KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Sept. 28, 2020 - Calculating Minds, a math learning center offering personalized instruction to students in Kindergarten through Algebra, recently conducted a survey to gage Tennessee parents state of mind regarding math in grade school. 50% of parents surveyed indicated they felt changes due to COVID-19 may cause their child to fall behind in math. 70% percent of parents indicated they felt their child would benefit from additional math support.
A new survey conducted by Sizyl, a digital agency, on behalf of Calculating Minds attempted to gage parent's thoughts related to math in the new school year. Although we are barely a month into the new school year, Tennessee grade school parents are already expressing concern their children may fall behind in math. This is a troubling sign given the backdrop of Tennessee public schools consistently lagging behind in national math proficiency over the past decade.
The just released survey results indicate parents are the primary provider of support for their children outside of the classroom. Parents indicate they are available much of the time and their children view them as very or extremely helpful with their math homework. Although their attitude towards math support provided by schools is slightly positive, they demonstrate concern for the future.
"We conducted our survey to gage perception of parents as we begin the school year," said Dee Morgan, Co-Founder of Calculating Minds. "We were pleased to see parents are prepared and available to support their children with math. We believe parent availability has improved as many are now working from home," Ms. Morgan went on to say.
The survey indicated 70% of parents think their child would benefit from additional math support. Without a previous benchmark, it is difficult to determine if this is a need due to the global pandemic or an ongoing concern related to the public school system's ability to support math.
"Calculating Minds was started by teachers who knew grade school children need more support for math," said Amy Finch. "Coronavirus is just another hurdle being thrown in the path of these kids. Math is a cumulative subject and parents would be wise to take pre-emptive action to ensure their children don't fall too far behind," Ms. Finch went on to say.
The survey targeted parents of grade school children in Tennessee schools. To qualify for the survey respondents needed to have at least one student in their household between the ages of five and sixteen. Respondents also had to be living in the state of Tennessee. The survey was conducted between the 1st and 8th of September 2020. Full survey results are available here.
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