Early math is the strongest predictor of later academic success and the likelihood of a flourishing career in fields relying on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

While that’s common knowledge, it’s clear the U.S. education system needs to do a better job preparing students to succeed academically and in the job market by ensuring students understand mathematics. According to the nation’s report card, administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, average mathematics scores declined five points for fourth graders and eight points for eighth graders between 2019 and 2022.

Inter-American Development Bank Lead Education Specialist Emma Näslund-Hadley, whose area of work is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education, said that while she would never argue for, in any way, eliminating Western mathematics instruction for any group of children, parents in the U.S. may want to explore ethnomathematics with their children to foster cultural awareness and appreciation for various communities’ mathematical contributions and practices. Teachers of Native American students and education systems that want to acknowledge various cultures’ differences in mathematical concepts and practices may find the system interesting.

“Classrooms today are often culturally diverse, with students from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds,” she continued.

Näslund-Hadley is an advocate for the bilingual JADENKA model of ethnomathematics.

“Incorporating ethnomathematics helps create an inclusive learning environment where students see their cultural experiences reflected in the curriculum, fostering a sense of belonging,” Näslund-Hadley explained. The JADENKÄ model also contributes evidence on how to deliver quality bilingual instruction in classrooms where teachers do not speak the minority language. By repeating all key concepts in two languages, no preschooler was excluded from mathematics learning due to lack of majority language skills.”

According to Steven Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University and one of the awarding committee members of the Khalifa International Award for Early Learning, ethnomathematics makes math relevant to children by connecting it to the way they and their families engage with math, linking to their own experiences, stories, and context.

“In early childhood, our ‘traditional’ approach is to connect learning and teaching to the children’s own experiences and culture so this is consistent with the field’s view of effective education in contrast to a disconnected ‘chug and plug’ approach,” he said.

Näslund-Hadley was one of four winners of the Khalifa International Award for Early Education in 2023. She said that her team developed the JADENKÄ preschool mathematics model to address low levels of learning of indigenous students throughout Latin America. To work around a scarcity of teachers who know indigenous languages and cultures, JADENKÄ guides teachers in implementing a lesson with support from an audio resource that is play- and discovery-based.

Innovations for Poverty Action, a Boston-based organization, tested the model’s effect on learning for two academic years in the indigenous Ngäbe-Buklé comarca, or region, in Panama. The Ngäbe people have 13 different numerical systems. For example, there is a numerical system for counting round objects and one for counting things with four legs.

“For many of the students in the comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, Ngäbe-Math is the mathematics that surrounds them in their communities. Then in school, they must suddenly learn Western math from a teacher who often does not speak their language. In the JADENKÄ model, we repeat all concepts in both languages [Spanish and the indigenous language] and in both Western mathematics and Ngäbe-Math,” she said.

The model includes conversations about how Ngäbe math is connected to students’ culture and tradition and the value of Western math.

“For students who came from homes using predominantly ethnomathematics, it was equally important to have conversations about why it is important to learn Western mathematics,” she said. “We explained it by saying that it’s like having two amazing sets of tools in your toolkit. Ethnomathematics is the fantastic way we do math in our homes, filled with the wisdom of our ancestors and the traditions of our community. Now, imagine adding another set of tools – that’s what Western math is like. It’s another incredible way to solve problems, understand the world, and create amazing things with numbers. Learning both kinds of math is like being a superhero with a super toolkit. It helps you understand different ways of thinking and solving problems. So, when you go to school and learn Western math, it’s like getting extra superpowers to explore and create even more!”

The researchers presented their Panama work in an article that can be downloaded here in English or Spanish.

The article said that the program had more of a positive impact on students who speak Ngäbere or Ngäbere and Spanish equally and for those with a Ngäbere teacher. Also, while JADENKÄ was successful in the short term in this area of Panama, more research is necessary to explore whether the gains will continue beyond preschool and whether the program will benefit students in other educational settings.

According to the article, critics of using ethnomathematics within school curricula have argued that ethnomathematics could work against integration, equity and peace between students from majority groups and their peers from minority cultures. Ethnomathematics may not be important because schools should teach students universalized knowledge and all students are equally able to learn math.

Näslund-Hadley said that since the Panama preschool curriculum didn’t allow researchers to expand time for mathematics instruction, they had to combine ethnomathematics and Western mathematics into the same lessons. Initially, she was worried the project would harm education in Western mathematics since part of every lesson focused on ethnomathematics, which meant less time exclusively on Western mathematics.

“This would have been a very undesirable outcome as indigenous students are lagging their peers on national and regional standardized tests in all core subjects,” she said. “However, our findings show that by combining the teaching of Western mathematics with ethnomathematics in bilingual lessons students made very significant improvements in their western mathematics skills compared to their peers in the control group. Qualitative research is needed to fully understand why this is the case. We speculate that when students can relate western mathematics concepts to ethnomathematics concepts from their own culture, it makes it easier to develop a conceptual understanding of Western Mathematics.”

Preschool students who were part of the program improved their Western mathematics skills more than their peers in regular programming did. Skills in Western mathematics, ethnomathematics and overall logical thinking all grew.

“In the second year of implementation (when teachers were more used to the model), the increase in learning of Western mathematics was 0.24 standard deviations. This is the equivalent of more than half a school year of additional learning compared to the status quo,” Näslund-Hadley said.

Now, all students in preschool and first grade in the comarca use JADENKÄ. A Quechua version will launch in March in Peru.

Barnett said that while the U.S. has a huge immigrant population and many children have a home language that isn’t English, very few early childhood programs in the U.S. work other languages into their curriculum and build on them. Many programs in poorer countries, however, make use of the home language. Around the globe, having a home language other than English is a risk factor for poorer academic performance later on, but building other languages into the curriculum could make that language skill a boon instead of a disadvantage.

“You can think of that [the different home language] as a problem, or you could think of it as a huge advantage,” he said.

Bilingualism has benefits for both individual Americans and the country as a whole, Barnett said. Being able to understand other countries is tremendously valuable for doing business and politics.

Barnett said that the U.S. performs well in education compared with other countries, except when it comes to math.

Fifteen-year-old students from 23 countries participated in the 2022 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment test. Sixty-six percent of U.S. students, compared with the countries’ average of 69%, attained at least Level 2 proficiency in math.

Students with Level 2 proficiency can at least “interpret and recognize, without direct instructions, how a simple situation can be represented mathematically.” For example, they can compare the total distance across two alternative routes or convert prices into a different currency. More than 85% of students in Singapore, Macao (China), Japan, Chinese Taipei and Estonia perform are at at least Level 2. The U.S. is not one of the 16 countries where at least 10% of students achieved at least Level 5 or 6. Seven percent of American students, compared with the 9% average of the 23 countries, are at that level.

U.S. students perform much better in science than they do in math, which indicates they understand some science content but they are not getting the fundamentals that are necessary for success in STEM careers, according to Barnett.

“Math is the language of science and it’s your toolbox in engineering,” he said.

He recalled that a state legislator told him that children in that official’s district don’t need to learn algebra.

“That tells me several things,” Barnett said. “First, he doesn’t know what algebra is. That’s a failure of our education system because algebra is basically the language of mathematics. There are a lot of jobs you can’t do if you can’t do algebra.”