Let's Talk Math

 A spate of stories from across the nation have crossed my Twitterfeed about math in middle school.

The first is from the NY Times:

The Algebra Problem: How Middle School Math Became a National Flashpoint

The dual pathways inspire some of the most fiery debates over equity and academic opportunity in American education.

Do bias and inequality keep Black and Latino children off the fast track? Should middle schools eliminate algebra to level the playing field? What if standout pupils lose the chance to challenge themselves?

The questions are so fraught because algebra functions as a crucial crossroads in the education system. Students who fail it are far less likely to graduate. Those who take it early can take calculus by 12th grade, giving them a potential edge when applying to elite universities and lifting them toward society’s most high-status and lucrative professions.

 But racial and economic gaps in math achievement are wide in the United States, and grew wider during the pandemic. In some states, nearly four in five poor children do not meet math standards.

Around a quarter of all students in the United States take algebra in middle school. But only about 12 percent of Black and Latino eighth graders do, compared with roughly 24 percent of white pupils, a federal report found.

“You have some kids who are ready for algebra in fourth grade, and they should not be denied it,” Mr. Noguera said. “Others are still struggling with arithmetic in high school, and they need support.”

Many schools are unequipped to teach children with disparate math skills in a single classroom. Some educators lack the training they need to help students who have fallen behind, while also challenging those working at grade level or beyond.

Most complete the course in their first year of high school. But top-achievers are sometimes allowed to enroll earlier, typically in eighth grade.

That section in bold? That's what I worry about with returning HCC students and Special Ed students to General Education classes. Do the teachers have the training and support?

What's happening nationwide?

To close those gaps, New York City’s previous mayor, Bill de Blasio, adopted a goal embraced by many districts elsewhere. Every middle school would offer algebra, and principals could opt to enroll all of their eighth graders in the class. San Francisco took an opposite approach: If some children could not reach algebra by middle school, no one would be allowed to take it.

San Francisco, dismantling middle-school algebra did little to end racial inequities among students in advanced math classes. After a huge public outcry, the district decided to reverse course.

In Cambridge, Mass., the school district phased out middle school algebra before the pandemic. But some argued that the move had backfired: Families who could afford to simply paid for their children to take accelerated math outside of school.

Elsewhere, many students lack options to take the class early: One of Philadelphia’s most prestigious high schools requires students to pass algebra before enrolling, preventing many low-income children from applying because they attend middle schools that do not offer the class.

“It’s the worst of all possible worlds for equity,” Jacob Barandes, a Cambridge parent, said at a school board meeting.

Smattering of comments from the article:

- Nobody would ever recommend that schools shouldn’t offer basketball or soccer or baseball in middle school because some kids aren’t coordinated. We need to treat academics the same: some kids have the ability to do “varsity” math, and some kids are JV level.

- I’m Black and my school offered algebra in 8th grade. However, the majority of my classmates were not ready to begin learning it. The teacher held the rest of our learning behind in order to catch the rest of the class up. It was detrimental, to say the least.

- The most crucially important teachers in a student's academic career are the parents; they lay the foundation for academic receptiveness. It takes a village and effective parenting, not just a governmental agency like a school district.

Yet another article from KQED about a district in Tulsa:

How one district has diversified its advanced math classes — without the controversy

Until recently, however, students in Union’s advanced math classes remained mostly white. The accelerated track in middle and high school drew mostly from elementary schools in affluent neighborhoods, where students tended to perform better on a pre-algebra placement test that they had one chance to take as fifth graders. But on a recent winter day, only two of Woodfin’s students identified as white and more than a third were still learning English.

The transformation of Woodfin’s class rosters represent more than a general shift in who attends Union schools, where today only one in four students is white. It’s also the result of a years-long campaign to identify and promote more students from underrepresented backgrounds into the district’s most challenging math courses.

The district, which overlaps part of Tulsa and its southeast suburbs, continues to track students into separate math classes beginning in sixth grade. But it has also added new ways beyond the one-time placement test for students to qualify for higher level math courses, and increased support — including in-school tutoring and longer class periods — for students who’ve shown promise in the subject.

“There are many Black and Latino students and students from low-income backgrounds who have demonstrated an aptitude and are yearning for more — yet they are systemically denied access to advanced math courses,” wrote the authors of a December 2023 report from nonprofits Education Trust and Just Equations. “This practice — and mindset — must change.” 

One reader in the Times article mentioned Bob Moses and his Algebra Project founded in the '80s.  

About Moses:

A MacArthur Foundation Fellow 1982-1987, he used his fellowship to begin the Algebra Project, which uses mathematics as organizing tool for quality education for all children in America. With support of the National Science Foundation the Algebra Project works with middle and high school students who previously performed in the lowest quartile on standardized exams, proposing that they attain a high school math benchmark: graduate on time in four years, ready to do college math for college credit.

About the program:

The Algebra Project utilizes a multi-pronged strategy to raise the floor of mathematics
literacy:

  • an experientially-based Five-Step Curricular Process that leverages students’ thinking,
  • curricular interventions in algebra, geometry, and other key content areas,
  • intensive teacher professional development programs and job embedded coaching,
  • community coalition building,
  • and research-based resources to support student and teacher success in the arena of K-12 mathematics.

The Algebra Project is uniquely situated to meet any school where they are, whatever their resources, and co-develop plans with local stakeholders so that interventions are uniquely tailored to their needs.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I have been banging the drum for better math instruction for many years now. Our sons struggled with high school math in SPS and I was part of a group called Where’s the Math? with engineer Rick Burke, who later served on the School Board. I believe our math instruction followed a national push from English majors like former Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Terry Bergesen. She loved the idea of word problems for math, which replaced direct instruction curricula.

Our sons could not follow story problems in math. They had A.D.H.D. and needed a more direct approach. I suspect SPS is full of students like our sons, who were lucky to benefit from private tutoring and went on to college and post graduate careers.

Seattle Public Schools, to my knowledge, has never tested different math curricula to see what works. They do not ask colleges what skills freshmen students lack or talk to businesses that hire students on vocational tracks. I have read the district in recent years tried a pilot math approach that focused on black leaders. That experiment did not teach math and had to be disbanded.

So here we are, with private schools increasing in popularity and public schools preparing to close. Math in SPS has been a sad story for many years. I suspect the solution will be found in lots of tutoring, different classes grouped by ability and a return to direct instruction math with sufficient practice to reach proficiency. But I am still waiting.

District Watcher
Anonymous said…
I believe that math is one of those subjects where teacher quality is paramount, and unfortunately a lot of elementary teachers are lacking - they don't like math themselves, and the attitude they show to their students is, "Math is really hard and scary, but you HAVE to learn it." Does UW still do their "Math for Love" program?

I took algebra in 8th grade many, many years ago (not in SPS) and was thrilled to after being bored out of my head doing the same most advanced elementary math for the previous four years. I liked the sports analogy in the article.

On a similar note, I just realized that Ballard HS has eliminated their Senior Honors Night, which they held as recently as 2021 when my older son graduated.

Ballard Mom
Anonymous said…
District Watcher,

You're 100% right. The district's math curriculum, EnVision, is so heavy on text and light on numbers, even in the earliest grades when kids are still learning to read. It's really terrible.

SPS Parent
Anonymous said…
Ballard Mom

You can see the disdain for the subject with the campaigns like “Math is Racist” we saw a few years back. Don’t excel at something? Trash it and morally undermine it. Questions about western culture and qualitative vs quantitative approaches are the stuff of sociology class, not math itself. Meanwhile, families that want to learn are not so quietly heading for the exits.

Sorry
Stuart J said…
Here are some suggestions of work-arounds. The first is hybrid home schooling, where students take a single class or a few classes, but don't exit entirely. Academy Northwest is a regional service provider. They are approved by the state to issue high school credits. You can choose the teacher, the location /online, the amount of support you want, then pay accordingly in a contract you set up.

Second, there's a math store at 89th and Roosevelt. It has been a long time since I've gone, but they have supplemental books. There are also home school supply stores or resources. A major difference from a district curriculum: in the home school market, it is a lot easier to switch if something isn't working. If a student needs a lot more manipulatives, or a lot more practice, or more application problems or whatever, there's a curriculum that will work.

Some publishers to look at: Math in Focus, a version of Singapore Math. It is not aligned with Common Core. The Gates-funded group called Ed Reports gives it a cursory look in a stage 1 review, but does not advance it because some topics are not presented in the year the designer of Common Core said the materials belong in.

Who do you trust more: the writers of Common Core, or the people who run one of the best math education systems in the world? That said, what your child needs may vary. What I do like about Math in Focus is they have books on mental math, they have books on practice from prior years, and they have specific books on word problems. (I learned of some of these resources because I was in a room once in the Highline District and the teacher had a door opened on a book shelf. I spotted the books and said 'what are those? where did they come from?' He said oh the district just kind of dumped them on us, no training, no time to use them, they would be great for advanced learners but there's not enough interest in ability grouping ... " I bit my lip.

Third, the amazing publisher Art of Problem Solving has an elementary resource called Beast Academy. I've not actually read the books, but AOPS in general is a great resource for pre Algebra and up. The questions are considerably more challenging than anything in Envison, the San Fransicko curriculum Highline uses, or most other materials published online or in print in the past 50 years. But if you somehow happen to have Algebra books written in the 60s and 70s by authors such as Dolciani and Foerster, those books are pretty good and then AOPS might be more than you need.

There are a lot of online resources. Some may work, some may not. Some will have printable worksheets for extra practice.

To close, it takes a lot of discipline to do more than the minimum, but I do think it can pay off. One of my favorite authors is Dr Barbara Oakley, a UW grad who's an engineering prof. She talks about her extreme challenges of overcoming a very poor foundation. Her writings and videos are worth a read/look.

Math skills open many doors. If I were China or Russia, and I wanted to kneecap America, I would push for math approaches currently used in many area districts.

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