Math scores improved on Florida standardized tests this year, but a team of researchers say we still need to do better as a state at teaching math.
Over the course of 10 weeks, University of Florida researchers met with students, parents, teachers and leaders as part of a statewide listening tour.
Their goal? Figure out how to improve math education in the state by holding 100 focus groups with 500 participants.
The Lastinger Center for Learning’s Zandra de Araujo said the best practices boiled down to two main ones, starting with offering more professional development for math teachers.
“And what we found across the state is that teachers are hungry for really deep learning and knowledge in mathematics, there's new research that comes out about teaching practices and methods, and teachers really want to know how to best reach kids right now, post-pandemic in our current technological world,” de Araujo said.
The second recommendation: the state needs to do more to improve math literacy, by providing kids and parents the tools they need to practice at home, almost like with English Language Arts (ELA) literacy.
“The other one is we heard so much across the state about literacy, and how much support there is in the state for literacy. And so figuring out ways to build similar infrastructure in mathematics is a really big key takeaway that we had as well,” de Araujo said.
“We have the New Worlds Reading initiative. We send books to kids. We do teacher professional learning. We have regional literacy folks who help teachers across the state. But we don't have the same infrastructure in mathematics yet. And so I think that's another opportunity that we learned from the listening tour.”
Other recommendations the group made include:
- Provide resources that emphasize the relevance of mathematics to students
- Establish credentialing for mathematics teachers, including:
- mathematics micro-credential
- mathematics endorsement
- mathematics coach endorsement
- Offer a stipend or salary increase to incentivize teachers going into math education in K-12 schools
- Establish a state mathematics office
- Create state regional mathematics directors
- Fund district and school-based mathematics coaches
Overall, in the state this year, student scores rose by about 4% on the math section of statewide standardized tests, with 55% of students scoring at or above grade level.
That still leaves 45% of students who are falling behind in math in the state.
Read all five research briefs, which go more in-depth into the recommendations here.
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