Transforming Digital Learning with Math and Basketball

Learn Fresh seeks to reduce racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps in math and STEM education. Elementary and secondary education in mathematics and science are crucial for success in postsecondary STEM majors and a wide variety of STEM-related occupations, and success in high school STEM courses can guide students toward STEM-related postsecondary education and employment. Among students who enter the workforce directly after high school, those who have taken STEM-related career and technical education courses are more likely than others to enter skilled technical jobs. Strengthening STEM education at the K-12 level raises overall student achievement, increases advanced high school course taking, reduces performance gaps among demographic groups, and improves college and career readiness in mathematics and science.

According to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), in 2019, 19 percent of fourth grade students did not meet even basic mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at their grade level, a number that jumps to 31 percent for eighth graders. The achievement gaps along racial lines are stark: While 20 percent of White eighth graders did not meet basic proficiency, 43 percent of Hispanic students, and a massive 53 percent of Black eighth graders did not meet basic proficiency. The COVID-19 pandemic has served to exacerbate existing gaps in opportunity and achievement for low-income students, amplifying the need for impactful, effective programs and interventions.

In addition to working to address the STEM achievement gap, we also have a growing need in this country to support children socially and emotionally, providing the necessary skills to be successful in many facets of life into adulthood. Sadly, the pandemic has only served to exacerbate the mental health challenges that young people face. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association highlighted the pandemic’s impact on young people and declared the state of child and adolescent mental health a national emergency. These organizations acknowledge the role of schools in building community, and warned that those focusing solely on academics, rather than supporting kids socially and emotionally as well, are the schools most likely to be struggling. 

Additionally, these hardships and the subsequent academic toll may be experienced more adversely by low-income students. According to New York University’s Institute of Human Development and Social Change, research clearly demonstrates that poverty has a profound negative influence on child development, including mental health and academic achievement. Development of social and emotional skills, including emotional regulation, resilience and building relationships with adults and peers, are important for all children during this challenging time, but perhaps most critical for low-income children, who are likely facing disproportionate levels of stress and hardship. 

Learn Fresh is requesting support to provide crucial updates to our highly successful NBA Math Hoops digital app. Developed to mirror the gameplay of our NBA Math Hoops physical board game, our digital version enables access for a greater number of students to the game. However, Learn Fresh recognizes that, while students are still developing key STEM skills through game play, the digital experience does not enable students to benefit from some of the key social and emotional aspects of board game play, including teamwork and good sportsmanship. The digital updates proposed here will help to build community and encourage these important social and emotional skills, at a time when students are in particular need of these types of experiences. Emerging evidence regarding the impact of the pandemic on children suggests significant social and emotional support for students is needed. 

Broadly, NBA Math Hoops provides fundamental math and social-emotional learning through a basketball-themed board game in both physical and digital forms, a curriculum that builds math and social-emotional competencies, and a community program experience built in partnership with NBA/WNBA teams and local schools, districts, out-of-school-time providers, and families. The program targets students in grades 4-8 and is highly adaptable to any education system or learning environment. The curriculum is offered as 12 lessons, designed to be implemented over an approximately three-month period, and incorporates board or digital game play at a frequency deemed appropriate by the educator. Each Math Hoops game is roughly 30 - 45 minutes in duration; students draft a team of NBA and WNBA players and compete to solve quick math problems while thinking critically and making decisions. The game builds students’ fluency with core math skills and concepts, such as number sense and statistical analysis, as well as key social-emotional skills such as leadership, grit, and resiliency. 

The specific digital updates proposed here include significant and critical additions to the NBA Math Hoops mobile app. These updates include a comprehensive statistics analysis infrastructure that will provide in-game and post-game data to students. This data will allow students to make more informed decisions about their lineup of NBA/WNBA players. This update will also incorporate data visualization tools that enable students to compare statistics of the players they have unlocked, along with the ability to receive alerts when there are big changes to players’ shooting percentages during the season. The last addition is perhaps the most exciting, and will enable student engagement and collaboration, helping to promote those critical social and emotional skills among participants. These updates include the incorporation of multi-player functionality and student-led leagues. These updates will allow students to set up leagues with friends, or for educators to establish leagues in the classroom, much like a fantasy sports system but within the parameters of a COPPA-compliant, student-safe app. Within student- and educator-created leagues, students will be able to play in real-time against classmates and friends with the addition of multiplayer functionality.

NBA Math Hoops supports students of color and students from low-income communities in grades 4-8. Of our program educators, 93 percent serve primarily low-income students, and 80 percent of our students are from communities of color. These students face significant educational opportunity gaps. In alignment with the priorities of MIT Solve, Learn Fresh recognizes the barriers to access that exist for young people of color in the STEM fields. Learn Fresh understands students of color face systemic factors within the instruction they are given, and are often starved for relevant, engaging learning opportunities, learning almost universally from curricula and materials that do not reflect them, their culture, or the realities of their lives. This makes the NBA Math Hoops experience particularly meaningful for students, in that it is rooted in a contextualized experience that reinforces their racial and STEM identities. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has served to exacerbate existing gaps in opportunity and achievement for low-income students, amplifying the need for impactful, effective programs and interventions such as NBA Math Hoops.  

With origins as a physical board game in 2013, NBA Math Hoops has expanded and innovated as part of our strategic response to the needs of students and educators during the pandemic and as we collectively work to mitigate the negative outcomes for students resulting from this challenging time. Shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we pivoted to a virtual program model built around a digital NBA Math Hoops board game, incorporating virtual educator trainings, virtual tournaments, and weekly virtual programming for students. These program structures have helped to meet the direct needs of students by providing high-quality, engaging academic programs that can be implemented virtually, regardless of the students’ physical location. This digital strategy has also served to strengthen and streamline program implementation more broadly: As we return to in-person programming during this 2021-22 school year, we are focused on completing development projects that will position us to more broadly serve students and educators, while increasing our capacity to rapidly scale NBA Math Hoops programming both domestically and abroad. This project is situated within that context and would specifically support critical development of the NBA Math Hoops digital game. 

NBA Math Hoops is a free digital resource; we strive to ensure that all children have access. Since the app has been launched in October 2021, over 60,000 downloads have occurred across 125 different countries.

Broadly, NBA Math Hoops supports students of color and students from low-income communities in grades 4-8. Of our program educators, 93 percent serve primarily low-income students, and 80 percent of our students are from communities of color. These students face significant educational opportunity gaps. In alignment with the priorities of MIT Solve, Learn Fresh recognizes the barriers to access that exist for young people of color in the STEM fields. The current beneficiaries of Learn Fresh programming compose the following cultural demographics: 6% Asian-American/Pacific Islander; 27% Black/African-American; 22% Hispanic/Latinx; 11% Multiethnic/Multiracial; 12% Native American/Alaskan Native; 22% White. Our program delivery is split evenly between the genders, 47% female and 53% male, and 82% of the students we serve are in grades 4 – 8. 

Over the course of a five-year period, regular program evaluations by the American Institutes of Research have shown consistent gains among students participating in NBA Math Hoops across major demographic groups (female, male, Black, Latino, White), as well as consistent improvement in the program’s impact each year. A 2021 third-party assessment of 5,556 students participating in NBA Math Hoops demonstrated 29 percent gains in math fluency and 19 percent improvement with higher-order math skills related to statistics and data analysis among program participants, compared to 15 percent and 3 percent, respectively, for a control group of non-participants. A 2019 social-emotional outcomes study showed that program participants were 30 percent more likely than a control group to report growth in key attributes like leadership, grit and resilience. 

Learn Fresh team bring a wide range of experience and talent to the organization, and program participants benefit from the diversity of staff perspectives. The team is small, composed of 12 full time and 2 part time staff members, but operates efficiently and effectively to deliver Learn Fresh experiences to nearly 250,000 youth annually. All Learn Fresh program staff (including two executive staff) are hired directly from local community partners, and all have extensive experience implementing our programs with students before joining our organization. The team collectively brings over 100 years of experience living and teaching in the communities that we serve, ensuring our programs are uniquely tailored to benefit students and educators in the most efficient, supportive, and impactful way possible. Through our community-based program model, program staff maintain close relationships with educators in each region that we serve, and our most committed program educators serve as informal advocates for programming in their communities, helping grow the programs and engage more students and educators. 

Learn Fresh has undertaken a steady growth trajectory since the launch of our first community program in 2013. The organization has successfully navigated the financial challenges of balancing digital development with on-the-ground programming and has flourished in the face of significant societal challenges in 2020. We have firmly entered a growth phase, with a range of new opportunities surfacing for funding partnerships and programs. To fulfill our ambitious vision for program growth, we intend to expand the Learn Fresh team incrementally across all departments. The team enjoys strong consistency, with no staff departures in the last three years. 

Participation in this opportunity would be tremendously advantageous for Learn Fresh, particularly at this moment. The pandemic forced our small operation to quickly pivot and think about accessibility, and the opportunities available in the digital space. Learn Fresh has been fortunate to experience a steady positive trajectory since its founding in 2013, and the past few years have demonstrated that we are in a clear growth phase, with ambitious goals to positively impact millions of youth in the United States, as well as internationally. However, we are mindful of the need to grow intentionally and with a clear focus on equity and accessibility. The peer engagement and mentorship offered will be beneficial as we think through these aspects of our organizational growth. In addition, the media exposure will help raise awareness about the mission of Learn Fresh, and the free resources that we have available for learners. Providing all youth with access to our experiences is our ultimate goal. 

With this project, we will demonstrate that well-designed digital STEM interventions can deliver significant academic and social-emotional gains for students in a variety of settings. A fully functional digital game will position us to comprehensively engage students with NBA Math Hoops programming in the classroom, out-of-school time environments, and in the home; to thoroughly support both educators and parents/guardians with their students’ learning; and to more efficiently serve students in our target demographic at scale by reducing barriers to program access. 

NBA Math Hoops programming is built around the physical and digital NBA Math Hoops games, which feature the real-life performance statistics and identities of all NBA and WNBA players. This highly diverse community of athletes in a data-rich learning environment provides an exciting, culturally-relevant “hook” to engage students of all genders and ethnicities. Students draft a team of NBA and WNBA players, and compete individually or in teams of two to solve quick math problems and score points. Gameplay simulates the game of basketball as teams switch from offense to defense in a fast-paced, timed setting. Students are incentivized to think critically and craft strategy using number sense and statistical analysis. Formation of league play provides the opportunity to develop key social and emotional skills, including collaboration and teamwork. The game is fun, exciting, and challenging, providing youth with a much needed opportunity to alleviate stress and enjoy themselves.

Support would provide critical enhancements to the NBA Math Hoops digital game. This experience addresses a need for high-quality digital math intervention tools for educators, families, and students in grades 4-8. It allows students to play the fully functional game both individually and against other students online in a standard web browser, as well as in a mobile app form. The digital game translates the core NBA Math Hoops program activity into the virtual environment, allowing students anywhere in the world to participate in the program without physical program materials, thereby reducing barriers to access and expanding our capacity to scale the program. 

NBA Math Hoops impact goals for student learning include: 

1. Improved math scores, deeper understanding of math concepts, and increased readiness for Pre-Algebra, Algebra, and math at the high school level
2. Improved social-emotional skills, ability to work as part of a team
3. Improved attitudes towards learning, increased engagement in the learning process
4. Improved understanding of math in the real world and awareness of STEM-related careers
5. Improved understanding of their role as members of their communities

NBA Math Hoops impact goals for app development:

1. Increasing player access to a comprehensive statistics analysis infrastructure that will provide in-game and post-fame data to students
2. Inclusion of data visualization tools that enable students to compare the statistics of the players they have unlocked, along with the ability to receive alerts when there are big changes to players shooting percentages during the season; enabling students to make more informed decisions about their teams
3. Incorporating multi-player functionality and student-led leagues to promote key social emotional skills including teamwork and good sportsmanship.   

In all the work we do, Learn Fresh prioritizes feedback from our stakeholders. Since the 2012 NBA Math Hoops program pilot, Learn Fresh has conducted an annual third-party analysis of student achievement with the American Institutes for Research and WestEd. We continually want to assess the efficacy of our programs based on Learn Fresh’s clear objectives for students.

Beginning in 2020, Learn Fresh expanded their national evaluation to include a series of instruments developed by Harvard University’s PEAR Institute, which measures STEM engagement and social-emotional indicators as self-identified by students. Implementation of the research model has demonstrated that NBA Math Hoops scores above national averages in all categories, as measured by student assessment. 

To measure the success of the impact goals outlined above, Learn Fresh will conduct pre and post assessment with a representative sample of NBA Math Hoops app users during the 2022 – 2023 school year. Additionally, Learn Fresh will solicit feedback from educators utilizing the app with their students to incorporate their valuable feedback in any revisions to the app. This work will be guided by a newly-hired Director of Research and Evaluation, who will join the Learn Fresh team in September 2022 through the Harvard Strategic Data Project.

Learn Fresh has a strong record of success with our Math Hoops program. This success is evaluated through the breadth and depth of impact. During the 2021-2022 school year, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are aiming to serve a total of 250,000 students, primarily through our flagship program, NBA Math Hoops. A 2021 third-party assessment of 5,556 students participating in NBA Math Hoops demonstrated 29 percent gains in math fluency and 19 percent improvement with higher-order math skills related to statistics and data analysis among program participants, compared to 15 percent and 3 percent, respectively, for a control group of non-participants. A 2019 social-emotional outcomes study showed that program participants were 30 percent more likely than a control group to report growth in key attributes like leadership, grit, and resilience.

We know the game of basketball is a powerful passion-point for students, and that by offering these types of experiences we are providing opportunities for youth to see themselves and their ability to engage with mathematics differently. A 2007 study from Johns Hopkins University and the Philadelphia Education Fund found that sixth graders who fail a math course are 81% more likely to not graduate high school as their peers. By promoting math skills and confidence during a period when students are particularly vulnerable, Math Hoops is 'changing the game' for students all over the United States, particularly those in low-income communities, and students of color. 

This solution, the NBA Math Hoops digital platform, is an app that was developed in partnership with Clevyr, an Oklahoma-based software development and design company, and a long-time partner of Learn Fresh.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are entrenched in the ethos and identity of our organization. Our board and staff are predominantly composed of individuals of color, with lived experiences deeply aligned with the communities we serve. Learn Fresh strives to provide programs that are impactful for students regardless of race, gender, religion, sexuality, or disability. All program staff (including two executive staff) are hired directly from local community implementation partners and have extensive experience implementing our programs before joining our organization. This team collectively bring over 100 years of experience living and teaching in the communities we serve. 

Learn Fresh’s approach to incorporating DE&I into our ongoing strategy involves providing equitable opportunities and outcomes within STEM and social-emotional education. We recognize the systemic inequities students of color face within the American education system, and our programs explicitly target students of color in low-income communities to combat achievement and opportunity gaps. More responsive and representative curricula and interventions are needed and Learn Fresh is committed to this work, specifically through our Fellowship for Culturally Inclusive Education, which invites educators and curriculum writers of color to create and share standards-aligned curricula that authentically represent the cultural, ethnic, and racial identities of their communities. 

Learn Fresh is a fiscally responsible organization that has grown steadily and intentionally over the past decade. Oversight from the Board of Directors provides consistent supervision and direction. Core to our mission is providing all programming and resources at no cost to educators and students, and we aim to serve low-income and students of color with the vast majority of our experiences. In fact, 93% of our programming is experienced by low-income students, and 80% are students of color. Because of this commitment to access for all, we seek support through active fundraising, and work to diversify our funding sources to ensure sustainability. 

In 2012, we created the NBA Math Hoops program through founding partnerships with the NBA/WNBA, NBPA/WNBPA, Hasbro, and Getty Images. As Learn Fresh’s primary program, we have scaled NBA Math Hoops over the past ten years from a small, grassroots pilot, to an international program that has served over 500,000 students and trained over 5,900 educators. Along the way, we have leveraged our model and expertise to design and implement new products and programs, fostering direct program partnerships with over 30 pro-sports teams and leagues including the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and NFL. We implement Learn Fresh programs through a community-based model that engages hundreds of local providers across the country, including schools, districts, and afterschool networks, as well as national program partners such as Boys & Girls Clubs of America and City Year.

Learn Fresh is a 501(c)(3) with a current annual operating budget of roughly $2.2 million and relies on support from foundations, sponsorships, and individual donors to ensure our programs are available at no cost to those who wish to participate. Specifically looking at the Math Hoops Digital app, once the initial expenses of developing the software are invested, there are relatively low costs to maintain and update the experience. However, as Learn Fresh is an organization that is always seeking to refine and improve our experiences, we will continue to seek support from additional funders to do this work. The goal for the organization is to scale NBA Math Hoops to reach one million users globally by 2024. We believe we are on track to achieve this, with over 58,000 downloads of the app within six months of our launch. Our digital reach is currently at 125 different countries.

Learn Fresh has benefited greatly from the support of many. From our founding in 2012, Learn Fresh has seen great interest in the NBA Math Hoops game from NBA and WNBA teams. This broad support from the league has ensured the longevity of this initiative. There has also been significant support in the funding community as well. We have secured over $1.5 million for this digital work to date and have received two transformative, seven-figure grants in 2021. These grants are multi-year and will serve to support the work of Learn Fresh into the future as we intend to intentionally broaden our impact over time.