Early Math Learning and Assessment Software for Students and Teachers

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project addresses a growing national problem: the poor performance of American K-12 students on national and international comparisons of mathematics learning. Although the test scores of U.S. students tend to deteriorate over time, the problems of American math education can be traced back to the elementary grades. All too many students in the early elementary grades learn only two facts about math: (1) they hate it, and (2) they are not very good at it. Their teachers, for the most part, are generalists who learned the same painful lesson when they were in school. The enormous progress made in recent years in early math education research has little effect on these teachers. We propose to put that research into practice by creating engaging computer-based math activities for students, using them in the classroom both to promote learning and to assess learning gains, and linking these assessments to a hand-held PDA that teachers will use to guide their work with students. Observations made by the teacher will in turn be linked back to the student software and used to sequence and configure additional math activities. To carry out the project, Educational Network Services (ENS) has brought together a symbiotic team, with collaborators from Wireless Generation (WG) and Columbia Teachers College. The student activities will be based on "Numbles", a playful mathematical environment developed by ENS that can be scripted and used to pose challenges to students and guide them through the problem-solving process. A prototype of the Numbles software has already been piloted with 15 pre-school children and found to be engaging and provocative of mathematical thinking. In the proposed project we will carry this work forward to create playful math activities suitable for students in Kindergarten and first and second grades. We will evaluate these activities in three schools, two suburban and one urban, located in Massachusetts and New York City. In collaboration with colleagues from WG, we will link our Numbles activities to WG's m- CLASS:Math diagnostic software. This project will place the results of scientifically based early math education research at the service of classroom teachers, while evaluating the feasibility of creating an innovative and successful commercial product. Project Narrative: In the words of the President's National Mathematics Advisory Panel, "There is a growing national concern about the mathematical proficiency of young people... Present evidence strongly suggests that the United States is not renewing its workforce with adequate rigor and foresight." (Panel 2007). This project will address that challenge with a unique blend of technologies aimed at helping students learn, and teachers teach, fundamental mathematical concepts in the early elementary grades.