EASTHAMPTON — Computer puzzles, math skills and an animated penguin named JiJi come together with ST Math, a visual learning program being lauded across school districts for its interesting approach to math education.

This school year JiJi arrived at the Mountain View School in Easthampton, and while it’s still early in the year, educators and parents have high hopes for ST Math, which they say has gotten students excited about learning.

ST Math, which stands for spatial-temporal math, takes a novel approach to math problems that might take some learners aback at first — it doesn’t give students instructions and it doesn’t rely on reading skills. Instead, it asks students to approach problems through trial and error, and uses a visual approach that teaches them how to view problems practically in space, rather than relying solely on the rules of theoretical equations.

According to the ST Math website, the goal is to foster “productive struggle and visual problem solving,” which educators at the Mountain View School, which includes pre-K through eighth grade students, believe will help students learn to persevere through difficulty and allow them to grasp how numbers work in a more tangible way.

This concept excited Easthampton educators, who say that math scores often do not reflect the ability they see their students display in the classroom, especially after the pandemic delayed the learning of young students nationwide.

Maureen Binienda, interim superintendent for the Easthampton Public School District, said that when she learned math as a child, the curriculum focused on “math facts” rather than the underlying reasoning. ST Math, she said, is all about bridging that gap between facts and concepts.

“ST Math is one of those programs that really helps kids understand the concepts behind math,” she said, emphasizing that the lack of instructions accompanying ST Math puzzles means that “kids have to use their math sense to figure it out.”

The program has proven its worth in other districts in the state already. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education previously provided funding for 195,000 students to experience ST Math, and over the 2021-2022 school year, schools using the program saw overall gains of 10.68 percentage points in statewide math performance ranks in comparison to their baseline school years.

Where ST Math fits into the school day varies by grade level, but Binienda said that for most classes, it takes 15 minutes out of their 45-minute “specials” period — during which students take classes in music, art and other subjects. She noted that so far, there have not been complaints from students or instructors about those 15 minutes being carved out of specials classes.

Mountain View School is using the ST Math program to supplement its existing math curriculum, called Illustrative Math. In addition to the extra math instruction students are receiving through ST Math, there are also math interventionists working with students who require extra help in both the elementary and middle school.

Margaret Betts, a math interventionist and math lab teacher at the school, said that ST Math has already broken down barriers for many of the students she sees, especially those who have learning disabilities or difficulty with reading. Not only does she believe that the visual format of ST Math’s curriculum allow students to start comprehending math concepts on a deeper level at a younger age, but it removes the language barrier for students, allowing all of them to “accelerate.”

Betts said that, especially since the pandemic, it has been clear through the district’s math data that “we need something in addition to the core instruction.”

“We have really bright students here in Easthampton, and their scores are not reflecting what we know they can do in the classroom,” she said. “Having tools like the tool of ST Math allows students to visualize what they might not understand through words.”

Now, Betts sees students entering the classroom excited about their ST Math progress, where once many of them were easily discouraged when it came to math, or became frustrated with concepts they found difficult to understand.

“The main way that the absence of language benefits students is causing them to think in a different way,” she said.

Both Betts and Binienda emphasized that the district is still putting heavy focus on literacy and reading comprehension, noting that the pandemic introduced nationwide delays in both language and math skills. What Binienda noted as a benefit of ST Math is that it allows students to focus “solely on math” in the way that reading and writing instructional time is focused solely on those skills.

Trisha Wilson has gotten to see ST Math in action as both a parent and a third grade teacher at Mountain View. Wilson’s two children, who are currently in first and fourth grade, were introduced to ST Math several years ago when they went to school in the Holyoke Public School District. After coming to Mountain View, they were excited that they would be able to continue their adventures with JiJi.

Wilson said that her kids “love” ST Math, and that “they’re obsessed with JiJi,” but aside from the fun visuals and their virtual penguin pal, Wilson sees the benefits of ST Math’s emphasis on trial and error.

“It seems like it’s helping them work through frustration,” she said. “They are really engaged in it and they want to figure out what the next problem will be.”

In the classroom, Wilson also has high hopes for ST Math’s ability to help her third grade students through one of their most intimidating learning objectives: moving on from multiplication to division. In Wilson’s experience, this transition can prove frustrating for students, making them want to give up quickly. But ST Math’s very structure encourages them to persevere, and when students are struggling with a certain problem, Wilson encourages them to “work through it together.”

Wilson and other teachers have certain goals and benchmarks for ST Math progress that they help students reach each week. They are also able to view how many levels students have completed, and whether certain levels are taking students a longer time to work through. So far, Wilson said her class has had success with meeting their benchmarks, and they continue to be excited to solve new puzzles each day.

It’s still early in the school year, and a true measure of ST Math’s impact on student math comprehension won’t be available for some time. So far, though, it has certainly garnered enthusiasm from students and their instructors.

Currently, the district’s use of the ST program is “mostly funded” by a grant through the One8 Foundation, according to Binienda, who said that the program can be expensive without outside assistance. This grant will provide funding for ST Math in the district for three years, during which Binienda said they hope to measure its impact and determine whether to keep using it.

“After that, we’ll see,” she said. “The ST Math program has had such an impact in some other districts.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.