We know the struggle with mathematics—for both teachers and students—all too well. Students’ math scores, as per the “Nation’s Report Card,” have plunged to record lows. Misconceptions in early grades ...

Suggested Citation: "How Does School Mathematics Need to Change for All Students to Become Mathematically Proficient?." National Research Council. 2002. Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Washington, ...

What's the best way for children to learn arithmetic—memorizing number values and multiplication tables, or studying math at a deeper, conceptual level? Educators have long debated the merits of these ...

One of the joys of being an educator is embracing all the differences every student brings to the classroom, while teaching them to celebrate those unique traits in themselves and each other. Yet, ...

It’s a question that high school and middle school math teachers have heard many times. Some educators think it’s because math instruction is stuck in a rut. Procedural, boring and, in some cases, ...

Isabel Becerra is the sheltered-instruction facilitator for the multilingual programs department in the Garland ISD in Texas. She was born in Bolivia and has been an educator since 1992. She is a ...

In mathematics education, we have long relied on a familiar sequence: introduce vocabulary, demonstrate procedures, and assign practice. For some students, this works well enough. But for many ...

The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress just painted a dismal picture of math performance in America’s schools, continuing to show more than a decade of stagnation.

It's an old joke that there are three kinds of people in the world: those who are good at math and those who aren't. Tanya Evans, an associate professor in the School of Education and Human ...

Imagine a classroom full of bright young students, all striving to do their best on a high school math test. They sit, heads slightly bowed, pencils ready, each one thinking about how to tackle each ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Linda Darling-Hammond is an expert on education research and policy. This blog was updated on June 24, 2026 to clarify a statistic ...

Our analyses of the mathematics to be learned, our reading of the research in cognitive psychology and mathematics education, our experience as learners and teachers of mathematics, and our ...