Young children from families with low incomes tend to receive less support for mathematical development in their home and preschool environments compared to their peers whose families have higher incomes.
Our Pre–K Mathematics Workshops help close opportunity gaps through engaging instructional support for teachers and through coaching designed to help parents facilitate mathematics learning at home. Early education program staff receive technical assistance to sustain programwide mathematics support.
How We Help
The Pre–K Mathematics Workshops are grounded in the early math curriculum of Pre–K Mathematics. The curriculum has earned the highest rating of effectiveness by IES, validating that it improves young children’s math learning as determined by the substantial evidence base for the curriculum. We offer several workshop formats:
- One-day workshops focus on family engagement through the use of home activities
- Two-day workshops focus on the first half of the Pre–K Mathematics curriculum, home activities, or both
- Four-day curriculum workshops include training on the curriculum
Workshops are held at your designated sites and include a presentation, demonstration of activities, and small group practice. Curriculum and home activity materials are provided with registration. Materials are provided for all students in your classrooms and are available in both English and Spanish.
Coaching is available to support your implementation efforts following workshop completion. Additional technical assistance in sustaining implementation via continuous improvement methods is also available.
The math content in Pre–K Mathematics Workshops aligns with state and federal preschool learning guidelines and standards, such as the Head Start Framework and the California Preschool Learning Foundations. In addition, our workshops can be implemented alongside the Creative Curriculum and the Desired Results Developmental Profile.
Service Delivery
- Onsite
Who Will Benefit
- Community service providers
- Early childhood professionals
- Teachers
WestEd put on a fantastic Pre-K Math PD for my teachers to train the parents on how to do math with their child at home. They provided the training and the kits! My teachers exclaimed it was a great training and want them back. My teachers would role-play, one as the parent and one as the child, and practice the activity.
— Laurie Black
Director, Murphy Head Start, Phoenix, AZ
Featured Experts
Prentice Starkey
Alice Klein
Kylie Flynn
Connecting Research With Practice
Pre–K Mathematics is found to be effective through five gold-standard randomized controlled trials and meets the What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards without reservations.
The Pre–K Mathematics curriculum, which serves as the basis for this service, was created by WestEd researchers and developmental psychologists Prentice Starkey and Alice Klein through a rigorous and iterative design process. The curriculum was evaluated in randomized controlled trials and rated as effective by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse.
WestEd developed a statewide training network through a large validation study funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Investing in Improvement. The training network has been successfully implemented in a variety of early childhood settings, including large state preschool and Head Start programs in urban, suburban, and rural settings.
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