A key part—though surely not the only part—of early-grades math is ensuring students get the basic arithmetic functions down and, beyond that, making sure they’re able to swiftly and automatically ...

A while ago, I got interested in mathematics, mostly because I had done so poorly at it in school. I’m being coy. I didn’t do poorly; I pretty much failed. I only passed by cheating. Anyway, I bought ...

All those long multiplication tables. Timed tests and “mad minutes” of worksheet problem-solving. Fluency drills. Somehow, getting kids to know their basic math facts continues to be at the heart of ...