National Academies Recognize ‘Making Sense of SCIENCE’ and ‘Pre-K Mathematics’ as Promising Innovations in Education

December 13, 2024

A recent report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies WestEd’s “Making Sense of SCIENCE” and “Pre-K Mathematics” as successful, evidence-based education programs that show promise for scaling and for sustaining innovation to improve STEM learning and teaching. The recognition by the Academies in this congressionally mandated report is a reflection of WestEd’s commitment to developing innovations rooted in evidence that create sustained improvements for learners and their communities. WestEd, a nonpartisan research, development, and service agency, works to promote excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults.

Making Sense of SCIENCE (MSS) was specifically recognized by the Academies for its approach to building capacity by working with local leaders to support facilitation of high-quality professional learning for teachers, coaches, and administrators. MSS’s collaborative and relationship-based approach strengthens scalability and implementation in a variety of classrooms and schools.

The report, Scaling and Sustaining Pre-K–12 STEM Education Innovations, cites a national study showing that after just 24 hours of MSS’s professional learning, both teachers and students made significant gains in content knowledge, and the effect was greatest for students who are multilingual learners. The study found that these gains were sustained through the following school year.

“Making Sense of SCIENCE is honored to be highlighted by the National Academies,” said Kirsten Daehler, Director of Making Sense of SCIENCE. “Since we began working with school and district leaders nearly 20 years ago, we have seen the MSS approach make a difference in thousands of classrooms and propel STEM learning forward. We’re proud of this distinction from the Academies and look forward to bringing MSS to more schools and districts.” 

The Academies report also featured WestEd’s Pre-K Mathematics program as an example of an effective innovation that was successfully implemented and evaluated across a sequence of rigorous studies. Pre-K Mathematics is a supplemental curriculum for preschool classrooms designed to support the development of young children’s informal mathematical knowledge. 

The program recently earned the highest rating of effectiveness by Institute of Education Sciences (IES)’s What Works Clearinghouse and has been found to be effective in five randomized controlled trials, including one at a statewide scale in California and, most recently, at a national scale. The Academies’ report emphasizes the Pre-K Mathematics’ evidence base, demonstrating consistently positive impacts on math achievement across diverse early childhood programs in urban and rural settings.

“We hope that local and state education agencies will see this National Academies report as validation that Pre-K Mathematics could be used to improve early math learning in their programs,” said Alice Klein and Prentice Starkey, co-developers of the Pre-K Mathematics program.

The report is the result of an expert committee charged with examining the interconnected factors that foster or hinder the scalability of promising, evidence-based STEM education innovations, and identifying barriers and gaps in research. It also features a compendium of more than 50 successful, evidence-based education innovations across the U.S., including both Making Sense of SCIENCE and Pre-K Mathematics. 

WestEd is a partner to at least 10 programs featured in the compendium, providing evaluation, research, or technical assistance support to these programs. This includes STEM STRONG, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded project that provides supports to rural science and engineering teachers. WestEd’s Dr. Ashley Iveland serves as a STEM STRONG Co-Principal Investigator alongside Dr. Ryan Summers, the Principal Investigator at the University of North Dakota.