Basic Equations

Public Education Matters

2.9.10

Basic Equations

I just finished reading this interesting article http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/02/10/21algebra_ep.h29.html?tkn=SLWFswhOcFWGJUb0rHf44TMbUilBIcab%2F0J4&cmp=clp-edweek It is entitled 'Algebra-for-All' Push Found to Yield Poor Results.

I copied and pasted this title just to save typing time but then decided to leave the font bold on this blog.
The reason I’ve left if that way is in the hopes that any educational policymakers that might stumble across this blog might see it “loud" and clear.

The article speaks to the findings that it’s been folly for anyone to believe that simply expecting more of students yields higher scores and greater proficiency. You just can’t expect EVERY child who walks into a high school Algebra class, many years below grade level in Math, to succeed. And while I understand Arne Duncan’s (and Barak Obama’s) belief that too many children (because of their race or their income level or other arbitrary cause) have been the victims of low expectations by some educators, the truth of the matter is that Algebra is not within everyone’s ability to master. The further truth of the matter is that not everyone is a candidate for college, nor should we ever expect that.

And now it’s been found true, that this push (that started with Bush’s NCLB) to make every child the same and to succeed at the same rate and to the same heights is detrimental to just about everyone. It hurts the truly low ability children in that it rushes them past basic foundational math skills that they could learn- things like adding and subtracting, balancing a bank account, making change, measuring, and telling time. It hurts the high ability kids in that they are held back in their achievements because of the time it takes teachers to deal with the deficiencies that the lower functioning students have. It hurts the “middle” kids in that it ignores their needs too.

Anyway, my thoughts when I read this article ran along the lines of “DUH!” Yes, I know that’s an inarticulate way to state my feelings but really- it’s been such a long time since legislators and policymakers ever looked at real research that I’ve start to believe that they’ll never get it and I’ve started to have much lower expectations of them. I guess I’d almost given up on anyone ever seeing how much sense this all doesn’t make. I also suppose that I’m thinking “Seriously, I could have told you all this years and years ago without all the money being thrown away, but none of you would listen!”

My own state “led” by Tony Bennett (Indiana’s Superintendent of Public Schools) just considered a proposal to make every child who could not read at the third grade level at the end of the third grade to repeat the third grade. Really, they wasted legislative time on this. So maybe you can see why I might be moved to be a bit inarticulate in my reactions.

Now, do I believe in tracking? Tracking being the opposite end of the spectrum where students are put in tracks of classes according to measured ability? No, I do not. I just believe that we need to stop entertaining the ridiculous idea that all children have the same needs and will have the same outcomes. There is a way to teach elementary Math (or any subject) to all levels of students at the same time. There are ways to do that in Middle School as well. However when a child gets to High School, we need to realize that some children actually have need of advanced Math and some people just do not or will not. We need to start looking in terms of what each particular student’s career path might be. If a student makes the mistake of getting into a lower-laned track than he later decides is right for him, then what would be wrong with him going back to a Jr. College to gain those skills?

I don’t want to come across as saying we should dumb down our expectations of college requirements. That does sound really bad, doesn’t it? I don’t believe we should go there. However, I also think we need to be realistic that not all students who really deserve a high school diploma really need to master Algebra to graduate. We are simply not all going to be rocket scientists, cool as that would be, to live in a world full of only rocket scientists.

I’ll let you all know a little secret, that I’ve hidden fairly well all these years. I, myself, might be considered to have a learning disability in Math. I can read better than most people and I can write at a graduate level (when I wish to do so) and I can even do a fair amount of Geometry but I doubt very seriously that I’d have an easy time passing high school Algebra, let alone Algebra 2 for the second time in my life. The reason I passed way back in high school was because I had some fairly kind Math teachers who understood that my life wasn’t over because I couldn’t do Algebra very well. They understood, or at least believed, that the world would be a far better place if I were able to go to college, graduate, get a job, and pay my bills and my taxes than if I couldn’t. They didn’t have national and state laws saying they couldn’t do this back then.

Having said all that, I can’t be counted among the people who say they never use algebra in their jobs. Even while I don’t work in a Mathematics related field, I am quite surprised to find that I actually do use it. But that said, I also will say that whenever I have to, I do find ways to cope with the fact that I struggle with it.

However that still doesn’t mean that I could pass a test and my question to all of our policymakers is “What do you think is better- that I got my high school diploma and bachelor’s degree and master’s degree and went on to being an employed billpaying taxpayer or if I would have denied a high school diploma and would have never been able to go to college?”

I say let the college admissions tests weed out who can and can’t go to college, not the high school diploma. Again, my belief is that not everyone should or needs to go to college. Not everyone has the ability and not everyone has the need to go.

There are all kinds of jobs where one does not have to use Algebra- a great many, many jobs. I personally don’t care if my plumber or my grocer, the girl who cuts my hair, or my electrician can solve the first equation. I don’t really even care if the editor of my newspaper can solve one. I’m not even sure I care if my banker can solve one as long as she adds and subtracts well and can put the decimal point in the right place. I think they can all provide me the services I need from them without knowing what x is.

That said, I would wish that my legislators and our policy makers would know how to solve certain equations. Perhaps, rather than saying we need this ability for a high school diploma, we should just make mastery of Algebra a pre-requisite for public service or educational policymakers. That might weed out some people.