# Jo Boaler

Jo Boaler (born 1964) is a British education author and Nomellini–Olivier Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Boaler is involved in promoting reform mathematics and equitable mathematics classrooms. She is co-founder and faculty director of youcubed, a Stanford center that offers mathematics education resources to teachers, students and parents, and one of several cofounders of a children's math game web app called Struggly. She is the author, co-author or editor of eighteen mathematics books, including Limitless Mind, Mathematical Mindsets, The Elephant in the Classroom, and What's Math Got To Do With It?, and Math-ish.

## Early life and education

Boaler grew up outside of Birmingham, England. Her mother was a secretary, and her father was a technical draftsman. Her mother attended Open University to study to become a teacher and in this way Boaler experienced "cutting-edge, play-based educational ideas of the day". Boaler said she found her early mathematics classes largely rote and procedural until one of her secondary school mathematics teachers emphasized group discussions in class.
Boaler received a Bachelors in Psychology from Liverpool University in 1985. As part of initial training to become an educational psychologist, Boaler spent two years of secondary school teaching in central London at Haverstock School in Camden. After teaching experiences there inspired her to change course, Boaler received a master's degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics education from King's College London in 1991 and 1996. She won the award for best Ph.D. in education from the British Educational Research Association in 1997. Her Ph.D. research compared three-year case studies of two different schools.

## Career
### Emigration to the US

In 1998, Boaler became an assistant professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education. She became an associate professor in 2000 and left as a full professor in 2006.
In 2000, she obtained a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to conduct a longitudinal study of 3 schools in California, resulting in a 2005 preprint and 2008 publication. The study compared 3 cohorts of students, one from each school, each of whom started algebra in 9th grade, but under different conditions. At the two schools the study dubbed “Greendale” and “Hilltop,” where some students took algebra 1 in 8th grade due to "tracking," the study followed a track of students who took algebra 1 in 9th grade and were offered a "traditional" curriculum. These cohorts were compared against an unspecified subset of students at "Railside" school (over an hour north of the other 2 schools), which followed a "reform" curriculum and had all students start algebra in 9th grade (detracking). Findings from the study were used to support further reform efforts.
In 2006, Stanford mathematician R. James Milgram filed a complaint of research misconduct against Boaler over various concerns about methodology and data representation. Milgram later co-authored a paper along with mathematician Wayne Bishop of California State University at Los Angeles and statistician Paul Clopton, stating that Boaler's conclusions in the Railside study were "grossly exaggerated and do not translate into success for her treatment [of] students". A report published by Stanford stated that the allegations "do not have substance" and that Boaler offered a "scientific rationale" for each of the disputed claims. Describing the complaint as a matter of "academic debate", the university declined to investigate further. In 2012 Boaler published a statement on her Stanford homepage, accusing Milgram, Bishop (and others) of harassment, persecution, and attempts to "suppress research evidence". Bishop and Milgram each issued rebuttals.

### Return to England

In 2006, Boaler left Stanford for the United Kingdom. She was awarded a posting as the Marie Curie professor at Sussex University by the Marie Curie Foundation. While in England, Boaler authored two books, What's Math Got To Do With It? and The Elephant in the Classroom.

### Return to California

In 2010, Boaler returned to Stanford and resumed her position as Professor of Mathematics Education. In 2012, she published articles on links between timed testing and math anxiety. In addition to focusing on inquiry-based learning, Boaler's research has highlighted problems associated with ability grouping in England and the US, and she has written about mistakes and growth mindset in the context of mathematics.
In 2013, Boaler taught the first Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on mathematics education, called "How to Learn Math", with about 40,000 teachers and parents participating, of whom about 25,000 completed the course. In the same year, she founded youcubed.org with Cathy Williams, former director of Mathematics in the Vista Unified School District to offer mathematics resources for mathematics teachers.
In 2014, the San Francisco Unified School District reformed its math program in an effort to reduce the segregation of socio-economically disadvantaged students into lower-level math classes. The new program removed honors classes and accelerated math, placing all students into the same curriculum, and delayed the teaching of algebra until the 9th grade. Inspired by Boaler's work, classrooms were reorganized with groups of students collaborating to solve a series of math problems. Boaler met with district representatives and later praised the effort in an op-ed for The Hechinger Report; however, the district superintendent said the updated policy differed from Boaler's recommendations.
Boaler criticized New York State's 2015 implementation of a Common Core–based math curriculum as being too focused on speed and rote learning at the expense of students' ability to think about numbers creatively.
In 2024, Boaler launched a Basketball Data Analytics unit through the youcubed. Boaler partnered with Stanford's women's basketball team to use statistics to help students and players grades four through 10 improve and make decisions with data through basketball.

#### Youcubed

In 2013, Boaler co-founded youcubed, a research centre at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, with Cathy Williams. Boaler currently serves as youcubed's faculty advisor. Youcubed offers K-12 mathematics education resources to teachers, students and parents.

#### Struggly

Boaler is one of several cofounders of a children’s math game web app called Struggly, marketed to schools and families. Struggly is a brand of Boggl, which in turn is a customer of denkwerk, a consulting and digital design agency with a history of awards for design. Since Struggly’s launch, denkwerk and Struggly have been jointly honored with several design-related awards, such as Red Dot's 2023 Best of the Best for Visual Identity, the webby awards crediting their "denkwerk and Struggly" entrant for nominee-level awards in two design-related subcategories, and a German "dda23" design-related award honoring Struggly and denkwerk. Headquartered at Austin, Struggly was also represented by its CEO/cofounder Tanya Lamar and cofounder Alina Schlaier at 2024 SXSW EDU, an annual education festival in Austin, Texas, to accept its 2024 Walton Family Foundation Launch Startup Community Choice Award.

#### 2023 California mathematics framework

Boaler is one of five original authors of the 2021 and 2022 drafts for the California Department of Education's 2023 Mathematics Framework, which like the older 2013 framework, provides guidance for K-12 math teaching and learning in California public schools. Boaler is also the most cited author in the framework, with it citing Boaler 48 times, in addition to citing youcubed 28 times. The final version of the framework also reflects input from educators, parents, students, and others who commented during two 60-day review periods in 2021 and 2022. The 2021 and 2022 drafts recommended delaying algebra 1 to 9th grade for all public school students, and proposed a particular data science pathway as an alternative to both the traditional algebra 2 pathway and the integrated curriculum pathways. However, the final 2023 version of the framework acknowledged that some public school students would be ready for algebra 1 in 8th grade, and it removed "alternative pathway" language for data science. After these and other changes were made by Education Trust WestEd, WestEd posted a statement of endorsement of the new framework version, with added endorsements from various organisations across California, such as Californians Together, the California Partnership for Math and Science Education, the English Learners Success Forum, the Loyola Marymount University Center for Equity for English Learners, the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, and UnboundEd. Supporters of the framework also included the California Teachers Association and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Before its 2023 revision, the 2021 and 2022 framework drafts by Boaler et al faced considerable criticism and pushback. For example, authors describing themselves as "a significant majority of black faculty across the UC system in fields related to data science (mathematics, statistics, and electrical engineering/computer science)" wrote an open letter expressing concerns that the proposed California Math Framework (CMF) and associated UC policy changes would cause harm to "Californian students, and especially on students of color". In addition to over 1500 signatures from other STEM experts, the letter received over 150 signatures from UC STEM faculty, including 3 UC Berkeley directors for Inclusive Practices, Outreach, and Equity & Diversity efforts in Engineering and STEM. Stanford's math department's director of undergraduate studies Brian Conrad wrote an Article for The Atlantic expressing concerns that the proposed CMF risked derailing public school math education to the extent that "only the children of families with resources beyond the public schools" would be able to access adequate high school preparation for successful STEM degrees. After several delays, a revised Framework was approved in July 2023 by the state Board of Education incorporating changes recommended by WestEd.
In 2022, Boaler was involved in a public online dispute with Jelani Nelson, a computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley and an opponent of the 2021 mathematics framework. After a high school math teacher had tweeted pages of a consulting contract from Oxnard School District’s public website, Nelson had retweeted a page showing $40,000 paid to Boaler for 4 2-hour sessions (plus any preparation). Nelson's retweet criticized charging such fees to "districts with large minority populations" (it was 97% non-white), given Boaler’s role in a recent California math framework draft that he said "states improving math learning for black students as central motivation and has 0 black authors." Boaler then sent Nelson an email accusing him of "spreading misinformation and harassing me online" and stating that "the sharing of private details about me on social media yesterday is now being taken up by police and lawyers." Nelson posted a screenshot of Boaler's email and wrote that "Black people disagreeing with you on Twitter is not a crime." Boaler told reporters she had not intended her mention of police to be "perceived as a threat," and said authorities had instead been contacted about Boaler's home address appearing on a different tweeted page of the Oxnard-website contract, not retweeted by Nelson. Boaler also said she had received threats following Nelson's tweets. She later tweeted that Nelson was "the black male professor" who "very cleverly changed my request to meet into a claim of racism".
In March 2024, an anonymous complaint was sent to Stanford University's dean of research alleging Boaler had violated the research policies of the University. As with the earlier complaint from 2006, the University reviewed the complaint and decided the matter did not warrant an investigation, stating "the allegations reflect scholarly disagreement and interpretation". Boaler responded to this with an article published by Threo and the American Association of University Professors Journal: Academe, about the attempts to suppress her work and research that focuses on equitable approaches to mathematics instruction.

## Awards and honors

* 1999 National Science Foundation Early Career Award
* 2014 NCSM (National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics) Kay Gilliland Equity Award
* 2016 The California Mathematics Council Walter Denham Memorial Award for Leadership
* 2019 The Nomellini–Olivier Endowed Chair and Nomellini & Olivier Professor of Education (Mathematics)
* 2022 Honorary doctorate degree from the Open University
* 2024 Ranked first in curriculum, instruction, and administration by the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings
* Named by the BBC as one of eight educators "changing the face of education"
* Elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

## Publications
### Books

* Boaler, J. (1997) Experiencing School Mathematics: Teaching Styles, Sex and Setting
* Boaler, J. (2000) Multiple Perspectives on Mathematics Teaching & Learning
* Boaler, J (2002) Experiencing School Mathematics: Traditional and Reform Approaches to Teaching and their Impact on Student Learning
* Boaler, J & Humphreys, C (2005) Connecting Mathematical Ideas: Middle School Cases of Teaching & Learning
* Boaler, J (2015) What’s Math Got to do With It? How Teachers and Parents Can Transform Mathematics Learning and Inspire Success
* Boaler (2019). Limitless Mind. Learn, Lead and Live without Barriers
* Boaler, J., Munson, J., & Williams, C. (2017-2022) K-8 Book Series. Mindset Mathematics: Visualizing and Investigating Big ideas
* Boaler, J. (2022) The Elephant in the Classroom
* Boaler, J. (2024) Math-ish: Finding Creativity, Diversity, and Meaning in Mathematics