Math Materials Lag Behind ELA Options in Terms of Quality, Analysis Finds
More than one in four of the K-12 math materials reviewed by the nonprofit EdReports do not meet the organization’s expectations when it comes to rigor, support for students, and usefulness to classroom educators, a new review found.
Twenty-seven percent of math resources fail to meet the organization’s benchmarks, according its recently released State of the Instructional Materials Market, which summarizes its data around the use of K-12 materials last year.
That puts the critical core subject behind English/language arts, where just 15 percent of materials failed to reach the standard. For ELA, EdReports looks at whether a product follows research-based practices and provides adequate implementation, support materials, and assessments.
In math, the nonprofit scores materials based on focus and coherence, rigor and mathematical practices, and usability, for each grade level. Its review considers whether resources align with the Common Core state standards, evaluate student progress, and “make meaningful connections” between standards around content and those focused on practice.
EdReports’ analysis comes at a time when districts are under immense pressure to make up for pandemic-era academic learning loss, especially in the critical subjects of math and reading.
It also comes as school districts are preparing to adjust to the loss of federal stimulus funding, much of which school districts have devoted to helping students rebuild academically. School districts face major questions about which of those academic-recovery programs to keep or discontinue.
And it’s a particularly critical moment for math, as the industry prepares for a big season of math materials adoptions, with policymakers in three large markets — California, Texas, and Florida — gearing up to refresh their approved programming in the next few years.
Math materials have long trailed those in ELA in terms in terms of where school districts put their money first, said Jeff Livingston, founder of the K-12 market intelligence nonprofit The Center for Education Market Dynamics, which has also released reports following the shifts, quality, and uptake of math curriculum, especially in K-8.
Reading instruction is the “800-pound gorilla” in the curriculum market, making up most sales, Livingston said. But math is coming into the spotlight next, he predicts.
“It is true that there’s more [well-aligned] ELA than math, but I think math is about to catch up,” he said. “Math, especially elementary math, is a close second, and the time to do that [investment] is now. And everybody is working on a program.”
A Shift in Math Instruction
Overall, the EdReports analysis shows that more districts are purchasing — and more educators are actually using — materials that meet its definition of quality compared to its usage data from 2019.
More than half of the ELA materials reviewed in 2022, 53 percent, are considered aligned, EdReports found. And 48 percent of math materials meet the same bar.
“It’s nice to see that things are trending in the right direction, and there are lots more options that districts have,” said Courtney Allison, EdReports chief academic officer. “But there’s also a still a lot of room for improvement, specifically in math.”
We’ve been really trying to shift in the last 10-15 years, really honing in on that math needs to be problem-solving. It needs to be the reasoning, the sense-making, the understanding of the concepts.Kevin Dykema, President, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
As the general standards of best practice in K-12 instruction has moved toward bringing more balance to the emphasis put on procedural skill and fluency, conceptual understanding, and application, it’s taken materials providers time to catch up, said Tim Truitt, Managing Director of STEM for EdReports.
“Publishers and authors have been responding to that [shift],” he said. “It’s just taken a while for those materials to be created and make their way into the market.”
Student Collaboration
What teachers are looking for today are math resources that encourage collaboration among students, make connections across topics or concepts, and allow students to make sense of the mathematics, said Kevin Dykema, president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
“For decades and decades and decades, we’ve [learned] math by just memorizing a bunch of formulas, and that has not been successful for students, and for adults,” he said. “We’ve been really trying to shift in the last 10-15 years, really honing in on that math needs to be problem solving. It needs to be the reasoning, the sense-making, the understanding of the concepts.”
Additionally, just as important as having access to aligned materials is the professional development that vendors and districts pair with them, Dykema emphasized. If materials aren’t being used appropriately, then whether or not they are aligned is moot.
“Sometimes we get so focused on high-quality resources,” he said. “But how are we implementing those high-quality resources? And are we providing the teachers the tools and the support that they need to make the necessary changes in their instruction to better meet the needs of students?”