Do the
math: They need help
Students' mediocre test scores prompt state
to examine different curriculums
Sunday, November 28, 2004 • BY BEV MCCARRON •
Star-Ledger Staff
New Jersey kids have a problem with math.
And whether you use old math, new math or everyday math,
it comes down to this: Students here still score noticeably
higher on language arts portions of their closely watched
fourth- and eighth-grade proficiency tests than the math
sections.
State data released this month show a gap of 10
percentage points between language arts and math on both
grade levels. In fourth grade, about 72 percent of students
pass math (it's 82 percent for language arts) and the
passing rate falls to just under 62 percent in eighth grade
(versus 72 for language arts).
The problem gets worse when kids hit high school. Scores
for 2004 are not yet available, but in the previous year, 80
percent of high school test-takers sailed though language
arts, while just 66 percent passed math.
"It doesn't appear to be a secret math scores are
disappointing," said Richard Ten Eyck, assistant
commissioner with the Department of Education.
Troubled by these gaps across age groups, education
officials are about to a appoint a task force to address the
problem. Officials hope it will be as successful as an
earlier effort on reading and writing that was credited with
boosting scores.
The new task force can expect to be confronted by
several issues and agendas from classrooms and kitchen
tables alike when it plows into the so-called math
wars.
On one side are traditional basic skills advocates.
On the other are those who favor conceptual
understanding and problem-solving -- the experts who say
student improvement lies in teacher re-education.
"People hate the way (math) was taught. It was boring.
It was about skill and drill," said Eric Milou, president of
the Association of Math Teachers of New Jersey and a math
professor at Rowan University who is working with a number
of districts to improve math skills. "We have to talk about
how math should be taught."
At its annual meeting Wednesday, the state school board
is expected to set parameters for the 15- to 18-member task
force, and it may name panel members.
The state has long been troubled by lagging math scores,
particularly in middle and high schools.
The results of a pilot program last summer to help
juniors who failed the state graduation test led the
Department of Education to conclude that by the time a
student gets to high school, it is too late to fix math
deficiencies. Even with intensive remediation, most students
still couldn't get over the math hurdle.
Fixing the math problem, officials concluded, has to
start in elementary school.
EVERYDAY MATH
Many districts already are changing curriculums,
lengthening math periods and retraining teachers, beginning
in the earliest grades.
One district already boosting fourth-grade scores is
Washington Township, Gloucester County. Its schools adopted
a curriculum called Everyday Math, expanded teacher training
and lengthened math periods. The new curriculum introduces
young kids to algebra and geometry concepts through series
of activities and games rather than by rote memorization of
times tables or formulas.
This year, the 9,600-student district is introducing a
similar curriculum in middle school called Connected Math.
The program stresses teaching math concepts by giving
students problems and letting them work formulas that lead
to answers, an approach that encourages analyzing a problem
before trying to solve it.
Recently in Cathy Sherry's sixth-grade class at Bunker
Hill Middle School, students were getting a dose of geometry
as they plotted a graph. For coordinates, the class had
measured each student's arm span and height.
"It isn't lecture," Sherry said, expecting the kids also
would pick up on a pattern that showed that the size of a
person's arm gives a good estimate of their height. "It's
hands-on."
Sixth-grader Kira Parkin likes the class, not only
because she is given a different problem every day to work
on with a partner. "I like figuring things out, getting
stumped and finding the right answer," she said.
Everyday Math is controversial in other states.
California legislators, for instance, refused to fund
the program. Washington Township and many other districts in
New Jersey, including Montclair and Newark, are convinced
that the problem-solving approach is better. It gives
students a better understanding of how math relates to their
daily lives, and better prepares them for later courses that
demand higher-level reasoning skills, advocates say.
Parents can have difficulty understanding the
method.
Earlier this year in Washington Township, a meeting on
Everyday Math for parents of students in grades 2 to 5 drew
700. When the sixth grade held a similar meeting, 75 parents
attended.
"My parents are like, 'What?' They're having to learn
(math) all over again," said sixth-grader Sara
Palmerchuck.
Rose Dindino, whose daughter Sabrina is in the second
grade at Birches School, acknowledged some concern, at
first. "It was not the way I learned,' she said. "But it
seems to be working with my daughter. She enjoys math."
It's too soon to see results in middle school but at
each of the district's six elementary schools, math scores
went up across the board last year over the previous year,
rising overall from 75.6 to 82.5 percent.
"We wanted our students to achieve higher, and to like
math and to be comfortable and confident with math," said
Bobbie Marciano, director of elementary education in
Washington Township.
FUNDAMENTAL
DIFFERENCE
Problem-solving curricula like Everyday Math and its
dozen or so variations, worry others who fear that without
drills and repetition kids won't master fundamentals of
multiplication and addition. They also question whether
elementary teachers are prepared to teach more advanced math
theories.
Districts using the problem-solving approach point out
the method is more in line with thinking and reasoning
skills measured on New Jersey proficiency tests and research
also shows improvement on standardized test scores in
general.
The Department of Education's Ten Eyck said the task
force would be unlikely to press any specific curriculum on
schools. But the panel will be expected to identify
curricula with a proven track record and make
recommendations.
A NEW APPROACH
At the high school level, Mississippi mathematician
Robert P. Moses, the architect of the Algebra Project
launched in urban districts to raise the scores of
minorities, has found a formula for success.
He created his own nontraditional curriculum. But, he
said, beyond switching math programs, districts also have to
pay attention to class size and teacher preparation.
Teaching in one of the Mississippi's poorest districts,
he got 45 of his 46 students who have been with him since
ninth grade to pass the state's proficiency test.
He did it, he said, with smaller classes, longer class
periods and a demand that teachers get a planning period to
work together every other day.
"It's not just, 'How do we get some better test scores?'
There has got to be a real shift in priorities," he
said.
© 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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