Teachers, Parents Protest Untested Math Curriculum by Patricia Ford Loeb
"For instance, several teachers pointed out that third-graders are taught area and perimeter before multiplication, and are taught mean, median and mode before division--a sequence that not only seems illogical but, they say, can hinder students' development of number sense.
The curriculum also introduces ambitious vocabulary at an age when many students are still learning to read. For example, vertex and its plural, vertices, are taught in second grade.
"What they want to do is admirable and exciting," said one third-grade teacher. "But they're not looking at the cognitive level of an 8-year-old."
Teachers in the upper grades, meanwhile, complained that they are required to move so quickly to get through all the curriculum objectives, there's no time to help students who start out the year below grade level.
"We have kids that cannot add whole numbers, and I'm teaching them two-step algebraic equations," said one middle-school teacher. "I'm supposed to somehow have time to teach what they missed and all the new stuff."
Unfortunately, the article doesn't give more specifics about the developer of the curriculum or whether it will be adopted in other states or districts outside of the Washington DC area. It does say that it is based on research and on curricula like Singapore Math. The article also mentioned that the old math program had been in use for 27 years and is being replaced due to a new statewide mandated test that will be required for graduation from high school during 2007.
I would like to investigate more about Singapore Math and some of the other math programs that are being implemented in reaction to state mandated testing initiatives, here, in California. I would like to new math programs that provide flexible. Individuals come to an understanding of math concepts in very different ways and from different paths. I was happy to see that this particular program was advocating "differentiating" techniques, breaking the class into small groups and working more closely with them. I struggled a lot with upper level math because it was taught in a large class, lecture style, with little or no interaction.
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