TD Ready Challenge - Math Minds
Math Minds is a collaborative partnership of UCalgary’s Werklund School of Education, various school districts and JUMP Math. The broad aim of the initiative is to strengthen numeracy among students in Grades 1 to 6. By sharing Math Minds findings and professional-learning resources, we will equip current and pre-service teachers and education leaders with teaching strategies so they can improve learner experience and alleviate student learning loss caused by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
There are currently three school districts that have joined as partners, each located in Manitoba, British Columbia and Alberta. The total number of participating teachers is greater than 300.
Funding from the TD Ready Challenge began officially in February 2022, and the 2022–23 school year was the first full term of the project. Achievement results from our first year of the study have been very positive. While estimates for elementary-aged students’ learning loss in mathematics due to COVID restrictions vary dramatically, there is consensus that the loss must be expressed in years of schooling, not in weeks or months.
Baseline measures, taken last fall, indicated that average student scores in participating districts were 1.2–1.8 years below expectations. We have not yet completed follow-up data collection with the same students, but we can report that results of those tested to date indicate consistent improvements in the range of 1.5–1.6 years. We regard these results as highly promising. While a gap persists, if such improvements hold, we can expect that participation in the Math Minds project will alleviate student learning loss for many learners.