Checking In: Are Math Assignments Measuring Up?

New York

EdTrust–New York is a statewide education policy and advocacy organization focused first and foremost on doing right by New York’s children. Although many organizations speak up for the adults employed by schools and colleges, we advocate for students, especially those whose needs and potential are often overlooked.

West

EdTrust–West is committed to dismantling the racial and economic barriers embedded in the California education system. Through our research and advocacy, EdTrust-West engages diverse communities dedicated to education equity and justice and increases political and public will to build an education system where students of color and multilingual learners, especially those experiencing poverty, will thrive.

Massachusetts

The Education Trust team in Massachusetts convenes and supports the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership (MEEP), a collective effort of more than 20 social justice, civil rights and education organizations from across the Commonwealth working together to promote educational equity for historically underserved students in our state’s schools.

P-12

Checking In: Are Math Assignments Measuring Up?

Nearly every state includes measures of college- and career-readiness in their accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act,…

April 05, 2018 by Keith Dysarz

Nearly every state includes measures of college- and career-readiness in their accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the quality of classroom assignments can help gauge whether students are being prepared for success beyond high school.

What is Equity In Motion?

In this series, we look at how issues or equity are playing out in the daily activities of schools and educators. Specifically, do classroom assignments reflect the more rigorous standards for college- and career-readiness?

What did we do?

In Checking In: Are Math Assignments Measuring Up?, we examined more than 1,800 math assignments given to middle-school students from six districts — urban, suburban, and rural — across the country. Assignments were collected from 63 sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade teachers teaching math courses, ranging from math 6 through geometry.

Download Infographic

What did we find?

Unfortunately, our analysis revealed that although roughly three-fourths of all assignments at least partially aligned to the grade- or course-appropriate math content, they also tended to:

Have low cognitive demand
Over-emphasize procedural skills and fluency
Provide little opportunity for students to communicate their mathematical thinking

And this tendency was often worse in higher poverty schools.

Download Report

How did we do it?

In order to analyze assignments from different classrooms, schools, and districts, we developed an analysis framework with five components:

Math Assignment Analysis Guide

Who We Are

Midwest

New York

Tennessee

West

Louisiana

Texas

Washington

Massachusetts