Greg Duncan before delivering the keynote address at the Silicon Valley Education Foundation’s forum on early math. Credit: Lillian Mongeau, EdSource Today
A study showing that early math skills are one of the best predictors of later success in both math and literacy has become a cornerstone of the growing movement among early childhood educators to boost math instruction in preschool through 3rd grade.
The architect of the 2007 study, Greg Duncan, an economist and University of California Irvine education professor, is a national expert on the importance of strong early math skills. He shared key aspects of his research in interviews with EdSource earlier this year and following a forum on early math by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation in San Jose, where he was the keynote speaker. Excerpts from the interviews are below.
Why early math is so important:
“Math coming into school is important because kids who do well in math early on tend to do very well in school. And math is important later on because kids who do well in math in high school end up doing well in the labor market.
“(My research shows) the links between school success and achievement in, say, 5th grade or 8th grade, and the kind of skills that kids bring into school. It’s a pattern that seems to be showing up in a number of different data sets from several different countries and different historical periods: If you do kind of a horse race and ask, ‘What sort of skills and behaviors do kids bring to school that are most important for