“Inch by inch, it’s a cinch.”

Math skills are critical to young people’s success in everyday life. But many K-12 students still struggle to learn the math they need for bright futures.

While this picture can be discouraging, there’s a significant reason for hope.

Across the country, visionary districts and communities are seeing real results in K-12 math achievement from taking coherent, focused approaches to strengthening math practices. On a recent webinar called “Fostering Math Momentum,” Aneka Bruce, Andrea “Fitz “ Fitzgerald, LeAnita Garner, and George Werres reflect on what works and where leaders should focus their math investments in the years ahead. They highlight lessons learned from deeply contextualized partnerships in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Charleston County School District, Chicago Public Schools, and Summit Public Schools.

Reflecting on several years of sustained progress in Charleston, Fitz summarized, “Inch by inch is a cinch.” Consistent, deep effort fuels momentum.

⚡ We know you’re busy, so this recap highlights key takeaways from the conversation! Watch the full recording at the end of the article.

Cultivating a Mathematician’s Mindset: Beliefs and Capabilities Matter

How students see themselves in mathematics directly relates to their future educational and career aspirations. But today, too few Americans finish school feeling capable of learning advanced math and using it in their lives.

According to findings from Math Moves, a recent Gallup and the Gates Foundation study, 95% of Americans see math skills as crucial for work, but a staggering 43% wish they had learned more math in middle and high school, and 24% feel confused by it. This data underscores a critical need: fostering student confidence and identity in math.

George shares how his team’s partnership with local networks in LAUSD is working to address this need. He says:

We’re trying to support students in communicating their mathematical thinking so that they can get their thoughts out there and see that there’s not just one right way to solve a math problem.”

Within Illustrative Mathematics, they help educators practice using Math Language Routines (MLRs). These structured opportunities allow students to advance their thinking orally and visually, make their own meaning between concepts and representations, refine how they communicate their content understandings, and organize their own experiences and ideas through reflection.

George adds:

One routine, for example, is called stronger and clearer each time. So, a student comes up with an answer, and then they have to talk to other students to figure out what their answers might be. They keep building off each other’s answers until they really think they have the strongest possible answer.”

Teaching these routines takes intentional planning and a shift from educators doing most of the talking.

💬 Reflect: How do you support students to identify as mathematicians?

The Ideal Math Classroom: Collaborative, Noisy, and Deeply Engaging

To foster deep mathematical understanding, classrooms must become spaces where students can explore different ways of thinking and actively engage in meaning-making with the math in front of them, beyond simply getting to the answer. Aneka says, “Long gone are the days when math classrooms felt cold and rigid, because math should truly be student-centered.”

LeAnita describes the ideal math classroom as a place where students “have access to grade-level content… with the appropriate scaffolds and supports to do higher or more challenging work…and instruction that connects to their lives and values their thinking.” She adds, “I think we also get to see and look for reasoning, problem-solving, being collaborative, and just overall finding that joy in math.”

It’s a dynamic, noisy space of debate and shared discovery—a shift from rote memorization and sitting in rows to group work and a lot of conversation with peers. 

High-quality math tasks in these environments push students to explore multiple pathways to a solution, fostering deeper reasoning and problem-solving skills. Fitz provides a clear look into this approach:

When students engage in math discourses, we want them to reflect on which expressions were helpful and which were not. It’s more about the thinking and the reasoning behind it.”

Effective tasks—like a fraction division example Fitz discussed—prompt students to analyze the efficiency and reasoning behind different approaches, rather than simply arriving at a number.

• This focus on the process invites rich conversation and helps students develop a profound conceptual understanding by connecting new ideas to their prior knowledge.
• For educators, facilitating this shift requires a deep understanding of mathematical content and the connections between concepts.

💬 Reflect: How does your system’s vision articulate the culture and ideal experience of the math classroom?

Deepening Educator Content Knowledge and Skill: From Transaction to Transformation

For teachers to meet the demands of this vision, they all need continuous, job-embedded support that deepens their content knowledge and helps them refine their practices with others.

Fitz describes this as the difference between a “transaction” (doing steps 1, 2, 3) and an internal shift or “transformation.” This transformation requires teachers to deeply understand not just the current content, but also the prior knowledge students need, allowing them to make critical connections and build understanding rather than just following steps.

Driving the point home, Fitz declares:

When we can make connections to something we already know, we’re more likely to be able to take that information in.”

High-quality instructional materials (HQIM) are a key lever in this process, providing consistency across classrooms and saving educators time often spent searching for materials. However, materials alone aren’t enough; teachers must also be able to actually practice what they teach and get feedback. Leading Educators is helping school systems from coast to coast implement groundbreaking curriculum-based professional learning structures to facilitate this. 

In Chicago, where academic decisions and investments of resources are highly localized, LeAnita’s team is using a cohort model to increase collaboration and coordination across school sites. She says:

This has allowed us to engage teachers in meaningful collaborative spaces, to learn together, to plan together, and to get that practice and that feedback before they go out to step in front of the world of their students.”

Similarly, in Los Angeles, lesson labs are full-day professional learning where teachers collectively plan a lesson, co-teach it with actual students, and then debrief and analyze student work. “It allows the teachers to see how other people plan, how they teach, and what really works for students.”

💬 Reflect: What systemic structures and continuous coaching opportunities are you providing to deepen math content knowledge, foster collaborative practice, and accelerate K-12 math achievement?

The Critical Role of Leadership and Coordinated Coaching

Assistant principals, coaches, and school leaders are indispensable in the system-wide change process. Aneka explains:

School leaders should be grounded in what excellent instructional practices look like, especially in math classrooms, because teaching and learning is an adaptive process.”

Leaders who are plugged into the daily realities of the classroom are more able to support teachers effectively. This cognitive empathy allows leaders to know how to build and protect time for collaborative structures, because leaders recognize the power of teachers learning, discussing, and unpacking lessons together. 

George notes that in LAUSD, using priority indicators from the IM implementation rubric creates a “common playing ground for everyone,” ensuring leaders know what to look for and teachers know what to work on. This shared vision and “shared reality,” as Fitz describes from Charleston, are crucial for consistent growth.

In Charleston, leaders participated in the same professional learning as teachers, followed up with targeted observations and continuous conversations (e.g., during PLCs) to ensure a consistent lens and translate learning into practice, rather than relying on “one-hit wonder” professional development sessions.

💬 Reflect: How do leaders in your system champion a shared vision for math excellence?

The Possibilities of AI to Support K-12 Math Achievement

Experimentation with artificial intelligence is starting to highlight new possibilities for making excellent teaching more frequent and doable. These advancements directly address common pain points, like teachers’ significant time preparing lessons.

• Aneka demonstrated the Math Standards Unpacking Tool she designed in Playlab to help educators and leaders quickly dissect standards, clarify aspects of rigor, identify prerequisite skills, understand within-grade level coherence, and even suggest varied common formative assessments. Aneka shares, “The tool helps teachers get away from the procedural skill and fluency that rote memorization type of work [and] get us into more conceptual understanding-based work.” 
• LeAnita created Cally the Pacing Guide to address common pacing challenges many school leaders and teachers experience. The tool supports teachers, coaches, and leaders to thoughtfully adjust pacing when real-world factors like school schedules, events, and testing interrupt the best of plans. Cali’s design ensures that educators’ decisions honor the standards’ expectations by providing overviews grounded in standards, integrating with specific instructional resources, offering granular support for modules, and explaining the “why” behind suggested adjustments (e.g., to preserve major work of the grade).

These tools provide a rational, standards-aligned approach to planning, reducing administrative burden, and allowing educators to focus on the art of teaching and the nuanced needs of their students.

💬  Reflect: How might your system explore and integrate smart tools to reduce teacher workload, enhance instructional consistency, and accelerate the implementation of high-quality math practices?

Accelerate Your System’s K-12 Math Achievement

Fostering a culture where every student thrives in mathematics is an ambitious but achievable goal. Success comes from a multi-faceted approach: cultivating math mindsets, transforming classroom experiences, increasing discourse, bolstering educator capacity, and leveraging innovative tools.

Are you looking for support with launching a new high-quality curriculum or designing a curriculum-aligned professional learning strategy? Connect with our Partnerships team to learn how we can help.

Watch the Full Webinar