Regardless of gender, race or ethnicity, students are largely tuning out during math instruction, according to the results of RAND Corporation’s first survey on the topic.
Among middle and high school aged youth, 49 percent reported losing interest in math about half or more of the time, and 75 percent of youths reported losing interest for at least some class time.
Heather Schwartz, vice president and director of RAND Education and Labor, noted that while “boredom is not unique to math, routine boredom is a problem,” and that the findings “emphasize the importance of boosting student engagement to improve academic outcomes.”
Engaging students in math is critical to helping them catch up to pre-pandemic achievement levels. Eighth-grade math scores on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress were eight points lower than in 2019, with the lowest-performing students scored worse in 2024 than in 2022. Such trends raise urgent questions about the state of student engagement in the classroom and areas in which policymakers and educators might be able to intervene, according to RAND researchers.
Part of the issue involves an overreliance on online activities and too few real-world applications in their math classes, students said.
“It may sound surprising in today’s high-tech environment, but online math activities might be less motivating than face-to-face instruction,” Robert Bozick, senior research scientist at RAND, said in a statement. “This emphasizes the need for high-quality math instruction, and we suggest a mix of engaging math activities combining face-to-face teacher-student interactions with a mix of offline and online activities and the use of more real-world applications in the classroom.”
Survey findings also show that 30 percent of middle and high school students said that they have never considered themselves a “math person.” Students who are the most likely to maintain interest in math are the same ones who comprehend math, feel supported in math, are confident in their ability to do well in math, enjoy math, believe in the need to learn math and see themselves as a math person.
