Teachers looking at new ways to help students struggling with math proficiency

News 5 is following up on a story from this week that has a lot of people talking online.

A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Data Book shows that 71% of Ohio eighth graders are not proficient in math .

It is a trend that’s been worsening statewide and nationwide since 2019.

Professor Nick Gurski, co-chair of the math department at Case Western Reserve University, says there are many factors, but that a basic building block of math is problem-solving and helping kids persevere and have mental tenacity.

“A very difficult process is just working through, you know, how do you cope with a tough problem whether it’s a math problem or a difficult situation with a friend or family member," said Gurski.

A Cleveland middle school math teacher recently told us something similar and interesting when I discussed with him the impacts of his school going cellphone-free this past school year.

Cleveland schools making moves to go cell phone-free in classrooms

RELATED: Cleveland schools making moves to go cell phone-free in classrooms

Shaun Green, a middle school math teacher at George Washington Carver Pre-K through 8th grade STEM School, told me how much more focused his students were without the distraction of cell phones and the ability to use their phones and apps like Photomathto help answer problems in class. The app lets you use your phone camera to take a photo of a math problem, which the app then solves in an instant.

“Photomath is the biggest bane of my existence," Green said. "And, when Photomath was taken out of the classroom with their cellphones, the students are actually using their brains more and dealing with the productive struggle and asking classmates to help clarify things, and their learning goes a lot farther.”

Green also told me that math scores went up with the school’s new cellphone-free policy, which all CMSD schools will adopt this upcoming school year.

Again, that’s just one factor.

Reading scores are also suffering in Ohio and nationwide, and as Gurski explained, math also consists of reading comprehension, which can impact a child’s ability to understand mathematical problems.

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