Math Scores, Math Anxiety and Oakland Serves

We've all heard (or said) "I'm not good at math" or "I get stressed out by math".  Such math anxiety is a key factor affecting math understanding and competency in perhaps 20-25% of students nationally.  It can manifest as stress, fear or depression but also create physical responses such as increased heart rate, sweating, headaches, or stomachaches.  It can even affect cognitive ability.  

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     Math anxiety leads to math avoidance, further increasing anxiety when students must attend classes in which they understand less and less.  
An article at Math for All pointed out “math anxiety is not the result of doing poorly in mathematics; rather, a student may do poorly in mathematics because they feel anxious about it.”  But a poor experience in math can increase stress in the next exposure creating a vicious cycle.
     While there may be multiple reasons for being behind, math anxiety is a significant factor that Oakland Serves' mentors see every day. Students can feel terrible just walking into a math class, or resent math for “making them feel stupid”.  These students have a hard time learning new material often because their stress has impacted learning over multiple years.  One-on-one teaching or  reviewing in an environment away from school can sometimes help, but many students don't have the money or time for such support.
    Thanks to our donors, Oakland Serves is able to put our mentors directly into math classes to work with students who have these complex challenges.  Working one-on-one with a mentor allows a student to learn and process problems in a less stressful environment.  With less anxiety during class, they can absorb more, successfully complete work and begin to break the cycle of anxiety, inability to process and frustration.  If a student is open to learning, the door to success is open as well!