Middle Grade Math: Preparing for Advanced Learning and Future Careers

Strong middle-school math skills are crucial for students’ success after high school. Math proficiency shapes future career opportunities, supports learning in science and engineering, and helps with everyday problem-solving.^15,16

Sixth grade is a key year, as students’ understanding of expressions and equations reveals where they may need extra support to prevent future gaps in math learning. Yet math proficiency by sixth grade depends on far more than school instruction alone. It requires that students have access to quality math instruction in earlier grades, that language barriers for multilingual learners are addressed alongside math learning, and that students see themselves as “math people,” a belief shaped by home, community, peer groups, and media messages, not just schools. It also requires employers, community organizations, and mentors to create opportunities that show students why math matters for their futures. In a rapidly changing economy where STEM skills increasingly determine economic opportunity, these partnerships are essential.

How Are Boston Sixth Graders Performing in Math?

The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) is administered in the spring and includes an assessment on mathematics. MCAS Math data for Boston indicates math recovery since the pandemic has been slower than reading, with MCAS proficiency rates increasing only gradually. In SY 2024–2025, overall math proficiency remained low across student groups. Differences in math outcomes by race/ethnicity and gender remain, with improvement that modestly closes the gap in math scores among Black and Latino students. Among low-income Boston students, math proficiency rose from 18.5 percent in SY 2021–2022 to 21.3 percent in SY 2024–2025, with minor year-to-year fluctuations. Math proficiency remains substantially lower for multilingual learners (3.8–4.5 percent) and students with disabilities (7.0–7.3 percent), with only limited narrowing of gaps over time. The pace of math recovery remains slow and uneven, with persistent proficiency gaps continuing to define outcomes.

Where Is More Support Still Needed?

Several collaborative efforts have been made to improve math outcomes, including increased peer support, expanded tutoring, and engaging instructional practices. Despite these efforts to improve math outcomes, data show persistent gaps for historically underserved students, signaling the need for more targeted support and honest conversation about barriers that extend beyond schools. Both classroom-level practices and system-level structures must continue to evolve to ensure equitable access to high-quality math instruction and opportunities for all students.

Why This Matters for the Full Pipeline and What’s Next for Boston?

Sixth-grade math proficiency predicts high school math trajectories, college major selection, and ultimately, career options, yet national data show that middle-grade math is an area of nationwide concern, particularly for low-income students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.¹⁷ Today’s rapidly changing context makes strong math preparation even more urgent than ever: As artificial intelligence and automation reshape the job market, math literacy, including understanding patterns, data, and quantitative reasoning, will increasingly distinguish those who can adapt from those who cannot. Students who have access to higher-level math in middle school, such as pre-algebra or algebra, are significantly more likely to succeed in high school math, pursue STEM courses in college, and enter STEM-related careers, making early exposure to rigorous math a foundation for long-term academic and professional success. For Boston’s low-income students and students of color, access to rigorous math instruction is not just about test scores; it is essential for economic opportunity and full participation in a changing economy.

What's next:

1. Deepen and expand Wicked Math and similar initiatives. Enhance existing efforts to reach more students and remove barriers such as awareness, transportation, and costs.
2. Ensure equitable access to advanced math. Many Boston students never have the opportunity to take advanced math because they were not placed in advanced courses in middle school. Use data to audit: Are all demographic groups represented in advanced coursework? If not, why not? Address barriers.
3. Strengthen elementary math foundations. Sixth-grade struggles often reflect weak foundations in elementary math. Continue to invest in elementary teachers’ capacity to teach math in ways that build conceptual understanding, not just procedural fluency.
4. Leverage employer and university partnerships. Employers increasingly say they hire for math and problem-solving ability. Build on existing college- and career-focused programs in Boston schools to increase opportunities for students to see how the careers they aspire to require and value math. Universities can help by making STEM paths accessible and welcoming to students from underrepresented groups.
5. Expand out-of-school time math opportunities. Continue prioritizing student engagement through math clubs and other out-of-school learning opportunities, including summer learning programs, that build confidence, identity, and persistence in math.
6. Build identity and persistence. Moving math from “something you do in school” to “something you feel you belong in and see as part of yourself” requires coordinated messaging from schools, families, mentors, peers, and media. Wicked Math’s focus on math identity is critical and should be at the center of all math improvement efforts.

Where students stand in math by sixth grade shapes their access to advanced coursework, careers, and the economic opportunities it can enable in STEM and beyond. In a rapidly changing economy, this is consequential. Math proficiency is a shared responsibility of all of us to ensure every sixth grader in Boston, particularly those from historically excluded groups, have the opportunity to excel in math and pursue the careers they envision for themselves.