The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education. Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox. Consider supporting our stories and becoming a member today.

In this short video, reporter Sharon Lurye discusses how parents can help their young children gather basic math skills.

Website for The Associated Press
This story also appeared in The Associated Press

Math is all around us. You don’t have to buy anything expensive or plan an activity in advance. It’s all about taking advantage of those spontaneous opportunities to ask your kids questions and help them learn.

The Math Problem 

Sluggish growth in math scores for U.S. students began long before the pandemic, but the problem has snowballed into an education crisis. This back-to-school-season, the Education Reporting Collaborative, a coalition of eight newsrooms, will be documenting the enormous challenge facing our schools and highlighting examples of progress. The three-year-old Reporting Collaborative includes AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Hechinger Report, Idaho Education News, The Post and Courier in South Carolina, and The Seattle Times.

The Associated Press’ Sharon Lurye, Stephen Smith and Akira Kumamoto produced this video as part of The Math Problem, a series from The Education Reporting Collaborative exploring the math crisis facing schools and highlighting progress. The collaborative is a coalition of eight newsrooms whose members include AL.com, The Associated Press, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Hechinger Report, Idaho Education News, The Post and Courier in South Carolina and The Seattle Times.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

Join us today.