Schools on front lines of ‘math wars’
Some parents say a new math program for Spokane high school students doesn’t add up.
Spokane Public Schools joined the “math wars” last month, when the school board adopted Core-Plus Mathematics, a new curriculum for students in grades nine through 12.
It’s a battle playing out all over the country as districts look to boost test scores and bring students up to “standard” in the wake of federal mandates and provisions under the No Child Left Behind Act. The law set the goal of having every child proficient in reading and math by 2014.
As states struggle to get kids to that goal, districts have adopted what is known as reform mathematics; math programs that emphasize problem-solving and critical thinking applied to everyday situations. It replaces traditional math courses such as algebra, geometry and trigonometry.
On the other side are parents, mathematicians, some college professors and teachers who say the “new” math lacks the basics.
“It doesn’t teach kids basic algebraic manipulations,” said parent Deanna Mosman, a member of Parents for Math Matters, a group pushing to bring back traditional math to Spokane schools.
Mosman’s group said the Core-Plus program, also known as Contemporary Mathematics in Context, lacks rigor and doesn’t prepare teens for college entrance exams, college courses or math-based careers such as engineering.
“Parents and students need to be aware that because of this math, many doors just closed for them,” Mosman said.
‘Setting the framework’
But Spokane Public Schools and education officials in other cities where math reform has taken root have a different viewpoint.
They point to studies that show American high-school students lag in math, causing the outsourcing of jobs in technology, science and math. American students also take more remedial math courses in college, showing that traditional math isn’t working, the math reformers say.
“What we’re doing is setting the framework for understanding mathematics,” said Karin Short, executive director for instructional programs for Spokane Public Schools. “I bet if you asked 15 to 18 people on the street, they would say they just don’t do math. You could have the same interview about reading, and none would say they don’t read. They recognize literacy as an important piece of our society. We say mathematics is that new civil right.”
Reform mathematics has been taught in Spokane Public Schools in all grades for the past five years. Elementary students use a program called Math Investigations, and middle-school students use Connected Math. The current high-school curriculum is called Integrated Math.
New methods
The new math is inquiry-based, where a question is posed and the student must figure out how to solve it. Usually this is done in groups, and quite a bit of writing is involved. The algorithm is learned later, after the students understand the critical math concept. The traditional way of teaching math focused on algo-rithms first, then memorizing and practicing problems.
With integrated math programs, basic math skills are taught in a spiral, in which a student may learn statistics one week and then come back to that later, instead of spending an entire block of time practicing that concept.
This unfamiliar method of teaching is what concerns parents most. And while most teachers are embracing the new methods, some also have concerns.
“My biggest problem with it is that the kids are coming to me without knowing algorithms,” said Kitt Fleming, a teacher at Balboa Elementary School. “I’m talking about fifth-graders counting on their fingers.”
Parent Sherrie Stradley worries that while her daughter maintains good grades, she still can’t do basic math. She blames the new math curriculum.
“I’ve got a seventh-grader who is getting a B, but she can’t figure sales tax,” Stradley said.
Preparing for WASL
The integrated math does nothing but prepare kids for Washington Assessment of Student Learning, also known as the WASL, parents including Stradley said.
Indeed, the curriculum is designed for kindergarten through grade 10 as a tool to help kids with the WASL. This year’s class of sophomores must pass the test to graduate.
“We are under more obligation for accountability,” Short said. “We can’t ignore that.”
The state set specific learning requirements for each grade level, and the WASL is an assessment of those requirements, she said.
The current math materials being used in Spokane Public Schools align with about 30 percent to 40 percent of those learning goals, while Core-Plus aligns with about 77 percent of the standards, district officials found.
“I feel totally confident that this will meet the needs of every student,” said Kristine Lindeblad, secondary mathematics coordinator for Spokane and a member of the committee that recommended Core-Plus. “I wouldn’t agree to it otherwise.”
Central Valley School District has used Core-Plus Mathematics at both of its high schools since 2002. The 10th-grade WASL scores for math increased 10 percentage points in one year.
Core-Plus also is used in the Bellevue (Wash.) School District, where more than 70 percent of students are meeting standards in math. The state average is 47 percent. The number of Bellevue students enrolling in pre-calculus also rose about 40 percent.
College concerns
But opponents of the math program say students do not perform well in college-level math, an entirely different problem.
Professors from Whitworth and Gonzaga University have publicly criticized Spokane’s decision to use the curriculum, which was created by professors from Western Michigan University with funding from the National Science Foundation.
“I am seeing students who really struggle with classes like calculus and pre-calculus at the university level because they lack the algebra skills. … I’ve got kids who come from schools using Core-Plus who are angry,” said professor Shannon Overbay of Gonzaga. “These programs don’t emphasize algebra, and students really, really need that.”
She said some students with poor algebra skills are turned away from technical careers and majors in engineering, math, computer science and physics.
“These are often students who did well in math classes in high school,” Overbay said. “But the problem wasn’t their grade. They weren’t learning what they needed.”
Overbay was one of three professors from the private colleges who attended a Spokane Public Schools board meeting and urged members to reconsider offering only Core-Plus to students.
“I think the goal is not to completely cut down Core-Plus,” Overbay said. “There are students for which traditional math has served well over the years, and I think these students and their parents just want to have options.”
Parents in the Nine Mile School District protested four years ago when the district approved Core-Plus at Lakeside High School. Board members ultimately decided that both traditional and Core-Plus math tracks should be offered.
While Core-Plus will be the only math available for ninth- and 10-graders, traditional classes in pre-calculus, advanced placement statistics and advanced placement calculus still will be offered in Spokane Public Schools. Students also will be required to take three years of math instead of two, and they will be encouraged to take four – all the way through calculus – in preparation for college.
Spokane education officials acknowledged there is a difference in what the high schools are required to prepare students for and what colleges and universities are teaching. This also includes the way college entrance exams are administered.
The district is working to align the courses taken by high school juniors and seniors with college readiness standards through the Transitional Math Project, a consortium of education officials from Washington high schools and colleges.
But private universities such as Gonzaga have not yet been a part of that conversation, Short said.
“We would be irresponsible if we didn’t prepare kids and encourage them to go on to college,” Short said. “We want our kids to graduate, and we want them to have more math than the WASL or any other measure indicates.”