Despite enquiry showing the crucial importance of math at a preschool level for future academic success, preschool programs confront significant obstacles in implementing an effective math program, according to interviews with early childhood instructors and preschool administrators.

The greatest obstacle cited in the interviews conducted past EdSource over the by month is the lack of math content and grooming in how to teach it among preschool staff. Other obstacles cited included the logistics and costs of providing in-service training, the impact of the budget crisis on providing professional development, and widespread "math anxiety" among preschool staff who have frequently struggled with math earlier in their careers.

EdSource outlined its findings at the CSLNet Summit, which was held this week in San Diego, and was attended by over 300 educators and others working to promote greater involvement in scientific discipline, technology, engineering, and math (Stem) curricula and careers. 1 highlight of the conference was the designation of former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, now 65, as California's "After School STEM ambassador" past State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

In 2007, Greg Duncan, an economist now in the UC Irvine School of Didactics, shook the world of early childhood didactics when he and fellow researchers published a newspaper showing that early on math concepts, such every bit knowledge of numbers and measurement, were "the virtually powerful predictors of later on learning," even more than reading and writing. The findings challenged what has been the central focus of early on learning in the U.S. for decades: reading and literacy.

However, California has instituted a multi-layered gear up of frameworks, standards, and assessment tools that all deal with preschool math. The almost of import are the California Preschool Learning Foundations, which were published in 2008 and outline the "foundational skills" and knowledge that children betwixt four and five are expected to acquire before they enter kindergarten, including math concepts like numbers, measurement, nomenclature, and recognizing patterns.

Children are not expected to be little Einsteins, simply to master basic math concepts by the fourth dimension they reach kindergarten, including, for example, beingness able to:

  • count to twenty "with increasing accuracy" by the fourth dimension they reach kindergarten;
  • recognize the names of some written numerals;
  • count the number in a collection of upwardly to iv objects;
  • understand that adding i or taking away ane changes the number in a small-scale group of objects by exactly one.

(For a comparison of what is expected of children in preschool and kindergarten, under current standards and under the new Mutual Core, see this comparison by the Irvine Unified Schoolhouse District.)

Merely despite the existence of the Foundations and other tools such as the Desired Results Development Profiles, the paucity of preschool instructor preparation in math gets in the way of fully integrating math into the preschool curriculum.

Susan Forest, director of the California Plant of Technology's Children'due south Heart in Pasadena, which has a math and science focus, described math preparation in the permitting process as "terrible" and "not-existent." Asked how much emphasis her college places on math didactics, Janice Townsend, an instructor on the Kid Development kinesthesia at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, answered, "Probably not enough."

Erin Freschi, program services administrator for Outset 5 Alameda, said that typically the courses that students in Early Childhood Education community college programs take will include content on pedagogy math, simply the amount varies depending on the instructor and is usually very express.

In California, all preschool teachers and associate teachers are required obtain a "Child Development Permit" (rather than a teaching credential as required for Thou-12 teachers). To receive their permits, teachers must take 16 units in academic courses, including one each in English language, math or science, social sciences, and humanities or fine arts. But they tin bypass math by taking a science class instead.

In one case they have completed their academic studies, they must and then enroll in an early on childhood education program to take  24 units, or eight courses, in early childhood education and kid evolution. Typically math does non figure prominently in these courses.

Equally a consequence, unless students choose to take math as part of their math and science "general didactics" requirement, they tin can get their teaching permits without having to take even one math class.

Ada Hand, president of the California Kindergarten Association, noted that preschool staff need to know less almost formal math education, only more about how to promote agile, hands-on learning, providing objects to manipulate, along with games, blocks, and puzzles, enabling children to have a rich dialog with peers and adults.

Rather, the goal for teachers is to integrate basic math concepts into everyday activities, such as counting the number of steps from the classroom to the playground, or looking at a spider during recess and counting the number of legs it has. Every bit Veronica Ufoegbune, manager of the Woodstock Child Development Centers in Alameda, said, "People forget that math is a daily experience; information technology is part of everything you do."

For teachers who take already obtained their permit, at that place is left the crucial task of providing follow-up grooming and professional development opportunities. Peggy Nguyen, Early Childhood Coordinator in the Newport-Mesa School Commune, said such training has been her program'south "biggest struggle."

Elaine Coggins, director of Early Babyhood Educational activity in the Anaheim City Schoolhouse District, which serves some 1200 children in 17 different sites, noted that at that place is a plethora of preschool math-focused curriculum materials. The bigger challenge, she said, "is really didactics teachers how to utilize the materials."

One other challenge is ensuring that California's Preschool Learning Foundations are aligned with the K-3 Mutual Core country standards, adopted by California and 45 other states and due for implementation in 2014-15, without overwhelming teachers and preschool administrators already struggling to stay on top of the multiple layers of state standards and assessments.

Only here is some practiced news: An initial assay past the California Department of Education indicates that at to the lowest degree in this regard California is ahead of many other states, and that its preschool and Mutual Core standards are adequately closely aligned.

The analysis plant that "fifty-fifty though the preschool foundations and the Common Core standards are organized somewhat differently, overall, both cover the same areas in mathematics."

Next month, EdSource will publish a more in-depth written report on the policy and practical challenges of implementing an effective math curriculum at a preschool level.

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