How much is 5 + 3? At the First People’s Center for Education, they know that a significant group of young Native American children would try to count their fingers to find the answer, even if they should be old enough already to add the numbers up in their head. Educators would say that they don’t have “number sense,” lacking the ability to “compose” and “decompose” numbers. Many American Indian students are lagging when it comes to proficiency in reading and math. The First People’s Center for Education, a small nonprofit, has found a way to change this. They train teachers at poor, mostly Native American schools to use different approaches in numeracy. With good results. Before 2006, when First People’s came to schools with a lot of Native American children, less than a quarter of the school’s third-graders were rated “proficient” or higher on the state’s standardized math test. Since then, more than 60 percent have achieved this benchmark annually.
A unique approach to math helps boost achievement for children in school
More of Today's Solutions
More US states and cities are boosting minimum wages in 2026. What does it me...
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM As the federal minimum wage remains frozen at $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009, cities and states across ...
Read More3 organization hacks for Type B brains that actually work
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Scroll through any productivity blog or time-management book, and you’ll find a familiar formula: rigid routines, detailed planners, ...
Read MoreAn easy hack to counteract the harmful health effects of sitting all day
Humans are not designed to spend the entire day seated. Nonetheless, billions of us do it at least five days per week, as Western ...
Read MoreEnsuring no pet goes hungry: The rise of pet food banks in the UK
Pete Dolan, a cat owner, recalls the tremendous help he received from Animal Food Bank Support UK, a Facebook organization that coordinates volunteer community ...
Read More
