NEWSCHOOLS’ NEW MATH: The NewSchools Venture Fund today announced a new five-year grant program, called EF+Math, that aims to improve student outcomes in mathematics by targeting their executive functions, which include attention, memory and thought management.
The grant program, which will be geared toward traditionally underserved students in third through eighth grade, features four tracks of work: design, prototyping, research and evaluation. NewSchools is looking to fund one to four teams to work in each of those tracks, and expects to allot a combined $9 million to those teams in the first year of the program.
Educators’ participation will be essential to the program, especially in the design phase, where they will provide feedback and guidance to ensure the work is equitable and keeps students and teachers at the center, according to NewSchools officials, who discussed the program during a call with reporters on Tuesday. Researchers, developers and designers will also play an important role in identifying approaches that help students integrate their executive functions and math skills.
EF+Math came out of a Request for Information issued in 2018 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which sought ideas to improve students’ performance in math, writing and executive function. Math learning dominated the 465 responses, followed by executive function.
