STEM

Bedtime Math To Expand to 6 Cities

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 04/21/16

Bedtime Math, a nonprofit organization billing itself as a "math ambassador," will expand to a half dozen new cities following a pilot project at Newark Public Schools (NPS). Announcement of the expansion came today as part of the White House Early STEM Symposium.

Designed to help reduce math anxiety among both students and parents, Bedtime Math offers quick, engaging story problems for parents and students to solve together daily.

"In a given year, kids spend three to four times as many hours outside school as in it, so their parents have a huge effect on their learning," said Laura Overdeck, founder of Bedtime Math, in a news release. "Parents are a child's most important educators, and by using Bedtime Math, even the most math-anxious parents can add a little 'math talk' to their daily routine. With the support of school districts across the country, we're hoping to help even more kids learn to love and embrace math."

In the Newark pilot, a parent-teacher conference model was used. Six elementary schools in the district were chosen to participate. Teachers at those schools were taught about the app, and then shared information about it with parents during conferences. "Initial results found 10-20 percent of parents at each school were using the app with their kids, with the strongest results among prekindergarten through second grade," according to a news release.

As a result of the success of the pilot, Newark Public Schools has decided to roll the program out to all 54 of its elementary schools. The program will also be rolled out to at least five more districts.

"I love Bedtime Math," said Christopher D. Cerf, superintendent of NPS, in a prepared statement. "Bedtime Math has made math accessible to students and parents across the city. I especially appreciate the way it encourages shared time for parents to participate directly in their children's learning. It is exciting to see students learn to love and embrace math, which is a critical tool for long-term academic success. We are proud of our partnership with Bedtime Math and are thrilled that NPS can serve as a model for other school districts across the country."