MARK YOUR CALENDAR:
The Math Committee report will be presented at the
Monday, April 23 BOE meeting

Notes from Board of Ed Meetings

Reality Check - POB Math Scores

Letters from POB Parents

Articles from POB Teachers Congress

What You Can Do To Help

More Articles, Info & Links

Math Help for Parents & Kids

To the Board:

The other night I spoke of Project Follow Through as evidence that direct instruction is superior to other teaching methods (specifically constructivist methods, including Bank Street College). I am not advocating that this approach strictly be followed as in this experiment, but I was trying to convey that there is real scientific research supporting direct learning methods. The research also shows how constructive approaches can have negative effects (remember Whole Language, another constructivist invention with no supporting evidence behind it). Of course, constructivists will say they have research supporting their position, but I have tried to find any reliable scientific studies and have found none.

Very few parents in our school district know what has happened in our elementary schools. You and I know that the pendulum has swung so that our classrooms are mostly constructivist environments (I first understood this in February). The kids are happy, having fun and even learning. I think this is a great atmosphere and should be commended, however, are our kids learning enough? Sadly, many parents believe they are not. The worst of this is in math.

All reform math programs limit the amount of content that children are exposed to. Developing strategies to reconstruct numbers to familiar “landmark” numbers and then do the simple math is explored daily. This is done ad nauseam at the expense of content and fluency of basic math skills. I recently received a handout showing how our students have numerous strategies for solving a problem. This sounds great, but developing these strategies has taken the better part of a year, when teaching 2 or 3 strategies would have been sufficient. If proper assessment is done, kids having difficulty can be coached on additional strategies, if needed. The parents do not realize that the reason our children are not learning more is because so much precious time is wasted playing with these numbers instead of teaching the children how to do math. We are assuming that our kids are learning by playing games, but they are only learning so much without direction.

I am very distressed to hear that the committee will only be offering up ideas to fill the gaps where the current program does not meet NYS Math Standards. You have been listening to the concerns of the community. Yes, many parents are concerned about the math scores, but we know that can be fixed with simple test prep. The real question is are our kids learning enough, and the answer is no. We have wasted precious time since October trying to patch the current state of our math program without addressing the root cause, specifically, constructivist math programs limit the amount of learning our kids can achieve in a year. We know it. We don’t need math test scores to tell us that. We know our kids. We know what our kids in the past have achieved and we know what we ourselves have achieved under more direct instructional methods. The district made a grave mistake when it abandoned the traditional math program over 5 years ago. Yes, I’m sure there were problems, but reform math was not the answer.

I am not holding on to the idea of a more traditional math approach because I’m afraid of change. I embraced the change when my son was in kindergarten and first grade, but now he is in second grade and I see that he has not advanced in math as much as he should have because the opportunity for growth does not exist. Since October, I have been doing my own research regarding reform math and recently on teaching methodologies. I am currently reading a 500 page book on the history of Project Follow Through. I don’t recommend that you read this, but I do strongly urge that you familiarize yourselves with Project Follow Through. Below I have a link that gives information about Project Follow Through. The Board has surrounded itself with constructivists and we must take it upon ourselves to learn the truth about teaching methods.

One last thought before I end. Children’s minds are like sponges. What they learn at a very young age can affect them their entire lives, especially facts that are meant to be instantly recalled like fluency of basic math facts and spelling. If they are not learned correctly and efficiently at a very young age, it can be very difficult to reverse the negative effects.

As I asked at an earlier Board meeting, please do some research of your own and don’t solely rely on advice given to you by constructivists or teachers who are frightened to give their own true opinion because of the fear of retribution. You can’t deny this, the teachers tell us so.

The website to begin your research is http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adiep/ft/151toc.htm. At a minimum, you should familiarize yourself with the Overview and Perspectives of Project Follow Through. The Research is very insightful as well.

Larry Danziger