No matter how long the conversation around early math education spins on, or how much we spend on trying to “solve” the problem, it seems like nothing ever changes – and we keep repeating the same basic themes:
1) Early Math Education is critically important
2) We are failing our kids – and slipping behind
3) We don’t know how to do better
We certainly agree with #1, and we’re not too happy about the scenario being created by #2 – but we could not disagree more with #3.
In fact, we DO know how to do better
A great deal of research has been done around early math education, and specifically in the area of Number Sense. In particular, research has demonstrated that we can go beyond improving math learning for some children to reliably deliver major improvements for virtually ANY child.
If this research had been done in 2010, then it would be fair to ask in 2013, “Why aren’t we delivering this to every child in the world?”
But the research was actually done long before 2010, and had it been successfully implemented at scale, it might well have changed the world.
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