About EF+Math

Our Mission: EF+Math’s mission was to dramatically improve math outcomes and transform math education by centering student brilliance, strengthening executive function (EF) skills, and creating equitable math learning experiences for all students in grades 3–8, particularly Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty.

Our Vision: We believe in a future where all students — especially Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty — understand their inherent brilliance and core cognitive strengths and are supported in leveraging those strengths to learn challenging math. This resource library ensures that what we created — prototypes, research, practical research tools, and inclusive research and development (R&D) practices — remains accessible and actionable for those committed to advancing equitable math education.

EF+Math was an inclusive R&D program that launched in 2019 and conducted research and development (R&D) from 2020 to 2025 as a five-year, intentionally time-bound program. Founded on the belief that every student is brilliant and capable of learning rigorous mathematics, the program brought together an interdisciplinary community of 700+ educators, researchers, and developers to re-imagine how math learning experiences are created. EF+Math was the inaugural program of the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF) and was funded by the Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).

Dr. Melina Uncapher founded the program to focus on the role of students’ EF skills in math learning, understanding that these skills are foundational for success in school and life. Strong math skills unlock future opportunities, yet traditional approaches often fail to recognize students’ innate brilliance and cultural assets. The program’s core hypothesis was that integrating EF skill development into math learning — in ways that support conceptual understanding, complex problem-solving, and equitable classroom experiences — could dramatically improve students’ math outcomes. See our Resources & Tools Hub.

To explore this hypothesis, EF+Math funded 11 diverse project teams across multiple development phases. Through EF+Math’s collaborative portfolio approach – grounded in inclusive R&D – these teams built and tested innovative approaches that integrated EF skills development into high-quality instructional materials and investigated the relationship between EF skills and math learning.

To learn more about our 11 projects, visit the Project Hub. To learn more about our program impact, visit the Our Impact page.

An Asset-Based Approach Centering Student Brilliance
EF+Math was rooted in the belief that every student is a powerful learner capable of success in mathematics. Our program began with an asset-based orientation on designing with and for Black and Latino students and all students experiencing poverty — recognizing the cultural wealth and EF skills as assets every student brings to the classroom.

A Deeply Contextual, Equity-Focused Integration of Math and EF Skills
Our R&D efforts were grounded in the realities of math classrooms and developed and tested through inclusive R&D. We centered an equity orientation in exploring how EF skills—such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control—can be intentionally engaged within grade 3–8 mathematics.

A Coordinated, Actively Managed Interdisciplinary Portfolio
EF+Math invested in a diverse portfolio of complementary R&D teams that worked across disciplines to develop both math learning products and applied research technologies. Through intentional active management — including coaching, equity guidance, and responsive support — we helped teams stay aligned with shared goals while adapting to the dynamic realities of schools and classrooms.

A Community Committed to Lasting Impact and Field-Building
Our cross-sector community of educators, researchers, and developers was united by a shared purpose: to deliver math learning products that can be implemented in real-world classrooms and to generate research insights and tools to advance the field. By centering students’ and educators’ voices in every stage of development, EF+Math ensured that its products and research would be both usable and transformative.

• Products and technical capacities for continued adoption, use, and scaling.
• Research findings and measures for ongoing use by researchers and developers. We are exploring clear pathways for future investigation into EF and math learning, and investigating making EF+Math’s large dataset (n>10,000 students) available for ongoing analysis.
• Documentation of and insights from EF+Math’s inclusive R&D and evaluation approach to support other R&D teams, intermediaries, and funders.
• Professional learning resources to support educators in implementing asset-based approaches to math instruction which integrate EF skills, with a particular focus on serving Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty.
• A community of champions who are continuing the work — educators, developers, and researchers committed to advancing EF+Math’s vision and applying its principles in their organizations and classrooms. 

EF+Math is one chapter in a larger story — a story about what’s possible when we believe every student is a powerful learner and design learning experiences that reflect that truth.

Over the past five years, EF+Math has shown how interdisciplinary teams can co-create innovative, equity-centered math learning experiences that support students’ EF skills, affirm their identities, and improve outcomes. We’ve built products and tools, generated knowledge, and cultivated a growing community that believes deeply in student brilliance.

But this work doesn’t end here — and in the current climate, it can’t. At a time when investment in long-term, inclusive R&D is waning and education systems face increasing pressure to deliver short-term gains, we must resist the pull to shrink our imaginations about what is possible for our students. EF+Math planted the seeds. The field must ensure they take root.

We call on educators, researchers, developers, funders, and intermediaries to continue to advance our shared vision for math education and maximize the impact of the work we’ve done together, particularly through (1) advancing the science around the intersection of EF skills, math learning, and equity; (2) continuing to improve and scale our math learning products, which also serve as demonstrations of the type of math learning experiences we’re advocating for; and (3) continue to shift R&D toward more inclusive and equity-centered practices.