“Ms. Andrea, there are seven students in line,” Jaylene informed me as my class assembled to go inside after recess.
“Ms. Andrea, I see four As,” Ahmad proudly announced, excited about seeing the first letter in his name on our classroom walls.
“Ms. Andrea, there are a lot of blocks,” said Brandon, eagerly gesturing to a block tower he had constructed during playtime.
In Ms. Andrea’s Head Start class—my Head Start class—math wasn’t just a subject for my students. It was integrated into their everyday reality. From counting letters to understanding units of measurement to singing “Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed,” our classroom was full of opportunities for my students to engage in math in culturally relevant ways that excited and inspired them.
My thoughts return to my classroom this month, which marks the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Head Start program. While this should be a time for celebrating this important milestone, it is instead a moment of uncertainty, as continued federal funding for the program is in question. As I mark two months as Just Equations’ new national policy director, I find myself reflecting on how Head Start’s goals intersect with my current charge to ensure equitable math outcomes for all students.
To put this in perspective, we have to start at the beginning. Sixty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson—as part of his war on poverty agenda—stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced the launch of Project Head Start, a federally funded program targeting poverty through a preschool child development initiative. “Nearly half the preschool children of poverty will get a head start on their future. These children will receive preschool training to prepare them for regular school in September,” he remarked. Johnson made clear that one of Head Start’s goals was better economic outcomes for its participants, pronouncing that, through the program, “We have taken up the age-old challenge of poverty, and we don’t intend to lose generations of our children to this enemy of the human race.”
In the present day, one of Head Start’s aims is to prepare students to enter kindergarten math-ready—and for good reason. Preschool-age children are receptive developmentally to math concepts, and early math skills are a strong predictor of later academic success—even more than early reading ability. A joint statement from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics reinforces the need for early childhood math interventions: “Because young children’s experiences fundamentally shape their attitude toward mathematics, an engaging and encouraging climate for children’s early encounters with mathematics is important.” Head Start thus has an important role to play in providing its participants with a solid and equitable math foundation, since students from lower socioeconomic statuses often enter kindergarten far behind their more economically advantaged peers in both math and literacy.
Over the past few decades, there has been a renewed focus on the importance of quality early childhood math education in response to lagging math scores, perceived student disinterest in STEM careers, and a belief by some math experts that meaningful math instruction needs to play a larger role in preschool curricula. Indeed, some have argued that preparing students for STEM careers should really begin in preschool, when students are susceptible to new math ideas and concepts. I can speak to this firsthand as I recall my students’ glee in counting the number of steps it took to get to the playground, understanding how to distribute the correct number of juice boxes at snack time, and standing next to their classmates to compare their heights. More broadly, Head Start centers across the nation have responded to this momentum by developing new math learning opportunities and engaging in research to set the stage for Head Start participants to learn—and love—math.
In California, for example, teachers can attend STEM training conferences to learn how to best incorporate STEM principles into their classrooms. In North Carolina, researchers have explored how a STEM model can be effectively integrated into Head Start curricula. And in Massachusetts, the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors have partnered with Head Start programs to develop creative math games and lessons to engage students’ love of math. These initiatives provide models for what can be accomplished in later schooling.
Therein lies the rub. With Head Start identifying ways to improve math instruction to fulfill its mandate of helping “children build the skills they need to be successful in school and life,” why is it the case that, as these students continue on with schooling, their options for math coursework that is responsive to their interests—and the ever-changing world around them—begin to narrow?
Rather than being met with math that engages them, students are often subjected to antiquated courses that don’t sufficiently prepare them for college. Instead of being offered an array of math courses that tap into their interests, they are forced into a rigid math sequence that has not changed in over a century. And, even when students are interested in the traditional math course series that leads to calculus—and future STEM degrees and careers—many Black, Latinx, and lower-income students are nonetheless tracked out of advanced math courses or may even attend schools that don’t offer these classes, cutting their dreams off at the fore.
For those students who reach college after meeting inflexible (and often unstated) admissions requirements, many deemed unprepared for gateway math courses—including calculus for STEM students—are funneled into remedial or prerequisite course sequences that can be long and costly, and often lead to students dropping out of STEM majors altogether. Thus, despite Head Start’s mission to ensure every child is prepared for K–12 and beyond, high schools’ and colleges’ continued hesitancy to adopt math pathway redesigns effectively stops this mandate in its tracks for students down the educational road.
As a result, many students get a Head Start just to wind up at a dead end.
There is a better way. In my new role at Just Equations, I look forward to building upon the advocacy of Just Equations and our partners in the math equity field to work with key stakeholders—from high school students and counselors to college admissions officers and math faculty to legislators and others—to identify what students are interested in, assess the digital world they live in, and advocate for responsive policies that ensure that our students have equitable access to math that prepares them for future degrees and careers. And, just as Head Start has taken steps to shift its math approach over the past few years, I am heartened that states across the nation—Oregon, Maryland, and New Mexico, to name a few—are moving forward in redesigning their math pathways.
My former students are now young adults at the beginning of their careers. Matthew, one of my shyest students, joined Job Corps to study auto mechanics; Jaylene, whose love of learning continues to inspire me, is pursuing a cosmetology career. As I reflect on my time in the Head Start classroom and look forward to my future policy work in my new role, I am optimistic about the opportunity we have in this moment to reconceptualize the role of math to ensure educational equity. Doing so is not only a pressing civil rights issue, as Bob Moses and the Algebra Project have argued for years, but it is also a commonsense solution for what is needed to best support and prepare the next generation—giving them the head start and continued momentum they need to realize their full potential.
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