This Week in Mathematics Education

I was given a set of bulletin board framing strips to use in the classroom. They are made by a publisher, not a teacher. Check out the red polygon. Oh by the way, recall that 'oct' means 'eight'.


A student appears in a Geometry class (10th grade). The teacher soon finds out that he/she is performing a very low level (2nd grade is the estimate). He/she doesn't know the difference between a square and a rectangle, doesn't understand the concept of 'half', and doesn't know the answer to twelve divided by three, or three divided by one. The situation is not an isolated incident. The same teacher had a student this year, enrolled in Advance Algebra, who couldn't find page one of the math book, couldn't graph a point, and also didn't know his multiplication tables.

What if Social Promotion in the elementary grades is the official policy of the school district? At what point is a student retained? Apparently not in high school. An administrator at one of the high schools said that if a kid is in the 11th grade then he/she should be in Advanced Algebra because that is the age appropriate class, even though the student hadn't passed math for years. Apparently the previous classes are not called "pre-requisites" until college.

 Also in the news, U.S. Falls Short in Measure of Future Math Teachers. In my opinion, too many American elementary school and middle school teachers are under-qualified to teach math effectively. The comment at the end of the article by Dr. Gage Kingsbury, a senior research fellow at the Northwest Evaluation Association is ludicrous.

“...to suggest that you can’t be a good middle school math teacher unless you’ve taken calculus is a leap, because calculus isn’t taught in middle school. So I think they overreach a bit.”

It is essential that a teacher have a broad understanding of mathematics to be able to effectively teach Algebra and pre-Algebra, both of which are middle school courses.

Would we fire every doctor in the emergency room?

Dear President Obama,

"Every Central Falls teacher fired", was a headline in the news this week.

"The state’s tiniest, poorest city has become the center of a national battle over dramatic school reform. On the one side, federal and state education officials say they must take painful and dramatic steps to transform the nation’s lowest-performing schools."

But, as stated in my last post, the powers-that-be, in this case the Central Falls Board of Education, fail to recognize that the best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers.

Imagine an impoverished, inner city, hospital emergency room. Such an emergency room will see more violent crime trauma victims than an emergency room in a middle class suburb. Continuing with the metaphor... what if the the hospital board decided to fire all of the emergency staff at the inner city hospital because there were too many gunshot and stab-wound deaths as compared to the hospitals in the suburbs? Would anyone in their right mind consider this a good solution?

It is impossible to abstract student achievement from the social environment of the school and community. It is very difficult to inculcate students into an academic environment when the environment at home doesn't support that goal and that is the least of the problem. Teachers are dealing with students who may be carrying weapons, belong to gangs, come to school malnourished, are being abused, or live in homes where people are trading in narcotics or sex. We have students who have been shot, stabbed or raped, and who know more than one person who has been murdered, students who live in group homes, or worse, on the streets.

It is appalling that teachers should have to carry the brunt of these social problems. In similar circumstances we hail our police officers and firefighters as heroes. We praise hospital emergency room staff as courageous and saintly for the work they have chosen. Yet, teachers who are working to make positive differences in our at-risk youth, are metaphorically flogged and blamed for the educational outcomes of the people they are trying to help.

Teachers, who must often dedicate precious time nursing the psychic wounds of their students, may not be able to make measurable progress in "closing the achievement gap" or increasing standardized test scores, especially when compared to the school across the bay where every student lives in a home with maids and gardeners and who are handed a school-issued Macintosh laptop in the first week of school.

Please Mr. President Obama, in eradicating NCLB can you please try to change the tone of the debate. Let's stop victimizing the teachers.

Sincerely,
Karen @ Math Me Thinks

Letter to the President Regarding NCLB and Charter Schools

Dear President Obama,

Please read this article by Diane Ravitch from the Washington Post, entitled "Why I Changed My Mind About School Reform". Ms. Ravitch is absolutely correct in her opinion.

My favorite quote from the article,

"They* also fail to recognize that the best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers."

Please read the article Mr. President.

* Refers to the Obama administration, following in the footsteps of NCLB.

Sincerely,
Karen @ Math Me Thinks

What do you say to the kid who asks "What will I ever use this for?"

Well it appears that none other than Euclid had a response for that question. Simon Singh, in Fermat's Enigma, tells a story about Euclid when he was teaching, as the first head of the mathematics department at Alexandria:

"Euclid searched for mathematical truth for its own sake and did not look for applications in his work. One story tells of a student who questioned him about the use of the mathematics he was learning. Upon completing the lesson, Euclid turned to his slave and said, "Give the boy a penny since he desires to profit from all that he learns." The student was then expelled."

If only...

Euclid of Alexandria

Specialization Effect and Its Influence on Memory and Problem Solving in Expert Chess Players

This study says that chess players perform better in a match after they practice specific moves rather than general chess.

From my own experience, success on exams depends on having a deep understanding of the big picture and an ability to memorize a slate of essential algorithms.

I'm wondering if there is a relationship with the chess research?