Giving Compass' Take:

• In this story from The Hechinger Report, author Pamela Burdman discusses why most American students experience math anxiety and how our education system might change to stop this.

• Math anxiety often persists well into adulthood. What steps can parents and educators take to set a positive course early on?

• To learn more about how to support equal opportunity in education, click here.

Despite improvements in recent years, large numbers of students still score poorly on tests of mathematical skills and understanding. But more concerning — and perhaps even at the root of poor math performance — are the negative experiences that too many students have. Reasons given by teens to stop pursuing math include statements like “I despise the way it is taught” and “I have no confidence.” According to surveys, the majority of Americans dislike and fear math.

Research shows that math anxiety is prevalent, and the effects of this can linger long after students finish school, interfering with their ability to use quantitative reasoning in their professional and civic lives. What’s more, there is evidence that even those students who succeed in math classes don’t necessarily develop the skills they most need. The math taught in high schools often doesn’t align with the needs of many fields or the expectations of many colleges.

[E]ffective classroom instruction must be grounded in the assumption that all students can learn math. Changing these approaches also means rethinking the way we measure student learning. Timed tests that rank students contribute to an overemphasis on speed and are better designed for sorting students than for providing feedback and opportunities to learn.

Traditional math practices that emphasize pedigree over preparation reinforce inequities and subtly — but decisively — alter the purpose of math and math education.

Replacing such approaches with new ways of preparing and evaluating students may not be easy. But it is a needed step to help ensure that more students actually cultivate mathematical literacy and have the positive “aftermath” they deserve.

Read the full article about math education by Pamela Burdman at The Hechinger Report.