After-School Math Programs | Helping to Improve Math Proficiency

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on

LinkedIn

Philanthropic, other organizations should consider providing financial assistance to allow programs to expand into lower-income communities

BOSTON – At a time of declining state and national math proficiency, after-school math programs offer a viable option for quickly increasing the number of mathematically competent students, according to a new Pioneer Institute study that profiles two such programs: Kumon and the Russian School of Mathematics (RSM).

“Given the disappointing state of math education in American public schools, after-school math programs could play a particularly important role,” said Ze’ev Wurman, co-author with William Donovan, of “Axioms of Excellence: Kumon and the Russian School of Mathematics.”

For the first time since 1990, fourth- and eighth-grade math scores fell on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress. They remained flat in 2017.

After rising for several years, math scores on the ACT college entrance exam have been falling since 2012. In 2018, the average math score dipped below the 1998 level. What improvement has been achieved on various tests has largely been limited to the children of highly educated parents.

Progress has also slowed in Massachusetts, where the percentage of students scoring “Below Basic” on state testing rose from 15 percent in 2015 to 19 percent in 2017.

These poor outcomes have facilitated the growth of private after-school math programs like Kumon and the Russian School of Mathematics. Japan-based Kumon celebrated its 60^th anniversary in 2018. It currently serves 4.2 million students at nearly 25,000 learning centers in 50 countries and regions. The company has 45 Massachusetts locations, 19 of which are within route 128.

Kumon students start as early as age three and can continue until they complete the program, which means mastering high school-level math, including differential equations. Students master a series of sequential worksheets, each one slightly more challenging than its predecessor.

Independent learning and building self-confidence are priorities. After completing a placement test, each student begins at a level at which she or he would have little difficulty. They proceed through the worksheets at their own pace, going to the Kumon Center twice a week and completing other work at home.

Like Kumon, Newton-based RSM, which serves 25,000 students in 40 locations across 11 states and Canada, including 15 mostly affluent Massachusetts municipalities, believes in starting students young. RSM students attend weekly classroom sessions that range between 90 minutes and 2.5 hours, depending on the student’s grade level.

Otherwise the two programs take very different approaches. While Kumon is focused on routinizing important math abilities like multiplication tables to free up working memory for more complex functions, RSM stresses abstraction and reasoning skills.

Wurman and Donovan recommend that philanthropic and other organizations consider providing financial assistance to allow after-school math programs to expand into low-income communities where they are sorely needed.

The authors also call for more active communication between teachers and after-school programs, so after-school instructors know what students worked on that day and what they will need to know to master the next lesson.

About the Authors

William Donovan is a former staff writer with The Providence Journal in Rhode Island where he wrote about business and government. He has taught business journalism in the graduate programs at Boston University and Northeastern University. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his master’s degree in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C.

Ze’ev Wurman is a senior fellow with the American Principles Project. He participated in developing California’s education standards and the state assessments in mathematics between 1995 and 2007. Between 2007 and 2009 he served as a senior policy adviser with the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education. In 2010, Wurman served on the California Academic Content Standards Commission that evaluated the suitability of the Common Core standards for California and was one of its two members who voted against their adoption. He is an executive in a semiconductor start-up company in the Silicon Valley and holds over 35 U.S. patents.

About Pioneer

Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government.

Get Our Common Core Updates

Related Posts:

A Well-Deserved Glimmer of Hope for Massachusetts Catholic Schools

0 Comments

January 28, 2020

Enrollment in Archdiocese of Boston schools has increased by about 4,000 students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combine that with a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court case that makes it easier to support the schools and it adds up to a well-deserved glimmer of hope for Catholic schools that have fallen on hard times despite their outstanding performance.

Joy Pullmann on the Fallout from Common Core

December 11, 2019

Joy Pullmann, executive editor of The Federalist, talks with The Learning Curve about the mediocre NAEP and PISA results, after a decade of the Common Core national education standards and the failed experiment with federal involvement in standards, curricula, and tests. They also discuss social emotional learning, parental involvement, and the media’s coverage of K-12 education policy issues.

When The Commonwealth Pays The Education Bill, It Should Get A School Committee Say

0 Comments

November 19, 2019

Local education officials were up in arms earlier this year when Pioneer Institute proposed giving the Commonwealth the power to appoint some school committee seats in urban districts that are mostly state-funded. It would be hard to imagine a better example of why we need to adopt that reform than the current mess in Fall River.

Jason Bedrick on Religious Freedom & Private School Autonomy

0 Comments

November 15, 2019

Bob and Cara talk with Jason Bedrick, EdChoice’s director of policy, about New York’s controversial “substantial equivalency” proposal that would give the state Department of Education oversight of school curricula at yeshivas and other private and parochial academies.

Public Statement on MA DESE Blocking Federal Funding to Religiously Affiliated Special Needs Students

November 6, 2019

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) legal office has played a key role in denying students at religious schools services funded by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for more than a decade.

NH Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut on State-Driven K-12 Reform

0 Comments

November 1, 2019

New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut joins "The Learning Curve" podcast this week, plus Bob & Cara break down the new NAEP results, and share education stories out of Denver and Detroit.

Education business ruled by teachers’ unions truly terrifying

0 Comments

October 29, 2019

This op-ed originally appeared in The Worcester Telegram &…

This Week on “The Learning Curve”: Natalie Wexler on her new book, The Knowledge Gap

0 Comments

October 4, 2019

Bob & Cara talk with Natalie Wexler, author of "The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–And How to Fix It," about the shift in K-12 education, even in the Common Core era, from an emphasis on academic content to empty skills and strategies.

VIDEO: Making a Difference Through METCO

October 1, 2019

A new video about the METCO program centers around the friendship between two Wayland High School students; one who lives in Wayland and the other from Boston. It also features interviews with METCO CEO Milly Arbaje-Thomas and Mabel Reid-Wallace, Director of Wayland's METCO program.

Dimming the state’s literary light

0 Comments

September 27, 2019

September marks Johnson’s 310th birthday. His A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) used 114,000 timeless quotations to help define 42,000 words, making it among the most famous dictionaries in human history.

Pioneer Institute Files Updated Amicus Brief in Potentially Landmark School Choice Case Currently before U.S. Supreme Court

0 Comments

September 23, 2019

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s June decision…

Press Release: Choice Media, Pioneer Institute, and Ricochet Announce New Education Podcast

September 6, 2019

“The Learning Curve” to feature Bob Bowdon, Cara Candal,…

Tackling equity at Boston’s exam schools

0 Comments

August 5, 2019

By Jim Stergios August 2, 2019 This spring, The New York Times…

Melville readies students for rough seas ahead

0 Comments

July 31, 2019

Read this op-ed in The Berkshire Eagle, The Salem News, and The…

The Supreme Court Is Set To Decide Whether Religious Kids Are Allowed A Good Education

0 Comments

July 19, 2019

Thanks to Kendra Espinoza, a determined Montana mom, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up and hopefully strike down the infamous legacy of state Know-Nothing and Blaine amendments. From Massachusetts to Michigan and across the nation, this case has the potential to overturn a century and a half of state constitutional discrimination against religious families and their quest for the most suitable and effective education for their children.