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Schools look to improve math instruction
Fractions, algebra keys to graduation
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The report
Read the National Mathematics Advisory Panel Releases Final Report
Full PDF document »
Math boosters
Key findings of the National Math Advisory Panel's report include:
• A suggestion that publishers should produce shorter, more focused math textbooks.
• A belief that children cannot learn certain content because they are "too young" or "not ready" has consistently been proven false.
• Conceptual understanding, computational and procedural fluency, and problem-solving skills are equally important and mutually reinforce each other.
• More students should be prepared for and offered an algebra course in the eighth grade.
• More rigorous research should be conducted in mathematics education.
STORY TOOLS 
More from EducationSeveral dozen students grappled with splitting an apple recently inside a third-grade classroom at University School in Thousand Oaks.
If Emily had three apples, cut one in half and ate one of the halves, how many apples were left?
"Two-and-a-half, or five halves," the students calculated, mastering their lesson on fractions — a subject experts say can cost students a diploma or college education if they fall behind.
High school graduates need solid math skills, whether headed to college or the work force, to compete in the 21st century global economy, according to a panel of mathematicians, psychologists and educators. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel, commissioned by President Bush to advance the teaching and learning of math, released a report this month with 45 findings and recommendations. They range from pushing for states to focus more on basics, such as fractions, to calling on publishers to improve textbooks.
As districts throughout Ventura County and the rest of California consider adopting new math textbooks this year, teachers and administrators also are focused on strengthening math instruction in local schools. They said they look for books that match state standards, benefit students with a variety of skill levels, work for both beginning and veteran teachers, and more.
Foundation in math needed
"It has been a long time coming," Micheline Miglis, program improvement administrator in the Oxnard School District, said of the new books. The K-8 district's current math books are fine, but now teachers are getting a chance to upgrade, including finding books that provide more consistency among different grade levels, Miglis said.
District officials want to give students the foundation they need to make it to college, she said. The key is success in algebra, which is linked to both higher graduation rates and college admissions, panel members reported.
Average math scores on a variety of tests, however, drop around middle school, when algebra coursework typically begins. That led the panel to focus on what happens before students get to that point.
Members reviewed 16,000 studies and heard testimony from 200 individuals and 150 organizations.
Fractions are the most important basic skill that students aren't learning, the panel concluded.
"There is, I think, a tendency in American curricula to cover too many things too shallowly," Larry Faulkner, the panel's chairman and a former president of the University of Texas, said at a briefing after the release. That could cause basic skills such as fractions to get lost.
Along with streamlining math curriculum, the panel asked educators to put to rest a long debate over how students should learn math, saying children need to learn basic math skills, including some memorization, and the theories behind math problems — not one or the other.
Students also need to understand that hard work, not talent, helps students succeed in math, according to the panel. Too many people give up on math, resigned that they don't have the natural talent to do well.
"I think they have hit the nail right on the head in terms of almost everything they've said," said Victor Dorff, a math instructor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
He sees university students who lack basic arithmetic skills they should have picked up in elementary school, and some come to his classes convinced they cannot do math.
"Not being able to do math is accepted by our society as the norm," Dorff said — a belief "that shortchanges our children."
In teacher Janet Doman's third-grade classroom at University School, students found a lot of ways to split apples — one way she combats the myth that kids need to be talented at crunching numbers to do well in math.
Some might be better at puzzles, others do well crunching numbers and some might find it easier to use their hands to figure things out, she said. Everyone has different talents, Doman tells her students, and they can use any one of them to succeed in math.
In November, state officials signed off on a list of new math textbooks from which school districts can choose — a routine adoption process that happens every few years. Districts have dozens of teachers try out new books, sometimes from multiple publishers, before asking school boards to pick one.
Selecting math textbooks
This year, elementary schools have dozens of options to choose from, including California Everyday Mathematics, a new version of a sometimes controversial textbook, and Singapore Math, based on texts developed by Singapore's Ministry of Education.
In the past, districts such as Conejo Valley Unified had to get a state waiver to use Everyday Math because it wasn't on the list, but this year a new version made the cut. Conejo has been using Everyday Math for years at University and other schools.
The curriculum encourages reasoning over memorization. Proponents say it helps children understand math, and student test scores are going up as a result. Critics say it doesn't ensure that students get the basic math skills they need.
Conejo Valley plans to use the new version of Everyday Math next school year, and both the Simi Valley and Ventura school districts likely will try it, along with enVisionMath California, which also focuses on conceptual understanding and skill development.
Sherry Rosenberg, a math specialist in the Ventura Unified School District, said prior textbooks have come up short when it comes to problem-solving, but that's changing. This time, she said, everyone from teachers to publishers seems to have a better understanding of what's needed.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Posted by lawson_wayne on March 27, 2008 at 12:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How did they cut these apples in a classroom? Who smuggled the knife past the metal detectors? Call the police someone needs to be arrested. There ought to be a law against even talking about cutting innocent apples. The Star should post the link to the Environmental Impact Report.
Posted by aecusn on March 27, 2008 at 7:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
In 1970, as a veteran who returned to school and got a California teaching credential, I realized that the algebra math books were so bad that I took six classes worth of them, used them as supplementary texts and taught the "good old basics". Then came Modern Math!!!
Thirty eight years later the experts realized that the change for change, publish or perish mentality was Modern Crap.
If basics were continued to be taught, the disaster forced on students would have been averted and we could have saved all the trees in Brazil used for printing mish mash math.
I am a retired math teacher.
Posted by sue805 on March 27, 2008 at 9:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
to :aecusn right on... I am great at math and can't help my grandkids cause the changed it up so much. back to basics in the way to go. Get those kids to THINK.
Posted by is758 on March 27, 2008 at 10:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Everday Math is the worst thing to happen to Conejo's school district. Aside from poor teacher response, the introduction was horrible. It is a program that builds on previous years work, but when introduced, they slammed they upper grade kids with it - expecting them to have all the knowledge from growing up in the program. The results were disasterous. Our personal experience was an A student went to D or F grades and totally blew away a budding love of math... which lead to a deep aversion to it, along with distrust of and general dislike for school. I would strongly discourage any other school district from adopting this pathetic system.
Posted by jmcgaw3046 on March 27, 2008 at 10:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Bring back the old mulitplation flash card we used to have. In the second grade you knew how to multiply up to 12. Now days kids get out into the world and work at a place like Mcdonalds and don't know how to make change unless the register tell them how. They need to learn the basic of numbers, it will follow all through life. Computers are built on numbers, everything they do is built on numbers. Need to learn early, then they can be able to do the easy stuff like algerba. If you know your numbers the rest comes easy and there is no such thing as someone who can't learn numbers. They use it on the playground all the time in their games, baseball, football, basketball. so they can learn.
Posted by koolwhazzup on March 27, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Another bogus program from the "Academic Capitol
of Mediocrity"-Cal Lutheran!!
Posted by koolwhazzup on March 27, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Another bogus program from the "Academic Capitol
of Mediocrity"-Cal Lutheran!!
Posted by horsespinner on March 27, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
my fourth grader has "everyday math". The home work does not build upon the previous lessons. It skips around and teaches little, everyday. Math is not hard, learn a little, practice and build slowly upon the last lesson. Its easy as 1,2,3. Too bad school has not figured it out yet, they just change the presentation. The math has not changed in 1000's of years, only the teaching. = failure in California
Posted by TimeArrow on March 27, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
When "teachers" became "educators," wording that was changed at the administrator level, everything was downhill from there. Focus on the 3 R's, science and history and forget about feel good courses and we'll be on our way to improvements.
jmcgaw3046 surfaced a valid point. Students should first show that they can handle a particular category of calculation long hand before being allowed to use a calculator. If unable to handle a square root and old fashioned way, no calculator permitted.
Posted by ReadMyLipsNoNewTaxes on March 27, 2008 at 1:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Along the same lines, when did 'English' become 'Language Arts'?
Is teaching 'English' now considered racist?
Posted by conejoabc123 on March 27, 2008 at 1:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
aloparc where are you? More crapola from CVUSD.
Posted by rebel123 on March 27, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I have to laugh at the concept of teaching back to the basics math, especially when the suggestion of eliminating calculators comes up. Our kids today will be dealing with numbers in science, math and even accounting that are far beyond the "basics". The national debt is what, 13 figures now? Teach them how to use calculators correctly. Stop wasting time teaching long division and for the love of mike, when did knowing how to do square root by hand EVER come in handy? To use a graphing calculator you have to know the process and the functions. My kids were both taught some bizarre "guess and check" group method of doing algebra in Jr. High. Then when they got to trig in high school and had to know the actual method of solving problems, they were lost and I paid through the nose for private tutors to get them where they should have been two years earlier.
Posted by guy133 on March 27, 2008 at 4:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
And in other news: Water is wet.
Posted by aloparc on March 27, 2008 at 6:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"aloparc where are you? More crapola from CVUSD."
Sorry I' late to the party folks.
I had to go to the Santa Barbara Mission with my 4th grader.
Posted by aloparc on March 27, 2008 at 6:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Everyday Math (EM)is the number one reason CVUSD is suffering declining enrollment. (See my next post)
This article indicates that CA approved EM for classrooms last November but they failed to tell the whole story. The sad truth is that the state DOES NOT pay the mathematicians for their considerable time and effort to sit on these committees. They have been volunteering to do so with no compensation, and unfourtunately this round there were not enough pro traditionalists sitting on the panel which approved EM. The political reality is that the fuzzies have out lasted the mathematicians who have tried to keep crummy math programs out of CA classrooms.
While CVUSD would like to think they are teaching math a better way, many parents in the community think differently and have pulled their students out of the public schools.
Posted by aloparc on March 27, 2008 at 6:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CVUSD enrollment is declining because it uses a grossly inferior math curriculum, not because of a shift in demographics.
The National Center for Education Statistics indicates that K-5 aged children are projected to increase 9% through 2016. (See pg 5 of the pdf file - first paragraph)
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008060.pdf
Would any public school official ADMIT that declining enrollment is due to crummy academic programs implemented in the government run schools? Not likely, but the plain truth is that the converse of the old adage that parents flock to schools with outstanding programs is equally true.
In March of 2005 CVUSD had the highest enrollment figures it had ever obtained. Real Estate prices had peaked and were beginning to level off. (Note: all these kids are already living here). But by the fall of 2005 something changed drastically. Over 500 fewer k-5 students returned to CVUSD classrooms in the fall of 2005, according to Jeff Baarsted (enrollment dropped at ALL GRADE LEVELS). So what changed?
In March of 2005 parents went before the school board and asked to be given a choice for students to use traditional math instead of the “whole math” program called Everyday Math.
http://www.toacorn.com/News/2005/0324...
http://www.toacorn.com/News/2005/0331...
But the board rejected the parents request in May of 2005. By June of 2005 parents were writing to tell of their intentions to leave the district because of Everyday Math.
http://www.toacorn.com/news/2005/0602...
By Sept. 2005 over 500 fewer K-5 students returned to CVUSD classrooms - enough to close one school. (figures per Jeff Baarstad)
In the summer of 2006 the school board election again highlighted the district’s grossly inferior Everyday Math program along with the lagging API Similar Schools scores for CVUSD that are 40% dependent on student math achievement.
By the fall of 2006 an additional 400 K-5 CVUSD students left the district, enough to close a second school.
CVUSD uses a "whole math" program that does not teach the standard algorithms and does NOT require mastery of the basic fundamentals of mathematics to automaticity. CVUSD’s Everyday Math program is crippling the ability of many of our students to go into the fields of medicine, science, and engineering.
In an affluent community, any school district which refuses to provide the academic challenge its customers want, will find itself on the loosing end of that battle and suffering declining enrollment.
Raising taxes will not reverse declining enrollment, nor will it keep all of CVUSD schools open. The district continues to make poorly advised academic and financial decisions with little regard for the consequences.
EVERYDAY MATH = DECLINING ENROLLMENT = SCHOOL CLOSURES
CVUSD needs to reject Everyday Math this spring when it comes up for renewal.
Posted by aloparc on March 27, 2008 at 7:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The National Math Panel's findings state the following:
Core Principles of Math Instruction
http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/...
"The areas to be studied in mathematics from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade should be streamlined and a well-defined set of the most important topics should be emphasized in the early grades. Any approach that revisits topics year after year without bringing them to closure should be avoided."
By this measure Everyday Math does *not* provide the rigor that the NMP deems necessary for K-8 mathematics.
EM spirals around in an unorganized fashion, visiting the same topics year after year and does not require mastery of the subject matter at any particular grade level. In the words of the National Math panel, this type of program "should be avoided."
Posted by aloparc on March 27, 2008 at 7:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The School board will be voting in April on the math textbooks for use in CVUSD for the next 7 years.
Parents who want to save CVUSD schools from being closed need to come to the meeting to fight the renewal of Everyday Math. For more information about EM and constrctivist math visit the Save our Children from Mediocre Math web site at http://socmm.home.att.net
Lets hope the teachers vote for the Harcourt or MacMillan programs and save us from having to make the effort.
EVERYDAY MATH = DECLINING ENROLLMENT = SCHOOL CLOSURES
Posted by live_for_purpose on March 28, 2008 at midnight (Suggest removal)
I have taught high school math for over 20 years in both private and public schools in two different states. I believe in the basics. Students must be grounded in the basics. Then you must do problem solving in order to make it practical. Do problems from everyday life--figuring sales and income tax, figuring discounts, making business calculations to maximize profit, etc.
In about 1974 or so they were trying to teach me "new math" in third or fourth grade. I was having trouble with their method of doing long division. My high school dropout grandfather (who could do a ton of math in his head with no pencil or paper) and my high school graduate father said, "No, no. Do it this way." They then proceeded to show me the standard algorithm for long division. How much easier! Within a year or two the schools went back to the standard algorithms. Thank goodness!
There needs to be memorization in math--such as times tables and basic algorithms, etc.
There also needs to be application of technology such as calculators, graphing calculators, and computers--not as a substitute to basic conceptual understanding but rather as an enhancement. A calculator should not be a crutch. It should be an enhancement tool.
There also needs to be problem solving--to practice using math in the real world.
Unfortunately kids are lazy and a lot of people have a bad attitude about school in general and math in particular. When the educational system tries to teach math in fuzzy and questionable ways, the kids lose out all the more.
Posted by del on March 28, 2008 at 7:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
We are entirely too easy on our kids today. I recently heard of a school where kids were doing algebra in elementary school. Sorry, can't remember the specifics.
I agree with ol' L.L.
"Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable sub-human who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house."
Posted by conejoabc123 on March 28, 2008 at 10:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Teachers have voted and selected Everyday Math.
Reality:
The upper grade teachers did not want Everyday Math. The district's solution: a vote by secret ballot. Upper grade teachers, who are outnumbered by the primary grade teachers, lost. They were simply outnumbered. But as expected the brilliant CVUSD administration uses their "new math" to calculate the vote as support for Everyday Math.
The Board is only interested in getting parents to support a tax iniative.
Send a message. Everyday Math = No Tax Iniative Support
The Board will hear that message.
Tell the Board what you think about the continued adoption of Everyday Math and their desire to obtain more funds to support these programs.
Charter School, Private School or Home School, if you are a consumer or homeowner, you will pay for schools and programs you neither desire or support.
Posted by live_for_purpose on March 28, 2008 at 11:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Sometimes the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing the wrong way repeatedly.
Perhaps it is time the CVUSD takes a real hard look at this Everyday Math. I wonder what percent of parents oppose this Everyday Math versus what percent support it versus what percent doesn't know or care?
Conejoabc123--When you say "upper grades" teachers are you talking grades 5-8 or are you talking high school teachers. You should find out when they are selecting new math books and put pressure on. Some districts adopt new books and materials in specific subjects every 5-8 years. In other words, every once in a while they evaluate a bunch of potential materials and choose to stick with the current materials or adopt new ones. Every district has a schedule for this. Find out which year the new adoption takes place and get involved. It's the only way you can try to change things. You may fail, but at least you can try and fight for your convictions up there in the CVUSD.
Posted by Traditional on March 29, 2008 at 3:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So, how many of you have come to speak at the CVUSD Board? Until school closures got REALLY PERSONAL, you would hardly see a person there. How many of you voted for the incumbents (Stephens and Phelps) two years ago? There were two great new candidates who would have handled this so much better. But, it is difficult to get the word out. Can you all promise not to vote for the incumbents (Didio and Beaubien) this November? Can you hand out a few flyers for a new candidate? Can you come to a Board meeting and speak? "Everyday Math" is only one problem. Our "progressive" educrats in Sacramento have absolutely ruined CA schools in many other areas.
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