Bilingual Family Math Club: Students + Families = Success

Federal, state, and local entities prioritized addressing these academic deficiencies over the past several decades. An area of concern for teachers and families is multiplication. The two main purposes of this study are to (1) to determine how multiplication achievement and strategy use change from beginning to end of Bilingual Family Math Club, and (2) determine which of the eight components of Bilingual Family Math Club (BFMC) contribute to student learning outcomes. The components of BFMC are (1) Concrete Representational Abstract (CRA) modeling, (2) explicit vocabulary instruction, (3) word problems, (4) homework, (5) math games, (6) adult/child pairs as family engagement, (7) bilingual instruction, and (8) workshop series. Quantitative data includes pre-and post-intervention student math assessments. Qualitative data includes analysis of the scratch work artifacts students produced solving those assessments, as well as post-intervention from adults and students enrolled in the club. Findings from this study support previous research. Families said six of the components of the club helped them the most: adult-child pairs, series workshops, games during class, the CRA method, homework as games, and having a bilingual club. Two of the eight BFMC components families felt did not support them in learning multiplication were word problems and explicit vocabulary instruction. Quantitative results from a paired sample t-test showed a statistically significant change and large effect sizes in post-assessment scores in all four areas of the assessment: fluency, word problems, single-digit facts, and multi-digit multiplication. This study provided critical information for school leaders and district personnel attempting to implement more effective after school support programs for families in mathematics.