Evaluation of the National Expansion of PBS SoCal’s Family Math Initiative

PBS SoCal originally designed Family Math to provide families in the Greater Los Angeles Area and Southern California with bilingual, free, play-based tools to engage in math learning in everyday contexts. After expanding the initiative nationwide, PBS SoCal partnered with the Stanford Center on Early Childhood (SCEC) to evaluate the implementation and impact of Family Math programming in Alabama and Arizona. 

Overall, this study reveals promising evidence about the implementation and impact of Family Math in Alabama, Arizona, and California. From the pre-series survey to the post-series survey, both parent/caregiver and educator/provider participants reported significant increases in all three core metrics of Family Math: math positivity, math confidence, and knowledge of children's foundational math skills. Our findings show that we can collect meaningful information about an early childhood initiative even if implementation varies from site to site, which is a lesson about the power of adaptability in evaluation design.