Math isn’t just numbers on a page; it’s a tool for us to understand how the world works. Mathematics is everywhere and every child deserves to speak it fluently and with confidence. Math is also the gateway to many STEM career opportunities that all our children deserve to be in. Imagine not having the language to do so.

California serves nearly 6 million K-12 students, and nearly one in five is a multilingual learner who is learning mathematics through more than one language. For these students, learning math means navigating both numbers and words; unfortunately, our approach to teaching our multilingual learners can be more of a barrier than a bridge.

As immigrants and multilingual learners ourselves, this work is deeply personal. For the students who speak like us, Spanish or Tagalog first, mathematics is not just a lesson, but a language. A language that creates opportunities for navigating the everyday world and for dreaming of future career aspirations.

In November, California released its final list of approved High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM) math curricula. This is the first adoption cycle built entirely around the updated California Math framework, which emphasizes multilingual support. The focus now shifts to local districts and county offices as they begin choosing their own materials and putting the math framework into practice. The materials that districts choose will shape the mathematical experiences of millions of students and teachers for the next decade. This is not simply a purchasing decision; it is an opportunity to finally close achievement gaps that have left behind many multilingual students.

When evaluating instructional materials, we must ask if the materials offer students meaningful opportunities to refine both their mathematical thinking and their language. The opportunity is to design and adopt materials that invite students to think, talk, explain and reason in ways that connect their languages, cultures and lived experiences to mathematical ideas. This is not an act of accommodation, but an act of liberation. When materials do not include multilingual learners, we are silencing the voices of our students.

Understanding the intersection of language and mathematics is critical for effective teaching. Mapping the scope and sequence of how these skills develop throughout the curriculum provides educators with a clear, at-a-glance view of language progression across units. Equally important is fostering sustained peer interaction in the classroom, where students clarify, justify, and build ideas and language from one another.

High-quality instructional materials are not just new textbooks or digital platforms, they’re about transforming access and opportunity for multilingual students that for long have been left behind. When done right, these materials integrate conceptual understanding, procedural fluency and problem-solving with intentional language development.

Discourse is a natural component of learning mathematics. Language development must be woven throughout. Our system too often reduces language to vocabulary words. Teachers are frequently provided materials that fail to support language development within mathematics learning. Instead of treating language as a resource for reasoning and sense-making, materials often reduce language to rote memorization and superficial understanding. When math instruction honors our students’ full linguistic repertoire, their mathematical reasoning flourishes.

We have the power to ensure that each and every student in California experiences mathematics as a subject of empowerment, relevance and joy. EL students have proven that by eighth grade, those who have mastered English can, and do, outperform their non-EL peers in math, attendance and other measures.

Teachers, administrators and school board members should demand that multilingual learners are intentionally reflected in all materials. We can build clarity on what high-quality, multilingual-inclusive materials actually look like. California can be an example for what can be a bridge between the extraordinary work happening in classrooms and the broader systems that shape education policy.

Alma Castro , Ed.D., is the director of California initiatives at the English Learners Success Forum and a board member of the Lynwood Unified School Board. She serves as director-at-large for the California School Boards Association. Ma Bernadette Salgarino, Ed.D., is past president, California Mathematics Council and California Teachers Association staff, Region 1 Equity and Justice Department. She is a former member of the Mathematics Curriculum Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee (2013 & 2023).