Assisting Students Struggling in Math and Science

Students struggling with mathematics may benefit from early interventions aimed at improving their mathematics ability and ultimately preventing subsequent failure. This guide provides eight specific recommendations intended to help teachers, principals, and school administrators use Response to Intervention (RtI) to identify students who need assistance in mathematics and to address the needs of these students through focused interventions. The guide provides suggestions on how to carry out each recommendation and explains how educators can overcome potential roadblocks to implementing the recommendations.

This practice guide also aims to formulate specific and coherent evidence-based recommendations that educators can use to encourage girls in the fields of math and science. The target audience is teachers and other school personnel with direct contact with students, such as coaches, counselors, and principals. The practice guide includes specific recommendations for educators and the quality of evidence that supports these recommendations.

A unique feature of practice guides is the explicit and clear delineation of the quality and quantity of evidence that supports each claim. To this end, we adapted a semi-structured hierarchy suggested by the Institute of Education Sciences.