Zeno

Mission + Vision

Zeno's mission is to spark joy and inspire a love of math in young children and families through racial equity, family engagement, and play, all centered in the experiences of communities of color.

Zeno envisions a racially just world where every child and family is a doer and lover of math.

HISTORY

Founded in 2003 as Explorations in Math, Zeno was created by Akin (nee, Norman) Alston and a group of parents at Wilder Elementary School in Woodinville, Washington. Akin, a mathematician and engineer, had a deep understanding of the power of math and the importance of building a child's confidence in math early through play. He believes math is an equalizer for children in disadvantaged communities.

REACH

This past year Zeno collaborated with 104 community partners, including Head Start classrooms, family childcare centers, tribal preschools, and local children's museums – to distribute 31,000 games to nearly 6,000 children and families in 16 counties across Washington State.

As we continue to navigate this current health crisis, our team explores new ways to connect with partners digitally, build community with virtual family engagement opportunities, and offer online Professional Learning sessions. This past year we reached over 800 educators through our digital engagement strategy including 50 Professional Learning workshops, over 100 virtual game trainings for partners, and 15 virtual family engagement events.

EVIDENCE-BASED

Zeno's programming is founded on the following experience and research:

1. Prevention and preparation strategy. Zeno’s core work focuses on early childhood education building confidence and skill in prerequisite math fundamentals for kindergarten readiness. Children entering school without the prerequisite math skills are unlikely to catch up with their peers over time so achievement gaps tend to widen. Children with higher levels of school readiness at age five are generally more successful in grade school, are less likely to drop out of high school, and earn more as adults, even after adjusting for differences in family background. [1] However, only 61% of children of color are entering math-ready as measured by the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS). [2]
2. Guided play facilitates high quality learning. For children, play is serious learning. Play is the work of childhood – contributing to the cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being of children. Zeno designs and produces game kits in key math FUN-damentals giving preschoolers experience in numeracy, data/measurement, sorting/patterns, geometry and comparisons. Zeno currently has 15 game kit titles provided through our Family MathWays programming to keep the learning fresh, challenging and building skills.

RACIAL EQUITY

We contend that THE key lever for change is honoring the agency, dignity, and inherent strengths of BIPOC communities. By disrupting systemic racism, this ensures that race is not a factor in the acquisition of math skills. We do this by: 

• Exposing our families, communities, and funders to the relationship between math and racial equity using our five practices and professional development workshops.
• Publishing our games in 10 different languages so that parenting adults and children can access math concepts in the comfort of their native tongue; these languages reflect the communities that we work with. 
• Reflecting race, culture, and intergenerational dynamics in the artwork and design of Zeno’s game kits and supplemental materials, reinforcing a self-image of a person who is a doer and lover of math. 
• Moving at the speed of trust. Zeno understands that working in diverse communities requires trust and thus prioritizes the development of relationships with existing community organizations who can act as a liaison to families.

Join our movement for math and racial equity by making a gift to Zeno in support of the next generation of entrepreneurs, innovators, and citizens. Check out the other moves you can make for math: www.zenomath.org/MM4M

Thank you in advance for your support!