Middle School Math: Culturally Responsive Materials, Teacher Professional Learning, and Student Engagement

Mathematica partnered with four school districts with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to examine: 

• How professional learning helps teachers implement middle school math curricula and adapt them to their students’ needs.  
• How and to what extent math teachers’ adaptations of curricula in the classroom promote culturally and linguistically responsive and rigorous math instruction.
• How curricula, professional learning, and different instructional practices influence middle school students’ academic performance and non-academic outcomes such as their math enjoyment, growth mindset, and math identity.
• How different instructional contexts produce positive math classroom experiences for students, with a particular focus on those who are Black, Latino, multilingual learners, or experiencing poverty.
• How six middle school mathematics curricula vary along dimensions of quality, five of which were rated by EdReports.

Preliminarily, we have examined the efficacy of two middle school math curricula in one district on student performance outcomes, and found few differences. We have also examined the cultural responsiveness of the six math curricula included in the study and found that they provide teachers with very limited content or guidance to employ culturally responsive pedagogical strategies.