EDC Awarded $15 Million to Expand Math for All in Five States

Education Development Center (EDC) has received a five-year, $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Innovation and Research (EIR) program to expand the successful Math for All program to schools in five states: Illinois, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York. The award, which was highlighted in a DOE press release, will allow Math for All to reach an estimated 960 teachers and 44,800 students in Grades 3 through 6.

As spotlighted in EDC’s Mosaic podcast, Math for All is an intensive professional learning program that helps K–5 general and special education teachers personalize high-quality mathematics instruction for a wide range of learners, including students with disabilities. Since 2014, the project has helped over 500 teachers improve mathematics teaching and learning in their classrooms, impacting approximately 10,000 students annually.

“Math for All has repeatedly demonstrated the positive impact that a focus on student learning and the collaboration of general and special education teachers in planning mathematics lessons can have on students’ mathematical outcomes,” says Dr. Babette Moeller, EDC distinguished scholar and principal investigator of Math for All. “We are pleased to receive this EIR funding, and we look forward to partnering with teachers and administrators to bring Math for All to new schools and communities.”

The expansion of Math for All occurs at a time when many districts are facing urgent needs to address inequitable access to high-quality mathematics education and accelerate learning recovery to redress the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) identified the largest score declines in NAEP mathematics since the first assessments were conducted over 30 years ago. The NAEP also reported persistently lower scores in mathematics for marginalized students, including students with disabilities and students from economically disenfranchised communities.

Across the United States, many teachers do not feel well prepared to implement standards-based mathematics education with the diverse groups of students found in general education classrooms, including students with disabilities and students with different capabilities and needs. As a result, mathematics achievement data—including NAEP data—illuminate not just achievement gaps, but opportunity gaps and needs, to better support teachers by strengthening preparation and professional learning.

Math for All has been demonstrated to positively impact teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and classroom practices and to improve students’ performance on mathematics achievement tests. A randomized controlled trial that examined the impact of the program found that teachers who participated in Math for All were:

• Significantly more likely than control group teachers to report feeling comfortable and prepared to teach mathematics to diverse learners, including students with disabilities
• More likely to reflect on teaching practices and to more frequently use lesson planning and differentiated instruction strategies to support students than control group teachers
• Rated by trained observers as providing more emotional support, instructional support, classroom observation, and student engagement than control group teachers
• Found to have students—both with and without disabilities—who performed higher on the NWEA MAP assessment than students in the control group

If you are interested in learning more about Math for All and opportunities for participating in this grant or future grants, please fill out this form. We also invite you to explore more of EDC’s work to improve the equity and quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.