Bringing up math scores

I am surprised as anyone else that, as an English teacher, I am running a bill about math and the necessity that students understand it.

But that is exactly what’s happening.

I introduced House Bill 23-1231 last week with Rep. Rose Pugliese, of El Paso County. Together, we are addressing the falling math test scores of Colorado students with a targeted grant program. The bill passed the Education Committee with a unanimous vote.

The three-year grants are optional, focusing on: students who are struggling after missing a couple of years of math during the pandemic; schools and districts that have several years of low math test scores; students getting ready for middle or high school; and pre-K students who need to learn numeracy.

We are doing this with a train-the-trainer system, training a few people to teach math who can reach out to more people to teach math. Eventually, many people will have the skills to help students thrive, and the training benefits will continue for years to come.

Research shows that elementary teachers often do not necessarily like mathematics and hesitate to make math their priority. We also know when students miss a year of math, the next year is more difficult, which makes the year after that even worse. Students begin to feel inadequate, and learn to hate math. That needs to change.

The trainings will be offered in person or online, giving rural schools the same opportunity as urban ones.

Next, we offer to train parents. During the pandemic, many parents said they had trouble helping their children with math. This bill gives them the opportunity to learn what their students are learning, from word problems to complex calculations. They will have access to the evidence-informed curricula their schools are using.

For the first time, we will also train after-school programs, where educators help students with homework. Groups like Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs offer affordable after-school tutoring, and local groups will be working with their school districts to make sure students are getting the help they need.

This program also offers digital math accelerators for K-8, with online opportunities aligning individual work with state math standards. This is for students who work better on their own, who may only need to focus on one or two concepts, or who don’t have access to tutoring. The state will share the program to every interested student.

We also will train future teachers of elementary or math-focused classes and will train preschool teachers how to teach numeracy, guiding our youngest students toward understanding math concepts.

CDE will publish a list of evidence-informed curricula for schools to consider. Ninth-graders will have access to specific interventions, and schools that have fallen behind will have extra math help. 

The bill will reach about 36,000 educators and 3,000 teachers-in-training. Some 51 districts and 523 schools will be targeted and about 50,000 students will have meaningful after-school tutoring, setting up students for success.

– Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango