The Future of Math: Content Students Need for the 21st Century

February 29, 12:00 pm ET

Join the second webinar in our learning series on The Future of Math. Much of the math content our children experience is rooted in the needs of the past. What will math students need to succeed in the future, now that phones and computers are ubiquitous, and Artificial Intelligence is on the cusp of being fast and accurate? An esteemed panel of experts will share how they think about the changes needed in math content and steps we can take to ensure it truly aligns with what students need to thrive in careers and life.

This session is a follow-on to the EdFunders conference session "Removing Math as a Barrier to Equitable Student Success: What Stands in the Way?" and the first webinar in the series, "The Future of Math: Where is Math Education Now and Where Should It Be?" You are welcome to attend any or all sessions in the series.

About the Series

This series imagines how our mathematics education systems could better serve the needs of all of our students, the workforce and our society – and how we might make that vision a reality. The series takes a systemic approach, looking at pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, technology, management and social forces. Throughout, we focus on the barriers to reform and what the philanthropic community can do to help. The Future of Math series is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

This event is intended for members and other education grantmakers.

There is no cost to attend this Grantmakers for Education program. Registration closes 15 minutes prior to the program time. Thank you for your patience; we review each registration in advance.

About the Speakers

Dr. H. Justin Ballenger
Assistant Professor of STEM Education
Morehouse College

Dr. H. Justin Ballenger, an Assistant Professor of STEM Education at Morehouse College, also serves as the Deputy Director of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Data Science Initiative. He holds the role of Co-Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded Institute for African American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (IAAMCS) and serves as the Research Lead for the National Data Science Alliance (NDSA). Dr. Ballenger actively participates in advisory panels for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) and NASA Transform to Open Science (TOPS) faculty advisory group. His professional focus revolves around fostering inclusivity in data science and STEM fields through research and community engagement efforts.

Dr. Dave Kung

Dr. Dave Kung (he/him) spent more than 20 years at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where he was a professor for various courses across the mathematics curriculum in the Department of Math and Computer Science. While there, he co-founded an Emerging Scholars program to retain minoritized students. Dave is an award-winning teacher and also serves as the director of MAA Project NExT, a professional development program for new faculty in the mathematical sciences.

Dr. Kristi Martin
High School Mathematics Teacher
Tumwater School District (WA)

Kristi Martin is a high school mathematics teacher. She has prior experience educating future teachers, as a high school mathematics coach, and most recently as chair of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’s upcoming publication focused on High School Mathematics. Kristi works to incorporate social-emotional learning into each of her lessons. She communicates that all students are capable mathematics doers and provides opportunities for them to develop healthy attitudes towards themselves and others. Kristi also influenced pedagogical shifts and assessment practices within her school to incorporate asset-based perspectives.

Dr. Ji Son
Professor
California State University at Los Angeles

Ji Y. Son is Professor of Psychology at California State University at Los Angeles and director of the Learning Lab at Cal State LA. She is a co-author of the interactive textbook “Introduction to Statistics: A Modeling Approach” published using CourseKata.org. Her PhD in Cognitive Science and Psychology is from Indiana University, Bloomington. She is interested in how basic psychological processes (from cognition to social belonging) foster rich and transferable learning. Her work examines methods of applying these psychological insights at scale to issues like mathematics remediation and student success.

Dashiell Young-Saver
Founder and CEO
Skew the Script

While teaching at a Title 1 school on the southside of San Antonio, Dash threw out his traditional AP®️ Stats curriculum and created lessons on topics his students cared about: voter power, food deserts, the Spurs’s chance at winning the NBA title, online dating, and more. That year, more students at the school took and passed the AP®️ exam than in the previous 16 years combined.

Borrowing from his class motto of “skew the script,” Dashiell created a website and posted his lessons online for free. Now, he leads Skew The Script’s efforts to provide relevant math lessons to classrooms across the country.

Dashiell still teaches part-time in San Antonio and writes math lessons for The New York Times. He holds a BA and master’s in Data Science from Harvard.