The Utah STEM Action Center introduced the Math Introduction and Learning Opportunities (MILO) and Friends campaign to promote early math learning. Below are links to the research behind this campaign.
links to the research
- Regardless of background, early math skills are a more significant predictor of future performance in math and reading than early reading skills, attention skills, and socioemotional behaviors (even among children with high levels of problem behavior).
- Kindergartners' base-10 knowledge (understanding numbers 1-10) predicts on arithmetic accuracy in second grade.
- Kindergarten math entry scores predict functional numeracy more than six years later controlling for intelligence, working memory, in-class attentive behavior, mathematical achievement, demographic and other factors.
- SES disparities in early math achievement are large and persistent. Parents’ beliefs about math, practices to support math, and language about math concepts can close that gap.
- Brief, high-quality parent-child interactions about math at home can break the intergenerational cycle of low math achievement.
- Regardless of demographic differences, all Head Start parents lacked knowledge of the specific skills their children need for academic success according to the Head Start Content Standards and Early Learning Framework.
- Access to home learning tools, including math focused books, can significantly reduce the math achievement gap related to socioeconomic status.