ascendant right now.

>> Interesting.

Charles Franklin, thank you so much.

>> Thank you.

>> Along with the number of education bills that stalled in the legislature, one authored by State Representative Karen Hurd, would have provided year round testing and tutoring for students falling behind in math despite not gaining enough support this past legislative session.

The push will continue to help K through eighth grade students in Wisconsin struggling with math tonight.

Here and now, reporter Murv Seymour takes us to the classroom and the big screen to learn more about statewide struggles and success with math.

>> This evening, we're going to do the film screening of Count It Out.

>> Tonight is movie night at the Urban League of Madison's Black Business Hub.

>> We brought this film to Madison, to the community so that we can be a contributor with changing the dialog.

>> It's a packed house for the first ever public showing in Wisconsin of Counted Out, a documentary about the importance of math.

>> Because math is all around us, it is something that maybe many of us might have had a negative experience with when we were in school, but we want to change that narrative.

>> The film features two University of professors.

Erika Bullock is one of them.

>> I love teaching math, for sure.

>> By her estimate, this is about her 15th time participating in a counted out screening.

>> When people are thinking about screening it, they think about, okay, this is going to help parents to understand how they can mathematics.

It's really difficult to convince people that there's value in math, even though we use it all the time.

>> Math is everywhere.

>> Understanding math is foundational, just under, you know, being able to function in the world.

>> Based on the numbers.

Educators everywhere agree Wisconsin students need to do better in math.

According to Wisconsin's forward exam, the test used to assess how well students are doing in the classroom, just over half in grades three through eight are proficient in math.

In Milwaukee schools, the number is just over 20%.

>> I would say this question of math and numeracy is every bit as important as a conversation we've had around literacy.

>> Welcome to the Milwaukee offices of City Forward Collective, a nonprofit team of educators and advocates led by Colleston Morgan.

understand and analyze so many different aspects of our world.

>> Collectively, their mission is to eliminate educational inequity while providing students access to quality schools.

City Ford also tracks state and national test scores of students at public and private schools statewide.

A father of two, Colleston Morgan tells me he tracks his own kids in their journeys with math.

>> My fourth grader probably just got through her times table.

She's working on advanced multiplication division.

My sixth grader is doing her math skills as well, right?

What keeps me up at night is thinking about the tens of thousands of students across our state who maybe aren't getting that same level of instruction, who maybe aren't getting that same level of attention.

At home.

We get to the point where we don't even think about the ways in which we're adding and subtracting, multiply and divide.

>> And we say, okay, it's three hours away.

If I go about 60, I'll get there.

Those kinds of calculations, we don't see those as mathematical, really calculating a discount in a store or, you know, kind of visually eyeing something to see.

Okay, does this look about the same size.

>> In politics?

Strategizing winning campaigns and mapping voting districts involves math.

>> This is a battleground state.

I need to invest my resources because there is something here that the data has shown that says this is a possibility for me.

We're using algorithms in order to determine if somebody will recommit a crime and return back to prison.

And maybe for every disciplinary infraction, I'm going to subtract ten points.

>> Math is at the center of managing Covid and other diseases.

>> You have one person who is infected, and then that person sits in a room with 30 people and now 30 people are infected.

>> Walk sign is on to cross park.

>> Even something as mundane as crossing a busy street involves mathematics.

>> I'm thinking about.

>> You got 30 seconds to get across the street.

>> So I'm looking at the distance.

before the light turns red?

>> Do I need to run?

Do I need to walk fast.

>> On the street?

You're driving 35 miles an hour.

>> Suitcase in my hand.

Can I make it?

>> These foundational the basis for your ability to access and enter.

And if anything, they'll only become more important.

>> People need to hear that there are places in education that are working.

>> The Notre Dame Academy on Milwaukee's south side is one of those places.

>> There's a special math culture here, and it's evident in the numbers.

>> That's the school's president, Patrick Landry, speaking about the culture of learning at Notre Dame.

>> Math is cool here.

Math is fun.

When you ask the kids their favorite subjects, I'd say 70% of them are saying math.

>> You each have a problem.

It's up front here.

>> Welcome to Mrs.

Frome's eighth grade all boys algebra class.

>> To make sure that whatever you input for X, whatever the outcome is for Y, then okay.

>> Where the proof is all in the numbers, student Jonathan Todd will tell you, in this classroom, the passion for math adds up to positive perfection.

>> The teachers here are just amazing.

I think that like the best teachers in the world.

>> Sixth through eighth grade boys at Notre Dame scored a perfect 100% in math on the state's Ford exam.

It's girls, 70% students at other Milwaukee schools in the same grades scoring at 20%.

>> So is your X and Y is going to be the same as Jonathan's.

Yes or no?

>> Jonathan wants to be a math teacher some day.

>> The reason why people struggle with math is because you haven't learned it yet.

>> He believes the derivative of school Dame is a combination of strict teaching discipline, students supporting each support.

And it's okay to make mistakes.

He and his classmates say.

They learn from them.

>> There's a coefficient in front of the variable y.

>> Outside the classroom, Jonathan says.

He uses math all the time, even when he plays basketball.

>> If I'm like the three point line and my brain is like, how much force I need to put in the ball, how what angle I need to go upwards like this into the net.

come up and give me an example.

>> After more than 30 years in the classroom, Angie says teaching how students learn has changed a lot today.

It involves more problem solving, more critical thinking.

>> Maybe you and I were kids where we just like, okay, what is two times five is ten?

What is it was it's more more than computation.

It's more conceptual.

You know, you have to really think about and use it for everyday situation, everyday life.

>> I have numbers in front of me all day financial data, fundraising trends, enrollment and demographic data test scores.

>> You each have a problem.

It's up front here.

>> At Notre Dame School of Milwaukee, the formula for than their peers at other schools involves a simple equation centered around the basics.

>> Fluency and subtraction, addition and multiplication, and percents, decimals and fractions.

And if students don't have those in second, third, fourth grade, it makes any type of more complicated or more advanced math.

In middle school or high school really hard.

>> We've got to make sure that teachers are getting the right training.

We've got to make sure that students are showing up.

>> I think it's a partnership between the home and school.

>> As long as it looks nice and neat and organized.

>> In your notebook.

>> Capiche?

Prasch.

All right.

as you can see in some of our data, I think really remarkable things can remarkable things can