Cultivating Math Resilience: Fostering a Durable School-University Partnership Working to Promote Math Confidence in Post-Pandemic Education

Math is a school subject that causes some people anxiety. Anxiety about math has increased for some students due to disruptions in their learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This partnership development project involving Portland State University and the Tigard-Tualatin School District addresses pandemic-related learning challenges in middle school mathematics, with a focus on math anxiety. Across the yearlong project, the partners play equal roles in co-developing research, practice and policy proposals aimed at enhancing math outcomes and reducing math anxiety among the district's middle school students. Given that the district serves students with differing needs and talents, the project will also focus on how math instruction might reduce anxiety by adapting to students' cultural and community experiences. Addressing math anxiety in middle school is important because this is the time when students build math skills, and attitudes towards math, that can shape their future STEM learning and career opportunities. The project also aligns with the state of Oregon's current initiatives promoting math engagement and adapting high school math learning pathways to meet students' diverse needs. This project is supported by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.  Using a Community-Based Participatory (CBPR) approach, the project partners will engage local community members and organizations to evaluate existing theoretical models of math anxiety and develop tailored interventions. This participatory approach involves forming a core team of educators, administrators, and researchers, supported by a rotating listening group including math educators, mental health professionals, and community leaders. Together, they will co-construct solutions aligned with local resources to integrate emotional and mental health support into math education. Additionally, the project tackles racial and gender biases in STEM education that contribute to math anxiety, leveraging expertise in mathematics education, mental health, and educational research. A central aim is to create a sustainable school-university partnership, fostering ongoing collaboration and capacity-building for the community's diverse educational and mental health needs. The CBPR approach will be operationalized through regular meetings of the core team, the listening group, and subject-specific workshops, ensuring continuous feedback and adaptation to meet community needs. The partnership will use evidence-supported frameworks for both partnership design and evaluation. These frameworks will provide the structure for partnership development and the criteria under which the partnership will be assessed. While the project's evaluation will include interviews, focus groups, and observations, evaluation criteria will be collaboratively designed and agreed upon by participants in consultation with the evaluator. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.