {
"email": null,
"emailStatus": "EMAIL_UNVALIDATED",
"loggedStatus": "LOGGED_OUT",
"loggingChecked": false,
"articles": [],
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"phoneNumber": null,
"fetchingMembership": false,
"membershipError": false,
"memberships": [
{
"id": null,
"startDate": null,
"firstName": null,
"lastName": null,
"familyNumber": null,
"memberNumber": null,
"memberSince": null,
"expirationDate": null,
"pfsEligible": false,
"isSustaining": false,
"membershipLevel": "Prospect",
"membershipStatus": "Non Member",
"lastGiftDate": null,
"renewalDate": null,
"lastDonationAmount": null
}
]
},
"authModal": {
"isOpen": false,
"view": "LANDING_VIEW"
},
"error": null
},
"youthMediaReducer": {},
"checkPleaseReducer": {
"filterData": {
"region": {
"key": "Restaurant Region",
"filters": [
"Any Region"
]
},
"cuisine": {
"key": "Restaurant Cuisine",
"filters": [
"Any Cuisine"
]
}
},
"restaurantDataById": {},
"restaurantIdsSorted": [],
"error": null
},
"userAgentReducer": {
"userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)",
"isBot": true
},
"requestOutcomesReducer": {
"notFound": []
},
"navPromosReducer": {
"isFetching": false,
"fetchFailed": false,
"hasFetched": true,
"promos": {
"news": {
"name": "2026 Voter Guide",
"link": "/voterguide",
"imageURL": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Nav-News-Nov2026ElectionCoverage@2x-7bd4aad4.png",
"description": "Get informed in minutes with our Voter Guide for California’s November 3 election."
},
"podcasts-radio": {},
"video-tv": {},
"events": {},
"support": {}
}
}
}
