EF+Math
Our Funded Projects and TeamsWe seek to dramatically improve math outcomes for students in grades 3-8, particularly Black and Latinx students and students of all races experiencing poverty – by strengthening the core assets every student has – executive function (EF) skills.
Our Funded Projects and Teams
EF+Math funds two types of project teams: Prototyping and Applied Research. Prototyping teams are developing math learning approaches that embed EF skill-building opportunities within equitable, high-quality math content and instruction. Applied Research teams are developing technical capacities that boost math learning prototypes’ effectiveness by making student learning visible and guiding actionable next steps for learning. They are being tested in the Prototyping math learning approaches and are designed to work across multiple learning approaches, including those that already exist. All EF+Math project teams are partnering with educators who specialize in working with Black and Latinx students and students experiencing poverty, including our District Co-Design Partners and our Educator Leadership Council, who provide important guidance and input into the projects.
Prototyping Projects
CueThinkEF+ CueThinkEF+ is a web-based learning approach for problem-solving for students in grades 6-8. CueThinkEF+ builds on the CueThink product to enhance collaborative mathematical discourse and problem-solving with EF scaffolds and supports to create safe spaces for historically excluded students to express their ideas and share their thinking and reasoning.
- Lead Organization: CueThink
- Current & Former District Partners: Cajon Valley Union School District and Hillside Public Schools
Fraction Ball Fraction Ball is a series of movement-based games that make meaningful connections between math learning in the classroom and the schoolyard, and provides a playful context for students to engage in embodied rational number learning while strengthening executive function skills. Fraction Ball transforms schools’ existing basketball courts into a working fraction game, which includes a suite of games that each address a conceptual target, along with embedded opportunities to exercise EF skills.
- Lead Organization: University of California, Irvine
- Current District Partner: Santa Ana Unified School District
Mathematical Thinkers Like Me Math Thinkers Like Me (MLM) is an online collaborative problem-solving and storytelling program that supports students in developing their identity and strengths as mathematical thinkers with strong executive function skills. The online environment (“Virtual Math Teams”) integrates content from Desmos and Geogebra, as well as content developed by the MLM team.
- Lead Organization: The 21st Century Partnership for STEM
- Current District Partners: Vista Unified School District and Newark Public Schools
MathicSTEAM MathicSTEAM is an innovative three-layer instructional approach that uses individual game-based learning for training executive function skills in a math context, collaborative learning experiences that facilitate teamwork and academic discourse, and interactive graphic novels that engage students in problem-based learning activities that link to math in the real world.
- Lead Organization: MIND Research Institute
- Current & Former District Partners: Ocean View School District, Santa Ana Unified School District, and Attleboro Public Schools
Spark Math Spark Math is a set of four replacement units for 6th grade mathematics that attend to cultural relevance, math identity, and belonging, mathematization of concepts that students find relevant, the realities of classrooms and current practice, and classroom social norms. Spark Math units support students in developing a conceptual understanding of mathematics through high-quality and engaging PD, curriculum materials, and online adaptive practice opportunities for students that integrate EF skill development opportunities into math instruction.
- Lead Organization: Saga Education
- Current District Partners: Middletown City Schools, East Jasper Consolidated School District, and Meridian Public School District
Our Math World Our Mathematical World (OMW) is a student-centered, teacher-implemented program that provides 3rd and 4th grade students opportunities to engage with mathematics in their everyday environments while building EF and multi-step problem solving skills. The program is a 9-week multi-stage curriculum overlay in which students design stories that center themselves as strong mathematical problem solvers while learning to use appropriate EF skills to guide their process.
- Lead Organizations: Purdue University and Virginia Tech
- Current & Former District Partners: Middletown City Schools and Alum Rock Union School District
Applied Research Projects
MAT^EF The MAT^EF team is developing a low-cost mobile app technology to assess ability and fluctuations in executive function skills and math learning for grade levels 3-6 using Multidimensional Active Testing (MAT).
- Lead Organizations: University of California, Irvine and Washington University in St. Louis
PENNESOTA The Pennesota team is developing scalable and equitable real-time detectors for constructs related to executive function during math learning to improve learning.
- Lead Organizations: University of Pennsylvania and University of Minnesota
ENLEARN Enlearn is developing embedded, real-time measures of executive function skills in math based on digital student interactions and teacher observations. Insights from these measures will provide actionable, equitable insights to teachers in real-time.
- Lead Organization: Enlearn
PRATHER The Prather team is developing a computational model of learners’ executive function states that is accurate, precise, and useful for math educators.
- Lead Organizations: University of Maryland, College Park