A younger Sarah LeVeck wrote a high school essay vowing to never touch math again.
Now, she can’t get away from the subject and is in line to receive the highest national award for math and science.
The Ashland Middle School math teacher and district math department chair is one of three state finalists for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.
Winners of the prestigious award are typically announced by the White House in January of each year.
But cuts to federal agency budgets by the Department of Governmental Efficiency has put the awards process into question. The presidential awards are a function of the National Science Foundation.
President Donald’s Trump’s discretionary budget recommended a $4.6 billion cut to the NSF’s $9 billion budget. One of the three programs his administration sought to cut? The “Agency Operations and Awards Management” program, a $93 million line item.
The awards process, at least in Ohio, has pressed forward. Finalists were announced by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce on June 3.
LeVeck and her peers aren’t too worried about what’s happening or could happen federally. They’re just proud to bring light to LeVeck’s approach to teaching math that seems to be working at Ashland Middle School.
LeVeck’s now ironic paper came during her junior year at Ashland High School. The 2002 Ashland High School graduate had earned enough credits in the subject she enjoyed. But she was burned out on math.
A couple years later, she enrolled at Mount Vernon Nazarene University as an art education major. That’s what her dad did — and she liked making art.
“So I thought, ‘This is the way to go,’” she said.
LeVeck switched majors five times that first semester. Eventually, she would have what she describes now as a “light bulb moment.”
“I started tutoring (math) in college. And then I worked for the math department — and it was kind of a backdoor way to love it again,” LeVeck, 40, said. In that time, the pressure to perform lifted. It allowed her to explore ways to teach her peers.
“It was fun, like a puzzle to work out. And that’s what I like to do now with kids. ‘It’s like a puzzle. Let’s learn together how to be solid problem solvers.’”
Zooming out
Middle schoolers in the U.S. are struggling with math.
This age group struggled with the subject more than any other through the pandemic. Educators have predicted it will take years for young people to catch up to scores seen in 2019.
For example, the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2024 revealed that eighth grade math scores fell eight points from 2019. It represented the lowest level since the early 2000s.
The Northwest Evaluation Association found that seventh and eighth grade scores in math assessments fell in 2022, the only group of kids for whom that was true. Researchers, at the time, predicted it would take these students at least five years to catch up to pre-pandemic levels.
Ashland schools were not immune to the national trends, a reality with which LeVeck is keenly familiar. She not only teaches seventh-grade math, she also chairs the school’s math department.
She said the school was on a path of growth in the years preceding COVID-19.
State data show the district earned a “C” grade — or 77.4% — during the 2018-19 school year for its “performance index,” a measure that combines results from all state assessments, including those in English Language Arts (ELA), math, science, and high school exams for U.S. history and government.
Even though the number only represents two percentage points above the state’s 75% requirement, the score was the highest since the 2015-16 school year, when the district received a 44.5% score, a failing grade when it comes to meeting indicators.
The pandemic slowed progress. It hit students hard.
During the 2020-21 school year, Ashland seventh graders received a 62.1% score on performance indicators, which reports the percentage of students who have scored proficient or higher on state tests.
That same measure dipped to 59.5% a year later, and then to 55.3% during the 2022-23 year.
Educators said there are many factors at play — COVID being only one.
Ashley Pacholewski, assistant principal at AMS, said students’ needs have changed dramatically. The school’s population of socioeconomic disadvantaged students, for example, has grown by 25% in recent years.
The reality has influenced the district’s reconfiguration of Reagan and Edison elementary schools that take effect in the fall.
Pacholewski, LeVeck and Jim Lindeman, the middle school’s principal, all mentioned the school’s adoption of a new math curriculum in 2022 as playing a role in test score dips, too.
By the 2023-24 school year, math scores of fourth and seventh graders shot up, according to performance indicators from the Ohio Department of Education.
Performance indicators in the rest of the district were slightly down in 2024, except for high school geometry scores. But when you compare math achievement in Ashland City Schools to other districts, ACS stands out.
Ashland students in third through eighth grade on average scored a 73.4% in the state’s performance indicator metric. In similar districts, that number is 62.5%.
LeVeck emphasizes that she’s part of a team of dedicated math teachers. Hence she feels weird about being in the spotlight.
But with her at the helm as the math department chair, LeVeck’s peers say her approach to teaching stands out and indeed deserves accolades.
What makes her different? What is this ex-art major and former math denouncer doing right?
Inside LeVeck’s room
If you walk into LeVeck’s classroom today, you’ll be greeted by walls covered in messages that aim to convey what she learned in college. It was a message that ultimately led her down a path that brought her to education:
It’s OK to make mistakes. In fact, it’s important to make them.
“My job is to create problem solvers … We don’t need to be afraid of making mistakes. So I really encourage that in the classroom,” she said.
And so on any given weekday in LeVeck’s room, you might encounter something “beautiful” unfolding, Pacholewski said.
“(The students) are getting up and moving. Talking to each other, leaning into each other as teammates, as learners — as student colleagues,” she said.
Pacholewski believes in the Whole Child Framework, an approach to education backed by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce that puts children at the center of learning.
“As educators, we need to be meeting kids as whole people. And whole people have needs beyond academic needs and learning new curricula,” she said.
Pacholewski said LeVeck is “growing whole kids.”
“There’s a social-emotional piece that goes with learning. And math can be a really tricky subject area,” Pacholewski said. “If you didn’t have (a great) relationship with numbers, it effects your self-esteem, it effects how other people perceive you. And what’s really beautiful about her classroom … their self-confidence is coming back alive, too.
“It’s really cool to see the pride they have for themselves as learners and the growth that they make in Sarah’s class.”
BreAnn Fennell, a third grade teacher at Ashland City Schools, has two of her own children at the district. One of her sons, Lucas, had LeVeck just last year.
Fennell said her son had a “good foundation” for math going into seventh grade. But having LeVeck as his teacher really expanded that knowledge.
“His confidence grew, and his accountability to what he thought he was capable of grew too,” she said.
By March, Lucas decided he’d go into an advanced algebra setting for eighth grade. Ohio teachers typically introduce algebra to middle school students. Advanced courses, however, are typically taught in 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
“Because of (LeVeck), he felt like he had the ability to do that,” Fennell said.
But don’t take her word for it — Lucas Fennell himself said it best.
“(LeVeck) taught me that I am made for amazing things and I need to act like it and treat others like it,” he said.
Pacholewski described being in LeVeck’s room as “seeing kids explore things.” One of her favorite activities to watch is students drawing out their mathematical thinking for a particular problem on a dry-erase board.
“They get to go through and pick out who solved this problem, and what we’re interested in. What is our favorite mistake that somebody made because we know they’re getting the material but they just make one little thing they (can improve),” she said.
The assistant principal said she’s always impressed with LeVeck’s finesse in facilitating conversation among her students. As an administrator, which brings its own stresses, it’s refreshing.
“Her room is my favorite place to be,” Pacholewski said. “It fills my cup.”
Discovery
LeVeck’s approach — one that focuses on discovery versus rote memorization — isn’t an accident. It stems from a past in which, time after time, others’ confidence in her drove her to unlock abilities she never thought possible.
LeVeck describes herself as someone who’s always been a bit reticent. Restrained. Shy.
“But I always had people willing to push me forward. Even when I wasn’t willing to or ready. They encouraged me to take a risk,” she said.
In college, a professor nominated her for a math-related scholarship, displaying a confidence that she didn’t necessarily have for herself.
She landed her first teaching gig in Ashland in 2006 as a small-group instructor. She quickly moved into being a teacher for the district’s gifted student program, which is where she spent a decent chunk of time.
It’s in that position of teaching gifted students that her peers discovered her strengths. When she accepted the position, LeVeck was the youngest person to have ever held the district’s math department chair seat. She maintains that distinction and role today.
When the new middle school building opened, the administration moved to block scheduling, meaning she had to pick between seventh and eighth grade.
“I didn’t want to have all the advanced kids — I want to see the full spectrum of kids’ abilities,” she said. So she picked seventh grade math.
What she’s created is a place where kids aren’t afraid to make mistakes and explain their thinking.
“I tell them, ‘I just want to see you do it wrong. Show me,'” LeVeck said.
As the student explains how they got their answer, LeVeck offers small tweaks.
“So it’s all a journey. I try to create that culture in the room, that it’s OK to make mistakes.”
Pacholewski said LeVeck’s approach has blossomed an atmosphere in which kids discover they are mathematicians and experts — and it’s every child, not just the ones with a penchant for numbers.
“I’ve seen kids with learning disabilities get up in front of their class and explain their thinking with everybody else, and they’re achieving at a very high level,” she said.
But LeVeck’s techniques are not restricted to the classroom.
Under her leadership as chair of the math department, LeVeck began observing other teachers.
Her goal?
“Every teacher has a superpower,” she said. “So I went to them and just observed.”
LeVeck said the first couple years of this was “scary” for teachers. But it’s now formalized across the district.
Last year, she sent a team of teachers to another district with “grades that were amazing.” They went and watched and took notes.
“This isn’t normal, but I’m trying to normalize it,” she said. “In the old days, we had silos of excellence.
“Our philosophy is that’s not good for kids. So let’s learn so we can bring the best teaching to our kids.”
Pacholewski and Lindeman have noticed.
“People (around her) are inspired and hungry to learn and improve,” Pacholewski said.
Presidential award process
BreAnn Fennell nominated LeVeck for the award back in the fall of 2024. As a parent, she recognized LeVeck’s role in instilling more confidence in her son, Lucas’s, math abilities.
As an award-winning teacher, however, she recognized the importance of shining a light on peers. (Fennell was the state’s 2021 Teacher of the Year for District 5.)
“Being able to celebrate other teachers is really important to me,” she said. “Not everyone sees what goes on in the classrooms.
“Without this, we wouldn’t see that she’s trying to inspire kids to greatness. And it’s all tough and hard material, but she’s giving them stepping stones to reach that potential.”
The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching was established in 1983. It’s the highest award the U.S. government gives to K-12 math and science teachers.
Last year, there were six teachers from Ohio out of the 300 who earned the distinction. Winners receive $10,000 from the National Science Foundation.
Each also gets a certificate signed by the President of the United States, a trip to Washington, D.C. to attend a series of recognition events and professional development opportunities.
LeVeck, when nominated, didn’t realize how intensive the process is. She also didn’t feel worthy.
“We have an incredible math department, so you always think of others who might be more deserving,” she said.
So she put off the application for a little while.
“But I was really just pushed along by (Fennell), the administration here and my co-teacher,” she said.
Finally, she set some time aside during three snow days. The result was around 30,000 words worth of answers to questions in the application, LeVeck said.
Forever finalist?
Typically the President of the United States announces honorees in January of each year.
But reported turmoil within the National Science Foundation amidst the Trump administration’s efforts to slash government spending has thrown the future of the presidential awards into question.
LeVeck herself questioned it. Amidst the application process, she searched for links for information a couple months ago. But they were gone from the NSF’s website.
All links on the NSF’s website have since reappeared. But when asked if budget cuts and reorganization efforts have impacted the presidential awards process, an NSF spokeswoman said “NSF declines to comment.”
The White House did not respond to an email seeking comment.
“Who knows where it’ll go … I could be a finalist forever,” LeVeck said, chuckling.