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Big Shifts Ahead for Math Instruction

Teacher Nena Hupp reads the book 1+1=5 and Other Unlikely Additions to children in her kindergarten class at Worthington Elementary.

—Stephen Voss for Education Week

Some topics will be introduced earlier, some omitted, and students will have to show their understanding

By Erik W. Robelen

Ellicott City, Md.

Nena F. Hupp pauses from reading her kindergartners the picture book Let's Count to help them better understand the math assignments they are about to tackle in small groups.

"Remember, when you get to 10 dots, a better way is to represent those 10 dots with just a stick," said Ms. Hupp, who teaches at Worthington Elementary School in this community near Baltimore. "It takes us forever to have to count all those dots. Mathematicians were smart when they came up with that idea, because it makes it so much easier."

Prior to this school year, kindergartners in the 50,000-student Howard County district—and in public schools across Maryland—were not expected to learn about representing tens and ones, a building block for understanding place value, explains Kay B. Sammons,...