My Child’s School Changed How They Teach Math and I’m Worried About the Basics. What Do I Do?

The argument always comes framed as a fight: the school’s new way against the basics you learned.

A federal math panel looked at that fight in 2008 and called it misguided. The real question is smaller, and it is about your child.

You don’t need a credential to be your child’s first teacher. You already are one.

Three strands, not two sides

The worry tends to start at homework time. Your child draws circles and groups for a sum you would have done in one line. Or it goes the other way, and they follow the steps but freeze when you ask why. It looks like a choice between two kinds of math.

It is not a choice. In 2008 the National Mathematics Advisory Panel named three things a child needs. The first is understanding of the ideas. The second is fluent steps, which teachers call procedures. The third is fast recall of basic facts. Debates over which one matters more are “misguided,” the panel wrote. The three are “mutually supportive, each facilitating learning of the others,” it added. Fact recall, it said, needs “sufficient and appropriate practice,” so practice belongs in the plan too.

So the drawings are not the enemy of the basics. The basics are not the enemy of understanding. Your child needs all three, built together. If you want the wider picture, here is a plain guide to the core skills of math.

What do “the basics” mean on paper? The Common Core standards, used in many states, list what is taught by the end of each grade. The second-grade standard lists a goal to “know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers” by the end of the year. That is a teaching target, not a measure of what is normal for your child, and states vary. If your child is older, ask the teacher for this year’s fact targets.

The pendulum, not the teacher

Math teaching has swung for decades between “understanding first” and “drill first.” The 2008 panel already called that either/or misguided. Yet when a school adopts a new program, parents tend to hear about the new method and nothing else. Nobody tells you where fact practice sits now. That is a gap in how the change gets explained, and we would not pin it on your child’s teacher.

Here is what the federal guidance for schools says. A 2021 guide on helping students who struggle with math (Fuchs and colleagues) recommends objects and drawings that are linked back to the written numbers. It also recommends regular short timed practice, as one way to build fluency, on facts already taught. It warns against using timed activities to introduce and teach new ideas. Its panel also advised that “giving timed worksheets alone does not support fluency.” These come from studies in schools, not at home.

A 2009 federal guide (Gersten and colleagues) goes one step further. It advises schools to “screen all students” for math difficulty and to help the ones who are at risk. That screen is worth asking about, because it looks at your child, not at the program. You will find more of the research behind how math is taught in our library.

What to do this week: a three-strand check and three questions

Here is what we suggest. It is a check, not a test. Keep it calm, keep it short, and use no timer.

1. Look for understanding. Pick one homework problem. Ask your child to show it with objects or a quick drawing. Then ask, “Where is the 7 in your picture?” You are looking for a link between the drawing and the written numbers.

2. Look for the facts already taught. Ask a few facts from this year’s work, out loud. Notice which ones come straight from memory and which ones get counted out. This is not practice time. Write down what you saw.

3. Look for the steps. Watch one problem from start to finish. Notice if your child carries out the steps alone, and where they get stuck.

Then bring your notes to the teacher. Fall conferences are a natural time. Ask three questions. Where in the week does my child practice facts, and does that come after the idea is taught? How do the drawings and models connect back to the written numbers? Has my child had a math screening, and what did it show?

Listen closely to the answers. A teacher’s view of your child is worth taking seriously, and it is not the same as a screening. If one strand is stuck while classmates have it, that points to your child, not the method. The same goes for facts that do not grow with practice. One study of young children (Jordan, Hanich and Kaplan, 2003) found that for some, fast fact recall stayed hard while other math kept growing. So slow facts are a reason for a closer look, not a verdict. A screening is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal supports (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, ask for a professional evaluation. That is the route to those supports.

You want a child who understands math and knows the facts cold. You should not have to pick one. The trouble is a pendulum that keeps swinging and leaves parents guessing where the facts went. Nobody will ever advocate for your child as hard as you will.

When math is hard, we look at more than math. What numbers mean, the page, holding steps in mind. Our assessment asks about all of them. It sits beside a school screening or a professional evaluation, never in place of it. See what All Access includes for your child.