I am sitting on an airplane with the movie Footloose playing in the background. True to my nature, watching the movie makes me think about math education. In the film, teens are unhappy about rules and expectations imposed on them. In the math classroom, students are similarly unhappy with the requirements. Are there any real parallels here? Let’s see.

Let’s start with the...

A new study released this week by the RAND Corporation, “Making Summer Count: How Summer Programs Can Boost Student Learning” concludes that summer academic programs are beneficial.  High quality programs can help close the achievement gap between low-income students and their middle-class peers....