Sep 8Public data shows we have the tools to fully close educational gapsAt The Math Agency, our mission is to close educational gaps in public schools. In this post, we’ll sketch out how we can use public data to both a) clearly define how we’ll measure what it means to “close gaps” and b) show some examples that demonstrate we have all…5 min read5 min read
Jun 272022–23 Program SummaryThe mission of The Math Agency is to close educational gaps in elementary school math. Shameless plug: if you are interested in helping support this mission by coaching at one of our partner schools, we’d love to hear from you! We recently wrapped up our programming for the 2022–23 academic…4 min read4 min read
Apr 12Can we repeatably close education gaps?This question is core to our mission at The Math Agency, so while we’ve asked it before, we are asking it again here with some new data from 2022–23. Based on what we learned in the 2021–22 school year, we made some changes to our program. Most notably, we’re now: …4 min read4 min read
Jan 24What’s needed to observe educational impact in public datasets?We recently wrote about the success of one of our school partners in closing educational gaps at their school: their remarkable gains in student learning showed up clearly in public data. However, we worked with three public schools last year, and in this post we’ll take a systematic look at…5 min read5 min read
Nov 29, 2022Can after school programs help close educational gaps?After-school and summer programs seem like obvious ways to help close educational gaps and improve student learning. They are especially relevant given the current post-pandemic challenges facing our K-12 educational system, which includes the largest drops in student learning ever documented in the United States. The potential benefits of these…6 min read6 min read
Sep 29, 2022How our partner became one of the top performing elementary schools in Washington state.One underutilized tool in education is the large amount of public data on student outcomes. In theory, it should serve as a natural bridge between academic research, which is usually tightly controlled but not always relevant to “ground conditions”, and practical decision making, which is less controlled and always has…6 min read6 min read
Sep 19, 2022Can family engagement *improve* student performance?Schools believe that family engagement is important. For proof, any parent doesn’t have to look any further than their email inbox overflowing with messages from teachers, principals and district administrators. …4 min read4 min read
Aug 19, 2022Can we measure the efficiency of math practice?We recently wrapped up our 2021–22 school year — you can read the summary here. One of the items the summary called out for future discussion was what drove differences in student growth rates: in other words, what causes some students to learn faster than others? From a very practical…4 min read4 min read
Jul 28, 20222021–22 Program SummaryThe goal of The Math Agency is to close educational gaps in elementary school math for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. We do that via small-group coaching and family engagement. If you are looking for some more background, this Seattle Times article is a reasonable place to start. We recently wrapped…5 min read5 min read
Jul 11, 2022Is it practical to measure the effectiveness of educational programs with standardized tests?In principle, standardized tests offer one of the best ways to measure the impact of educational programs and interventions, where our basic question is: how much did students in a program learn compared to their peers who are not in the program? …5 min read5 min read
