As Math Scores Lag, a New Push for the Basics

[ckramer]

For the second time in a generation, education officials are rethinking the teaching of math in American schools.

The changes are being driven by students’ lagging performance on international tests and mathematicians’ warnings that more than a decade of so-called reform math — critics call it fuzzy math — has crippled students with its de-emphasizing of basic drills and memorization in favor of allowing children to find their own ways to solve problems.


Grass-roots groups in many cities are agitating for a return to basics. Many point to California’s standards as a good model: the state adopted reform math in the early 1990s but largely rejected it near the end of the decade, a turnaround that led to rising math achievement.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/14/education/14math.html?hp&ex=1163566800&en=4d5105588ec13d17&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[LiberalEsto]

1. I know two people who teach 5th grade

One in NJ, one in Maryland.

They both tell me that in the testing frenzy of No Child Left Behind, schoolchildren are no longer taught to memorize the times tables. Instead, the kids rely on calculators.

I was dumbfounded when I heard this. My own kids graduated from high school in 2001 and 2004, and they were taught the same math skills that I received in the early 1960s.

The current Misadministration's "education" policy of ignoring basic skills at the expense of non-stop testing is doing a great job of preparing American children for future careers at WalMart and MacDonald's.

[lizerdbits]

2. Holy crap

I can't believe they aren't required to know that! In my elementary school (early 80's)everyone was required to know them up to 12 by a certain grade (don't remember which one). I can't imagine having to get out a calculator that often, I'd have to hang one around my neck. Even in high school calculators were never allowed in most math classes, it was expected you had that information in your head for the last 10 years. Geez...
Next step after this: basic scientific principles.

[newblewtoo]

7. This has been going on long before NCLB

My son graduated in 1999. I sent him to summer school for math years before that because they were not teaching the multiplication tables in the fifth grade, they were using something called a 'math wheel' and consensus. Our school system has always been progressive but new math does not work. My son thanks me to this day because he is one of the few kids in his class who can 'do math'.

This has been going on long before NCLB. It has been one of my pet peeves for years. It is not a new phenomenon brought on by NCLB anyone telling you that is being dishonest.

[seabeyond]

10. 3rd and 6th,... both my kids have to memorize and they start

young from what i see. concept in 2nd... 3rd start working it, 4th an expectation and timed tests

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. That is the reality in most schools

The sad thing is we don't have time in class to let them practice memorization of their facts. So the ones who know them are like yours, they have parents who make them study them at home, as we recommend for homework.

Whenever a parent complains that their child doesn't know their math facts, I ask them how much time they made them work on learning them at home. Same with reading. If they complain their kid can't read as well as they should, I ask how much reading does he do at home?

Schools cannot do it all. Sadly, more and more parents expect us to do it all for them.

[eppur_se_muova]

16. I remember an Isaac Asimov story ... had people in the future unable to do basic math.

At the time he wrote the story, there were no such things as simple pocket calculators. So it was really kind of prophetic.

"How do you know three times three is nine?"

"Because when I punch those numbers into my calculator, I get the same answer every time."

"Wait a minute, let me try that. Hey, he's right!"

(I'm paraphrasing quite freely -- wish I could remember the name of the story.)

[Jim__]

3. What is "reform math"?

The article gives a brief description; but I'm not clear on exactly what it is.

[trudyco]

13. Reform math for my 4th graders is

Going over too many subjects without a lot of repetition both initially (to get it) and over the year (to make sure it is permanent). It is a lot of hands on, which is a good thing, and a lot of "figuring out how you can get the answer" which is good when first learning the concept but not good when it's basic math like addition/subtraction multiplication/division. It does include more mental math (can you add 2 digit numbers in your head?) which is an Asian influence, I think. It also is very wordy with way too many story problems before making sure the basics are mastered.

So on the one hand, you may think "wow, they learn a lot more than I did as a kid and I like how they explain things better" but on the other hand when you see bright 3rd graders adding 3+3 on their fingers, you think "this is really wrong".

[Avalux]

18. Really fucked up math.

They started here when my daughter was in 7th grade; made her completely re-learn how to do things. The method was state-mandated; by law they had to teach math this way but the state still didn't have their shit together as far as materials, so the teachers had do what they could. Incredibly frustrating for teachers and students. It's not the math I learned - lots of story problems.

So essentially, math (and other subjects) are taught to take a test, the whole year is one giant test review. Don't pass the test, don't go on to the next grade (even if an A student) and the school loses funding.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. Sounds like more of a thinking curriculum

than rote memorization. We teach the kids to use math. We do lots of problem solving and less and less rote memorization.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. We should go back to basics, circa 1900

A few years before he died, my grandfather was going through stuff that had been in storage for decades. Among effects of his late mother, he found schoolwork that she had done in the 3rd and 4th grades in a public school in Carmel, California, just after the turn of the century. He was astonished at what he found.

The vocabulary lists for third and fourth graders back then included words that his childrend didn't see until jr. high. Same with the reading list: imagine 10 and 11 year olds reading Herman Melville and Louisa May Alcott, and not just a summarized, Readers-Digest-for-kids version either.

There were no report cards; instead, the grades themselves were published in the local newspaper along with announcement of who was going on to the next higher grade and who was being kept back. Staying behind was not unusual, as almost half of all public school students repeated at least one grade. It was somewhat embarassing, sure, but people understood that if it was needed, it was needed.

Final exams were published after the school year had ended, both questions and answers (this was a public benefit, as it was not unusual for the parents to have never attended school. Why shouldn't they learn a thing or two?) Teachers regularly had student essays published, providing a strong incentive to students to do only their best work. Likewise, summer assignments for each grade -- vocabulary lists, reading lists, and the like -- were published.

Until he got sick, he had been planning to do a comparison of education standards over a span of 100 years, starting with his mother and ending with his great-granddaughter. His thesis was that at one time, we expected students to do their best and provided plenty of incentives for them. Bright students were challenged while slower learners got the time and attention they needed. Education was valued as a precious commodity and not as a right.

I really think we need to go back towards being that basic.

[TexasLawyer]

6. that's interesting

thanks

[eppur_se_muova]

14. Wow, that is interesting! Did you see this thread?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2698779&mesg_id=2699298

(Actually my response to my own OP)

Of course I knew about the higher literary standards, but not the public grades (I think in Japan the scores for college admission are posted publicly).

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Japan also has a mental health problem among its kids

and they have no custodians or cafeteria workers. The kids maintain the school buildings.

Sorry but I would rather treat our kids with respect than the way they treat kids in Japan.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Well, wasn't recommending the package. Just noting a datum. nt

[BadgerKid]

5. Republicans' math reform

Be sure to be the one selling the calculators. :mad:

[seabeyond]

8. my youngest knew how to add double columns. then they gave him

a really confusinf messy way to "help" him. NOOOOOOO.... he coud no longer figure out how to add double column. he had lines and numbers out to side.... was a true mess. told hm to knock it off and do it simply, i dont care what his teacher says. not good for him. other son cannot see it in comon teaching. he needs to be told three and four different ways until one matches his really odd brain.... then he excels

it is all so hard

i do know my 6th grader is beyond what i did in 6th grade. i watch all the things he is learning and what i learned and think... where are people getting kids are deprived in education?

my 2 cents

[wilt the stilt]

9. No surprise

I have 2 kids who should be excellent in math. They are so so in my opinion. They both have struggled with Algebra. I was a pretty good math student and I could never understand the methodology in teaching math today. I fork out money to tutors and it's because the time stables and the mechanics of math is not taught. What the mechanics teach is a systematic approach to thinking. Our tutor makes the kids do all the work without calculators and he states that math is taught wrong. Gee, what a surprise

[The2ndWheel]

11. "time stables"

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahah.

Now that is a good phrase for school.

[wilt the stilt]

12. didn't look close enough at the spell check

that is funny

[TahitiNut]

19. My B.S. is in Math ... and I STILL don't know the "times tables."

We were presented with that obscene 12x12 array and told to memorize it. I was lazy ... and lousy at memorizing stuff. Mostly lazy, I guess. I noticed that every number in the 8th column was exactly double every number in the 4th column ... which was exactly double every number in the 2nd column!! Eureka!! I discovered that I could eliminate the 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th (5th, actually), and 12th column and still have everything I needed!! I only memorized less than 1/4th of what the other kids memorized (and discovered prime numbers all on my own).

[proud2BlibKansan]

20. Sounds like you have a brain for math

It was never hard for me either. Some of us can see those patterns, and it is really hard for others.

[bobbieinok]

23. when my son was in 6th grade (he graduated HS in 86)

he could do a lot of the math problems in his head. The 'rule' was that all the steps were to be written down: when he proved to the teacher that he indeed was doing much of the calculation in his head, she exempted him from some of the 'writing down rules.'

[distantearlywarning]

24. I can't memorize things.

I failed a number of math courses throughout my school career because I could never "get" math the way it used to be taught (memorization and basic drills, as the OP suggests).

For years I thought I was just bad at math. Then I had to take a remedial algebra course in college, and the professor expected us to figure out how things worked instead of just memorizing tables and tables of stuff. What do you know? For the first time ever, I was the best student in the class. I finally understood higher math. It was amazing, like a big world opening up for me.

Now I'm a grad student, and I've taken 4 Ph.D. level statistics courses and excelled in every one of them. Why? They were were all grounded in theory and the professors never made me memorize anything.

But I still can't do the times tables in my head past 5. When I add I count on my fingers. I can't do fractions or basic geometry because I can't remember the rules. I have the basic math skills of a 3rd grader. But I can do algebra like nobody's business (often in my head) because I had the one class where it was taught to me in a way I "got". And I'm a good enough statistician that other grad students come to me for help with their analyses.

My point: knowing how to do arithmetic without the benefit of a calculator is not all it's cracked up to be. And not everybody learns the same way. Any kind of memorization in any class never did me a bit of good. I probably would have been a math star under the system the OP pans.

However, I do agree with the basic point that we are dumbing down our curriculums. I think part of it is Every...er...No Child Left Behind. Part of it is the "self-esteem" culture we have built for ourselves (you can't tell anyone anymore that their work isn't good enough). Part of it is self-entitled kids and the self-entitled parents who created them. And teacher work loads, and on and on...