A strong foundation in mathematics in early adolescence is essential to ensure young people have access to rigorous math instruction in high school and beyond, but middle-grades schools often provide unequal access to high-quality math experiences for students.
The NYC Partnership for Math Equity sought to understand how digital tools that center mathematical sense-making, social problem-solving, and discourse may disrupt unequal access to high-quality, grade-level math instruction.
Through the NYC Partnership for Math Equity, the NYU Center for Policy, Research and Evaluation, and the Research Alliance for New York City Schools led a mixed-methods exploratory study of how teachers and students in NYC schools serving middle grades make use of Amplify Desmos Math lessons.
ADM lessons were provided as a supplement to teachers’ core math curricula. The study used platform data, surveys, demographic and school record data, and qualitative case studies to understand how ADM lessons can support math understanding, belonging, engagement, math enjoyment, and math identities.
Key findings suggest that teachers and students were largely enthusiastic about ADM and viewed ADM lessons as supporting math understanding and engagement, elevating student thinking, facilitating discourse, and fostering peer collaboration.
The study did not find an overall association between greater ADM usage and growth in belonging, engagement, math enjoyment, and math identities, but found statistically significant growth in these outcomes among students in the three highest-use schools.
