You know math is important, but just how important? April is Math Awareness Month, the perfect time to celebrate how necessary (and awesome!) math is while examining why strong foundations are critical for students.
Foundational Math Matters
Students’ core math skills significantly impact their future success. The ever-important early childhood years lay the foundation for a child’s mathematical journey, with early math knowledge being a key predictor for later math success and college and career opportunities ( National Council of Teachers of Mathematics).
Let’s add up just a few more reasons why math is so important.
Math achievement alone explains about a 30% to 60% range of variance in the chance of being on track to college readiness (Lee, 2012).
Math automaticity frees up working memory, allowing students to devote energy to problem-solving and learning new skills (Geary, 1994).
Math fact fluency speed is a significant predictor of performance on standardized tests.
Fact retrieval also predicts performance tied to mathematical reasoning, math concept problems, word problems, and data interpretation.
Math in Everyday Life
Regardless of a child’s future career path, basic math skills are just as important as literacy to navigate daily life. From the grocery store to the kitchen (plus taxes and bills down the road), understanding numbers and how to manipulate them is essential.
Feeling competent in math can also increase student motivation and expand career opportunities. Research by the United States Committee on STEM Education notes the importance of exposing students to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills early, since they serve as “essential prerequisites to career technical training, advanced college-level and graduate study, and increasing one's technical skills in the workplace.”
Host a Virtual Career Day and help your students explore a wide variety of STEM careers!
Start Building Math Foundations
ExploreLearning solutions are fun and effective to help you build solid math foundations.
Adaptive & individualized: Our products meet every student where they are while building skills and positive attitudes towards math.
Confidence-building & engaging: Exciting challenges and games packed with rewards keep students motivated and excited to learn more.
Standards: Frax and Reflex support state standards and assessments so instructional time can be spent wisely.
Evidence-based & proven effective: Designed by educational experts and backed by research, ExploreLearning solutions bring value you can trust.
- Frax is based on the latest research to help students develop a conceptual understanding of fractions. ESSA Tier 2 research found that students who used Frax met or exceeded growth benchmarks at significantly higher rates compared to non-users. Frax is also fun for students! 99.7% of teachers said they saw improvement in learning and engagement because of Frax.
- Reflex uses research-proven methods and innovative technology to transform math fact fluency. Research shows that Reflex improves test scores, math knowledge, and confidence. Regardless of baseline measurements and across all achievement levels, students who used Reflex with high fidelity outscored their peers.
The results are even greater when students use both Reflex and Frax. Students who scored two or more grade levels below in the fall achieved 56% greater scale score gains and were nearly three times as likely to reach their stretch growth goals when using Reflex and Frax.
Free Math Resources
Celebrate Math Awareness Month and help develop foundational math skills with our free resources!
Excel at math facts
Grades 2+
Adaptive and individualized, Reflex is the most effective and fun system for mastering basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division for grades 2+.
Try ReflexUnderstand fractions
Grades 3+
Frax stops the fraction struggle through an adaptive, game-based system that helps grade 3+ students build the skills, knowledge, and understanding of fractions for ongoing success in higher mathematics.
Try Frax