Grow Your Mind
Guest Blog: Foundations of Numeracy Part 2
EXCERPT
Research has given us a clear picture of what students need to develop lasting mathematical proficiency — but knowing the destination isn't enough. In Part 2 of this series, Jillian Mendoza of PowerMyLearning shows principals, instructional coaches, and district leaders how to put the Foundations of Numeracy framework to work where it's needed most: designing intervention that targets root causes rather than surface-level procedures, and building teacher professional learning that actually changes instruction. If your school or district is making intervention and PD decisions without a shared diagnostic lens, this is the read that reframes how you think about both.
Guest Blog: Foundations of Numeracy Part 1
Decades of research have converged on a clear picture of what students need to build lasting mathematical proficiency — but translating that evidence into coherent, school-wide action is where many systems fall short. In this guest post, Jillian Mendoza, Director of Math at PowerMyLearning, introduces the Foundations of Numeracy framework: a research-backed map for making smarter decisions about curriculum, intervention, and instructional coherence. Whether you're a principal, instructional coach, or district leader, this framework gives you a shared language for evaluating every math decision — not just a slice of it, but the whole picture.
The Glue That Holds Math Proficiency Together: Building Adaptive Reasoning in Every Learner
Most students can follow the steps. They can execute a procedure, produce an answer, and move on. But ask them to justify their thinking, apply their reasoning to an unfamiliar problem, or explain why their answer makes sense — and the wheels come off. The National Research Council called adaptive reasoning the glue that holds all five strands of mathematical proficiency together. So why does it get the least attention? This post breaks down what adaptive reasoning actually is, why it can't develop in silence, and the practical routines that build it in every learner — regardless of grade level or ability.
Podcast: Unpopular Opinions in Education
What counts as real intervention? What does joy have to do with learning? I joined the Minimalist Educator Podcast with four fellow educators to share our most unpopular opinions in education — including mine about math intervention. Listen to both episodes and watch the full conversation here.
Guest Blog: The Lasting Impact of PBL on Students
Dr. Keith Adams has spent 30 years in education learning the same lesson from two very different roles — teacher and coach: sustained engagement doesn't come from compliance, it comes from ownership. In this post, he shares how Project-Based Learning, grounded in UDL principles, gave his social studies students a year-long invitation to pursue questions that actually mattered to them — and how the skills they built along the way followed them long after they left his classroom.
What Coherent Math Intervention Systems Have in Common
Why do so many math intervention efforts fall short despite strong educator commitment? In this post, I share four design principles that can help schools build more coherent mathematics intervention systems—ones that target the right needs, strengthen instruction, and support meaningful progress.