San Diego, CA — December 2025 — A newly published, independent evaluation by WestEd has found that middle school students in San Diego Unified School District experienced dramatic improvements in engagement, mathematical reasoning, and analytical thinking after participating in Mindsets’ real-world, experiential mathematics program.
Grounded in the Standards of Mathematical Practice (SMP) , particularly SMP 2: Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively and SMP 8: Repeated Reasoning, the program emphasizes mathematical thinking, communication, and relevance.
Drawing on thousands of student responses, WestEd reported that Mindsets Challenges — short, applied, hands-on tasks — led to a 7.7× increase in student engagement and more than doubling of students’ mathematical reasoning and analytical skills.
Read the full WestEd report here
Key Findings
• Engagement increased by 7.7×
• Mathematical reasoning increased by 2.5×
• Analytical thinking increased by 2.5×
Why This Matters
WestEd’s findings demonstrate that even a short series of Mindsets Challenges can produce meaningful growth in engagement, mathematical reasoning, and higher-order thinking.
About San Diego Unified’s Implementation
Mindsets partnered with San Diego Unified — California’s second-largest district — to implement themed Challenges across grades 6–8: Building Community, Food Week, Movement, Shark Tank, and The Amazing Race.
About WestEd
WestEd is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, development, and service agency supporting education systems nationwide with rigorous, independent evaluations.
District leaders, curriculum and assessment partners, and media interested in learning more about the findings or exploring collaboration opportunities are encouraged to contact us.
Mindsets brings math to life with career-ready, project-based applications that spark curiosity and give students clear answers to their ‘why’ questions.
Mindsets empowers students through hands-on learning that boosts engagement, sharpens mathematical reasoning, and builds the cognitive and collaborative skills they need to thrive in school and beyond.
