MIND Research Institute

The world continues to experience health, economic and environmental problems at an unprecedented magnitude and scale. The COVID-19 pandemic widened digital divides, and left more learners behind. Teachers now have a broader range of individual student needs to meet than ever before.

We need today's students to see themselves as confident problem solvers. To look at the challenges facing their communities, society, and the world, and to know they are equipped to take those challenges on.

To do this, we must engage students in new learning experiences that pique their curiosity, engage their creativity, and motivate them to seek and solve new and persistent problems. Our schools and students need instructional math tools that can provide true learning opportunities, at home or in the classroom. Those tools must be flexible enough to meet students’ individual needs, and help them succeed on grade level.

At MIND Research Institute, our mission is to ensure that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems. From our visual instructional ST Math program, to our ongoing research, to our community-based initiatives and partnerships, we are equipping students to be the problem solvers the future workforce - and the world - needs.

MIND Research Institute has been transforming math education through our research-based, neuroscience-driven approach for two decades. We aim to bridge the gap between the science of learning and how math is currently taught in schools.

Our ST Math visual instructional program leverages the brain's innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems. With ST Math, students build deep conceptual understanding, and also develop positive self-beliefs about their own ability to succeed in math.

Through our MathMINDs initiative, we set out to give students, teachers and families different ways to experience math. Our aim is to support the entire student learning ecosystem.

Our strategic partners have been instrumental in helping MIND iterate on our programs, scale our efforts, and reach more students. In order to continue to disrupt the status quo in education and advance opportunities for all students, we are actively seeking partners to invest in our current and future efforts. How can we work together to continue empowering today's students to seek out real-world challenges, see problems as opportunities for creative solutions, and confidently answer the question:

“What problem do you want to solve?”

As a research-based organization, MIND is continually improving upon and expanding our programs based on research, assessment results, and feedback from educators. Our unique team of neuroscientists, mathematicians, researchers, computer scientists and designers, as well as our strong partnerships with districts, corporations, and other organizations, show strong capabilities of creating innovative programs that are continuously improving. CEO Brett Woudenberg, along with Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Matthew Peterson, exhibit strong leadership and vision that inspires the organization as well as partners.

MIND has expanded the ST Math program suite to include Early Learning, K-6, Middle School, Homeschool, and Immersion. Whether distance learning, in the classroom, using a hybrid model, or at home, ST Math has been proven effective at keeping meaningful math learning happening for students. By design, its mastery-driven approach develops deep conceptual understanding at the student’s own pace, making ST Math just as powerful a learning tool outside the classroom as it is inside of it.

MIND began collecting data on March 14, 2020, from the emergency distance learning period. MIND looked at more than 200,000 students who had used ST Math in the classroom before COVID-19, and from home during emergency distance learning. The data showed that quiz effect sizes remained roughly the same, post-quiz scores were an average of 3 points higher than they were prior to COVID-19, and minutes per week were up from 54.7 to 74.6.

MIND's ST Math program now reaches 1,340,448 students and 74,087 teachers in 5,586 schools across all 50 states. There are more than100 studies on the efficacy of ST Math, including third-party studies, MIND's own quasi-experimental studies across states and years, and MIND's subgroup studies.

ST Math’s nationwide effectiveness study meets What Works Clearinghouse QE and ESSA Tier 2 design requirements, and the program has won numerous awards. ST Math has also twice earned product certifications from Digital Promise for research-based design and learner variability.

MIND recently announced an upcoming co-design effort to develop a culturally relevant math curriculum, part of a larger MIND initiative to further equitable math outcomes for all students. MIND’s co-design approach is based on four tenets:

Designing for All Instead of the Average
Measuring student success in math based on the average can miss how we are failing certain groups, including Black and Latinx students. A curriculum developed from neuroscience research and focused on the mathematical experiences of students of color could empower not only those students, but all students.

Shifting from a Deficit to an Asset Lens
Most interventions use a deficit lens: diagnosing students’ weaknesses and then targeting those with a customized curriculum. Instead of focusing on what they don’t know, our asset-based approach will leverage the mathematical strengths the student already has to build more strengths.

A Colorful and Culture-rich Approach
Robust learning experiences that share the global history of math and our students’ rich inheritance demonstrate that math is from everywhere, in everything, and for everyone.

Starting from Within
Diversity in perspective, voice, and influence is critical – for our co-design effort and for MIND as a whole.