UW–Madison Report: Math Achievement Challenges Begin Early, Intensify for MMSD Elementary Students
January 27, 2026 | By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research & Scholarship
MEP Director Eric Grodsky co-authored the report with Olga Murasova, David Klingbeil and MMSD’s Brianne Monahan.
A new report by the Madison Education Partnership (MEP) is helping guide efforts by the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) to strengthen elementary mathematics fluency by providing insights on students’ math performance during the 2024–2025 school year.
“This report provides a clear baseline,” the document notes, “for understanding where students are in elementary math and for monitoring whether future investments lead to meaningful improvements in learning and equity.”
Fewer than half of students in grades 3 through 5 in MMSD met grade-level expectations, the report noted. Additionally, the analysis shows math achievement challenges begin early and intensify as students progress through elementary school. On the state’s Forward Exam, administered in spring 2025 for a snapshot-style result, the share of students performing at the lowest level increased steadily from grade 3 to grade 5. These results show the need to address cumulative learning gaps before students enter middle school.
Using a different type of measure — district tests, FastBridge Adaptive Math, or “aMath,” that are administered in the fall, winter and spring — MEP researchers found that although students’ math skills improved over the course of the 2024–2025 school year, average growth was only enough for students to maintain their position relative to national norms.
“Students are learning math each year,” the report finds, “but moving the needle for students who start behind requires more growth than what is currently occurring.”
Combining results from both types of tests, researchers found “a clear story of increasing variability in achievement as students progress through the elementary grades,” the report says.
The evaluation also identifies persistent and substantial inequities in math achievement. Students from low-income families, Black and Latinx students, English learners, and students receiving special education services were far more likely to score in the highest-risk categories and far less likely to demonstrate grade-level proficiency. These gaps were evident as early as 2nd grade and remained largely unchanged across the elementary school years.
The evaluation emphasizes that differences in performance do not reflect differences in students’ ability to learn mathematics. Instead, the authors suggest inequities are attributable to differences in opportunities to learn and supports for learning that begin early in school.
By upper elementary grades, student performance distributions become increasingly divided, with one group of students making stronger gains and another falling further behind — a pattern that mirrors disparities previously documented in district middle schools by MEP.
The findings come as the district is reviewing its K–8 math curriculum, with new instructional materials planned for adoption in the coming years. MEP is collaborating with district leaders to use these results to support improvement efforts, including piloting strategies to strengthen math fact fluency and studying early interventions that better support students at risk.
MEP is a research collaboration between MMSD and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in UW–Madison’s School of Education. Report authors are Olga Murasova, Eric Grodsky, Brianne Monahan and David Klingbeil. Learn more about the evaluation’s findings and background in the full research brief online.
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About the Madison Education Partnership (MEP)
MEP was established in 2016 as a research–practice partnership by leaders of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) and the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). MEP brings together UW–Madison researchers and MMSD staff to define and address critical issues relating to student achievement and equity in the Madison school community. For more information, visit mep.wceruw.org.
About the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER)
WCER at UW–Madison’s #1 ranked School of Education is one of the first and most productive education research centers in the world. It has assisted scholars and practitioners in developing, submitting and sharing grant-funded education research for over 60 years.
WCER’s mission is to improve educational outcomes for diverse student populations, positively impact education practice and foster collaborations among academic disciplines and practitioners. Learn more at wcer.wisc.edu.
