Why MathPro? Our Children’s Success Matters
With more than 80 years combined in public education—most of that time teaching middle school math and high school chemistry—we saw a common problem: many intelligent students struggled because they lacked confidence and fluency with basic numbers. Research supports what we experienced in the classroom: early success in mathematics is strongly connected to later academic success. (See the research articles below.)
We also saw too many students become dependent on calculators for basic number skills. While calculators are valuable tools, relying on them too heavily can keep students from developing the number sense and confidence they need to estimate, recognize relationships between numbers, and determine whether an answer makes sense.
So we created MathPro.
Our goal was to create a simple, fun tool that could be used by children on their own, with family, or in the classroom. MathPro helps students practice essential number skills while building fluency, understanding, and confidence.
MathPro has been used by families with children ages 4–18, in classrooms from K–12, and in after-school math clubs. We've seen the same thing wherever we use it: when math practice is fun, students are more willing to practice—and practice builds confidence.
MathPro isn't magic. Like anything worth learning, becoming comfortable with numbers takes practice. We simply believe practice is easier when it's fun.
We also believe that success in math is only one part of what parents and teachers hope to give their children. If MathPro has a motto, it might be this familiar proverb:
“Start off children in the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
—Proverbs 22:6
While this proverb speaks to much more than mathematics, we believe it also applies to giving children a strong start with numbers—the universal language.
Our hope is that MathPro can be one small tool that helps start children in the way they should go.
Research Shows That Early Math Skills Predict Later Academic Success. (←link to article)
Early Math Success Leads to Greater High School Achievement (←link to article)
Short Summary of the Two Research Articles Supporting the Importance of Early Math Skills
Research by UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of Education Greg Duncan and his colleagues provides compelling evidence for the importance of early mathematics. Researchers examined data from six large, population-based studies involving more than 16,000 children. They looked at numerous measures of school readiness, including early reading and math skills, attention, and social and behavioral development, and then compared those measures with students' academic success in later elementary and middle school.
Of all the measures studied, early mathematics skills were the most consistent and powerful predictor of future academic success—even more predictive than early reading skills.
A second study involving more than 2,800 children found that students who continued to struggle with math throughout elementary school were 13 percentage points less likely to graduate from high school and 29 percentage points less likely to attend college.
These findings reinforce what we have seen throughout our years in the classroom: building strong math skills early can have a lasting impact on a student's educational success.
MathPro was created to help make that practice more accessible, engaging, and enjoyable for children.