Reply to 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]To read about how Zuckerberg poured millions of dollars into fancy schools, uber teachers and technology in Newark...and it was a miserable failure. Why? Because it takes much more to close the achievement gap for low-income minorities. Again, duh!

The traditional math works well for most students. But kids being raised in abject poverty who aren't receiving the same attention and resources as your yuppie snowflake from infancy through school are going to lag behind. 2.0 won't fix that...unless 2.0 includes housing, food, stable parents, safe neighborhoods, and parents who value education and have the economic wherewithal and time to dedicate to teaching their children starting at toddlerhood. And universal pre-k...while nice...doesn't close the achievement gap either...see above for explanation related to complex human needs that must be met outside the classroom.

Signed,

Poverty Lawyer who understands the struggles of low-income families[/quote]

^^^This post is spot on.  I grew up slightly above the poverty line, with a foreign mother and an alcoholic father who literally drank himself to death.  There was no parent/nanny at my house when I returned from school, no one went to my parent-teacher conferences or even asked to see my report cards.  My requests for music lessons, Girl Scouts, dance lessons were not fulfilled due to money.  I had no mentor teacher at school.  I thought my teachers favored the kids from the richer families because their parents were actually involved in the school.

What I did have is a BOOK, so that I could figure things out on my own from the sample problems and a list of homework problems.  I did not want to embarrass myself by not having homework to go over in class in the next day, that was my motivator.

If I had this half-assed worksheet based education, without reference materials to bring home I would have failed.   There are too many different ways taught and  too much group work in this curriculum.  I went to the open house in our sweet W feeder elementary school and thought of the misbehavior we would have had in my economically disadvantaged school if we were allowed to work in groups like this on one problem for half the class period.

I have an advanced math degree.  In my opinion, a bunch of liberal arts majors that don't understand math have developed the MCPS math curriculum.  It's like they didn't "get" math so they are adding more verbiage, methods and group work because they think that would have helped them.  A big part of developing math understanding is just working problems and having good reference material at home.

To close the achievement gap, offer small group tutoring in school to the kids who are struggling and give them a good reference textbook to take home and some meaningful homework.  I've seen many kids who speak much better english than their parents, and whose parents didn't even graduate high school in their native countries.  
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Amen!!!![/quote]

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