Testimonials
With Stern materials, math becomes interactive and exciting. Students' eyes light up when they walk in the room and the materials are on the table.
Gayle Porter Lewis, Math Department Chair | The Carroll School
The manipulatives themselves are so intuitive and easy to use; they are easy for any teacher to implement in their classroom, especially in a small group setting.
Stephanie Feinberg, Teacher | Harlem Success Academy
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I've been using Stern materials with students in grades K-3 for three years now and have seen my students' number sense progress exponentially! Stern provides a concrete visual to attach to the otherwise abstract concept of numbers, taking students through all stages of understanding – from understanding that each block (and therefore number) has its place and decomposing numbers, to place value and multiplication.The manipulatives themselves are so intuitive and easy to use; they are easy for any teacher to implement in their classroom, especially in a small group setting.
These materials are genius! The most important mathematical concept for young children to understand is how numbers relate to each other.
Nancy Krasa, Ph.D. | Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, The Ohio State University | Co-author, How Children Learn Math: The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice
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These materials are genius! The most important mathematical concept for young children to understand is how numbers relate to each other. Unlike other countable items, such as buttons or chips, number blocks demonstrate numerical relations transparently and memorably. Once a child lines up a 3-block and a 5-block on a number track, it is easy to understand how 3 + 5 = and to remember it!
Author of How Children Learn Math: The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice, by Nancy Krasa, Karen Tzanetopoulos, and Colleen Maas (Routledge, 2023)
Stern Structural Arithmetic has helped our most struggling students develop their conceptual understanding of basic number sense and operations by improving their ability to identify and predict patterns in numbers.
Middle School Teacher | Uncommon School, Brooklyn, NY
Stern Math allows our students with Learning Disabilities to understand concepts through the use of intuitive and concrete manipulatives, effective games and clear lessons. They are asking questions which show their thinking process and can then demonstrate their understanding with the materials. Stern has been a highly effective curriculum for our students and one which we will continue to utilize.
Co-Director of the Lower School | Mary McDowell Friends School in Brooklyn, NY
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Stern Math allows our students with Learning Disabilities to understand concepts through the use of intuitive and concrete manipulatives, effective games and clear lessons.The program's sequence of skills builds on itself supporting our students to retain what they learn and apply it to newly developing skills. We see a high level of engagement from our students using Stem Math. They are asking questions which show their thinking process and can then demonstrate their understanding with the materials. Stern has been a highly effective curriculum for our students and one which we will continue to utilize.
Stern materials provide the students with multisensory, hands-on activities and self discovery and exploration experiences. This conceptual approach follows a number of OG (Orton-Gillingham) concepts of being structured, systematic, multi-sensory, spiraling back and ongoing assessments.
Grade 4, Teacher | The Carroll School
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Besides making my students excited and engaged in learning math skills and number sense, the Stern materials provide the students with multisensory, hands-on activities and self discovery and exploration experiences. This conceptual approach follows a number of OG (Orton-Gillingham) concepts of being structured, systematic, multi-sensory, spiraling back and ongoing assessments.
The Stern materials allow my students to become actively involved in learning math. ... I am amazed by students’ own creative uses of the materials after I have introduced them. The materials are beautifully made and the children love using them.
Grade 3, Teacher | The Carroll School
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The Stern materials allow my students to become actively involved in learning math.They often choose to get the nesting boards to show me all the facts for a certain number and often ask to use the number line when we are adding. One of their favorite activities is to fill the pattern boards and show odd and even numbers.I am amazed by students’ own creative uses of the materials after I have introduced them. The materials are beautifully made and the children love using them.
Dr. Stern's material, so carefully planned and ordered, amazed and delighted me.
Marguerite Lehr, Professor of Mathematics | Bryn Mawr College
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Dr. Stern's material, so carefully planned and ordered, amazed and delighted me. … I could see deliberately put into play every abstract property of the arithmetic operations to which a mathematician would give a technical term. That was more than I dreamed could be done.
From her introduction to the original edition of Children Discover Arithmetic.
Though over the years we have made use of other arithmetic programs, we have always kept the Stern Structural Arithmetic method as the basis of our mathematics program because we have found this to be the most successful method to use with our children.
Tonya Pulanco, Educational Director | Gateway School
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For more than forty years the teachers of the Gateway School have enthusiastically and successfully used the Stern Structural Arithmetic Materials as the basic foundation of our mathematics program.
We work with children who need help to understand and visualize size, symbol and spatial relationships. Manipulating and experimenting with these concrete materials have enabled all of our children, beginning with our youngest, the five year olds, to learn how to problem solve and reason through different mathematical situations. Further, the use of these materials adds another 'hook' to help the child understand the complex language of mathematics.
Though over the years we have made use of other arithmetic programs, we have always kept the Stern Structural Arithmetic method as the basis of our mathematics program because we have found this to be the most successful method to use with our children.
After using Stern, the student’s ability to reason with numbers improved and she was able to apply her skills when learning more complicated mathematical procedures. Working with these materials improved her attitude toward mathematics and helped build her confidence in her abilities.
Tutor Teacher | The Carroll School
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I tutored a third grade student who, when I began working with her, counted on her fingers to solve all mathematical computation and dreaded the sight of numbers. She struggled to learn new math because her foundational skills were so weak. Her teachers tried everything and nothing worked. After two years of using Stern twice a week, she not only learned her addition and subtraction facts but also her multiplication and division facts.After using Stern, the student’s ability to reason with numbers improved and she was able to apply her skills when learning more complicated mathematical procedures. Working with these materials improved her attitude toward mathematics and helped build her confidence in her abilities.