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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
AI Makes Quick Gains in Math, But Errors Still Worry Some Eyeing Reliability
While artificial intelligence has made remarkable gains in mathematics, its well-chronicled shortcomings in the subject continue to frustrate those keen on finding new ways to help kids learn. 'Big picture, AI is not very good at math,' said Alex Kotran, co-founder and CEO of The AI Education Project. 'Language models just predict the next word. You get mixed results using language models to do math. It's not yet mature enough to where it can be trusted to be scaled.' And even if it were to improve, critics worry it might hurt kids' ability to try — and fail — on their own. Much would be lost, Kotran said, if 'we get rid of productive struggle and we build this instinct where the first thing you do is go to AI for help.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter But students in the United States and the United Kingdom have a different view. A recent survey found 56% believe AI could go a long way in reducing math anxiety. Fifteen percent of the 1,500 16- to 18-year-old students surveyed said they had already experienced this relief themselves and slightly more than 1 in 5 said their math scores improved because of the technology. Related The survey also included 250 teachers. Sixty-one percent suggested students view AI as 'a mentor or study partner rather than a crutch', while nearly half 'see value for students in using AI for help with the process of learning math concepts, rather than to give answers.' Nicole Paxton, principal of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado Springs, said her teachers use AI in many ways. Tools like MagicSchoolAI analyze student responses to math prompts, with AI generating 'specific, standards-aligned feedback for each student, focusing on their reasoning, accuracy, and math vocabulary.' Paxton said the tool highlights strengths and misconceptions, 'which helps teachers give timely and targeted next steps.' The practice saves educators time so they can 'more easily differentiate their re-teaching or follow-up, especially when addressing common errors across the class.' Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, recently looked at the evidence base for using AI in math instruction, including whether it can help the 'shocking number of students' with foundational skills' gaps like those identified in a recent 'Unlocking Algebra' study. The May 13 analysis by TNTP found that almost half of the students sampled started the class with only one-third of the concepts and skills needed from earlier grades. Lake said AI can be used by schools to identify children who are struggling — and, at least to some degree, by the students themselves. 'AI can be very helpful in analyzing data and identifying gaps in student learning,' she said. And, if a student wants to learn a mathematical concept in a different way than what they've experienced in class, she said, AI can provide a valuable alternative. 'A lot of students are already doing this,' Lake said. More districts are training staff to use the technology, though many educators remain reluctant. Terrie Galanti, associate professor at the University of North Florida, said AI success in student learning depends on how teachers are prepared to use it. 'AI can be more than an explainer or an answer giver,' said Galanti, who teaches secondary mathematics and STEM integration/computational thinking. 'With thoughtful prompts, AI can become part of interactive, collaborative conversations to deepen mathematics understanding.' The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics said in a February 2024 position paper that teachers have long been accustomed to technological advances that change the way students learn. Related They had already adjusted to the availability of pocket calculators in the early '80s and, more recently, to the widespread use of PhotoMath, a mobile app that recognizes and solves math problems. It notes that advancements in AI make teachers more, not less valuable, in student learning. Latrenda Knighten, the organization's president, told Education Week in March that students will still need to rely upon their own discernment to solve mathematical problems — regardless of what tools become available. 'We know that children learn math from being able to problem-solve, being able to use reasoning skills, critical thinking, having opportunities to collaborate with each other and talk about what they're doing,' Knighten said. Irina Lyublinskaya, professor in the department of mathematics, science, and technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, distinguished between chatbots like ChatGPT and computational knowledge engines like WolframAlpha. She noted math specific AI-powered applications — including WolframAlpha and Symbolab — work very well. 'AI chatbots can help students learn math, and they can help teachers to support students, but this is not about asking ChatGPT to solve a math problem,' she said. 'I know of research-based initiatives that use AI to adapt learning materials to students' learning styles and abilities and these definitely help students learn.' One, she noted, was EvidenceB, developed by researchers and educators in Europe, and is now being tested in NYC. Related 'Chatbots can be trained as teaching assistants or tutors that can provide students proper scaffolding and feedback, helping them to learn math the same way they would with a real person,' she said. Zachary A. Pardos is an associate professor of education at the University of California Berkeley where he studies adaptive learning and AI. He found, in a study conducted a year ago, that 25% of the answers provided by ChatGPT in algebra were incorrect. 'That's pretty high,' he noted. 'Much higher than you would want.' But the technology has improved since then. 'With the right techniques — at least in algebra — from an error perspective, I feel it is ready for real-time intervention in math,' he said.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Gallup Poll: Half of School Leaders Say Finding a Good Math Teacher is Tough
As the nation's school children struggle to make gains in mathematics — and continue to fall short of pre-pandemic achievement levels — a new Gallup poll reveals a related challenge: schools' difficulty in hiring well-qualified math teachers. Nearly half of 1,471 education leaders who responded to the analytics company's December query reported that the task was 'very challenging' and far worse than finding strong English language or social studies applicants. 'The pool of certified math teachers is small, and the demand is high, particularly for candidates who are ready to support student learning from day one,' said Nicole Paxton, assistant principal and athletic director of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado Springs. 'In our district, we've experienced a growing number of math openings with only a handful of candidates to consider — many of whom are international applicants requiring sponsorship or visas.' Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Another new study lends insight into a possible reason why: Only 1 in 8 elementary teacher preparation programs nationwide devote adequate time to teaching fundamental math content topics, including numbers and operations, algebraic thinking, geometry and measurement — plus data analysis and probability. The National Council on Teacher Quality, which released the teacher preparation study April 8, found the average undergraduate program dedicates 85 hours of instructional time to foundational math content knowledge — 20 hours short of what the organization recommends. Graduate programs devote even less time to the topic — 14 hours total — with only 5% meeting or approaching the minimum recommendation of 150 hours. The council said 22% of undergraduate programs earned an 'F' for their performance in this area: More than 80% of graduate level programs also earned this failing grade. 'Teachers need to know how to do more than just follow the steps in math to get the right answer,' Heather Peske, the organization's president, said in a statement. 'They need to know why those steps work. It's like the difference between a basketball player and a coach. The player can learn their role and follow directions, but the coach needs to understand the bigger picture, the why behind every move.' Michael Rubin, principal of Uxbridge High School in Massachusetts, roughly 60 miles southwest of Boston, said finding high-quality teachers of any subject is difficult, particularly in math and science. 'When we deal with even more advanced levels of mathematics, with highly specialized content, the number of educators is even more limited,' he said. 'My father was a math teacher for 39 years, and not a year has gone by since he retired nine years ago where a principal has not reached out and asked him if he is willing or able to come in to teach, tutor or substitute.' Indeed, Gallup poll responders said the problem was even more acute in later grades where the math curriculum gets harder: 64% of principals said this was 'very challenging' at the high school level versus 56% at the middle school and 23% at the elementary level. The struggle can also be seen in lower-income and rural communities, like Sheridan County School District #3 in Clearmont, Wyoming, which enrolls just 83 students K-12. Chase Christensen, who serves as both superintendent and district principal, said staff are frequently asked to take on other roles. Next fall, he said, a physical education teacher will lead advanced mathematics classes — they will focus on pre-algebra, geometry, statistics and probability — at the middle school level while he works toward earning his certification in that subject. Christensen said he's grateful for his staff's' flexibility. 'When we all sit down and take a hard look at what the needs of the school are, people just step up and we figure out how it is going to work,' he said. Stephanie Marken, a senior partner at Gallup leading its U.S. custom research division, said schools' trouble finding quality math instructors is particularly concerning because these teachers play a pivotal role in making this often tough subject palatable. 'If you have a highly engaged teacher who's really committed and qualified in that subject area, we know that it brings math education to life in a way that you just can't do otherwise,' Marken said. Math anxiety, the fear that students — and their teachers — share about this subject further harms their opportunity and ability to succeed in it. 'We know that a lot of students have negative emotions surrounding math and that there's a lot of pressure that math places upon students,' Marken said. 'We know that the teacher makes a big difference in breaking down math and making it feel really relevant and achievable.' Paxton, of Colorado Springs, said her district employs several strategies to manage the problem. It supports teachers on visas and those coming from alternative certification pathways through monthly meetings that focus on best practices, classroom management and cultural assimilation. It also works with Teach for America, which has, for three decades, recruited college graduates to teach in high-need schools for two years. Plus, it's built a solid relationship with its local university's teacher training program and has launched a 'grow your own' pipeline to support teacher aides in earning their bachelor's degrees, completing internships in the district and ultimately becoming licensed teachers there. 'These layered supports and creative recruitment efforts are our response to a national challenge,' Paxton said. Gallup's Math Matters Study went beyond schools' issues with hiring to families' experience on campus: While roughly a third of the 808 parents who responded said their children receive some math tutoring, only 13% received such help more than weekly. Gallup notes that prior research shows high-quality math tutoring can improve achievement by an additional three to 15 months of learning, 'but the most impactful tutoring programs must include frequent sessions — three times a week or more.' Related Roughly a third of parents said they would enroll their child in tutoring if it was available or more accessible. Parents also reported a lack of communication about the subject on the part of educators: One in six said they 'never' hear from their child's school about the goals for their child's math learning or what their student is learning in math class. The survey showed, too, a lack of understanding — and consensus — among educators about what constitutes high-quality instructional materials, curriculum aligned to college- and career-ready standards: 37% of all education leaders said they were 'not at all familiar' with or 'not very familiar with' the concept. Related Sixty-eight percent of school superintendents and 46% of school principals said their building or district had no official definition of the term. But when supplied with a definition by Gallup, which identified high-quality instructional materials as those 'which are standards-aligned and use evidence-based practices for the content area,' 69% said most or all of their math curriculum qualified. Professional development proved an added challenge. Thirty-nine percent of educators surveyed rated their own school's math-related professional development as 'fair' or 'poor.' This statistic was worse at the high school level where 6% said it was poor and 39% said it was fair. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored the Math Matters Study and provides financial support to The 74.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump moves on education coming fast, but schools waiting for official guidance
President Trump's education initiatives are coming on fast, but school officials say changes in the classroom will happen at a much slower pace. While officials say the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of education news, from Title IX changes to Department of Education funding cuts, K-12 schools are waiting for more specific guidance on what has to change and ensuring they don't act too quickly one way or another. The more cautious approach also might help avoid community panic 'I'm not gonna lie. It is a lot,' said Kenny Rodrequez, superintendent of the Grandview C-4 School District in Missouri. 'Every administration change, it is a lot, it typically is a lot of changes and a lot of things. This just seems to have sped everything up […] there's a lot more things coming out in a shorter period of time than what we've maybe been used to in the past. ' 'I will say it's not necessarily too overwhelming as of yet just because lot of the things that have been said aren't necessarily law yet, or are not necessarily things that can 100 percent be put into motion, but a lot of it is fear,' added Rodrequez, who has been in school administration for 20 years and a superintendent for 9. The firestorm began last month, when Trump signed multiple executive orders affecting both grade schools and higher education. Among the orders was a directive for critical race theory and gender issues to be banned from K-12 schools, with an emphasis on a 'patriotic education.' The pipeline from Trump's desk to classroom changes is not a straight shot as districts do not tend to make any changes until guidance comes from their state Department of Education that is then reviewed by school boards and superintendents. Once an order is signed, 'we still wait for our district to give us guidance, and the district usually waits on guidance from lawmakers and policy makers, from the state Department of Education, from the federal government, saying that this is what's enacted, and this is what we have to do,' said Nicole Paxton, assistant principal of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado. 'And so we're kind of in a waiting game right now to see what those next steps might look like,' Paxton added. Along with Trump's executive orders, the Department of Education has been very active despite not having nominee Linda McMahon confirmed as secretary. The department has reverted the definition of Title IX back to the one used during the first Trump administration, taking away protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity that were adopted under former President Biden. The federal agency has also cut more than a billion dollars in funding, including for teaching training grants and research support. 'I think we have some hesitancy about what's coming, but we're just now starting with the Department of Education,' said Marcus Belin, principal of Huntley High School in Illinois. 'Nothing has really reached the states, and the states haven't reached the local municipalities. So, I think what's rolling downhill just hasn't come yet. And so, I think the hesitancy is that we're all leery about what potentially is coming,' Belin added. The biggest challenge schools have undertaken so far with all the federal moves is addressing the concerns of the community as parents, students and teachers struggle to parse through what the Trump administration means for their future. 'A lot of the families and a lot of the people internally with my staff, they do get very concerned and very scared thinking that funding is going to be shut off tomorrow, and it's not the way it works, but we are monitoring those things,' said Rodrequez. Fears among some families began early in the administration when the Department of Homeland Security said immigration enforcement could go into schools. Although there have been no reports of immigration raids in schools, some have kept their students home and away from the classrooms. ' We have policies, we have procedures, we have guidance that governs that. But it doesn't mean that there's not a lot of concern and a lot of fear. So, for us, it's trying to dismantle what's real, what should we be concerned about now and what do we continue to monitor and watch over a longer period, knowing that these things might come to fruition and some of them might not, but it's all stuff that we have to kind of monitor, so it definitely is a lot more in a shorter period of time than what we've maybe seen in previous administrations,' Rodrequez added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
20-02-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump moves on education coming fast, but schools waiting for official guidance
President Trump's education initiatives are coming on fast, but school officials say changes in the classroom will happen at a much slower pace. While officials say the past few weeks have been a whirlwind of education news, from Title IX changes to Department of Education funding cuts, K-12 schools are waiting for more specific guidance on what has to change and ensuring they don't act too quickly one way or another. The more cautious approach also might help avoid community panic 'I'm not gonna lie. It is a lot,' said Kenny Rodrequez, superintendent of the Grandview C-4 School District in Missouri. 'Every administration change, it is a lot, it typically is a lot of changes and a lot of things. This just seems to have sped everything up […] there's a lot more things coming out in a shorter period of time than what we've maybe been used to in the past. ' 'I will say it's not necessarily too overwhelming as of yet just because lot of the things that have been said aren't necessarily law yet, or are not necessarily things that can 100 percent be put into motion, but a lot of it is fear,' added Rodrequez, who has been in school administration for 20 years and a superintendent for 9. The firestorm began last month, when Trump signed multiple executive orders affecting both grade schools and higher education. Among the orders was a directive for critical race theory and gender issues to be banned from K-12 schools, with an emphasis on a 'patriotic education.' The pipeline from Trump's desk to classroom changes is not a straight shot as districts do not tend to make any changes until guidance comes from their state Department of Education that is then reviewed by school boards and superintendents. Once an order is signed, 'we still wait for our district to give us guidance, and the district usually waits on guidance from lawmakers and policy makers, from the state Department of Education, from the federal government, saying that this is what's enacted, and this is what we have to do,' said Nicole Paxton, assistant principal of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado. 'And so we're kind of in a waiting game right now to see what those next steps might look like,' Paxton added. Along with Trump's executive orders, the Department of Education has been very active despite not having nominee Linda McMahon confirmed as secretary. The department has reverted the definition of Title IX back to the one used during the first Trump administration, taking away protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity that were adopted under former President Biden. The federal agency has also cut more than a billion dollars in funding, including for teaching training grants and research support. 'I think we have some hesitancy about what's coming, but we're just now starting with the Department of Education,' said Marcus Belin, principal of Huntley High School in Illinois. 'Nothing has really reached the states, and the states haven't reached the local municipalities. So, I think what's rolling downhill just hasn't come yet. And so, I think the hesitancy is that we're all leery about what potentially is coming,' Belin added. The biggest challenge schools have undertaken so far with all the federal moves is addressing the concerns of the community as parents, students and teachers struggle to parse through what the Trump administration means for their future. 'A lot of the families and a lot of the people internally with my staff, they do get very concerned and very scared thinking that funding is going to be shut off tomorrow, and it's not the way it works, but we are monitoring those things,' said Rodrequez. Fears among some families began early in the administration when the Department of Homeland Security said immigration enforcement could go into schools. Although there have been no reports of immigration raids in schools, some have kept their students home and away from the classrooms. ' We have policies, we have procedures, we have guidance that governs that. But it doesn't mean that there's not a lot of concern and a lot of fear. So, for us, it's trying to dismantle what's real, what should we be concerned about now and what do we continue to monitor and watch over a longer period, knowing that these things might come to fruition and some of them might not, but it's all stuff that we have to kind of monitor, so it definitely is a lot more in a shorter period of time than what we've maybe seen in previous administrations,' Rodrequez added.
