Two Roads to Calculus
A new working paper from economists David Card and Laura Giuliano studied a program in a large Florida district that let students scoring above roughly the 80th percentile in 5th grade move two years ahead in math.
Where You Live Shapes Your AP STEM Options
Whether or not your local high school offers advanced STEM courses depends quite a bit on where the school is located.
Nikole Hannah-Jones and the Warning Signs She Missed
This week’s must-read is a long NY Times essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones about her daughter’s experience in NYC public schools.
It’s Not the AI Tutor. It’s The Practice That Counts.
A large randomized evaluation of AI tutoring in U.S. public schools set out to test Khan Academy’s AI tutor, Khanmigo. But the study’s most interesting finding is about the power of well-structured practice.
Why Pediatricians Should Prescribe Math Games
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has long given new parents a simple prescription for literacy: read aloud to your children to help them learn language and literacy skills.
With One Weird Trick, Texas Doubled Advanced Math Access
In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed its version of an automatic enrollment policy.
NAEP Long-Term Trend Results Reveal Progress and Gaps in Math
According to newly released numbers, 2.8 million U.S. students are not enrolled in Algebra I by 8th grade.
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.
Khan Academy drives math gains in Newark, NJ
A recent mini-study looked at what happened after a subset of schools in Newark, New Jersey adopted Khan Academy as a supplemental math tool.
The Rise and Fall of Homework
Did your kids have any homework last night?
When asked on a set of longitudinal surveys from the National Center for Education Statistics, slightly more than one-third of all 9- and 13-year-olds reported they had no homework.
Let’s Be Honest About the Math Gap in Texas
Earlier this month we released a new analysis highlighting the “Graduation Gap.” It turns out that many states have enormous gaps between the percentage of students who score proficient in high school math versus those who are able to earn a diploma.
How Big Is Your State’s “Graduation Gap?”
In the Boston Globe last week, I had an op-ed about what I call the “graduation gap” in Massachusetts. Nearly nine out of ten students earn a high school diploma, while less than half of the state’s 10th graders are proficient in math.