Students often struggle to connect math with the real world. Word problems—a combination of words, numbers, and mathematical operations—can be a perfect vehicle to take abstract numbers off the page.

A controversial new movement promoting the "science of math" has come into the math establishment's crosshairs.

Claire Madden, a math education specialist for Milwaukee schools, shows teachers different methods of subtracting two-digit numbers. Credit: Abby J. McFarland for The Hechinger Report The Hechinger ...