Maryland schools will teach math differently this year. Here’s what to expect.

Public school parents might be forgiven if they dread the thought of math changes coming this school year.

Since 2012, when Maryland schools started teaching to the Common Core standards, parents have found their third grader’s math lesson as painful as putting together Ikea furniture. It’s not enough to get the answer right; a student has to explain how they got the answer — and there can be lots of variations of how.

That isn’t changing. But Maryland parents will be happy to know they shouldn’t have to rearrange their evenings to help their children with math homework. State officials said new math standards — a list of what must be taught in each grade — simplify lessons and narrow the scope of what students must learn. The goal is to give students a better understanding of how math works and more time to practice, hopefully raising abysmal test scores.

“Our updated standards aren’t a major overhaul, but they do provide a little more clarity and coherence from grade level to grade level,” said Elise Brown, assistant state superintendent for instructional programs.

Maryland’s eighth graders once outperformed the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a gold-standard test, but in 2012 those scores began a gradual decline — apparent across the country but particularly dramatic in Maryland. By 2024, those eighth-grade scores showed one of the largest drops of any state. Only a quarter of Maryland eighth-grade students are now proficient in math, according to the national test.

Students also aren’t doing well on the state’s own annual assessment. Last spring only 27% of students at all levels passed their math tests, although Maryland’s test is considered particularly difficult.

The decline was puzzling because the Common Core standards — adopted by 40 states in the 2010s — were designed to raise the bar for students across the nation.

Theories abound, but today educators believe the way teachers translated the standards into the classroom didn’t help. Students were expected to perform at higher levels than ever before, and often there was no plan to help students who were already behind. In addition, many of the concepts were taught once, rather than being reinforced in the next year or two. That meant struggling students fell further behind.

Maryland has been working to correct some of those issues while keeping the standards high. The changes will take effect in elementary and middle grades this year, but high school students won’t see any changes yet.

Some school systems will work to ensure every student learns their math facts — called fluency and automaticity by math teachers. Some educators believe students are less likely to be successful in higher-level math if they haven’t memorized addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables.

“Fluency is a critical skill for student comprehension in math, and so fluency will show up strongly in those early grades, early elementary and upper elementary,” Brown said.

Karen McKiernan, a Montgomery County fifth-grade math teacher who will start her 31st year of teaching this week, said students today have a harder time.

Students were once willing to focus and work at learning math facts, but cellphones, laptops and gaming now compete for their attention. Often her students have parents who are working long hours and can’t provide as much support at home.

Even so, teachers and administrators said, students will still have to understand and not just memorize. “We are not focused on the memorization but understanding the strategy of how to answer the question,” McKiernan said. Much of her focus will be spent on training students how to look at a problem, how to read it and how to solve it, she said.

Howard County administrators in charge of math instruction have been making adjustments since last winter.

To some degree, math is math, said John SanGiovanni, Howard County’s curriculum coordinator for math who also served on the committee that developed the new state standards. Students will always have to learn how to add and subtract. Four plus four is eight. “How we teach it has evolved,” he said.

Math educators are hoping not only to teach students various ways to solve a problem but also what the most efficient way to do it is.

Kerry Steinbrenner, Baltimore City Public Schools director of mathematics, said the city began working with all of the other school districts that use the same textbooks to understand how the state’s new standards would change their lessons.

The city purchased Reveal Math by McGraw Hill textbooks, the same program used in Anne Arundel, Frederick, Talbot and Somerset counties, last year. The city worked particularly closely with Anne Arundel educators to sift through what about each lesson would need to change. Some concepts would need to be taught in a different grade under the new state standards. Steinbrenner hopes McGraw Hill will put out a new, updated version for Maryland.

State and local educators are focused on making math more appealing and understandable for parents and families. They are hoping to avoid putting out directives that aren’t well understood by parents and teachers.

Baltimore City, for instance, created guides that walk parents through what their children will be learning in each grade. The state has also published guidance that suggests activities they can use to reinforce the lessons.

The state held meetings for families to learn about the math changes this summer. About 1,000 families attended.

With additional state funding, the education department has hired coaches this year to provide math teachers in 14 schools across four districts hands-on help. State education leaders hope to bring on more next year.

“We want to make sure that we’re providing our teachers the professional learning that they need in order to make their craft even better, build their capacity as teachers,” said Carey Wright, the state superintendent of schools.

About the Education Hub

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