Plenty of firms offer instructional or technology packages to boost weak math skills. These approaches may provide small improvements in student performance, but rarely these gains sustained. America’s Choice took the time to systematically investigate how the top-performing countries in the world teach even their lowest-performing students to do well in math for the long-haul. We used research from National Mathematics Advisory Panel members Liping Ma, Deborah Ball, James Stigler, and Hung-His Wu.

Ramp-Up to Algebra underscores the need for depth over breadth -- carefully selected areas. Research helped define those areas so that Ramp-Up focuses on a specific set of concepts that is essential to algebra and other advanced math courses. Ramp-Up also focuses on the unbreakable link among skills, problem solving, and conceptual understanding. Using the research basis, years of field-testing results, and numerous design iterations, America’s Choice created Ramp-Up to Algebra specifically for striving students who need to accelerate to algebra readiness lest they fall forever behind their peers. With close collaboration from an international team of individuals and organizations.

The Ramp-Up to Algebra curriculum relies on general principals of design derived from a thorough study of the math programs of Japan, Singapore, and Korea, where students consistently out-perform their U.S. peers. Fundamental principles of the designs were adapted to American conditions, and subsequently refined, based on more than five years of trials. The design principles also emanate from experience gained by teachers who used the materials in their classrooms, combined with a thorough understanding of contemporary educational research. Ramp-Up to Algebra has been researched every step of the way.

International Team of Authors, Researchers, Writers, and Designers
Ramp-Up was created as the result of an international team including:

• Phil Daro, Senior Fellow for Mathematics at America’s Choice and co-director of “Tools for Change” at the University of California at Berkeley
• Dick Stanley, Mathematics Education Specialist Emeritus, Professional Development Program at the University of California at Berkeley
• Silvia Llamas Flores, former co-director of Mathematics Institutes for Teachers of English Language Learners at University of California, Los Angeles
• Jan de Lange, Full Professor, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science at Utrect University, the Netherlands
• The Australian Council for Educational Research, among others.