Wareham Public Schools to participate in new math initiative

As part of the 2020 Mass Math Initiative, Wareham Public School students in Kindergarten through grade 6 will have access to ST Math, a visual instructional program that will help prevent possible losses in progress caused by school shutdowns this spring. 

The initiative is a partnership between the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary education, Mass STEM Hub, the One8Foundation, and the MIND Research Institute. The Wareham Public School District is one of 38 districts participating across the state. 

According to a press release from the MIND Research Institute, “The 2020 Mass Math Initiative was developed, in large part, to help mitigate both summer learning loss and the ‘COVID slide,’ a term used to describe the potential impact of school closures on learning and achievement.“

The NWEA published a report in April, stating that students are most likely to experience a COVID Slide in the subject of math. students could return to school in the fall “with less than 50% of the learning gains and in some grades, nearly a full year behind what we would observe in normal conditions.”

The 2020 Mass Math Initiative aims to mitigate these losses with the ST Math program. 

According to the MIND Research Institute, ST Math is a  “visual instructional program that builds a deep conceptual understanding of math through rigorous learning and creative problem solving.”

The program uses “ challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback,” to teach the state’s math curriculum to students.

For more information about the unique math program, go to: www.stmath.com.