Mathematics education at the high school level is not working for many students. Although there has been steady improvement in mathematics learning at the elementary and middle school levels across the United States, for the past decade, student achievement has remained essentially flat at the high school level (NCES 2015, 2016). One possible…

There are fundamental questions that teachers should ask themselves and their students as they prepare lessons on calculating area. Area measurement is commonly used in everyday life (perhaps to carpet a room or organize a space) and plays a foundational role in mathematics from multiplication all way up to calculus. Despite the usefulness of area…

Word problems are an essential component of providing a context for computation but are also recognized as an enduring struggle for students. Students are challenged to solve these story-based problems, often resorting to trial and error. This article presents meaningful alternative approaches to helping students make sense of word problems.