Math fluency requires both meaningful understanding and structured practice.

Most educators are told to choose between teaching math for understanding or practicing for memorization. McNeil et al. (2025) proves this is a false choice and that students need both, supported by the right cognitive skills, to truly become fluent.

This summary gives you a concise, accessible breakdown of the research and introduces the COGx Math Fluency Framework, which shows how fluency develops in the brain and what schools can do to strengthen it. Whether you're a school leader, teacher, specialist, or parent, you’ll walk away with clarity on why students struggle with fluency, what the science actually says, and the instructional approaches that make a measurable difference.

Download the summary to understand the science and start applying it.