Mathematics is the key to success in scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematics fields, and influences employment and wage opportunities in many blue-collar occupations. Unfortunately, almost one out of four adults in the United States do not have the basic mathematical skills needed for today’s job market or to cope with the routine quantitative demands of day-to-day living. Dr. David Geary, Curators’ Professor of Psychology and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience at the University of Missouri, is focused on identifying the causes of poor academic outcomes and how to remediate them. Surprisingly, the risk of long-term innumeracy begins before children enter 1st grade, with children who start 1st grade behind their peers tending to stay behind throughout schooling and into adulthood, independent of intelligence or reading ability. Dr. Geary is taking a scientific approach to address the challenges that children face in the classroom and to develop ways to combat these challenges, with a specific focus on mathematics.

As a leader in the field, Dr. Geary was on the President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel and was also appointed to the National Advisory Board for the Institute of National Sciences. Based on his research on mathematical cognition and learning he received a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health, which is given to less than 2% of funded researchers. Among other contributions, Dr. Geary’s ten year, kindergarten to 9th grade, longitudinal study is the longest and most comprehensive study of children’s mathematical development and learning disabilities ever conducted; results from the study have been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, and many other sources. His experienced team of passionate scientists, in addition to his collaborations internationally, are developing and paving the way towards addressing the issues of our current education system.

Current research includes:

• Preschool Children: Children who enter 1st grade behind their peers in a basic understanding of numbers and simple arithmetic are at risk for long-term poor achievement in mathematics throughout school and functional innumeracy in adulthood. Dr. Geary is identifying preschool children’s early quantitative competencies that predict their readiness to learn formal mathematics in school. He and his team are also studying the cognitive factors and early mathematical competencies that predict high school students’ ease of learning algebra. In a 10 year NIH funded project, they have identified the first grade numerical competencies that predict long-term outcomes in mathematics, independent of sex, race, family background, intelligence, reading skills, and other factors.

• 9th Graders and Algebra: High school algebra is a gateway course. Without a solid background in algebra, students' opportunities for entry into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields is greatly diminished, as is their ability to complete basic college mathematics courses required for many non-STEM degrees. Dr. Geary and his team have studied 9th graders’ algebra competencies and are making progress on identifying sources of learning deficits. In the future, they hope to conduct a longitudinal study to follow students’ mathematical development throughout high school and into early adulthood.

• Sex Differences in Vulnerability: Why does poor nutrition during adolescence affect the height and physical fitness of boys more than girls, but the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease affect the language competencies of women more than men? Traits that have been elaborated through social competition or mate choices are especially vulnerable to disruption by exposure to environmental and social stressors. Dr. Geary and his team are identifying sex- and species-specific traits whose development and expression are vulnerable to disruption by disease, poor nutrition, social stressors, and exposure to man-made toxins (e.g., environmental toxins and chemotherapy).