What Back-to-School Math Looks Like in New Jersey & How to Help Your Kid Get Back on Track

Several weeks into the new school year, you may notice that your child feels less confident in math, even with skills that seemed secure in the spring. Part of that change may come from summer learning loss.

Cooper et al.’s 1996 meta-analysis found that students lost about a month of grade-level math skills over summer break.

This aligns with what we see at Mathnasium of Sparta every fall. In September, learners often need more time and effort to work through math that felt easier before summer.

Today, we’ll walk you through what the first few weeks of the school year look like in New Jersey classrooms, which skills may need more attention after summer, and what you can do now to help your child get back on track.

What the First Weeks of Math Look Like in New Jersey

New Jersey classrooms usually do not spend the first few weeks reviewing everything from the previous grade. Teachers may begin with a brief check of prior skills, then start moving into new material fairly soon.

Here’s what shapes that start-of-the-year pace:

• According to the 2023 New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Mathematics, each grade includes major, supporting, and additional work, and teachers are expected to spend most of their instructional time on the major work for that year.

• The state’s K–8 Mathematics Content Emphases guide also identifies the fluencies students are expected to bring with them from earlier grades.

Let’s see what this may mean in practice:

1. Teachers check what your child remembers. To decide what to revisit, they can use NJDOE prerequisite concepts and skills resources, which show how earlier skills connect to each new standard.

2. New grade-level work begins quite early. Teachers have a full year of standards to cover, and the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment for Mathematics (NJSLA-M) window arrives in the spring, so the calendar leaves limited room for extended review.

3. Review continues alongside new learning. Teachers can revisit unfinished skills as they become relevant to the current unit rather than setting aside a long block to reteach the previous year.

Put together, your student may get some review at the start of the year, but it often happens in short bursts and continues alongside new lessons. So math skills that faded over summer may become noticeable as soon as the class reaches material that relies on them.

That can make the first few weeks feel harder even after your learner starts settling back into the school routine.

What Math Skills Fade More Over Summer

From our work with students, we noticed that the skills that fade more over summer tend to be the ones built on memorized facts and multi-step procedures. Cooper et al.’s 1996 study points in the same direction, finding greater summer losses in computation than in broader conceptual skills. 

Drawing on our experience and New Jersey’s K–8 Content Emphases guide, we built this table to highlight specific fluency skills expected at each grade level that may become rusty without practice. 

If you notice your child hesitating with one of these grade-level skills, summer may have simply made that knowledge less automatic. With focused practice, those skills can come back quickly.

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4 Practical Ways to Help Your Student With Back-to-School Math

You can help your learner get more comfortable with math after summer using a few research-backed strategies that fit into the first weeks back at school. 

A. Identify the skill that needs support

Summer learning loss doesn’t hit every child the same way, as Atteberry and McEachin reported in their 2021 research. Two students in the same grade can come back with completely different skills feeling shaky, even if their report cards from June looked similar.

To spot each child’s specific learning needs, we use a diagnostic assessment that looks beyond grades and helps us identify which skills are secure and which require more practice. From there, we craft a personalized learning plan that targets exactly what a student needs instead of reviewing material they already understand well. 

You can use that focused-check approach at home with this table: 

Once you have a clearer sense of which one or two skills need the most work, you can use the strategies below to help your child rebuild them.

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B. Plan spaced review sessions

Schedule short review sessions across the week instead of packing all the work into one weekend. Repeated contact with the skill can help your learner recall it more easily over time. 

The idea was supported in a 2021 study by May, which showed that repeated practice was effective for rebuilding familiar procedures and calculation skills.

Build this into the week with three 10-minute sessions. Say your student needs to refresh fraction addition: 

• On Monday, work through \(\Large\frac{1}{2}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{4}\), \(\Large\frac{2}{3}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{6}\), and \(\Large\frac{3}{4}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{8}\).

• On Wednesday, return to fraction addition with a few different pairs, such as \(\Large\frac{2}{5}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{10}\), \(\Large\frac{3}{4}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{6}\) and \(\Large\frac{5}{8}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{4}\). Have your child explain how they choose a common denominator before solving.

• On Friday, mix two fraction-addition problems, \(\Large\frac{1}{3}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{6}\) and \(\Large\frac{3}{5}\) + \(\Large\frac{1}{10}\), into a short set with another familiar skill, such as multiplication or decimal addition. For example, add 7 × 8, 54 ÷ 6 and 3.7 + 1.25.

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C. Use timed fluency drills

Timed practice can help your child rebuild a quick recall of familiar facts, which leaves more mental energy for the harder problem-solving around those facts. 

The What Works Clearinghouse’s 2021 practice guide recommends including timed activities regularly as one way to build math fluency.

We suggest starting with a simple two-minute drill: 

• Set a timer for two minutes and give your child 20 familiar multiplication facts, such as 6 × 7, 8 × 7, 9 × 6, and 5 × 9. 

• Record how many they answer correctly. 

• A few days later, use a different set at the same level and see whether they can complete more accurately within the same two minutes. 

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D. Connect math to everyday life

Your student may reconnect with a math idea more easily when it appears in a familiar real-world context. Everyday situations can give familiar skills a purpose beyond the worksheet.  

In their research (2025), Amo-Asante et al. found that real-life applications of math concepts had a positive effect on students’ performance. 

Here are a few ideas for how families in Sparta can work math into ordinary routines:

• At the Sparta Farmers Market, have your learner compare prices by weight or estimate the total before checkout.

• While shopping along Route 15, hand over the discount math. For a $40 item marked 20% off, ask what the sale price will be before you reach the register.

• At a local pizza place, ask them to split a $36 bill among four people, then figure out each person’s share after adding a tip.

• If you plan a weekend outing around Lake Mohawk, let your learner estimate travel time, add up distances, calculate how many minutes you can spend at each stop, and work out the total time for the trip.

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Mathnasium of Sparta is a math-only learning center dedicated to helping K–12 students of all skill levels catch up, keep up, or get ahead in math.

How Mathnasium of Sparta Helps Students Start the New School Year Confident in Math

Mathnasium of Sparta is a math-only learning center dedicated to helping K–12 students of all skill levels excel in math. We pinpoint what each student needs and build understanding from there, whether that means making sense of a new concept or revisiting material that feels shaky after summer. 

To meet students where they are and guide them forward step by step, we use the Mathnasium Method™, our proprietary teaching approach. 

Here’s how it works.

Every student begins with a diagnostic assessment that helps us understand their current skill level, knowledge gaps, goals, and how they think and feel about math. After a summer with little or no math practice, this can help us see which skills are still secure and which ones need focused support.

Using these insights, we build a personalized learning plan around the skills the student needs most, whether that means reviewing multiplication facts, rebuilding fraction fluency, revisiting problem-solving strategies, or preparing for new grade-level work.

Our specially trained tutors follow that plan closely and provide live, face-to-face instruction in a caring and fun group environment. They use mental, verbal, visual, tactile, and written techniques to help students reconnect with familiar ideas and make sense of new material as the school year gets underway.

Students also get room to think through problems before tutors step in. Our tutors guide them to explain their reasoning, check their work, and choose effective strategies. This helps students regain fluency while also rebuilding the problem-solving skills they will need as teachers move from review into new material.

Fun is part of the approach, too. We use game-based activities, rewards, and consistent encouragement to keep students engaged as they refresh skills and settle back into a regular math routine.

The results? True, measurable progress:

• 94% of parents report an improvement in their child's math skills and understanding

• 93% of parents report their child's improved attitude toward math after attending Mathnasium

• 90% of students saw an improvement in their school grades

If your child came back to school feeling rusty after a summer without math practice, a free diagnostic assessment is a great place to start. Using what we learn, we create a personalized learning plan focused on the skills they need.

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