Bellevue School District » Where's The Math?

These are the comments left by parents in a survey in June of 2007 in the Bellevue School District among parents of elementary school students. The comments have been slightly edited for spelling and anonymity. The curriculum in these schools at the time of the survey was TERC Investigations. Currently (fall 2008) these schools are piloting Math Expressions and Everyday Math.

I would love to see more traditional math implemented and get rid of the spiral method of learning math.
First Grade teachers have supplemented the curriculum with worksheets and activities involving currency, which has been appreciated. Our child voluntarily practices her addition and subtraction at home because her sister practices multiplication and division. She enjoys math and has had no trouble with understanding the curriculum so far.
I think math curriculum is too easy for the students at elementary school.
This math is ridiculous and the kids that are ahead are being left behind!!!!!
We have just moved to Bellevue from a Florida public school district this year where the math curriculum was significantly more rigorous. My fourth grade daughter used to have approximately 20 to 25 problems of math each night and was also required to do math problems on a school sponsored web site. Here at Medina, she has less than 5 problems a week. In addition there seems to be an over emphasis on explaining on how she came up with an answer and less of an emphasis on fundamentals and fine-tuning her computational skills. I find it almost ironic that here in one of the world’s biggest tech centers; the math curriculum in comparison to Florida’s appears weaker. I was just talking with my wife last week as a matter of fact and mentioned that I feel my daughter’s math skills have slipped since coming to Medina and that we may need to supplement her with outside tutoring. I hope the Bellevue School District understands that we share a common goal of educating and preparing our students for higher-level learning and will take seriously our concerns.
I answered supplementation at home the same as paid tutoring but not sure
this is the same. We used to supplement at home until, in early October of 2007, we realized our 5th grader couldn’t do long division, and our 3rd grader couldn’t subtract 2 digits from 3 digits correctly. At that time, we enrolled both kids at BrainChild. Their math skills have improved markedly since. We recently started our 1st grader at BrainChild.
Terc does not prepare children for higher levels of math education. Too much class time is spent studying for WASL and taking the WASL exams. Waste of taxpayer’s money and time students can be learning REAL math. There should be a way the test can be multiple choice so students can show their understanding of the problems. Automation can be used to check math rather than slow, subjective manual checking procedure. We should be looking at school districts that are successful in teaching math rather than reinventing the wheel trying to find where the fault lies in our curriculum.
Trying to advocate for any changes in Bellevue School District is a waste of time. I have even tried going to the Bellevue School Board (not regarding math curriculum but discriminative/unequal student placement practices), they will always say it’s “the policy” and ignore and refuse to investigate the incident. Everyone knows there is a problem to Bellevue’s math curriculum. Most people I know supplement at home. Most people are not doing anything about it because “they” will listen but don’t want to do anything about it,” they” are just following the policy and don’t want to take extra time or effort to investigate the problem. “They” includes principal and up.
Math level is dreadful in this country. Washington is second last in terms of education funding among all the states in the US. It does not take a genius to figure out the kind of level of education our kids are receiving in this state. Math in particular is hit hard. I’d like to recommend that we get rid of TERC and go back to traditional Math teaching where students learn hard-core math like other countries such as Russia or Singapore.
Our PTSA will begin a math - geography club in the fall.
We always heard that Math is a universal language. Not anymore. We create a Babel tower. Bellevue School District is not even teaching a dialect. The beauty of Math is to use abstract thinking to process mathematical code. I believe absurd and premature to ask children why “1+1=2”. There is a sequence. They need to learn the code, the algorithms and exercise. There is no mystery, and it has been this way since Egypt. The very idea of trying to teach math through heuristics is like teaching English by using “slang”. Slang is so much easier than standard language, why not using slang, then? I believe most teachers would think this is a bad joke, but for people who love Math, and lived Math, they can see clearly how the way being taught to our kids is also absurd. In one way, this is a discrimination against Math. When I lived in Japan, I was able to finish Math tests in Japanese without understanding one word in Japanese. I thought it was very beautiful that Math was the same everywhere. There is no magic about teaching Math. We need to teach the code, the algorithms and exercise, exercise, exercise. This is the way children will wire their abstract thinking neuropaths.
Math is geared towards WASL testing.
All of my children have done well in math. My middle one goes to her teacher’s tutorial often, but it’s more to make sure she’s completed the work vs. comprehension. I would say though, that the 4th grader still has trouble with the standard algorithms for multiplication and division. Using the other strategies is slow and he tends to make arithmetic mistakes.
The school district seems to allow children who are more advanced in reading extra work during school, however, those children who are far above grade level in math nothing is done. Why as a parent I should have to be our child’s primary teacher in math? This “new math” is of no benefit to our children. Standard algorithms are a proven method…why change it?
I’m very happy with my child’s math program. It allows him to apply math reasoning and goes far beyond drill and practice, rote math learning. The teachers have always done a good gob of providing additional materials to supplement the core curriculum and provide the practice necessary. My child can compute mental math faster than I can with amazing logic and number sense!
The way math is taught at school is very confusing to many kids. They’re supposed to understand the number sense and build on that, yet no effort is actually put to make sure that students actually get it. I found that my child had a very week foundation in math, and without supplementation I don’t think she would be able to keep up in middle school
From experience with another child who joined in the second semester of 5th grade at Somerset, math in 5th grade there did not seem to be done in the same way as lower down in the school or set out in the same way expected for 6th grade math in middle school. Math homework did not appear to be varied at all and class work was done in mainly group situations rather than individual ones. Our child lost all mathematical confidence during that year and full understanding of her work was missing. If more individual work had been done we believe that this lack of understanding would have been identified. (It may be that 5th grade math has been done differently over this last school year, we don’t know).
I would like to see more traditional math implemented and get rid of the spiral method.
Although we use a tutor to help supplement both of our kids’ academic education once a week, it is not focused entirely on math, but rather what the kids might be struggling with in any given week of the school year. This survey only allows you to put in one child at a time, and since we are a 2 child family, one being in 2nd, the other 3rd, I will say that our 3rd grader
needs more help with the math curriculum on a regular basis, while our 2nd grader breezes through it.
I don’t think we need an entirely new math system. I think the teachers at Somerset are doing the best they can within the guidelines given. What I don’t like is when I see my fourth grader unable to add columns of numbers in an effective, systematic way. Or multiply large numbers, in, again, a systematic way. This doesn’t take lots of money to fix. Just a shift in the how certain basic skills of math are taught.
The teachers in Bellevue that my daughter has had are excellent, but I do feel that my child struggles in Math because of curriculum. In her case she is having a problem with the word problems because she doesn’t quite have the vocabulary for the problems. The outside help I get is to get my daughter to grade level. She has failed Math all year and she is just in the first grade.
I might have stronger opinions one way or the other if my child were older. Earlier in the year I felt frustrated with the “show your thinking” for super simple problems (i.e. 2 + 2 = 4)… but at this point it is now helping my 1st grade child (it was hard for him at the earlier levels to show the thinking). I think that balance is the key, and will see how my children progress, as they get older. Let’s hope it’s all good!!
For the past 2 summers, my son attended one week of math camp. It was a very positive experience in the creative way they worked and taught the kids—so different in what he experiences at school. It was they way they approached and presented the material that made it so enjoyable. If you have more questions about it I would be happy to answer them. (Class is offered for 2nd and 3rd graders through Madison Reading Specialists in Seattle -the instructors my son had for his two sessions were from UCDS.)
I appreciate the idea to not teach algorithms without teaching to understand what is behind them and without teaching that they are but one way to solve a problem. But after the children have been led to understanding over intermediate steps, they should at the end of fourth or at least fifth grade be able to use one fast practical way to do long multiplication and division that they will remember and use for the rest of their life with any number values. My daughter’s impression was, that she would have to remember four different strategies for each operation and in what situation to use which strategy and besides, how to write down each strategy correctly in the WASL to show her thinking correctly. Instead of relying on her own thinking she ended up trying to memorize more than she would have had to with just one algorithm. Besides, numerical mathematics is so important today, that teaching algorithmic thinking is a goal in itself.
Actually I think Chinook is doing a good job of teaching math facts and processes that might be better taught during 3 -5 grades, while also introducing basic algebra. It would be wonderful if the middle school were not charged with making up for all the basic math sense and practice that would more appropriately belong in elementary school. At home we supplemented the elementary school math with Kumon for a while. While Kumon was a positive experience, discussing math with the Clyde Hill administration (or worse the “math specialist” at the time) was a very negative situation. However, one teacher did an excellent job of supplementing the curriculum on her own. Perhaps the situation at Clyde Hill has changed…this was several years ago. My student still needs clarification and reiteration of the math lessons taught in Chinook. The textbook offers little help in step-by-step explanation of “how to do the math.” Fortunately he is willing to happily take ‘help’ from his mother.
There are some very nice parts to the math curriculum at BSD, including early pattern recognition, early negative numbers, early thinking in algebra, and starting math in kindergarten. My main issues with this math are: 1) No textbook, which means the teachers have to be very skilled to teach the curriculum. 2) Not enough practice is given, so students never become proficient in the methods taught. 3) No emphasis is made on math facts. 4) Very inefficient algorithms are taught – probably because students don’t know their math facts. 5) Students who “get it” are not challenged by this curriculum.
I don’t think there is enough practice with the material. However I do love the games and hands on content areas of the math learning.
I hope the school district can improve the math curriculum so that parents don’t need to spend time and money to supplement at home. When I went to buy Singapore math books, they said kids’ level here usually is one or two grades lower than those in Singapore.
I have my student do math workbooks over the summer - what they practice depends on what their teacher tells me they should work on to prepare for the next math level.
This is not a duplicate entry - I have 2 4th graders. I have my child do math workbooks over the summer.
Thanks for your efforts. I attended a group meeting with the Somerset principal and Bellevue Math Coordinator for Bellevue School District and they were both, in my opinion, hostile to the parents regarding the issue of a potential problem regarding how math is being taught. I’m glad your group has been pushing for positive change in the math program. It is my belief many students in the Bellevue School District are supplementing their math education and the district is taking credit for the positive score results. Keep up the great work!
Just like we have pushed for balanced literacy, math needs to be approached in the same manner. Terc is a great program for teaching and fostering an understanding of mathematical concepts. However, the basic computation component is missing. Not all children learn via one method; therefore, both hard fact and conceptual instruction methods are needed.
Our kids are capable of learning more challenging math if given the opportunities. Students from other countries are learning math at a much faster pace than US. How can our children be able to compete globally when they grow up if they do not excel in math and science? We definitely need to improve the math curriculum in order to stay competitive.
In general, I think the math curriculum only teaches to the lowest common denominator and neglects to teach fluency and efficiency. There’s too much emphasis on “explaining” math. My son’s teacher had declined volunteers in the classroom, so it’s hard to know exactly what is being taught in class, other than what’s included in homework. Some parents, in a group meeting, expressed concerns to the school principal about how math is being taught; however, she defended the school district’s math curriculum.
Basically the program is not that bad. I just think that the kids CAN understand and use math while using the old fashioned algorithms that we learned. Too much time is spent on forcing them to explain how they got the answer the got, using words to explain. If they must explain, let them do it in mathematical stages, using symbols or algorithms rather than sentences.
Math course offerings at NHS are numerous, there are many opportunities to take rigorous math courses, the math teachers are excellent, and there is nothing wrong with the math curriculum there.
I am aware that things are changing in the Bellevue School District. I kind of like to leave it to the teachers, the experts in this stuff. My children have done fine.
So far, my child has not struggled in math. However, I would like to see more standard math skills such as times table, addition and subtraction practice
I would like to see more traditional math, less drawing and explaining, less group work. A lot more practice and no spiral system to teach the kids.
I’m not sure what math tutoring entails. However, I think having a Math specialist teacher at school starting from 2nd grade will improve the quality of math education dramatically in a short period of time. Here are my supporting reasons: 1) People who chose to be math teachers tend to be keen in math, have good personal experiences learning math and can more effectively pass this positive impression and love of math to students; 2) Specialists can maintain focused in preparing lesson plans and strategies for teaching math; 3) Specialists can gain math teaching experience more quickly because if they handled 5 classes in a school year that’s equivalent to 5 years teaching. I was educated abroad. Our class size is 40-45 students. Math was a subject taught by specialists who went from class to class just teaching math starting from 1st grade. We were given 5-minutes written quizzes daily and a longer, more comprehensive test on a monthly and semester basis. Teachers graded and returned test papers to us daily so we know how we’re doing. We also have daily math homework, which forces us to practice what we learned. I did not like the tests and homework then, but looking back, they were effective tools. I also had the good fortune of having some math teachers who made math-learning fun and showed us practical ways to apply math in solving problems. The challenge is to provide an effective yet economical way for our kids to learn and appreciate math.
As an engineering major with advanced degree, I feel school teacher’s qualification for teaching math is questionable. The current math curriculum doesn’t focus on math concept and logic. Instead, it’s teaching math as English. My son is very gifted in Math. But he got discouraged for using numbers to solve math problems. He was forced to use English to explain math. This approach intimated a math-gifted child to use long division to solve more difficult problems.
My daughter is in the Bellevue gifted program learning 7th grade math. I feel the teacher is not qualified for teaching middle school math curriculum. The order of the curriculum is pretty strange and it causes a lot of confusion to kids. The teachers are using “fuzzy” logic teaching method that means letting kids discovering math algorithm on their own. She often tells me that the teacher just plays some videos without explanation! But math learning needs clear direction in order to gain fundamental understanding. I also found the questions in homework are lacking clear definitions. I strongly suspect the author of the math curriculum is majored in math. The school encourages kids to use calculator and discourages mental math. This will cause problems if these kids want to advance in math or any other subject that needs advanced math. I am VERY disappointed at how math is taught at school (even in a famous gifted program). I am trying to help her at home to rescue her math and I hope it’s not too late!
Instead of spending money on providing math tutoring after school, I think we should try improving the delivery system in the school. My suggestion is to have specialist math teachers starting from 2nd grade. The teacher will simply teach math just like in middle school and high school. This won’t necessarily cost the school more money to implement but have a good chance of improving math education quality tremendously over a short period of time. Implementing the specialist method will allow the teacher to maintain focus on the subject matter and develop more effective ways to teach difficult math concepts. Math teachers will tend to be people who are naturally keen in math and have personal positive learning experiences that can be passed on to their students. A great value! I was educated abroad with the specialist math teaching method starting 1st grade. We had 40-45 students in a class and yet we managed to learn math and were better than many other students from other schools when we reached college. We had 5-minutes written tests and longer, more comprehensive monthly and semester tests. The test papers were graded and returned so we know how we’re doing. We also had daily math homework. I dreaded the tests and homework then but it did not make me hate math. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate the teaching methods used as I see how it has helped me maintain my learning disciplines and values.
For the students who can solve the average problems, I think it would be a good idea to give them more opportunities to try more challenging problems.
I feel pretty lucky because my child is in PRISM, hand his teacher is supplementing their math curriculum with Singapore math. I indicated that my son struggles with the district math program, but what he struggles with is the repetitive boredom of the program. I think that the general math curriculum is lacking and PRISM students want more. Since our son is moving ahead quickly and has asked to continue Singapore over the summer our teacher recommended some books for us to purchase.
My son happens to excel in math, so for him it is not a problem. With two younger siblings I am not as confident that they will grasp this style of math, which is my primary purpose for filling out this survey. I will fill it out twice with different answers applicable to my younger child at Cherry Crest.
I have not approached the principal, as she does not present herself as open minded regarding the lack of substance in math curriculum. Her avoiding answering question during math curriculum night was a clear signal even later she supplied newsletter as “answering” the question but that is just a public relation kind of a thing. She comes across, as “girls are no good at math and the current method fits the girls better” mode is something that I can hardly agree on.
While I don’t clearly understand the method of teaching this style of math, it seems down the road it is going to be harder as a parent to assist my child with homework, as she may need.
There is NO textbook for Math. I wish we had grade textbook so parents can know what is being taught at school.
Besides math, I strongly feel that foreign language, esp. Chinese, should be introduced / taught in elementary schools. In California and many east coast public schools, Chinese has been taught, along with Spanish. Heard that federal government has some grants for Chinese education. Why not get a piece for our children?
While I don’t feel my child is struggling with math, when he needs help with math at home I teach him the way I was taught to do math. This doesn’t necessarily match what he is taught in the classroom, but he does understand what I teach him. It drives me nuts when he draws pictures or number trees to solve simple math problems…he is going to look awfully silly someday when he does this in the corporate boardroom!!
I would like to see more homework from school. My son loves math and he is above his grade level in math. We really did not spend much time for his math as we feel like the school’s math progress is kind of slow and not very challenging for him. So we ask him to do extra work from the workbook we bought for him when he has time. I wish the school can give different workbook for different level kids so every kids will be challenged at their own pace.
We have not approached any administrators so far. We have heard that they are not open; therefore, we will supplement our children as necessary. We know what is happening in our children’s math classes from the occasional papers that do come home.
Good luck sorting all this out. I’ve been told that some children are having difficulty in math these days if they are weak in writing and/or reading because math these days relies on and uses much of both whereas in previous times math was largely math: figures, equations, etc.
This child is an A+ student in math and loves it and his teacher.
Terc doesn’t work for all kids
My son is currently in second grade. He is very bright and has difficulty adding multiple numbers. (For example, at the end of a Yahtzee game). Addition and subtraction has not been reinforced enough to understand this basic concept. The TERC curriculum introduced subtraction for one or two weeks and then jumped to multiplication. Also, homework only has 2 problems per week. There is not enough reinforcement and repetition to practice. This spiral method does not work because there can be a break of almost a year between actually doing any subtraction between 2nd and 3rd grades.
I am strongly opposed to my first grade kids using calculators in class to do math, when they don’t know their math facts.
My husband and I have noticed that our son needs more PRACTICE of multiplication, division and math facts. He needs to learn how to use stacking to add, subtract, multiply and divide. The district teaches many many things, but only briefly, without enough practice to help students become proficient in their math learning. I do not want my child to miss essential education while the district messes around trying to fix the problems.
My daughter is currently doing quite well in her 7th grade math class. However, I am not confident that she will be ready to tackle math once she outgrows the Washington method of teaching math. I do not believe she is ready to compete in a global community. Specifically, I do not believe she has had sufficient practice with her math facts. The district teaches many aspects of mathematics, SUPERFICIALLY, without giving sufficient practice opportunities before going on to the next lesson. Students like my daughter, do not know their multiplication
tables, for example, even by the 7th grade (though she is a straight A student)!
My son had 3 years of private tutoring while at Cherry Crest. He is in Math Support at Odle, which has helped him a great deal with Middle school math. His difficulties started (in my opinion) in Elementary school when they did not consistently practice math facts. Also, requiring them to explain in words and do long versions of problems when they have focusing problems lead to repeated failure. Also, my child could solve a problem using the algorithm but only received credit in 5th grade if he used the TERC method. This is unacceptable to me if my child can get the correct answer. TERC needs to be supplemented. It is not the best for every child. Teachers need the flexibility to change the curriculum to suit the needs of individual children.
The problems that I have seen in working with kids in the classroom over the years are that TERC permits kids to persist in using inefficient math solving strategies. For example the “Big 7” method is STILL being used at the END of fourth grade, which is entirely inexplicable to me. This strategy is intended in this curriculum as a BRIDGE to get kids to the end goal of using long division. From what I’ve seen in the classroom and homework, long division is NOT being taught in this last month of fourth grade.
Cherry Crest is a good school! Better than the schools I attended. The staff is dedicated, invests time and attention. BIG thank you. At the same time, the WA math program is disappointing. 35 years ago I got better math tutoring, and today’s world is more demanding, and we are better at teaching. This situation is contrasted by the superb programs in virtually any other area. This includes reading/writing, science, music, etc. When our math program will catch up with the good level of the others, e.g. reading, the WA/BSD kids will be amongst the best in math worldwide.
Too much discovery and spiral mathematics and not enough time on more traditional math work. Not enough tests and quizzes at school to let the child learn test taking skills and evaluations. We get the feeling they just gloss over each subject and move on.
I believe our math curriculum should cover many ways of learning. I am happy to have seen TERC math brought in. We must add preparation for standard column math as well. Many thinking patterns must be supplied. One method is not right for all. My current son seems to be doing fine, but I think the math is advancing faster than the schools can maintain and the parents can keep up with to help their children. Parent training sessions are essential. I am glad my children are quick in math or otherwise, I believe we would be having problems.
Parents at Somerset have been lobbying for the past 4 years I’ve been there and nothing changes. Teachers from one grade level to the next do not know what the above grade level is doing. Students do not have a textbook to bring home to help with math homework, nor can the parents see how the students are learning math concepts. Varying complexities as well as volume of homework varies from one teacher to the next.
I am a PhD student with a strong math background, so helping my kids with math is not something I am worried about at all. I would like to see my daughter challenged more in math—she is at or above grade-level in all subjects and I wish the teachers could find a way to challenge the kids who are not being challenged. In reading, she is given/assigned/allowed to read more challenging books, but in math I don’t see any extra challenge being provided to the more capable students.
My son’s problems in Math stem from his problems in reading comprehension. He has problems with word problems, especially, because he doesn’t understand what he is reading. His problems with school, in general, arise because he can read, but doesn’t comprehend what he is reading. The Sylvan assessment test has revealed this issue for us. Thank you!
It just seems that they are required to do so much too fast, and that they cannot grasp the concept of general counting skills.
My biggest concern is helping my child keep up with the curriculum.
Changes made this last year for 4th grade at our school by district & staff, including supplemental computation practice, have made a huge difference. If I had filled this out last year, my responses would have looked very different. My child’s 3rd grade math learning (last year) was insufficient, confusing, and resulted in lack of mastery of what I felt should have been appropriate math topics for 3rd grade, if not 2nd grade (e.g., SUBTRACTION).
My son’s troubles with HIAG2 were partly due to the curriculum and aggravated by an incompetent teacher. When I asked that my son be assigned to a different teacher, the school administration made the matter into a ‘parents vs teacher’ issue. We were put into the position of proving the teacher to be incompetent. Our son was caught in the middle, unable to get away from the teacher. I have spoken to many other parents who try to help their kids with math homework and discover that unraveling the material in the textbook to be so time consuming that they give up. The District has links on its website for parents who want to help their kids. Again, the material there requires such a large time investment that few parents are able to use it, even if they have the willingness to do so. The parents that I have spoken to feel isolated. They say that maybe they were weaker in math than they realized, or somehow math has changed so much that they no longer understand it. The bottom line to the problem with Bellevue’s math curriculum is that it is alienating the next generation from math. Kids who would otherwise be capable of learning and enjoying mathematics are growing up hating it. They will not pursue education in math-intense fields and will avoid work that requires knowledge of math. The jobs that they might have taken will be outsourced overseas. Our middle class will be further eroded by this curriculum. Whether intentional or not, this is an assault on our way of life.
I have been mostly satisfied with the math instruction in the elementary and middle school. I know based on the discussion with the teachers that they supplemented the curriculum, especially in elementary school. Someone may want to look into the issue of putting all students in “honors math” when many students may need additional time on basic concepts and their use.
The “problem” with the math curriculum lies more in the egos of the parents than problems with the curriculum itself. Because parents don’t understand it they assume it is bad. Plus the parents seem to be threatened by the low achievement of their children, not accepting the idea that MATH isn’t EASY for everyone and perhaps their children would be struggling no matter what the curriculum. Personally, the skills being taught to my child seem more like the skills that high-achievers in math know intrinsically. She is learning how to manipulate numbers the way her father does on his own—which ran counter to the Old Math instruction he received in school. Further, our daughter does spend extra time at home on memorizing her multiplication table and division—just as we did as children. I am glad class time isn’t wasted on what I believe should be done at home on an as-needed basis. Her “shortcomings” are entirely due to her own need to memorize & get faster in those operations. We expect she will continue to be challenged in math and are certainly not blaming the school for teaching it “wrong”. Math isn’t as easy for her as reading and writing—not everyone is good at everything, which seems to be a terrifying concept to some parents.
Math teachers in the BSD are only teaching or showing the “investigations” but
not teaching the students. In order for students to understand what is going on, the students are encouraged to go to tutorial where there are 150 other kids all vying for the teacher’s attention, or must stay longer for extended tutorial, giving up other activities that add balance (that the school district encourages) to their life. As a result, I have employed a tutor for my daughter to be taught what the Bellevue schools are not. Extremely frustrating that the schools do not recognize that not every family has the means to do this. When the counselor was questioned why so many kids have trouble in math, I was given a rehearsed response that each child learns differently and that they should be encouraged to go to tutorial. What happened to teaching our students?
The only reason my children haven’t struggled with math is because we have had private tutors since they were in first grade. The current math program is woefully deficient and leaves the kids totally unprepared to go on to higher learning. It’s criminal that terc has lasted this long.
See prior comments for our 4th grader.
The only reason my children don’t have difficulties with math is because they have had a private tutor twice a week since first grade to teach them “real” math. I can’t imagine where they would be without the “real” curriculum they learn at home. I resent their high scores on the wasl being waved about as some victory or validation of “terc” when there is no correlation what so ever between Terc and their scores.
Although I think that the TERC math program has some strengths, I wish it were supplemented in school with Kumon-like practice. The other problem is that gaps seem to continually occur in my children’s math knowledge, requiring that we continue indefinitely with outside supplementation.
My son is only in 1st grade but there seems to be little emphasis on conventional math learning, such as stacking strategy for addition. As far as I can tell, they have no emphasis on teaching what the ones, tens positions mean. Instead, the children are provided mini-story problems and encouraged to use some alternate strategy to explain how they derived the answer (e.g., drawing pictures, breaking down numbers into easier to add/subtract numbers). There is insufficient repetition, almost no homework, and, my perception is that too little time during school is devoted to math. My concern is that his struggles now with the convoluted strategies being taught will only snowball in future grades.
I am confident that the current math program is serving my particular son very well. The level of mathematical thinking being developed is outstanding and his computational skills show no sign of being below developmentally appropriate standards. The comprehensive nature of the program will allow for the intellectual development I prefer for my child as opposed to a traditional program focusing on basic computation. I do have an older son who completed the entire Investigations and CMP program through the BSD and is being very successful in a more traditional math program at a local private high school.
My daughter often feels the teacher really doesn’t care if she “gets it or not.” We have her also in Math Support, where because she is in the middle and other kids need more help she often feels ignored. Communication has never been very good from math teachers all three years. Other subjects sent parent letters via email saying what is coming up and ways to help. Last night I had a high school Mom telling me her 9th grade daughter’s class - over 60% failed the last test - something is not right.
I would like to see math text books provided to children in schools, and also I think schools should get more involved in sending kids to Math Olympiads and competitions.
We have had children in this elementary school for ten years. Most math teachers have offered supplemental work to help the students practice basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Our son’s 3rd grade math teacher has held regular parent meetings this year to help parents understand what students are learning. This willingness to supplement is really helpful, as the district curriculum does not offer enough opportunity to practice.
The curriculum is very very poorly designed. I am very disappointed at the unprofessional level and irresponsibility of the curriculum. I felt that the people treated the curriculum like a playground. The logic thinking behind this is that let’s try something new. If it works, it is good. If it doesn’t work, we will change next year. However our kids don’t have second chance. Our kids have no second chance to undo the damage. Whatever the damage it is, our kids are the people to suffer it and we have no way to undo it. The example is this year’s third grade math teaching. At the last half-year of second grade, we introduced the multiplication factor. However when the new year started with the third grade, we were teaching our kids at addition / subtraction with numbers less than 20 (i.e. 17-5 = 12). Our kids spent whole first half year of third grade doing this simple addition / subtraction practice. Our kids did nothing on the multiplication / division for the whole 6 months after the second grade. Then in January, 6 months later of the multiplication factor introductory, we introduced the division suddenly. What about the multiplication?! We had not taught our kids on multiplication yet. And to make the thing even worse, we introduced division on Monday and remainder on Wednesday. In February, we introduced the comparison of fractions with different numerators. Our kids have not remembered all the multiplication factors yet after the whole 6 months with no practice nor teaching on this. So basically we spent whole third grade doing simple addition / subtraction. We only spent two months on division and fraction. And we expect our kids to master these within two months!!!!! And then we are complaining our kids’ math level!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As a parent, I am very angry with this. I don’t care what kind math method we are using since I am not the expert on this. However I do care about this kind ignorance and irresponsibility showing in this curriculum design. I would like to urge the responsible people to stop playing with our kids’ future. We don’t have second chance to undo the damage!!! Everyone only gets one-third grade in his/her whole life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The program a lot of writing and little drill. It is awful.
Off the subject of math; I don’t volunteer in my child’s classroom because his teacher won’t allow parent volunteers in her class except for parties. I feel this is extremely short sighted, of the teacher and the school district, not to fully utilize skilled and educated adult volunteers to help students perform better in all aspects of the learning process. This is a colossal waste of a free resource. A public school district has the obligation to run the business of learning with the most efficient cost methods that produce the highest academic results. Using parent volunteers can increase the achievements of each student without burdening the school districts budget constraints.
Re: question about helping in math class….I answered “no” because while I do help, my motivation is not so I can know what is going on during class. My husband and I both love mathematics and our children have a knack for number and for mathematical concepts which reach beyond their years. It is from a desire to better reach their abilities that we play with mathematics as a matter of due course at home, just as we read to them each day. I am concerned that TERC addresses so many topics. I do not like that teachers are required to move through the units on a timeline. Are they being allowed to teach children? Or are they delivering a curriculum? Children do not have enough practice time with basic strategies. My son was bothered that he had to draw pictures to show work in first grade when he understands the numbers and approaches problems numerically. Mathematics is a language…numbers and symbols are the “words.” Why must children show their work in so many ways? I appreciate and understand and support the basic premise of wanting children to understand what they are doing and to not just memorize process, as many of today’s parents did as children. I support the use of manipulatives to support moving from the concrete to the abstract. I am concerned for many children that they are not ready for all that is presented to them. I am concerned for my children that they are not and will not be allowed to move along at a faster pace. I am disturbed that no one at the ESC is looking out for what is developmentally appropriate in the early years. I am disturbed that teachers who speak up and raise questions about the curriculum or approaches are “disciplined.” I could go on and on…
I believe Investigations Math does not benefit our children, and would like to see a Saxon/Singapore math style.
I’m comfortable with math in elementary schools, but feel the need to supplement at middle school level
My daughter is frustrated with the slow pace of math instruction. Her school does not have math segregated by interest/ability. More advanced students skip ahead a grade, then are grouped with the kids from that older grade who did not move ahead. The younger kids tend to be much more motivated and do better than the kids “at grade level”.
So my child is also tutored in writing, which your survey didn’t really cover so a bit misleading.
my child is leaving the Bellevue school district at the end of this year which is why I answered No to working with the school/teacher/in class support, but i have done so in the past and think that parents can be great sources of supplemental help.
My son has always been good at math but I feel that the current program is discouraging his love of math. Instead of teaching him the tools he needs to succeed (multiplication tables, basic formulas and concepts) he is given these ridiculous worksheets and told to draw pictures and crazy charts. His math homework often resembles an art project or writing homework. My husband has a math degree and has decided he will teach him things like long division himself. I think the curriculum really fails the students if the parents have to teach
their children the basics.
While we have not personally chosen to tutor our children, we would definitely support evaluation and enhancement of the math curriculum in the Bellevue School District. Thank you.
I think a more comprehensive survey should be administered every year specifically on math since it is such a problem, but could cover a broader set of topics. We could then track issues over time and we would then have the data to approach the district and it would help enable change.
When my son was in the first grade, Medina Elementary PTSA sponsored the Bellevue School District Math Specialist to come in and talk with interested parents about the math curriculum for the Bellevue School District. He gave a very upbeat and positive spin on the math curriculum but it was the disgruntlement from the parent questions at the end of his talk that alarmed me. I left that meeting and immediately called Kumon to enroll my son in their math program. He has been in it ever since. My child has a math aptitude so he was not struggling in math before Kumon and is one of the top math students in his class. I like the idea of teaching math concepts to students at the start of a lesson but it should be quickly backed up with math facts and practice.
I have two daughters attending Bennett Elementary School. Neither one gets enough challenge in their classrooms. They get bored with subjects they already know.
Our child has just started struggling in math this year and I think it is because of the math curriculum at the school. He is being asked to do complicated problems various ways without having been taught the basic facts first. It has been painful, has affected his self-esteem and has generally made him not like math (and even school in general). We are looking into doing tutoring, Kumon, or private tutors this summer so he does not enter 2nd grade feeling so miserable about math. It makes me angry to have to do this when I know that on the East Coast at the very good private school he was in, math was taught in a systematic, more traditional way. I am already worried how behind he will be in math when we move back there having been taught math in the way it is taught in Bellevue. I know that he is generally stronger in literacy than math but I know he is highly capable and it should just not be this painful!
My daughter’s teacher is helping her in the mornings before school on her math. I think she is doing this for a couple of her students. I think they are focusing on what will be discussed that day to give these kids a head start and help familiarize them with the lesson. We had her tested for any learning disabilities and she had none
You need to state explicitly your privacy policy and how you secure private information before I would entrust my personally identifiable information to you.
I don’t believe the PTA’s investment in a “full-time” math teacher (we must share the teacher with another school but pay the full cost), is reaching all of our students. Perhaps reallocating these funds into aides or assistants that can reach more children would be more helpful.
While I indicated in our survey response that we don’t currently supplement our child’s math curriculum we are going to look into doing this over the upcoming summer.
The math is taught very quickly. The children seem to barely grasp a concept and they are moving on to the next unit. It can be very hard to figure out what they want on the homework. Several times it took 30-40 min just to figure out what to do and how to do it. It’s ridiculous!
I would be paying for a tutoring service like Kumon if it were not so expensive.
Class size is too large. 25kids. My son is not challenged. He has a wonderful teacher (she really is amazingly talented), but she can’t move the class along at a pace that keeps him engaged.
I feel the teachers/district want the kids to learn math, but don’t teach, the “old fashion way” (i.e. borrowing and carrying/long division) They expect the parents to teach this method. The teachers teach five different methods to get the same answer, but don’t teach the one method that solves the problem the quickest (and easiest) way. My daughter received a poor grade the first quarter of 4th grade even though the teacher agreed that the method he was looking for hadn’t been taught at school. I feel the district is asking teachers to teach one way, and expecting the parents handle the problems (ie. help with homework).
In Bennett, I heard some parents were talk about the math, they try to do some effort and try to let school know that the kids didn’t get challenge on math , but it did not work .The school is not listen .
I am frustrated with the TERC program and the holes in TERC. I am amazed that the district is just now figuring out that 100% TERC might not be the best method. So many kids go to outside tutoring and the math program is simply not challenging enough.
I would like to see drills for regular stacking/long division algorithms in conjunction with the turk methods, so transition to regular math methods in high school does not require catching up. I have an engineering degree and think math mastery is a key to higher technology skills our kids will need for future competition in industry.
I know that many, many children receive outside tutoring not limited to math. I feel that there should be before / after school on site study hall with teachers that reinforces what has been introduced in the classroom setting. While Kumon has been helpful it doesn’t alien what has been taught in school. Last year, in 3rd grade (all classes) were moving through addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables. A newsletter came out from the teacher that even though less than half the class were scoring 60% on test that they were still moving on. These are the fundamentals of math, if three or four out of a classroom of 24 that aren’t meeting the standards then I can understand moving on. I find it unacceptable to move on when half of the class isn’t passing the tests. At that point I purchased several math aids from Lakeshore and enrolled my kids into Kumon for the summer. My son currently goes after school on Thursday to Mr. Welt’s class each week and receives out side help from time to time.
I am excited to hear that the Bellevue school district is aligning their math program with top programs throughout the world.
My son is in 2nd. I’m glad they do math facts and he still needs practice there. The first half of the year was mostly repeat for him. During the second half I saw new learning, but he grasped it quickly and breezed through his homework (5 minutes, tops). It’s not terrible, but I don’t think he’s being challenged as much as he should be. He’s now getting a little lazy because he’s getting accustomed to things being easy.
1) There is too much explaining in words required of our kids - it does turn the smart kids off on Math - they do get it, but should not have to explain their thinking in words all the time - Math savvy kids are not all necessarily enjoying to write an essay - and if the result is accurate - a teacher will know the kid got the concept - without all the writing. 2) How about teaching 5th grade enrichment kids the 6th grade curriculum, so that they can pass that Math placement test for middle school? Otherwise that day of Enrichment comes across as a waste of time. 3) Starting in grade three it would be beneficial to have Math class taught by Math specialists; it is not helpful for kids to observe classroom teachers/substitutes struggling with basic concepts - they just learn to be scared and lose confidence in their abilities.
Math is not about rote memorization of rules, but about a deep understanding of concepts; in that perspective the current curriculum does a good job! i.e.: try to do polynomial division if you have not understood the way that a division algorithm works…. Could there be more and better Math instruction - yes - again I think kids would benefit from a designated Math specialist teaching it from grade three up!
My son is very good at Math and has good basic skills… I think the computer program “Math Facts in a Flash” that he used last year at Redmond El., (LWSD) was very helpful.
From my experience, Medina is a competitive environment regarding academics. My son has continued to be a part of the extra math classes each year. I believe he has done well and we will continue to work at home as well. Because our school is competitive academically, it pushes us to stay on top of his studies, in fun and creative ways. We don’t push him in a stressful manner; we want to make sure he understands the fundamentals of math that will carry him into the more difficult challenges later on. We have been pleased with Medina’s math curriculum.
I would like to know what is taught in class and what is expected of the student to know at that grade. A textbook that instructs students on the required math concepts and practice problems is hugely helpful to both parents and students. It will help to clarify for both what must be learnt in that school year. I went to school in Singapore and we had textbooks for every subject. I found them to be indispensable because they allow me to revisit topics that I may have problems with when the teacher was teaching it. Right now, there is no resource for that in schools. Students are taught verbally in class and if they miss it or did not understand it, there are no textbooks that they can use to teach themselves. I feel that we need good textbooks that will cover all the topics and concepts that are to be taught for each grade—no student or parent will then have an excuse that they do not know what knowledge must be gained before they can progress to the next level of education.
TERC is silly - my high school age student does not use it at all now. In fact, she was behind as a result of her confused math training. I supplemented with tutoring. I spend collectively $12,000 or more a year to tutor my kids through the public school system. The TERC math has created confusion with my school age children. I have had to independently teach and have them taught algorithmic math so that they can do the problems. It too time consuming, requiring too many steps, breakouts. Frankly the THEORY behind the latest math fad does not cut it for the masses and I don’t understand how it helps in real world. I also believe that the entire math curriculum dealing with complicated story problems that EVEN I as an accomplished professional businesswoman find confusing and difficult to track and follow in a logical sequential fashion is misguided. Math is not reading comprehension. Children need the basic math facts to function in the world not how to track a complicated multi-step story problem in first grade.
My daughter has had problems with math since kindergarten, later it was recommended that she should be placed in special ed. for math. She has had IEP through the school district for two years. What this has done is made her perpetually behind her class in math. Now she gets math from three sources Her class, IEP, and an after school program on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. She is somewhat overwhelmed by all this math. And I think it’s a little too much for a fourth grader.
The supplements that we provide at home are mainly only during the summer months. Otherwise we incorporate Math into our daily activities hence it is not a set ldquo;tutoring” per say and no additional Math homework outside of the school’s requirements.
BSD’s math curriculum is failing our children. The district must return to teaching the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. A fortunate few are receiving additional help at home, but for many students, the help from a parent or outside resource is not available. It is a disgrace that our students compare so poorly with students educated elsewhere.
Just moved to the Monroe school district, Was in Lake Washington for 18 years and 4 children. I was fortunate; my children were, for the most part average to above average in most areas of math. When they did struggle I hired a tutor and/or took them to Sylvan.
In my opinion I think that the kids are much more capable of taking up more challenge in their academics. The more practice and workout they do on a regular basis at school as well as at home always will keep them way ahead of their grade level. I think that a day-to-day homework is a must rather than the weekend homework.
My child is in the 1st grade PRISM program and I think he has received much better instruction in math than he would have in the regular program at Cherry Crest. His teacher has taught him how to add and subtract as I learned it in school, as well as exposing him to the funny “grouping” stuff as I suppose she was required to do. His teacher also gave the class a lot of practice with the multiplication tables (to 12). I suspect the PRISM students’ math instruction may be different than the regular core.
BELLEVUE SCHOOL DIST. HAS ENOUGH MONEY THAT THEY SHOULD PROVIDE TUTORING TO KIDS THAT NEED THEM
Last year my daughter had the opportunity to be in a math group after school. Actually the group was for my son’s class. He was in 3rd. and she in 2nd. She had to go with him every Mon. and Tue. And the result for that is excellent my daughter learned a lot, now she’s in 3rd, but she almost knew everything what she learned this year. Of course that my son too!!! I was really sad when I asked in the school if they were having the same program this school year (2006). But they said NO. Because the school didn’t have enough money to pay the teachers!!!!!! I hope that we can have that this year again (2007). Thanks
I think that the math they are teaching is a waste of time. I don’t not feel that the methods being taught are effective, and do not prepare our children for math in the future.
I like to see more homework on math.
Thank you for organizing this survey. We really think the way math is taught in Washington schools is a big issue and if it wasn’t for us, parents, working and supplementing it at home, our child would not develop a strong and rigorous mathematical foundation essential for his later academic success.
When elementary children switch from regular classes to the Bellevue Prism Program some important math sections may be missed. My child missed learning the multiplication tables and we have been compensating ever since.
Well I have two kids @ Stevenson and would like to get help for both but for now I can only afford to pay for one child my fifth grader.
My child is in the “Highly Gifted” Prism Program and gets the appropriate math for his level. I ‘m happy with what my child learns. I can’t talk about regular classroom.
I think this survey is ill conceived and not in the best interests of our students in the Bellevue School District. There are far more important deficiencies in the curriculum than math, such as a complete absence of any evidence-based reading curriculum. Even the community of professional mathematicians cannot agree on what areas of math should be taught to children. Math is constantly developing and last year alone there were over 1,000 new areas of math discovered. Also, my child in the 4th grade for the the first year of BSD’s comprehensive math curriculum and graduated from high school in 2006. She scored in the top 1% on all standardized tests, including in math. She never received any outside math tutoring.
There is nothing wrong with the math curriculum in the BSD.
There are millions of parents like me who have had a better math education during their early years in their native countries such as India and Japan. You must really involve these guys to make a change in this country as well. A lot can be done with the curriculums here as far as child’s success in math is concerned.
Mathematics at my son’s school have always been well below his level
There is a math club at school but it is not for supplementation, it is for competitions so only the proficient join in. My son is in PRISM math so he was tested and placed in 7th grade math as a 5th grader yet I feel there are gaps in his learning because of the skipped material. I’d like to see some supplemental material provided to families in which the child has skipped math grade levels so we can work with our child at home to “catch” anything missed.
This child is the youngest of 3. My oldest is currently in 10th grade and I see the long-term problem of not enough Math Facts in the current math program. Changes need to be made and quickly!
The investigative approach to math does not work alone. Math Facts need to be taught in school.
My student did have Kumon supplementation during most of elementary school. It was excellent. His math instruction at Clyde Hill was incomplete, at best. I had many discussions on the subject with the principal. At that time the PTSA provided a math specialist who expanded the basic curriculum (taught more of the same). My student currently is at Newport High…peer tutoring is available. I do not know
My son has been in our district’s gifted program since 1st grade. Math has been his strongest subject all through school. He is a year ahead of his class in math. He is doing worse and worse each year. Last year a C in Trig. This year a D in Pre-Calc. He will retake that class in summer school. He scores in the 98th percentile or higher in math on standardized tests, and has his whole life. His classmates are doing poorly as well. Why is he struggling in school?
The way teaching math was wrong. I myself have Math & Computer Science degree in BS and EE degree in MS. I grew up from China. We had a very systemic way to learn and teach math. Math is not a guessing game. The theories and algorithms must be remembered and taught correctly. My son is in Bellevue’s Prism program. I am disappointed with how the teacher just gave the homework without teaching the basic theories and understanding. It is very irresponsible for the young generation. Now I understand why most of the students are struggling in Math in this country. I see there is no point of spending $2 bill. in Researching of teaching math. All they need to do is to spend part of the money to buy some math textbook. I couldn’t believe there is no Math textbook in the class, but only the workbook. Kids teaching each other are not a good way to teach math.
I am contemplating pulling my child out of school during the school day to go to a tutor—after school tutoring/supplementation is too hard on him & on the whole family. Would much rather do other things after school.
Math is my son’s strongest subject. It is the other entire subject’s I am concerned about for him.
My son has learning disabilities and has trouble with math.
My son has several learning disabilities. The school’s only solution is spending time in the special education room. While this helps, it seems to me that the curriculum is geared for the above average student and average or special needs students are left behind. Also, I think the 4th grade curriculum is overly skewed toward writing and as a result the math skills suffer.
My main concern is that the kids seem to be moving through topics so fast—whiz, whiz from adding to subtraction to multiplication all in second grade. My son doesn’t seem to grasp and feel comfortable with one thing before he moves on. He doesn’t get enough practice. Why are these introduced so quickly? Also, math practice of multiplication tables, for example, doesn’t have to be tedious. We taught them extremely well from an outstanding teacher by playing a game every day. We loved it and every single kid could do the tables so fast. Then we would go challenge other classes in the older grades. I think there can be a balance between the traditional math and the new math approaches, which do help kids, understand the concepts behind what they are doing. I have liked some of the Terc math work that I have seen, but other things bother me. How, for example, is a kid supposed to understand the difference between show your work/solve the problem and prove your work? For second graders, what does this mean exactly? Is there a rigorous distinction that they are supposed to be grasping between solve and prove? Or are they just being asked to do the problem two different ways? Some of these types of things make me wonder?
Our tutor, who came from Forest Ridge Girls School, has been able to give our kids ways to remember, memorize, see patterns, Math “rules” to follow, tricks, short cuts, tips…. all of which have helped greatly. Bellevue District teachers don’t have time to give the kids this valuable information because of the current Terc curriculum. We feel Terc is not the best or only way to teach math. She has compared our books to those she used at Forest Ridge and she has determined ours to be boring, not providing enough or any examples in solving problems, and she quite often teaches our kids from her books, because
they explain so much better to the child. Our middle schooler at Chinook went from having D’s to A’s after we hired our tutor. Something has to be done about our math curriculum!!
Stevenson is a great school for my girls and I am really happy with their efforts and learning that my daughters get from there.
Well, my problem with BSD math is that the school neither offers nor suggests any textbooks for math units. It only provides problem worksheets. To me, if a student wants to learn math and excels independently he/she needs to have adequate books to do so. For some reason, if a student does not get the math concepts in classroom, there in no other way for him/her to learn the concept other than help from home or outside math tutoring. Also, BSD math curriculum, I feel is about learning math on the surface but not going deep in understanding especially, in the elementary and middle school levels that I am familiar with. So my urge will be to spend money on textbooks that other countries have been doing for may be close to a century.
Bellevue needs to adopt programs from California, Boston and New York
The math is okay but it needs to be supplemented to challenge the student that is ready to move on. This is the first year my sons teacher has added challenge work for him even though i have asked for each year. My only concern is that he was bored but now that he is challenged, he is not.
The teachers in my child’s program (Prism) supplement the TERC curriculum with computation and algebra packets to provide for better math learning for the students.
I feel the math education in the district is very inconsistent. Parents are told not to teach our children algorithms that we learned but when we do share these traditional approaches with our kids, they report that it is “much easier” to master the problems. And I hear comments like, “Why didn’t they teach us this in school?” Some teachers are supplementing the curriculum with added practice; others are not. So the quality of math education really depends on the teacher your child gets. I hope that the district can strike a balance between the traditional proven methods and the “thinking” approach, which has merit too. But kids need to learn their math facts, plain and simple.
My son’s middle school has after school tutorial for kids needing help, and sometimes he finds this useful. Other times, he complains that what was presented in class was not done in a clear manner so my husband has the job of helping to clarify at home. We are fortunate that we can still answer his questions!
I saw my son is having trouble in his math homework, I have started supplement with him using the same grade material for Singapore math. But I can’t seems to be able to get thru, so we decided to send him thru a professional education program - Sylvan. Which is so expensive!! We have finished his assessment and will start the Sylvan this coming Monday. We will just have to see how long we could afford the tutor and hope that my son’s math can catch up soon! Another comment about your survey, one of the questions is if we volunteer to help in class during math time, but the teacher didn’t have any volunteer time to help during math time, even I like to help, there is no opportunity, only thru my son’s homework and how much my son tell me.
This nation should be tops in education…. not a follower…certainly not behind schools in Asia/Singapore. We should have the best and most advanced curriculum…. unfortunately we don’t today. It’s the only competitive advantage we can give our kids in the increasingly globalizing world. It’s a great disservice to have such low standard of math in class.
My 5th grader is in PRISM and is in a 7th grade math, which works great for her. If she were in a 5th grade math class, my answers would have been completely different.
We have pulled our children out of the Seattle Public School District into the Private sector largely because of the math program.
I do not know how other districts are handling this, but in Bellevue, I think the district has done a great job of revamping the math curriculum to ensure each year builds on the last. Also, my son is in the PRISM (gifted) program, and while the math in this program is very challenging, the instruction is excellent.
I’d like to see less homework projects in the elementary school years such as “diorama’s, puppet shows, game boards etc. and have more of this time spent on math drills in class and out of class. Less silly projects for parents to construct at home and maybe more math practice. When the kids reach M.S. they should be proficient with their multiplication drills etc. and we should not have to pay for Kumon and the likes outside of the classrooms.
Simply surveying successful Math curriculum around the USA and the world, sifting the data, discovering what works well, is easier than re-inventing Math curriculum improvement ourselves.
The work at her age seems appropriate but she is still in first grade. We cannot comment on unobserved methods. The only issue my wife or myself ever had with the material was KUSKE math. We had to look it up on the internet to learn anything at all about it and that proved to be less than clear as well. What we did manage to learn we did not like and we never saw the need or the advantage. We completely missed any introduction to this and so did our child. Our first observation was “we spent her preschool time teaching her how not to count upside down and backwards…and now you have her doing it again”.
My child is in the “Highly Gifted Program” Prism, which provides the appropriate math level gear toward specific needs; therefore, I have no complaint about it. Occasionally we do tutoring our child at home but not too often.
I am truly bothered by homework sent home that is a ‘logic’ problem that is not math at all or does not give enough practice for basic skills, I am bothered that the ‘traditional’ lay out in solving a problem is not enough to ‘show your work.’
I’d love to see information on the school district openings to educate our parents on the board member’s position on math.
At issue is the consistency with which teachers use the curriculum, and the Seattle School District needs to be clear about the need to use a common curriculum across the district. Then, implement professional development and continuing education about how to use the curriculum to make mathematics purposeful and relevant for teachers and students. There is not a debate about if students should have computational skills, be strong conceptually, or be able to explain their thinking. Mathematicians should be strong in all of these areas.
I would like to see the BSD post not only the curriculum, but also the procedures the teachers use to teach our kids the subjects. Even if I volunteer in the classroom, which is difficult as I work full time, there is little chance I can be there @ the exact time for a specific subject. The way I was taught math 30+ years ago is different than it is taught in some cases now & it’s frustrating for both me & my son to not know first hand what methods are being taught so I may remain consistent with his teacher. Thank you.
My survey results may be anomalous to the district as my child is in an accelerated, gifted program and I believe that these teachers have more flexibility with their math curriculum.
I’m not clear if Bennett has taken steps to improve math curriculum for the later grades- my child is in first grade but I believe they need to learn the tables & his previous Bellevue school didn’t teach the tables
My main concerns about math education in current elementary schools are, 1) it doesn’t cover any subjects in depth enough for students to truly understand them and applications of those subjects. 2) the current way math is taught at school in general is not training students to think and analyze problems logically, not even teaching students to write out math problems in math language. The math is taught as language art right now.
The main concern is there’s no textbook for the students. Parents have difficulty to understand clearly what have been taught and what methods (in details) are they using. Even though the teachers may try to communicate with us with weekly newsletter, we still don’t know what they are teaching at school. When the kids tell you that there will be quiz or test on math, parents are not able to help them review. After the kids get a poor assessment from a math test, parents still don’t know how to help them to correct. The whole responsibility seems to be on the teacher only, which is not enough.
Our school is starting a math/geography club at school for the 2007-2008 school year. I will be a part of this club. It will have weekly as well as monthly commitments for students and parents.
My daughter is on the right end of the curve in math. In class, the curriculum really teaches to the middle 50% and makes it difficult for the teacher to split the class into three for exercises that are appropriate to each group. If we don’t do multiplication flash cards at home, she gets little to no repetition at school, as most of the class is on subtraction, and therefore continues to get the same score on her timed tests in this area.
I feel this survey is quite bias. The site name included “Where’s the Math” implies to parents that math is currently missing or inadequate in the school curriculum. It may be helpful to have parents also comment on what they feel are the positive aspects of the current math program.
Within the first couple months of my son starting 1st grade in Washington we noticed the math was very different than the math in California. We like the math in California better. Our son has had a very hard time understanding the “Terc math.” When I showed him how I would do the math problems he caught right. Then my son was told at school that he was not allowed to complete math the traditional way, the way I showed him. This is very frustrating. I am thinking about home schooling if this doesn’t get better.
Our daughter is in the 2nd grade PRISM program and has required a lot of extra work to catch up. This is generally due to the fact that she entered the program in the second grade and essentially skipped 2nd grade math. We were not told that this would be a problem and unfortunately did not prepare her before she entered the PRISM program. She has been working hard with the excellent support of her teacher and has almost caught up. She will receive more tutoring this Summer to be sure she does not start next year behind.
Our daughter’s class is participating in a math enrichment course provided by her teacher. Called “Kuske”
I am very satisfied with the present teacher of my son. She is exceptional.
My children are not challenged enough in math and 1 has already skipped a grade and I will likely try to get the others to advance as well.
There is a limit as to how much home schooling a parent can do on math especially when the child goes to school. When you look outside the “Washington” box, whether it’d be through private school application or just comparisons with other kids in other states, you see that there is truly a limit to Terc math. Where are the bases of all they need to learn in high school, where is the critical thinking needed, etc… I feel the parents have sensed the issue needs to be absolutely addressed (and for some years now) but the school/school district is dragging its feet and still nothing has changed.
There is a big gap in student expectation between elementary and middle school in Bellevue school district. Efficiency doesn’t seem to a big requirement during elementary school years. However, in middle school, if you are not fast enough, homework time will be very long. Also, during elementary years, there are too much emphasis on explaining math strategy, but not enough in basic skill practice. Stacking is not taught during elementary years. Multiplication table is not encouraged to be memorized. All these are important in affecting speeds. Then when the student gets to middle school, all of sudden, he or she is facing with loads of homework. The teacher doesn’t care too much the strategy you use as long as you get the answer correct. Overall, I don’t feel elementary school is preparing students well for middle school.
I input that I believe there is a “math problem” in our school b/c there is so much energy around it. I’m not entirely sure that there is a problem with the curriculum, per se, but there is certainly a communication issue between the school district, the teachers, the PTA and the parents. There seems to be a standoff where neither side is willing to listen to the other or consider opinions. I’ve begun to pull away from the discussion, as it seems so negative and unproductive.
Both of my boys struggle in math and I feel it has to be related to an ongoing problem with the curriculum established by the school district.
My daughter was 2 years ahead of her grade level in math when we moved to Bellevue from Baton Rouge. She has lost ground each year.
Through PTA funding we were able to hire a math specialist, to supplement both the high end and struggling students. Since that time, math fact testing occurs, but to my knowledge little practice is done in the classroom. Practice occurs at home, testing at school. My biggest issue with the math curriculum is that we do not teach to mastery and we take way too long to teach standard algorithms. We “dribble” out the information over multiple grade levels. If you want to introduce fractions, teach the kids how to multiple, divide, add and subtract the numbers. The best teachers at Medina supplement the district material, which results in a better math education. The TIMMS study demonstrates very clearly our weaknesses in teaching math as well as science—but that’s a different issue.
My son is in the PRISM program and is particularly good at math, so I don’t think it would matter which curriculum was used However, he finds the text that is currently in use somewhat boring and the examples in the text are not motivating. I’ve heard good things about the curriculum used in Issaquah, although they seem to be switching to something new now.
My son seems to be doing just fine in math. He is in first grade. I have heard that the math curriculum is not meeting the needs of some students in later grades. I have also heard parents complaining that their child does not receive the basics and that they need supplementation at home or from a private tutor.
I am definitely unhappy with the math curriculum. However, at this point in time I do not want to take an active role in changing it due to other commitments/priorities. Best of luck in your efforts to improve the curriculum, and thanks.
I haven’t learned enough about the math curriculum for future years to know whether there is reason for concern. I like the conceptual approach to learning math that the kids use now; it’s how I understand math (I have a B.A. in math). Would like to make sure they understand reasoning processes, but also know basic facts ‘cold’.
Do not contact me at this e-mail address.
My kindergartner is learning with the Kuske patterns this year - she has done really well with this approach. Not sure how well it is working for everyone else though. A variety of perspectives may be needed to address all learning styles.
It is my understanding talking with parents of children in higher grades that they are not happy with the math curriculum at our elementary school.
I am extremely concerned about the math curriculum in Bellevue and the lack of time spent on practicing standard algorithms. It’s fine to quickly review alternate methods to reach an answer, but not all kids learn best with this new math and kids need to be taught that standard algorithms can be the most efficient (and least prone to error) way to reach an answer. Teachers need to teach and not let the kids spend hours “discovering” alternative methods. I have a child who is a linear thinker and the multiple ways to do subtraction and addition thoroughly confused her and has made her think she is stupid and cannot do math! This it the worst thing we can do to a child and I am outraged. My child says she understands math at home but not at school where she cannot figure out which strategy to use. She is one of the many kids suffering with this curriculum.
Something needs to be done quickly to change the math curriculum. I am seriously considering one or more of the following: 1) home schooling for math only; 2) home schooling all subjects; 3) taking outside tests, 4) boycotting the WASL - why should I give the district the scores of my heavily home schooled/tutored child?
I believe that the math curriculum as it stands is too easy. Learning how to manipulate numbers is valuable, however they think too much time is spent on this. Once the kids know a few different strategies to combine numbers, I think they should move on and know the facts quickly. It shouldn’t be necessary to calculate something every time they need to solve a math problem. There are some math “facts” they should just know.
I feel like these new math plots, and branching out do not work- basic multiplication tables and division will do just fine- I have two other kids that attend Stevenson and they both struggle with math. The way we were taught is much better. I teach my kids the way I know - which is much better - and the way they taught my 7th grader is now different than the way they are teaching my 1st grader. The Kuske’s (?) math way is terrible. My kids struggle with simple multiplication and division- Why is that??? Because they are not teaching the basics!!!
I’m not opposed to the math that they’re learning. I just believe by 2-3rd grade they need standard algorithm integrated practice supplemented into the math program. I see my child struggle to find what should be a simple answer in a long convoluted method that often results in the wrong answer. I also see her to articulate her work, as math can be difficult to do in certain areas. My older daughter at the high school level at Sammamish High failed exams in Trigonometry because the district didn’t accept her non-mathematical explanations when all her computations were correct. They shouldn’t have to write explanations of their work at his level!
I have a sophomore in College, a 9th grader at the International school and a 1st grader. I’ve always felt that the Terc math didn’t prepare my children for Middle and High school math. Too much “play” in teaching facts.
We should not throw away what is good about the existing math curriculum (developing conceptual framework, creativity, understanding multiple paths to the same answer, improves performance of lower-functioning students) but we need to provide missing basics (standard algorithms, facts, repetition, challenge) while maintaining an excitement for and love of math.
We want to ensure our child gets a well-rounded math education that advances on an age appropriate basis. There seem to be gaps, e.g. lack of math facts before 2nd grade and then alternatively, big leaps to fractions and multiplication. Our child sometimes struggles with his math homework (not always) and at times, we have considered tutoring, but have not done this as yet. At home, we have done flash cards for addition/subtraction and other small math games to help but also make it fun.
We would really like to see math taught in a way OTHER than Terc. The ldquo;fundamentals”, in our opinion, are glazed over using the Terc method. We currently have three students at Cherry Crest. As early as third grade, our children were taught in such a way that the basics were jumbled together. Our children better understood an algorithmic method. Their computational skills greatly improved as we chose to subsidize their math education with private tutoring. It was our concern that our 5th grader was lacking in understanding of the basics as early as third grade. We would like to see changes in the curriculum before our first grader gets into the same situation.
It may be that the math curriculum at BHS is just fine - my child’s teacher this year uses unusual and ineffective teaching methods. I would like to see them all TEACH math, not skirt around and try to get at it backwards, sideways, inside out - math is actually straightforward - teach it that way (of course, this requires truly talented math teachers)
Since my son is at school at Puesta del Sol and gets his assignments in Spanish, I don’t follow along on his homework assignments in the same way I might if the assignments were in English. Although my Spanish is good enough that I’ve been able to understand all of the word problems and math assignments he’s had so far, and understand the “uniqueness” of the math taught in the Bellevue School District. So far, luckily, my son seems to really like math, does well in it, and manages the assignments on his own, so I haven’t worried about it. Even after I heard everyone’s worries about the “new math” that didn’t teach the basics like multiplication, he seems to have multiplication down pretty well already, and I have to assume that’s coming from school, because we’re not doing anything at home in terms of extra tutoring. My take so far has been that many parents are simply uncomfortable and afraid of the Bellevue School District math curriculum just because it’s different from what they experienced as kids themselves. To me, however, that’s not an automatic strike against it. So far, I can’t say I think it’s a bad program at all.
I feel there is not enough DRILL work combined with the THEORY. Terc (sp?) Math hasn’t been tested and yet we comprehensively DROPPED drill work out of Math curriculum. Learning Math is like learning a language. You need the combination of drill work AND you need conversation sessions/popular culture/travel to foreign countries. Learning the theory alone won’t help you with the grammar. You need both. Same with Math.
I’m glad to see this survey, but I have seen them before and still nothing changes. I have 4 children, and our oldest is 21 and went all through the Bellevue School District. We had these SAME CONCERNS in the early 1990’s! I also spent 2 years as a PDC rep at Medina, where math was always on the agenda. This is when the weekly math facts tests began in grades 2-5, but that system needs revising. The teachers say they don’t have time to teach both TERC and math fact/algorithm practice. I have also been told that because Bellevue invested heavily in TERC, it won’t likely be dropped even after YEARS of dissatisfaction. I wish Bellevue would poll the area math tutors. The ones I know (3-4 people) shake their heads at the “texts” the middle and high schoolers must use. They are confusing, wordy, give poor examples, no answers to check in the back, etc. Only when the kids make it to AP Calc do they get a decent book. Thanks for listening.
I feel teaching too many strategies to solve math problems takes too long and is inefficient. I believe old fashioned long division and stacking multiplication is a cleaner, better way to help our students understand math basics.
I think our challenge is effort and consistency with our son. He doesn’t enjoy math, and doesn’t put in any effort to succeed to his ability.
I attended a math curriculum night sponsored by our PTSA in early 2007 (February I think) at which Eric McDowell was the guest speaker. From that meeting, I gathered that abandoning the traditonal algorithmic math that most of us learned as kids and according to Eric had made mistakes, those are being addressed. I was confused when my son’s 1st grade teacher told him, “don’t stack the numbers” for addition. The approaches they were using seemed very circuitous and time consuming. He’s in second grade this year and although the strategies he was using earlier in the year were very arduous, the recent math homework has them using the traditional approaches on just memorizing the times tables rather than drawing ridiculous pictures and doing 5 steps to come up with the answer to 5×5. He does not seem to be having trouble in math according to the teacher, but if the curriculum is inadequate, then “getting it” does not necessarily mean he’s getting a good math education. At this point, I don’t even know if I should be seeking outside tutoring since he hasn’t had any testing to compare his knowledge to the national average.
When my now 7th grader was in elementary school I felt like he wasn’t getting the full math picture - too much Terc, not enough algorithms. I think now with my fifth grader the problem has been corrected.
I think the school needs to recognize that for children that may have a strong math sense but don’t express their math answers in writing adequately they get points marked off even for correct answers. This is very frustrating for kids and can turn them off from math. i do not think that my district should rely so heavily on Terc
Kids need to know multiplication table by heart at the end of 3rd grade, Terc math is fine up to a point, but we must teach traditional math, otherwise, they will suffer later on.
The answers on this survey are solely for the PRISM program. I feel the teachers in that program are able to supplement regular curriculum gaps during classroom hours because the kids get through the regular curriculum quickly. We have been happy with math in PRISM.
The responses relate to our experience with the PRISM program, which has been great—the teachers seem to be able to compensate/fill in gaps in the curriculum.
I question the focus of the mathematical programs throughout the district that seem to be based on preparation for the WASL. I practiced with our son prior to the WASL test and a few times I felt the questions were poorly presented and honestly wondered about my own answer choice.
I am proficient in math as are both of my children. We are available to volunteer our time to tutor struggling students after school. Please let me know if you would like us to help next year.
I’d love to volunteer my time to tutor those who need it after school.
I have tried to discuss this with the principal but she did not respond to my two email inquiries. My daughter scored 25th percentile on the two ISEE math sections because she had not been exposed to the mathematical concepts (such as fractions) that other Independent School students have. She is a strong math student in class. The curriculum in the Bellevue School District is completely inadequate.
Math education needs to be streamlined and with a curriculum that builds upon itself and repeats concepts so students can solidify their knowledge and be confident enough to tackle bigger & bigger problems. In Bellevue District we skim the surface in math, teaching different techniques to solve simple problems, while never getting students solid enough in a few KEY techniques then moving on to bigger problems. The students don’t develop a strong solid core to draw from & build upon.
My son is proficient in math, so I haven’t really thought a lot about the curriculum. But this survey makes me wonder if there is a general lacking within the Bellevue school district.
For all 3 kids we have used KUMON as a supplement to the math curriculum (1996 -2003) during their elementary years, but this is a while ago. So cannot say if that would still be needed at the moment. It was definitely necessary then, and we do not regret having used KUMON additional (although the cost is high). I still recommend it to parents if they are in doubt about the math curriculum. I also doubt my kids would have been as capable with math as they are now - specially fractions were very helpful.
The Terc math program is only for the Wasl. Wasl testing is only one measure of ability. “The Real math is truly missing. These children will really pay the price.
My daughter was doing terribly in math and feeling that she hated it. When her teacher suggested one hour before school of “math enrichment” three mornings a week that was the last straw for me. We took our daughter out of school and began home schooling. We also enrolled her in Kumon. She loves home schooling. And while she doesn’t love Kumon math, she does it cheerfully every day, and she is making great progress. By the way, although she is in fourth grade, she was assessed in at the first grade level in Kumon.
My daughter has always been very comfortable in math. She was bored and not challenged, so I started having her do Math U See at home, which she loved. She participated in Math Olympiad in fifth grade, and did very well. Then she tested into the lower math class at Tillicum for some reason, and they recommended that she take 6th grade math this year, while many of her friends took 7th grade math. And she was bored, saying that everything she learned in math was stuff she’d covered in math Olympiad. So she continued to do Math U See at home. When I took my other daughter out of Puesta del Sol for math-related concerns, my sixth grade daughter wanted to home school also. Now she goes racing through the Math U See workbooks and loves working at her own pace. If math in the Bellevue schools hadn’t been such a disappointment for both my daughters, we probably would not be home schooling today. I’m glad we are now, though, and we all love it.
We have been so frustrated with the math curriculum in the BSD and our principal, who is in denial that there is a real problem in our school (Somerset) that we are sending our child to private school next year. The only way our child has been able to get a decent education in math is through supplementation in math.
I know the intent is to have the kids excel. I feel there is not enough time and homework devoted to math.
Our son does not receive enough math homework. There should be daily math drills to reinforce what he is learning at school. We use Kumon because they do provide the daily math drills that the school should be providing. It’s about 10 minutes per day, seven days per week, and it is well worth it. Also, students should have a math textbook. Without a textbook they are not able to go back and review material they have forgotten or are having trouble with.
The Terc method is ineffective for students that do not know the basics. Terc teaches shortcuts and matrices that intelligent people work out to help themselves. However, these same people learned the basics first. There is a reason that math has been taught the same way for hundreds of years - because it works. The “new math” of the sixties was soon abandoned when it was found lacking and colleges for poor math skills in college entrants have already blamed Terc. We would rather our child learn traditional math first.
For us, the math program is not challenging enough. I would like to see more advanced math available at all grade levels.
I am happy to say that this year at Puesta del Sol, we have begun to see additions to the math curriculum such as vertical addition and subtraction, and memorization of times tables—perhaps a result of pressure from concerned parents and lower than expected performance on the WASL. At any rate, it has relieved some of my concerns about the math program.
Hello and thank you. I found some of the questions kind of all or nothing to answer where there is some gray area to explain…for example, I volunteer in the classroom, but not only to learn about math. I just like to help my children’s teachers and my chil

Where’s The Math?

Parents & Educators for a World-Class Math Education For Washington State Students.

Bellevue school board to vote on new elementary math curriculum

Math candidates Murphy and Carlson win Eastside School Board races

Math debate tops issues in Bellevue School District race

Bellevue School Board candidates debate curriculum

Parents comment on TERC Investigations in the Bellevue School District