National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: Teach the Basics
- on 09.13.06
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Kevin Killion of the Illinois Loop alerted me to about how the National Council of Teachers is encouraging teachers to start teaching the basics in math. I wish this would have happened before the Antioch District 34 chose to start using Everyday Math.
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The nation’s math teachers, on the front lines of a 17-year curriculum war, are getting some new marching orders: Make sure students learn the basics. In a report to be released today, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which represents 100,000 educators from prekindergarten through college, will give ammunition to traditionalists who believe schools should focus heavily and early on teaching such fundamentals as multiplication tables and long division. The council’s advice is striking because in 1989 it touched off the so-called math wars by promoting open-ended problem solving over drilling. Back then, it recommended that students as young as those in kindergarten use calculators in class. Those recommendations horrified many educators, especially college math professors alarmed by a rising tide of freshmen needing remediation. The council’s 1989 report influenced textbooks and led to what are commonly called “reform math” programs, which are used in school systems across the country. Nearly 80 teachers and other experts spent 18 months writing and reviewing grade-by-grade guidelines, which cover preschool through eighth grade. The panel aims to give a roadmap to instructors, schools systems and states about exactly what children should be learning — and to start a debate that could put the math wars to rest. According to their report, “Curriculum Focal Points,” which is subtitled “A Quest for Coherence,” students, by second grade, should “develop quick recall of basic addition facts and related subtraction facts.” By fourth grade, the report says, students should be fluent with “multiplication and division facts” and should start working with decimals and fractions. By fifth, they should know the “standard algorithm” for division — in other words, long division — and should start adding and subtracting decimals and fractions. By sixth grade, students should be moving on to multiplication and division of fractions and decimals. By seventh and eighth grades, they should use algebra to solve linear equations. As the debate heated up, concern grew about U.S. students’ math competence. In 2003, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a test that compares student achievement in many countries, ranked U.S. students just 15th in eighth-grade math skills, behind both Australia and the Slovak Republic. Singapore ranked No. 1, followed by South Korea and Hong Kong. Fueling concern about the quality of elementary and high-school instruction: one in five U.S. college freshmen now need a remedial math course, according to the National Science Board. If school systems adopt the math council’s new approach, their classes might resemble those at Garfield Elementary School in Revere, Mass., just north of Boston. Three-quarters of Garfield’s students receive free and reduced lunches, and many are the children of recent immigrants from such countries as Brazil, Cambodia and El Salvador. Three years ago, Garfield started using Singapore Math, a curriculum modeled on that country’s official program and now used in about 300 school systems in the U.S. Many school systems and parents regard Singapore Math as an antidote for “reform math” programs that arose from the math council’s earlier recommendations. According to preliminary results, the percentage of Garfield students failing the math portion of the fourth-grade state achievement test last year fell to 7% from 23% in 2005. Those rated advanced or proficient rose to 43% from 40%. |
This is great news. Finally educators have realized what many of already knew. You have to learn the basics before moving on to more advanced topics. This is especially true in math.
The use of basic math techniques can also help the poor as demonstrated by the Garfield school. This is exactly what myself and others have been saying. Everyone can learn equally. The problem is how students are being taught in the government schools.
Backyard Conservative also has a great post about this as well with some other related links.
My school district has started using Everyday Math. It’s a fine program for 80% of the population. The other 20%, those on the left end of the bell curve, those I teach, do need a more direct approach to teaching basic skills. I simply close my door and do it. The problem with most public school teachers: an ingrained fear that Big Brother is watching them. And a strong sense that being too liberal in their approach to teaching is a bad idea.
You see, your average kid in an average school will learn the basic skills, provided they’re taught in a competent manner. It is not rocket science. What is rocket science is how to reach the other twenty percent (or thirty or forty depending on the needs of your district). Again, competently trained teachers can do this if given a little leeway and the resources they require. The problem with schools today starts mainly with the principal and works its way up. The vast, vast majority of teachers do what is best for kids, but their efforts get stymied by misguided administrators who latch on to all the fads that come their way. That’s how it works in my school, and many others. The remedy: simply let teachers do their job. Respect their professionalism.
Dave, you just made a wonderful case for funding the child and not funding the bureaucracy. The Administrators would not latch onto fads if they were held accountable by parents taking their money elsewhere. They would have to ensure their teachers were competent and teach effectively. Funding the child would also reduce the number of administrators if you follow the New Zealand model and abolish the school district. Principals could then allow teachers more freedom if they were competent. They could attract better teachers and pay them more because if they had good teachers the students will follow.