Dear Dr. Kimball,
We appreciate the fact that you are taking measures to improve computational fluency next year. However, that is only one of several concerns we have with TERC and Connected Math. As we mentioned in our previous letters, it disturbs us enormously that students are not taught standard algorithms to mastery, and encouraged to apply them in solving a wide range of problems. Instead, much time is spent in seeking their own problem solving strategies in groups, without the basic skills that might make this worthwhile.
We know that some/many students easily lose interest and allow others to do the work. Frequently the strategies are too problem specific, and students do not develop abstract problem solving abilities that can be broadly applied or built upon. None of this leads to deeper conceptual understanding, as claimed. In fact, it is prolonging a rolling crisis in education that continues to hold our children back.
You state that research shows it’s better for students to have a consistent, guaranteed curriculum. This can only be the case if it is consistently guaranteed to advance students in overall math proficiency. A large number of parents who signed the letters we have submitted are professionals in math-intensive fields such as engineering, research and computer sciences. We know that these reform curricula are guaranteed not to give our children the math skills they need to continue their education in any math-intensive fields of study. They are blatantly flawed and deficient in ways that we have already described.
Rather than devoting the resources of our district to educating parents who are already highly educated, consider listening to us very closely. We are already doing everything we can to make up for the deficiencies of the district math programs. We have been doing this for years. Consider opening up this process and including us in solving the problems of math education that we all know are dire.
This is excerpted from a June 21 news story in The Tri-City Herald concerning immigration reform:
“It’s our top legislative priority,”
said Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft’s lead lobbyist in Washington, D.C.
For the high tech industry, it’s about attracting the “best and the brightest” from overseas as the U.S. educational system struggles to produce graduates skilled in math and science.
Microsoft has 3,000 U.S. job openings that it can’t fill because it can’t find qualified people or can’t hire them from overseas because of existing immigration restrictions, Krumholtz said.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/8947160p-8847150c.html
The outsourcing of math and science work is old news, and anyone living and working in this area knows that Microsoft and other companies hire largely from the top math-performing countries in the world. When we see the way math is taught in our district’s schools we know our children will not stand a chance of employment in these companies. We compare the district reform math curricula to those that are designed by the highest performing math country (Singapore) or to meet those standards (Saxon), and it’s clear why our children are so far behind their international peers, without the possibility of catching up unless we provide them with massive tutoring. In fact, they are not being prepared for most careers, including business, marketing, construction and retail.
You state that math will not be taught here as it was 20 years ago. We hope you are not implying that Saxon and Singapore curricula are outmoded approaches. By international standards they are far more progressive than the curricula currently in use in our district. There is no doubt that they are consistently preparing students for future study and careers in math-intensive fields that drive the global economy. On the other hand, the reform curricula are keeping our children far behind.
We understand the financial restraints on the district and your reasons for waiting for the outcome of the state review process before acquiring new curricula. However, in our first letter we suggested that the Scott Forseman books be brought back into the classroom. This would cost the district nothing, and would give teachers a way to teach standard math skills and algorithms to students who learn better with a direct approach. This is a simple solution that you have also denied.
It is disturbing to us that you are so rigidly committed to the deeply flawed reform curricula that you won’t allow teachers or students any flexibility. Teachers are now only allowed to teach in one way, and students can only learn in one way. This rules out all possible solutions to the very serious problems voiced by hundreds of parents in this district. These problems will not be solved by adding ten minutes of computational work to 50 minutes of teaching that confuses and frustrates students who would otherwise do well in math.
For the sake of our children we urge you to put the Scott Foresman books back in all classrooms this September, and allow teachers to use them at their discretion. Meanwhile we will do whatever is necessary to be sure our children receive the quality math education we want for them.
Sincerely,
LWSD Where’s the Math Parents
