Governors Put Math Back at the Center of Education – Inside Sources

A half-dozen governors are putting math where it belongs — at the top of the education agenda.

They are asking the American Academy of Pediatrics to use their bully pulpit to advocate for greater focus on numeracy for young children by empowering parents with guidance and tools.

“As governors committed to the long-term success and well-being of America’s children, we call upon our nation’s leading public-health and pediatric authorities to help families embrace simple, accessible tools for early learning,” they wrote.

Governors from Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and Rhode Island are seeking to overcome a longstanding and growing chasm in math education. Namely, that for too long the United States has treated math as something students either “get” or do not, rather than a skill that educators alone must build early in all students.

Math is not just another subject. It is a gateway skill. When that gate closes early in a child’s educational career, opportunity closes with it.

Research on early learning has found that young children’s math development is one of the strongest predictors of later success. The lesson is that waiting until middle school to worry about math is like waiting until high school to teach children to read.

The governors are not suggesting that homes should be turned into math boot camps. Rather, they are pushing America’s leading pediatric experts to issue guidance for families on incorporating appropriate, enjoyable ways of developing numeracy from a young age.

They want numeracy to be treated as vital as literacy. And it is not. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, recommends regularly reading aloud to young children to build the foundation for literacy but is silent on building early mathematical thinking, from number sense to spatial awareness to foundational logic.

“Much like daily reading supports literacy, regular numeracy play nurtures a child’s comfort with numbers and problem-solving, yet there is currently no clear national guidance encouraging families to make it a routine part of everyday life,” the governors said.

Effective early math is playful and practical. It is children counting steps, comparing sizes, sorting objects, noticing patterns and using numbers to make sense of the world. Parents do not need advanced degrees to talk about numbers at the grocery store, shapes on the playground or patterns on the walk to school.

The case for early numeracy is as much economic as it is educational. Students who can interpret charts, estimate costs, understand risk, use measurement and reason quantitatively have more career choices. Students who never gain confidence with numbers have fewer.

That’s because math is not just for engineers and accountants but runs through nearly every career. It is foundational to healthcare, advanced manufacturing, logistics, public safety, finance, construction, data analysis and small business ownership.

A child who enters kindergarten with strong number sense is more likely to thrive in elementary math. A student who masters elementary concepts is better prepared for fractions and algebra. A teenager who succeeds in algebra has greater access to advanced coursework, career and technical pathways, college classes and credentials. A young adult armed with math confidence is better prepared for jobs requiring problem-solving and data-informed decisions — careers the Bureau of Labor Statistics says will be the fastest-growing jobs over the next decade.

The latest data underscores the urgency. The most recent reports from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, considered the nation’s report card, show that eighth-grade math scores remained eight points below 2019 levels, with only 28 percent of eighth-graders reaching “proficient” status and 39 percent scoring below “basic” level.

The picture is even more troubling at the end of high school — the scores of 12th graders fell to their lowest in two decades, with 45 percent of students below “basic” level and only 22 percent reaching “proficient” status with math concepts.

America’s math challenge will not be solved by any one institution. It requires steady, evidence-based work that begins at the earliest ages and gives families, educators and pediatricians each a clear role. The press by the governors is vital and long overdue.