The CME Group Foundation has announced grants totaling nearly $3 million to four Chicago nonprofits working to help young children from the city's low-income communities improve their math skills.

Awarded through the CME Group Foundation's Early Math Education Initiative, the grants are expected to help 15,000 low-income children become proficient at math at the appropriate grade or developmental level. The grants will focus on the professional development of eight hundred early childhood teachers as it relates to math education and collaboration among educators, with the hope that high-quality math instruction at an early age will serve as a starting point for later learning and help address inequalities in educational outcomes.

The grants include $1 million over four years to the Erikson Institute for its Early Mathematics Education Project; $1 million over four years to the Ounce of Prevention Fund for its Early Math Initiative; $750,000 over three years to the Big Shoulders Fund for its Early Childhood Math Intervention Program; and $33,000 over one year to the Chicago Children's Museum for its Playful Approaches to Learning in Math program.

"We are extremely pleased to be able to partner with these esteemed organizations to address early math education, a critical need among American school children," said CME Group Foundation chairman Jack Sandner. "All young children have the capacity to learn and become competent in math, but many times that potential is not realized in the early years of schooling, particularly for low-income children. Math education has risen to the top of the national policy agenda to meet the demands of international competition in the twenty-first century that require a workforce competent in math. Through our Early Math Education Initiative, CME Group Foundation hopes to make a difference in changing the direction of mathematics learning while ultimately serving as a model for future programs."