The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this month that it will be pouring $1.1 billion over the next four years into improving math teaching and learning, the start of what could be a decade-long investment in math education.
The timing is resonant: Results from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that student performance in math cratered, erasing two decades of progress.
The foundation has been conducting a yearlong listening tour, reaching out to educators, researchers, and communities, and has pledged to continue doing so. (The Gates foundation provides sustaining support to Editorial Projects in Education, the publisher of Education Week. The media organization retains sole editorial control over its articles.)
How would veteran math teachers, district leaders, and principals spend $1.1 billion to strengthen math instruction, if it were totally up to them?
Here鈥檚 what they said:
Robbi Berry, elementary school teacher in Las Cruces, N.M.,
Wants: Materials for inquiry-based math instruction.
Berry is a proponent of using real-world problem solving to teach math. 鈥淭he focus really should be inquiry based hands-on, with kids questioning and doing. That鈥檚 how they learn, not memorizing rote procedures and just practicing step one, step two, etcetera,鈥� Berry said in an email. 鈥淚鈥檓 not saying we don鈥檛 do practice for procedure and fluency, but there needs to be a balance.鈥�
She would love to see the money go toward 鈥渢ools that allow students to do hands-on math via project-based learning. Sadly, there are schools that don鈥檛 even have manipulatives. Which is a significant headwind to both individual learning and community equity.鈥�
Donna Hayward, principal of Haddam-Killingworth High School in Higganum, Conn.
Wants: Math intervention specialists and professional development.
鈥淢y answer is really more, more instructional staff and specifically, trained instructional staff,鈥� Hayward said.
Her reasoning: Unlike in most other subjects, math requires students to be developmentally ready to tackle certain concepts, she said. Because students develop at different rates, one 8th grader could dive into abstract concepts and algebra, while another may need to wait until 10th grade to tackle those skills, she explained.
Trained intervention specialists with a background in math and special education could target 鈥淸students] when they鈥檙e ready鈥� to learn a particular concept, Hayward said. Such specialists could also fill in the gaps in students鈥� knowledge because 鈥渆ven if their brain has developed to the point that they can understand an abstract concept, if they don鈥檛 have all the prerequisite knowledge, they鈥檙e not going to get it. They just don鈥檛 have a foundation on which to build it.鈥�
She would also provide 鈥渞eal, targeted professional development for all teachers. 鈥� Who doesn鈥檛 need new tools in their toolbox?鈥�
Latrenda Knighten, a mathematics instructional coach in Baton Rouge, La.
Wants: Ongoing support for teachers.
Knighten likes the idea of grounding teachers in engaging, research-based math instruction. But that professional development can鈥檛 be a one-time thing, she said.
鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 teach something to kids just one time and expect them to be an expert,鈥� she said. It鈥檚 the same with teachers. 鈥淵ou go back, you practice, and you practice.鈥� She would create communities of educators who could learn together, reflect on their work, swap ideas. And she鈥檇 add coaches: 鈥淣ot just a generic coach, a math instructional coach, someone who is grounded in those practices that you want to see in the classroom.鈥�
Teachers would really benefit from having 鈥渂oots on the ground support鈥濃�攕omeone who could help them troubleshoot or teach a demonstration lesson, Knighten said. 鈥淲e have to train a cadre of teachers so that they feel comfortable that they鈥檙e able to provide instruction based on the best practices we鈥檝e known for years.鈥�
David Schexnaydre, principal of Harry Hurst Middle School in Destrehan, La.
Wants: Instructional materials, curriculum, professional development, all vetted by educators.
Schexnaydre said he would create materials, professional development, and curriculum, getting input from teachers and administrators at every point in the process.
鈥淥bviously, you need engaging lessons. You need a strong curriculum. Kids want to be able to apply their learning to real-life situations, which I think is probably one of the weaknesses of some our math [materials] right now. Like, how often does the kid ever have to go outside and find X?鈥� he said, referring to variables in an algebraic equation.
But teacher training will be key, he added. 鈥淚t really comes down to the type of embedded, ongoing high-quality professional development we give teachers so that they鈥檙e able to do this at a good level and really build the conceptual understanding for [students.]鈥�
Bobson Wong, New York City math teacher
Wants: Smaller classes and resources for teachers to do the administrative parts of their job so they can focus on instruction.
Wong would like more-effective tools to help with tasks that take his focus away from teaching. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have grading or attendance software that really works for me, because it鈥檚 not built for teachers. I don鈥檛 have the ability to send text messages to parents and have them respond to me on their cellphones. The platforms that are out there are really not very good. And they鈥檙e really not designed for teachers.鈥� He鈥檚 also interested in software to help students get more practice with math concepts.
The other big thing on his wish list? Reducing class size. Wong has 鈥�34 students in a class for five classes a day,鈥� and just 45 minutes a day to prepare his lessons, he said. 鈥淚f I had 15 kids in that room, I could do so much more.鈥�
