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Welcome to Where's the Math?
Our mission is to ensure that all Washington State students have an equal opportunity to compete successfully in the international economy by aligning Washington State math standards, assessments and curricula to those of top performing nations in the world.
Where’s the Math?
Statement on Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
August 11, 2010
Washington State is poised to formally adopt a set of nationally developed education guidelines, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for reading, writing, and mathematics. These standards will replace Washington’s existing locally-developed standards but allow up to 15% addition of state-specific content.
Where’s The Math? (WTM) has taken an active role over the last five years in advocating for rigorous, coherent, and internationally competitive mathematics education for all of Washington’s students. More recently, WTM members have volunteered hundreds of hours to review the CCSS documents and compare these national standards against the new mathematics standards Washington adopted in 2008. This work has provided the basis for this statement.
Where’s the Math? does not support the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.
· Washington’s current math standards are clearer, more detailed and explicit, and more coherent. WA standards are rigorous with critical content well prioritized, and were given an “A” rating in 2010 by the Fordham Foundation, exceeding the CCSS rating of “A-“(1)
· These standards will not align with Washington’s current textbook recommendations, recently purchased and implemented by many districts statewide. (2)
· The financial cost and momentum lost to implement these new standards is not justified, especially in light of the continuing rollout and training underway with Washington’s 2008 math standards. (3) (4)
The detailed study completed by WTM experts identified the following deficiencies with the CCSS mathematics standards.
· These standards are not internationally benchmarked and delay development of some key concepts and skills compared to the highest achieving nations.
· These standards are not stakeholder friendly. They include significant mathematical sophistication, but are written at a level beyond the understanding of most parents, students, administrators, decision makers and many teachers.
· The lack of clarity, specificity, and coherence will lead to a lack of uniformity in instruction and assessment.
· The inappropriate placement of standards, including the delayed requirement for standard algorithms, will hinder student success and waste valuable instructional time.
· The uneven treatment of important topics will result in an inefficient use of instructional and practice time with too much effort devoted to some topics and not enough time devoted to others.
· The high school standards are not well organized and some important topics are insufficiently covered. The standards have not been divided into clearly defined courses.
(4) OSPI’s 2007-2009 Biennial budget includes over $50M to support the development and adoption of new math/science standards. This cost does not include assessment costs, textbook adoptions or specialized professional development expenses for local school districts. http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/budget/lbns/2007ps.pdf(Pg 304)
Where’s The Math? (WTM) is a statewide math advocacy group comprised of concerned citizens seeking a balanced and rigorous mathematics education for Washington’s kids. Our mission is to ensure that all Washington State students have an equal opportunity to compete successfully in the international economy by aligning our state math standards, assessments and curricula to those of top performing nations in the world. WTM chapters are organized across the state, with members volunteering in schools, on local PTAs, as elected school board directors, and lobbying elected officials to make Washington the mathematics role model for the country.
It's Official: Saxon and ME "significantly" Outperform Investigations!
From What Works Clearinghouse - Elementary School Math Curricula Study:
“What is this study about?”
“This study examined the relative effectiveness of four widely-used early elementary school math curricula: (1) Investigations in Number, Data and Space (Investigations), (2) Math Expressions (ME), (3) Saxon Math (Saxon), and (4) Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics (SFAW).
The study included about 1,300 first graders from 39 schools in four school districts in Connecticut, Minnesota, New York, and Nevada.
Participating schools were randomly assigned to use one of the four curricula. At least one school in each district was assigned to each of the four math programs. A random sample of approximately 10 students per classroom was included in the analysis.
The study measured the relative effectiveness of the four curricula by comparing end-of-year test scores on a nationally normed math assessment developed for the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Class (ECLS–K).”
“What did the study authors report?”
“First graders attending schools assigned to the ME and Saxon curricula scored significantly higher on math assessments than students attending schools assigned to the Investigations or SFAW curricula. Math achievement did not differ significantly between schools using ME and Saxon; nor were there significant differences in student math achievement between schools using Investigations and SFAW.
The authors report that math achievement of ME and Saxon students was 0.30 standard deviations higher than Investigations students, equivalent to moving a student from the 50th to 62nd percentile. Math achievement of ME and Saxon students was 0.24 standard deviations higher than SFAW students, equivalent to moving a student from the 50th to the 59th percentile. “
1Agodini, R., Harris, B., Atkins-Burnett, S., Heaviside
Bellevue School District Selects Holt for High School!
Read all about it!
Thursday, March 11th Bellevue School District met to determine whether Holt or Discovering would be the curriculum of choice for the high schools. The meeting began with the district allowing parents to speak. Then teachers spoke about their experiences in piloting the two books. Numerous teachers talked about how they could teach from either book, but that they wanted something that the kids could take home and with which their parents would be able to help them.
The committee first voted at 5:40 PM. It was 15-11 in favor of Holt, but their rules indicated that a 60% majority was required for a recommendation. So there was more talking and a couple of people left the room to huddle in the hallway. Then a second vote was taken and the count was 18-8 in favor of Holt. We were all stunned. When the meeting adjourned, we all went out to celebrate.
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Follow the Money!
Ever wonder how the reform/inquiry based curriculums ended up in our nations schools? Follow the money.....Click here
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Letter to Issaquah SD from Professor Paul A. Kirschner, Director of the Learning and Cognition Program, Open University of the Netherlands. (See PISA information below)
Dear Dr. Rasmussen,
My colleague, Professor Richard Clark alerted me and my colleague Professor John Sweller to Mark Xxxxxx’s open letter to the Issaquah School District about the district’s choice of a mathematics method “Discovering Math”. I read his open letter with a combined feeling of increasing astonishment and anger. Let me begin by saying that I myself am not acquainted with the method that the district has chosen, though I have taken the time to peruse the website of the publisher and read what the publisher says about the method. In my opinion,which is based upon years of research on learning materials, learning material development, and learning & cognition the choice that your school district is about to make will impact your students in a very negative way. (Click here to read entire letter)
2006 Pisa International Test, the U.S. Ranked 25 out of 30 Participating Nations in Math
*The Netherlands, on the other hand, ranked third (3rd). The test is administered to 15 year old students in 30 nations. Perhaps we can learn from this professor in the Netherlands. (Click here to view the study)
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King County Superior Court REJECTS Seattle's High School Math Adoption!
On February 4th, King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector ruled that last year's Seattle School board decision to adopt the Discovering high school textbook series was arbitrary and capricious. Judge Spector's ruling was heard and hailed across the country by private citizens and math education advocacy groups.
This unprecedented finding shows school boards and district administration that they need to consider evidence when making decisions. The voice of the community has been upheld by law, but the Seattle School district indicated they plan to appeal, demonstrating the typical arrogant, wasteful practices which necessitated the lawsuit in the first place. Click on the news link to the right for more information.
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How Good are UW Students in Math? by Cliff Mass
As many of you know, I have a strong interest in K-12 math education, motivated by the declining math skills of entering UW freshmen and the poor math educations given to my own children. Last quarter I taught Atmospheric Sciences 101, a large lecture class with a mix of students, and gave them a math diagnostic test as I have done in the past.
The results were stunning, in a very depressing way. This was an easy test, including elementary and middle school math problems. And these are students attending a science class at the State's flagship university--these should be the creme of the crop of our high school graduates with high GPAs. And yet most of them can't do essential basic math--operations needed for even the most essential problem solving.
Consider these embarrassing statistics from the exam: The overall grade was 58%
43% did not know the formula for the area of a circle
86% could not do a simple algebra problem (problem 4b)
75% could not do a simple scientific notation problem (1e)
52% could not deal with a negative exponent (2 to the -2)
43% could not do simple long division problem with no remainder!
47% did not know what a cosine was.
I could go on, but you get the message. If many of our state's best students are mathematically illiterate, as shown by this exam, can you imagine what is happening to the others--those going to community college or no college at all?
Public Statement by University of Washington Faculty on Math Preparation of Incoming Students.
We the undersigned faculty in math, science and engineering at the University of Washington have become increasingly concerned about the declining level of math competency of students entering the university. Many students arrive with poor mastery of essential mathematical skills, such as algebra, manipulation of fractions, trigonometry, and basic mathematical operations. Increasing numbers of students are forced to take math remediation courses after admission to the UW. Over the past decade many of us have lowered the mathematical levels of our courses as math skills have declined. We believe that it is essential that steps be taken to ensure that Washington State students are provided with world-class mathematics standards, curricula, and instruction.
This statement has been signed by nearly 300 faculty members at the UW.
________________ Ted Nutting Receives First Annual WTM Pi Award from Seattle School Board President Michael DeBell!
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