Let Me Count The Ways: The Importance of Early Math

Third-grade proficiency starts in preschool. Districts often don’t realize how far behind some of their students are in math until third grade, when standardized tests kick in. The solution is not to put the best teachers in third grade to get children caught up. The solution is to begin early to make sure they don’t fall behind in the first place. Improving math learning opportunities for young childhood will reduce the number of children who fail to meet third-grade level standards and could help stem the overall decline in math achievement the U.S. has experienced in recent decades.

Early math learning opportunities lay the foundation of later math skills and students’ math knowledge. Mathematics proficiency in kindergarten predicts the rate of growth of children’s math learning (students who begin school with stronger skills increase their proficiency faster than students who begin with weaker skills) as well as their achievement in math throughout school. Higher math proficiency in kindergarten is even linked to higher rates of high school graduation and college attendance and students with better math skills in school are more likely to be employed and to have above-average earnings. The importance of math proficiency in employment is likely to increase as occupations requiring math skills are expected to grow much faster in the next decade than the average for all occupations. In brief, recent research has made it clear that early math learning is critically important for success in school and in life.

Attention to math learning in young children is also necessary to reduce the achievement gap. Achievement disparities are well in place before children enter kindergarten, with children of color and those from low-income families disproportionately represented among children with relatively low math skills. Efforts to address the achievement gap until third grade, when the gap is put in clear relief by standardized testing, may not be doomed to failure, but the likelihood of success is significantly less than addressing it early on.

There are other benefits to increasing attention to math learning in young children. Engaging in math activities is associated with the development of executive functions (EF), which are highly predictive of the development of both academic and social skills. Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that support goal-directed behavior by regulating thoughts and actions. They include 1) inhibitory control—resisting impulses, both thoughts (such as an initial answer to a math problem) and behavior (such as shouting out the answer) and taking time to reflect and consider alternatives (another answer or raising your hand); 2) working memory (doing a math problem in your head), and 3) cognitive flexibility (changing strategies to solve a problem). There is evidence that doing math supports the development of these skills which serve children in all academic and social settings.

A final reason for giving young children more opportunities to engage in math activities is that children enjoy doing math. Elementary school children rate math as their favorite subject. So more math means more fun in addition to more learning!