Comments

That is one ugly PowerPoint slide the Math Standards Committee has up there.

-- BenCalvin - 30 Nov 2006

Balderdash. Since that was presented in 2004, seems like feedback should be available now?

-- ChrisAdams - 30 Nov 2006

Take a look at this site: http://curriculum.bsd405.org/default.aspx

Over a million in Gates money has helped a district to put its curriculum online.

The district boldly proclaims that it will

"Provide every student in the Bellevue School District with the kind of education typically reserved for America 's elite."

I wondered what might be "reserved" (who is doing the reserving?) for the elite. It turns out it's all fuzzy math. The elite has been secretly feasting on fuzzy math! But no longer. Now every student gets that chance. Moreover, the district says: We teach students, not subjects. So I guess, if you don't teach subjects, it doesn't matter if math is removed from math.

In a section called Math Support, the district makes sure students are prevented from getting a chance to learn real math:

"We teach students, not subjects. And this underlying belief guides our development of a Framework for Middle School Math Support. The best we can do for these students is encourage teachers to tailor their programs to meet their student’s needs. However, there are some guidelines. Teachers need to enrich their student’s understanding through Pre-teaching, Skill building, Re-teaching and building Organizational Skills. Math support teachers should not be using a traditional text book, page by page, or another curriculum. However, they may draw from whatever resources they find useful. The support class should clearly and explicitly tie into the conceptual scope and sequence of their student’s regular class...

Students struggling in their regular math class will only be frustrated by having another, separate, math class. Thus, the goal of the support class will be to enable the students to succeed in their regular math class."

There is a lot of talk about meeting "student needs". That sounds great, but who defines those needs? One could argue that they have a need for real math. But that's out.

-- CharlesH - 01 Dec 2006

And the parents are fighting back in Washington State.

http://www.wheresthemath.com/home.html

-- TexasDesert - 01 Dec 2006

Catherine,

Do you want to add this group to your Parent Groups list?

I love the name - Where's the Math.

Remember Wendy's "Where's the Beef?"

-- TexasDesert - 01 Dec 2006

"And the parents are fighting back in Washington State."

I get the impression that educationists are impervious to parent wishes. They keep doing what they want to do, no matter how many parents complain. They are an anti-democratic bunch. How do these crappy programs get installed? What is the source of the power of educrats? How can they be overthrown?

One of the founders of Mathematically Correct left this comment at Critical Mass: http://www.erinoconnor.org/archives/2006/11/crunching_numbe.html

"This is an old story. The clearest signpost of official sanction of content-free math was the publication of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards in 1989. These standards dealt as much with method as with content. Skills, the importance of correct answers, and traditional methods were 'de-emphasized.' Discovery Learning was favored over direct teaching. Students were to discover the methods and great ideas of mathematics for themselves. Teachers were supposed to go from being the 'sage on the stage' to being the ' guide on the side.' Practice to mastery was denigrated as 'drill and kill.'

These ideas, similar in underlying philosophy to the Whole Language method of teaching reading, found, and still find, numerous supporters in education schools and school administrations.

Unfortunately, each new generation of parents has to discover for itself just how foolish this system is. In 1994 my older children were in seventh grade and exposed to their first overtly fuzzy math class. I and others founded Mathematically Correct a year later, while others in Palo Alto founded HOLD in response to similar circumstances. Among the most active groups now is NYC-HOLD, which has been very active in New York.

Although these groups have had success, changing the course of education is like turning the Titanic. By the time California changed substantially, my kids were in college. In most other places, parents couldn't get the support of go-along school boards that bought into administrators' assurances that fuzzy was best. Ultimately, parents, who aren't paid to fight bad instruction, move on, while the administrators remain.

There has also been a major failure of leadership by elected and appointed officials. Notable in this are those administrators who have been brought into school districts because of their success in non-education endeavors. These people come in with can-do attitudes and immediately start to shake things up, usually by irritating teachers. Unfortunately, they almost always are unwilling to consider the critical nature of curriculum and what actually happens in each classroom in education. Instead, being more generic administrators than clear thinkers, they poll 'experts' about whom to bring in as assistant superintendent for instruction. Since these experts are usually leaders of various professional education organizations or schools, the recommendations result in hiring of a well connected advocate of discovery learning methods. Such people usually complement the new superintendent's my-way-or-the-highway attitude and brook no deviation from a strict application of the very methods that many parents object to.

I don't expect to see the cycle end soon."

-- CharlesH - 01 Dec 2006

"They keep doing what they want to do, no matter how many parents complain."

They KNOW there are parents who are experts in their fields, but they don't care. Academic turf.

"I don't expect to see the cycle end soon."

I agree 100 percent.

Full school choice is the only answer, but even that will take time.

-- SteveH - 01 Dec 2006

Ben

LOL

I am a SERIOUS non-fan of PowerPoint

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Dec 2006

Charles

I'm afraid they're right about "the elite"!

I found an article I read awhile back....the entire thing is about progressive ed having been the core approach of many private schools for many years....

I'll find it.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Dec 2006

Here it is.

The Schools They Deserve: Howard Gardner and the Remaking Of Elite Education

By Mary Eberstadt

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Dec 2006

I voted for your blog for top 5!

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Dec 2006

One thing that happens is that parents age out of the schools and stop complaining - partly because they lose access to info.

My sister says this is a huge problem in youth volleyball.

Apparently there are quite a lot of shady practices going on in the national organization (not fact-checked!) but by the time parents wise up their kids are leaving school & going to college.

The folks who've been trying to shape things up are now trying to speed up the learning curve...

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Dec 2006

The cycle won't end....but raising a fuss does something....though I don't know what it is, exactly.

Christopher Hitchens has a nice passage in his book on being a contrarian about how every argument creates some tiny shift in your opponent's thinking...and I actually believe that, because I've seen it happen with Ed and me.

One person acting alone can produce more "thinking shifts" than you'd imagine.

Not "thinking shifts" exactly....but thinking "evolution."

That's the spaced repetition effect.

It really is powerful.

You just keep putting your message out there.

Plus, think about it.

In my case I'm putting out a concise (let's hope), clear, succinct, supported set of arguments and factoids.

The administration is putting out edu-blah-blah.

When it comes to how people think, in the privacy of their own minds, who's going to win?

I am.

-- CatherineJohnson - 01 Dec 2006

"I'm afraid they're right about "the elite"!"

I am aware that expensive private schools are infested with these modern theories. But high SES families bring more to the table and have recourse to alternatives. The disadvantaged are damaged by this "elite" prvilege.

-- CharlesH - 02 Dec 2006

The disadvantaged are damaged by this "elite" prvilege.

yup

But the damage to high-SES kids is huge.

People just don't see it.

The bad gets normal.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Dec 2006

You want to see something amazing??

Check this out.

Here is our federal government referring parents to a website run by a homeschooler for other homeschoolers.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Dec 2006