Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 12:58     Subject: Re:92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:Damn straight! Exactly what's going on. Math teachers have been hit or miss all my life, clearly we're not going to find enough good teachers, but at least there were books. Now, they've taken those away.


OR - to be a contrarian for a second:

I didn't know that all of a sudden the vast resources of the internet were "poof" gone. Youtube videos, serious, in-depth explanations - all available at the touch of a button - and not reliant upon out-dated textbooks that just end up being landfill...
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 12:50     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Go read the thread on tutors. So many families supplement because 2.0 super sucks.


Search on DCUM for threads about math tutors before 2.0. There were plenty.


My kids were in MCPS elementary math before 2.0. I would not call it traditional math by any means. For one thing calculator usage was emphasized. For another, they were expected to explain their work in prose. While I agree it is important to make sure that kids understand where an answer comes from, mathematics has its own language that they need to learn. The single math test I saw in elementary had a problem where the student could use a calculator to get the wrong answer but still get partial credit for explaining how they got their answer, "I used a calculator."

The curriculum seemed to be developed by curriculum specialists using their ideas of how to educate rather than by mathematicians who were thinking of how to develop a solid mathematical foundation. It leap-frogged from one topic to another not allowing students to make connections (place value to geometry to statistics). The focus seemed to be on having students discover mathematic principles for themselves rather than through instruction by the teacher. It used a spiral approach covering the subject slughtly deeper each year (one year students covered value to 100, the next year to 1000, the next year to 10,000, etc.) I think this philosophy was intended to deepen understanding and if a child didn't understand something one year, they would be exposed to it again later.

My recollection is that MCPS was no timelier in getting revisions to teachers back then than they are now.

Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 12:19     Subject: Re:92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Damn straight! Exactly what's going on. Math teachers have been hit or miss all my life, clearly we're not going to find enough good teachers, but at least there were books. Now, they've taken those away.


This. I am so frustrated with the lack of text books. We live in one of the wealthiest counties in the entire United States, and no damn text books in 6th grade. Really?!!!

I think my DD is a similar math student to me. I was a good math student, actually quite good by the standards of the day (AP Calc senior year). But I always had to work at math. It did not come easily to me. I needed to do lots and lots and lots of practice problems to get comfortable/confident with the concept. The only way I knew to study for a test was: get out my text book. Not every single problem had been assigned as HW. Do the problems that I hadn't done for HW and check the answer in the back of the book. Repeat until I understood the concept and could answer easily.

DD has had some difficulty quickly grasping concepts this year (she is in an IM math class with 35 students). She is told: it's on her to figure out that she needs to see her teacher at STTAR for "re-teaching" and she should study her "notes" from class for quizzes and assessments. If she gets problems wrong on an assessment, she should "study" those same problems, then take a re-assessment. Sorry, I don't think studying math "notes" or a solved math problem is the answer and I don't think it's realistic to expect an 11 year old to have the self-awareness/confidence to know that because she didn't grasp every concept immediately in class she needs to go to STTAR for re-teaching. I think she needs a damn textbook to provide her with the opportunity to do many, many more practice problems, and the light bulb will go on.

We have not gone the route of a tutor (yet) but we are now starting to supplement at home with Khan Academy. (Which by the way, seems to teach the "old fashioned" way, as far as I can tell!)



Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 12:15     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:Wiley Bates Middle School in Annapolis is known for its performing and visual arts magnet program, but the school has now scored big points for how well students performed on the PARCC high school level Algebra one test.

"It's pretty much what I would say is the old-fashioned Algebra," teacher Kristi Giuliano said.

At Bates, 92.2 percent of students scored in the 4 and 5 category, with 5 being the very best and 4 considered meeting expectations. The school's Algebra 1 teacher said success is not accidental.

"I do a lot of redo assessments. They do daily quizzes. They appreciate that feedback and its skilled-based learning so that's what we do," math teacher Kristi Giuliano said.

http://www.wbaltv.com/education/maryland-district-specific-parcc-test-scores-released/36284126

Watch the video, she is actually WRITING on a white board as opposed it using a Promethian board to flash up problems and answers.

MCPS should take notice, this is how to get kids to do well in math. Go back to basic teaching!


Bates is actually a really interesting model and I think more attention should be paid to the magnet programs in AACPS.
Students inbound for Bates are primarily poor minority students, with a very high percentage of ESOL students compared to most of the school district. It was a really rough school in the not-too-distant past. Then in 2009 they put the first performing and visual arts magnet in the school. That attracted a lot of white, upper middle class students who lived in Annapolis and typically went to private schools as well as kids from other parts of Anne Arundel. The cynical view is that the school district just wanted to improve average test scores at Bates. And they certainly did that. But they also totally changed the dynamic at the school. Suddenly you have involved parents and engaged kids. Classrooms with students who are modeling expected behavior. Teachers with elevated expectations of what middle school kids can do. And this worked to benefit ALL the children. Walking into that building now is really an exciting place to be. There's a positive energy and a lot of really awesome things happening. Certainly it hasn't been a panacea. There are still too many poor, minority, ESOL kids who are failing. The top classes are over-representative of the magnet students and the bottom classes are over representative of the poorest students.
But it's not like Annapolis HS where the IB kids and the local kids barely even interact, and all the magnet program did was to effectively add a second school in the same building. The introduction of the magnet program really changed Bates at a fundamental level.

I don't know as much about the Annapolis Middle School IB magnet program, but from what I hear it's been reasonably successful too.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 11:27     Subject: Re:92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Damn straight! Exactly what's going on. Math teachers have been hit or miss all my life, clearly we're not going to find enough good teachers, but at least there were books. Now, they've taken those away.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 10:37     Subject: Re:92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:
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


^^^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.


Amen!!!!
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 10:01     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Spot on, pp!
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:51     Subject: Re:92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
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


^^^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.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:35     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Mcps spin-formation.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:31     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:
Exactly but then it will be a new change somewhere else. It is obvious they got rid of finals because of the constant decline in scores.

They got rid of the math final exams because people were complaining about the abundance of exams. So much misinformation going around... sheesh.

http://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/staff-bulletin/mcps-voices-on-final-exams-and-assessment-strategy/

"In response to school and community interest in reducing testing and increasing instructional time, MCPS is revising its assessment strategy. This new assessment strategy has been endorsed by the Montgomery County Board of Education and includes a plan to eliminate all two-hour semester final exams in high school courses beginning in 2016–2017, restoring at least two weeks of instructional time throughout the school year. These exams would be replaced with centrally developed marking period assessments, which can be given during regular class periods."
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:30     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:UK and Canada have universal healthcare. UK has social safety net for housing. Which of those countries is dealing with the issues we struggle with in post-racial America? Did those countries subject AAs to segregation? How about a war on drugs and the mass incarceration of AA men, creating generations of fatherless children?

By the way, is the achievement gap limited to math? I don't think so.


Are you kidding me? Give me a break lady. Do the crime, you do the time.


Oh, sweetie...

The war on drugs was a misguided failure. Locking up addicts or those with
a joint only resulted in mass incarceration of low income minorities, creating generations of kids with the deck stacked against them. Guess what? Criminal justice reform is on the horizon given bipartisan efforts on the hill who recognize the data proves that the war on drugs failed.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:27     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:UK and Canada have universal healthcare. UK has social safety net for housing. Which of those countries is dealing with the issues we struggle with in post-racial America? Did those countries subject AAs to segregation? How about a war on drugs and the mass incarceration of AA men, creating generations of fatherless children?

By the way, is the achievement gap limited to math? I don't think so.


Yes, the US has a lack of universal health care, a social safety net with gaping holes, and an enormous prisoner population.

What the US also has: a history of ineffective math education.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:26     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Why have test scores gone down in MCPS in the last 2-3yrs, in all levels?


Because the test was designed for different standards and a different curriculum.

+1
2.0 was implement three years ago. PARCC was given to all students *this year*. The past two years, they were still taking MSAs. MCPS stated that they were not even going to look at the MSA scores last year because they knew it didn't mean much given that the curriculum had changed.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:25     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Go read the thread on tutors. So many families supplement because 2.0 super sucks.


Search on DCUM for threads about math tutors before 2.0. There were plenty.


In elementary school? I don't think so.

Go read the parcc data. Check out the algebra data.


Think again.

Also, the PARCC data may show many things, but one thing they certainly do not show is that math under Curriculum 2.0 is less effective than under the previous curriculum. It is not possible for the PARCC data to show that.


They'll give it another year or so, then they won't have any excuses.


Exactly but then it will be a new change somewhere else. It is obvious they got rid of finals because of the constant decline in scores.


They didn't get rid of finals. They got rid of end-of-semester final exams designed by the central office and administered during a separate finals period.

There is no evidence of a "constant decline" in final-exam scores.
Anonymous
Post 12/09/2015 09:23     Subject: 92% in 4 to 5 in Algebra 1 - teacher attributes success to "old-fashioned" algebra
Anonymous wrote:

Why have test scores gone down in MCPS in the last 2-3yrs, in all levels?


Because the test was designed for different standards and a different curriculum.