There is a math crisis in America. By middle school, two-thirds of our students will fall behind grade level in their math classes. By high school graduation, fewer than half will be prepared for college-level courses. And yet, success in math remains a powerful gatekeeper–the door not only to coursework but also careers in science, medicine, technology, and engineering. Equally powerful is the myth that math skills are fixed and inborn: the idea, persistent across decades, that some students are good at math, and that those who aren’t can’t be taught.
The film takes aim at this belief, asking why so little progress has been made to make even basic math accessible to all students. Drawing on the innovative ideas of experts like Stanford professor Jo Boaler and civil rights leader Dr. Robert Moses, the film examines how our traditional approach to math education favors rote performance over problem-solving and imitation over creativity–even among high-achieving students. Exposing the ways in which resistance from policymakers and parents has prevented better practices from reaching our classrooms, film interweaves the stories of struggling students with those of groundbreaking educators. And it reveals a new reality: a classroom where every student is good at math.
Courtesy of: Race to Nowhere