Establishing and Sustaining an Effective Pre-Kindergarten Math Intervention at Scale

Educators are increasingly concerned about the low level of mathematics performance of U.S. students on the TIMSS and other international assessments of mathematics (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008) as well as their insufficient preparation for mathematics standards, such as the Common Core State Standards. Students from low-income and minority backgrounds demonstrate lower levels of mathematics achievement than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds, and there is compelling evidence that this SES-related achievement gap in mathematics emerges prior to school entry. It is also known from a recent meta-analysis of several large longitudinal studies that children's mathematics knowledge in kindergarten is the strongest predictor of their later school achievement--stronger than early literacy knowledge, attention skills, or socioemotional development. If this gap is not addressed early, it persists and increases over time. Thus, it is clear that the acquisition of early mathematics knowledge by all children must be a major educational priority. To address this educational priority, the authors' research group has developed an early mathematics intervention, "Pre-K Mathematics." With collaborators, the authors have rigorously evaluated it over multiple studies and have found it to be highly effective at improving mathematical knowledge in economically disadvantaged pre-kindergarten children relative to a control group.