A Brief Exploration of Mathematical Literacy
May 22, 2025
The goal of mathematics teaching is to support young people to learn and grow into adults who can use mathematics and mathematical reasoning to make sense of the world around them, solve problems, engage in their community, and see themselves as people who can do and use math. But this learning and growth toward mathematical literacy doesn’t happen by chance. Teachers must create opportunities for students to solve real problems, adjust and adapt their thinking and reasoning, and engage with others’ ideas. They must support students to build fluency and flexibility alongside deep conceptual understanding of procedures. They must provide space and scaffolds for students to articulate, communicate, and revise their thinking. They must support them to develop positive mathematical identities. All of this is a tall order for teachers!
About a year ago, the New York State Education Department approached our director, Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball, to discuss the department’s initiative to support mathematical literacy across the state. They recognized that teaching that supports mathematical literacy (aka numeracy) is challenging work and that teachers deserve support and guidance to make mathematical literacy for all a reality. So, they presented Deborah and her TeachingWorks colleagues with a challenge: take all of the research on mathematics teaching and learning, choose central themes, and distill what is known into eight easy-to-read research briefs with plenty of examples. Use resources that are free and broadly available as often as possible. Oh, and make sure that it is relevant for mathematics teachers from pre-K to grade 12.
Challenge accepted.
For those of you who read a lot of academic research, you know that “brevity” and “research” don’t always go together. There is very good reason for this. This is because research, particularly research on teaching and learning, is nuanced. In addition to explaining findings, researchers must also present the methods used to determine those findings and offer alternative hypotheses so that the reader is able to make sound judgments about the claims made. However, this detail often prevents research from getting into the hands of those who use it—teachers.
At the other extreme, we live in a world where headlines and meme culture rule. The clearer and pithier you can make a statement, the more likely it is to spread and the more likely people will take up the idea. But when it comes to summarizing research on teaching and learning, these pithy statements oversimplify what we know, losing all context and nuance.
Given these two extremes, we knew the research briefs had to live somewhere between these two worlds, detailed enough to provide nuance and access to seminal research, but brief enough to be usable by busy professionals. We began by identifying key themes from research, including high-leverage content that is most impactful for student learning, research-based practices required for effective mathematics teaching that is culturally relevant, and the role that leaders play in mathematics teaching and learning. The roadmap below shows the key themes and brief topics we utilized.
We then reviewed research from leading scholars, researchers, and practitioners across disciplines, including mathematics, teacher education, curriculum design and use, sociology, ethnic studies, critical scholarship, developmental psychology, cognitive science, education policy, and psychometrics. We tried to ensure that these fields were represented appropriately across the briefs and that crucial studies and resources were used and cited. We worked carefully to be both brief and nuanced in our claims and statements. We hope that we have achieved that.
We worked carefully with NYSED to ensure that the briefs met the needs and expectations of the field, submitting them to multiple rounds of feedback from a broad range of readers with different expertise and experience. We made revisions based on their suggestions. We tried to ensure that examples represented were broad but also accessible to all readers. And, although many wonderful resources exist in the field that could be useful for our readers, we tried to point to resources that were free and broadly available because not all readers will have funds to purchase resources.
The goal of these briefs is to provide a starting place for educators interested in continuing to support the mathematical literacy and success of their students. We hope that you will find them useful for your work. We recognize that this is only the beginning. Teachers deserve professional learning and support for implementing the research-backed practices named in these documents. We are here to help.
Download the briefs and access the slides that we used to introduce them at NYSED’s Numeracy Initiative website.
Read NYSED’s press release about the briefs.
Contact us to explore ways we could help your school or district use the briefs to improve mathematics teaching and learning.
