New Math Toolkit Aims To Enhance Equity In Math Instruction, Prepare Students For A World Where Numbers Matter
New Math Toolkit Aims to Enhance Equity in Math Instruction, Prepare Students for a World Where Numbers Matter
In the darkest way possible, this year has been exceptional in terms of numbers. The COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent social, political, and economic crises have generated vast amounts of complex and ever-changing information. As a nation, we are confronted with significant collective dangers, and deciphering the data to discern real threats from distractions, and truths from falsehoods, has proven challenging.
Now more than ever, it is evident that numeracy, or the ability to understand and work with numbers, is an essential skill for citizens in a democracy. While it is necessary to improve civic education and equip future citizens with strong critical reading skills, these alone are insufficient for full participation in modern democracy. In matters of great political importance, such as public health, mathematical skills are regularly crucial in interpreting persuasive language and rhetoric.
Unfortunately, like many other crucial components of the U.S. education system, access to high-quality and rigorous math instruction is severely unequal. Children of color, those from low-income backgrounds, and English-language learners often face systematic barriers that hinder their development of critical math skills. Biases against students of color and their families often result in low academic expectations and ineffective teaching methods. Assumptions by educators about the relationship between language learning and academic development also limit English learners’ access to comprehensive math instruction in schools.
To address these significant gaps, The Education Trust-West brought together educators, researchers (including myself), and advocates over the summer to create a Math Equity Toolkit. This toolkit, released on September 9th, provides resources to assist math teachers in developing lessons and activities that promote math learning and support English language development. It also includes a workbook to help teachers recognize and challenge racist mindsets and behaviors in their schools and classrooms. The toolkit offers resources for structuring lessons, fostering social and emotional learning in math classrooms, and much more.
The toolkit’s segment for English learners focuses on identifying key math content that is critical to success in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. It then provides teachers with examples of how to use this content to facilitate equitable language development for students. For instance, the toolkit highlights a 6th-grade math standard that requires students to understand and use ratios to describe the relationship between two quantities. It offers examples of how teachers can use ratio lessons to foster language development for English learners and identifies common misconceptions that students may have.
In a time when basic scientific data regarding the spread of COVID-19 and methods to combat it are surprisingly controversial, math skills become essential tools for holding those in power accountable. Additionally, given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color, math skills can also serve as critical tools for self-defense.
During an interview in August, President Trump claimed that his administration’s response to the pandemic had been successful because only 3.3 percent of Americans who contracted COVID-19 had died at that point, a lower rate compared to other countries. However, the interviewer, Jonathan Swan from Axios, argued that this was a misleading way to discuss the pandemic and pointed out that there had been 48 COVID-related deaths per 100,000 Americans (which increased to 73 deaths per 100,000 Americans by November 11th). This places the United States among the worst-hit countries.
Both statistics are true in terms of accurate calculations. However, determining which statistic offers a better representation of our national pandemic context and how it should influence our thinking and response to COVID-19 requires the ability to evaluate and contextualize statistical information. It necessitates an awareness that each percentage is a ratio, whether it be deaths over cases or deaths over population. It also requires a curious mind that questions the sources of the data behind these variables: are the case numbers reliable? Are there additional data, measurements, or context that could provide a clearer understanding of these pandemic statistics? In essence, it requires a mindset comfortable with mathematical reasoning.
Receive stories similar to these directly to your email by subscribing to newsletter. Sign up now for Newsletter.
