About one-third of Massachusetts K-12 parents are concerned with their child’s math progress in school this year, a new poll finds.
Only about half said their child is doing well in mathematics, while one in three said their child is just “doing OK,” according to a survey of parents by the EdTrust and MassINC Polling Group . Fewer than 1 in 10 said their child is “not doing well.”
The poll, which surveyed about 1,500 parents in the late fall, found even lower parent ratings of their child’s math progress among lower-income families — those who earn below $50,000 in a year.
And unlike those families, they are less able to afford tutors and pricey extracurricular math programs like Russian School of Math.
Experts say poorer performance may be driven by students missing a significant number of school days and struggles to hire teachers.
“A critical point is that schools are really struggling right now to recruit and retain highly qualified educators,” said Jennie Williamson, state director of the EdTrust in Massachusetts. “We’re seeing teacher turnover as being a huge problem that our districts are facing, and that obviously impacts the quality of education that they can provide our students.”
Salem Public Schools Superintendent Stephen Zrike, on a panel to discuss the poll’s findings Thursday, said he’s seen the challenges around math instruction in his district.
The pandemic left students with “a lot of unfinished learning and gaps — especially in mathematics,” he said.
He said the district has also seen a lot of churn in math educators at the middle- and high-school levels. Coaching programs for new math teachers are helping, he said, as well as utilizing a better math curriculum. The district is also working with a nonprofit to ensure it offers linguistically appropriate and culturally affirming instruction.
“This work is really hard, so I wouldn’t say that we’ve got it figured out,” he added. “We’re on a learning journey like everybody else.”
Andrea Wolfe, CEO of MassInsight, an education research and advocacy group, pulled out one finding: many students had not been taught algebra by eighth grade.
Research has shown that algebra is key educational milestone , she said, and linked to students’ long-term academic success and college-readiness. She noted that 43% of white families said their student took Algebra 1 in eighth grade, compared to fewer than a third of Black and Latino families.
“I think that that is a critical area for us as a state to really address,” Wolfe said on a panel to discuss the poll results Thursday.
Russell D. Johnston, acting commissioner at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said at Thursday’s event that Massachusetts students’ math scores have generally remained flat since the pandemic, linking the problem to student attendance.
One in five students in Massachusetts schools is chronically absent, or has missed more than 10% — 18 days — of school in an academic year, he said. State data shows that figure was closer to 13% before the pandemic.
“That’s definitely affecting their math performance,” he said, noting that 10th graders who attend school are much more likely to do better on standardized tests.
“That just shows us the power of presence, the power of being in school,” he said.
Exactly how well students are performing will be clearer later this month when the National Center for Education Statistics releases the “Nation’s Report Card.” Its annual report delves into fourth and eighth grade students in school districts across the United States.
Among the EdTrust poll findings:
- One-third of parents (33%) say they have sought additional math support outside of school;
- Parents of multilingual learners (61%), parents of students with an individualized education program (IEP) (48%), and parents of students with dyslexia (61%) are more likely to say they seek external support to help bolster their child’s math education;
- A majority of Massachusetts middle schoolers do not learn algebra by eighth grade;
- About half of parents say their middle school child is interested in a STEM career.
