A recent report from BEST NC and Watershed Advisors digs into math gaps and what it calls “implementation chain” problems. While the report is focused on North Carolina, it offers a helpful roadmap for any policymaker looking to improve math outcomes in their state.
Namely, the authors point to a number of issues with mathematics instruction today, including uneven access to high-quality instructional materials, inconsistent teacher preparation and support, and a lack of common expectations for students.
These issues flow downstream to affect teachers and students. They authors found that:
Data indicated that many K-5 teachers rely heavily on teacher-created materials or unvetted resources from online sources rather than on coherent, standards-aligned instructional materials. While these resources are often selected with good intentions, their use results in fragmented instructional sequences, inconsistent representations of mathematical concepts, and limited opportunities for students to build understanding across grade levels. Without a shared foundation of common resources, instruction frequently emphasizes procedures over reasoning, limiting students’ opportunities to engage in activities related to conceptual understanding, problem solving skills, and mathematical discourse.
Moreover, those issues compound over time and help explain the instructional gaps the state is seeing in its math scores:
Teachers consistently reported that this lack of coherence leads to student misconceptions. When concepts are introduced inconsistently or without a clear progression, students may appear to succeed procedurally while lacking deep understanding. As these gaps accumulate, students enter later grades with unfinished learning that is difficult to build upon.
The end result of these instructional problems is that, like many other states, North Carolina has a problem with early math gaps that grow over time. When I looked at the data for 2024, I found that 41% of North Carolina’s third graders were proficient in math. By the end of middle school, less than one in three students met grade-level standards in math. The trends were even worse for low-income, Black, and Hispanic students.
But why is this happening? And what can be done about it?
The report dives much deeper into the implementation chain and how policymakers can make sure they pay attention to the tricky details of execution. Essentially, for policymakers to drive gains in student performance, they need to carefully articulate what it is that students need to receive from their classroom instruction, and then to follow that chain back to what different actors in the chain need to deliver on that promise.
Read more about the implementation chain and how policymakers can fix their math gaps here.
North Carolina Has An Implementation Plan to Address Math Gaps
A recent report from BEST NC and Watershed Advisors digs into math gaps and what it calls “implementation chain” problems. While the report is focused on North Carolina, it offers a helpful roadmap for any policymaker looking to improve math outcomes in their state.
Namely, the authors point to a number of issues with mathematics instruction today, including uneven access to high-quality instructional materials, inconsistent teacher preparation and support, and a lack of common expectations for students.
These issues flow downstream to affect teachers and students. They authors found that:
Moreover, those issues compound over time and help explain the instructional gaps the state is seeing in its math scores:
The end result of these instructional problems is that, like many other states, North Carolina has a problem with early math gaps that grow over time. When I looked at the data for 2024, I found that 41% of North Carolina’s third graders were proficient in math. By the end of middle school, less than one in three students met grade-level standards in math. The trends were even worse for low-income, Black, and Hispanic students.
But why is this happening? And what can be done about it?
The report dives much deeper into the implementation chain and how policymakers can make sure they pay attention to the tricky details of execution. Essentially, for policymakers to drive gains in student performance, they need to carefully articulate what it is that students need to receive from their classroom instruction, and then to follow that chain back to what different actors in the chain need to deliver on that promise.
Read more about the implementation chain and how policymakers can fix their math gaps here.
Josh Parrish
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