Why are MoCo kids failing math exams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids, now in HS and college, have all been very strong math students; the oldest was a math major and is now teaching middle school math, the second, also a math major, has tutored high school students, and the youngest is a peer tutor at her school. Their response to the claim that students don't study hard enough for the exam is is interesting: "You really can't study for a math exam -- if you don't know the material by then, it's too late. The way to excel in math is to master the material as you cover it. Students who are struggling should seek help along the way, and teachers should know which students need additional instruction and practice long before you get to the final." Furthermore, they agree that too many MCPS students manage to stay on the accelerated track for years only with the support of extensive tutoring.

PREACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One problem is that the math teachers aren't math experts. How many math teachers in MCPS were math majors in school. Not many. Most were "education" majors - a joke.

You nailed it! These teachers memorize concepts and try to regurgitate what they've memorized as teaching. Most of them barely understand what they are teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids, now in HS and college, have all been very strong math students; the oldest was a math major and is now teaching middle school math, the second, also a math major, has tutored high school students, and the youngest is a peer tutor at her school. Their response to the claim that students don't study hard enough for the exam is is interesting: "You really can't study for a math exam -- if you don't know the material by then, it's too late. The way to excel in math is to master the material as you cover it. Students who are struggling should seek help along the way, and teachers should know which students need additional instruction and practice long before you get to the final." Furthermore, they agree that too many MCPS students manage to stay on the accelerated track for years only with the support of extensive tutoring.

+1. I support the idea that Math is not a subject that we could learn in 7 days. I am curious why extensive tutoring worked before but not on these courses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers say blame the kids

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/many-teachers-blame-students-study-habits-for-montgomery-county-math-failures/2014/02/05/7151419c-7f82-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html

blame mcps

[Anonymous]

Teachers will always blame the dumb kids sometimes forgetting they were once dumb kids and that's why they are teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers will always blame the dumb kids sometimes forgetting they were once dumb kids and that's why they are teachers.

Do you convey this attitude about your kid's teachers to your kid?

[Anonymous]

No

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers will always blame the dumb kids sometimes forgetting they were once dumb kids and that's why they are teachers.

And sometimes kids are stupid and deserve to fail. I got some bad grades in HS and this continued for awhile in college. Trust me, the majority of the blame did not belong with the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers will always blame the dumb kids sometimes forgetting they were once dumb kids and that's why they are teachers.

Valedictorian, Ivy league educated, now teach public school.

Please don't stereotype.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math failure is due to incompetent teachers. End story.

+10000000000000000
Some MCPS teachers don't have a math background and try to teach Algebra I. It is a travesty that MCPS needs to address. Mr. "I have my foot out of the door" Starr needs to stop pandering to the unions and address the teacher incompetence issue.

Agreed! My DD is struggling in Algebra 1 big time. I have spent hundreds upon hundreds on tutors - one who is specialized is MoCo math. I gave him access to DD's Edline account so he could see the content of upcoming tests. He has commented more than once on how fast they are moving thru the curriculum with little review time and that they are covering a lot of A2 content in A1 without the foundations being in place so these kids are lost!

[Anonymous]

MCPS sux at teaching math. Here are some problems I've observed.

A middle school teacher told me there are not enough textbooks for all the students....!!!

The county requires teachers use their tests and they apparently don't correspond to what the teachers teach. They do not send county tests home (not allowed LOL) so you have to set up a meeting to get feedback and help your children understand where they fell short. No feedback??!!!

They waste way too much time year after year on pointless concepts like stem and leaf plots. Nobody uses these! If ever anyone would need to (I did briefly in grad school) you can learn it in 5 minutes. They take precious time away from teaching basic arithmetic skills to teach this nonsense year after year after year.

They do not teach or drill basic arithmetic. Parents are told to do this at home. Insanity.

My child's teacher teaches by downloading random worksheets free from the internet. There is no progression of difficulty, so some are easy, some are hard, since they are from different sources and not part of a single vision for teaching a concept from start to finish. That's why I would prefer a good old fashioned text book. There is not enough practice given to master anything due to incessant testing.

They don't know what they are doing. They tried to teach ALGEBRA to my 4th grader. Figure out what x is:
420-x=400.
My kid was confused so I asked the teacher to clarify how she was teaching this so I wouldn't confuse my kid further with a different approach. I asked, "Are you teaching them to isolate x on one side of the equation?" Answer: "No, they are not ready for that yet. We are just teaching them to memorize that they should subtract the smaller number from the larger." They teach it like it's a game with arbitrary rules. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They don't know what they are doing. They tried to teach ALGEBRA to my 4th grader. Figure out what x is:
420-x=400.
My kid was confused so I asked the teacher to clarify how she was teaching this so I wouldn't confuse my kid further with a different approach. I asked, "Are you teaching them to isolate x on one side of the equation?" Answer: "No, they are not ready for that yet. We are just teaching them to memorize that they should subtract the smaller number from the larger." They teach it like it's a game with arbitrary rules. Ridiculous.

Singapore Math has this kind of problem for first-graders. (With smaller numbers, obviously.) And my 5-year-old was able to understand it.

If that was the teacher's explanation, then yes, that explanation is ridiculous. But expecting a fourth grader to be able to understand that if 420 minus some number is 400, then that number is 20 -- that's not ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS sux at teaching math. Here are some problems I've observed.

A middle school teacher told me there are not enough textbooks for all the students....!!!

The county requires teachers use their tests and they apparently don't correspond to what the teachers teach. They do not send county tests home (not allowed LOL) so you have to set up a meeting to get feedback and help your children understand where they fell short. No feedback??!!!

Agree with this. Tests/quizzes should be sent home. Why do they need to be kept secret in a test bank? Why would it be so onerous for the central office to tweak the exam from year to year?

[Anonymous]

Yes that was the teacher's explanation and that is what was ridiculous. If they want to teach algebra to 4th graders AND teach is properly, fine. If elem teachers are not prepared to do this, I would prefer they save algebra for later. I don't want my child confused with "math magic" or have his future math learning be fucked up by someone who doesn't understand what they are doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes that was the teacher's explanation and that is what was ridiculous. If they want to teach algebra to 4th graders AND teach is properly, fine. If elem teachers are not prepared to do this, I would prefer they save algebra for later. I don't want my child confused with "math magic" or have his future math learning be fucked up by someone who doesn't understand what they are doing.

No, this is not "math magic". This is not fucking up your child's future math learning. This is teaching your child basic number sense. Which is very important for your child's future math learning.