Have you every wondered why your CCUSD elementary school child seems to be lacking in basic math skills? Ever wonder why there is such a huge disconnect between CSHS and the middle school in math? Ever shake your head and wonder why your first grader is doing math with a calculator?
The answer: Everyday Math
The great state of Texas has done something that CCUSD should do. Drop this piece of crap. There are many website devoted to enumerating the many failings of EM so I will not go into them here, but what the Texas Board of Education has done is stunning. Not only have they dropped EM, but the have blistered the program with studies identifying its specific failings. You can read some of these failings here. My favorite are these gems:
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Emphasis on mastery of computation skills in 3rd Grade Math Student and Teacher's Editions submitted for 2007 Texas SBOE approval
How often is ADDITION with regrouping tested after the initial test on it?
Everyday Math: Not Taught
How often is SUBTRACTION with regrouping tested after the initial test on it?
Everyday Math: 3 Times
When is MULTIPLICATION of 2 (or more) digits by 1 digit introduced?
Everyday Math: Not taught
How often is MULTIPLYING2 (or more) digits by 1 digitwith regrouping tested?
Everyday Math: Not taught
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NICE! If CCUSD really want to increase academic achievement the first place to start is with dumping Everyday Math.
Everyday Math is a complete nightmare. The basics are being taught, but outside of the EM curriculum. Absolutely horrible "math" curriculum. Hopefully the fascination will wear out soon, but I believe there is a stipulation that once a district signs on with EM, you have to keep it for a certain number of years.
ReplyDeleteWow. Your ignorance is amazing. Is it because YOU personally cannot do Everyday math? My children are excelling in math beyond their peers and my daughter has even overcome a fear of math and no longer stresses over her homework. Children are learning different strategies than we learned and are coming up with the answers much quicker than we could with our "old" ways.
ReplyDeleteGuess what? 99.9 percent of kids will never be a genious, no matter how much you shove it down their throats. Some children will never be good at math but they may be the world's best writers or artists-- creative people who make the world a more interesting place. Why don't you allow your children to be what they are and not what you want them to be?
Get over yourself and stop trying to do your child's homework or place them above their appropriate learning curve.
Hi qbad,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your post.
The problem with EM is not the focus on different strategies to solve a problem, the problem is that it expects no mastery.
As the comment above says, the basic have to taught outside of EM, since EM is so weak in this area.
In addition to Texas, California also forbids using EM as it is not a an adopted program.
Additionaly, you may want to check out my post here...
More Excelling at CCUSD...
http://ccusdwatch.blogspot.com/2007/10/so-id-said-i-follow-up-and-show-that.html
which clearly show the poor performance CCUSD verus it neighboring schools in math, and the declining AP Math test scores in the district.
Not true! There is a ton of practice with regrouping in both addition and subtraction from 2nd grade - 4th grade (probably in the later years too, but I haven't seen those yet - next year). The assessments that come home are the book ones and so far have had several questions on addition/subtraction with and without regrouping on each one.
ReplyDeleteYou want to see a nightmare math curriculum, try Growing With Mathematics. It dumbs everything down for the kids - talk about low expectations! (turning symmetry rather than the proper term of rotational symmetry?) What is taught in the 4th grade GWM is easier than the stuff taught in the 3rd grade EM - totally lame. Give me EM anyday - my kids are actually challenged rather than bored! As for Saxon and all those other skill and drill curricula available - I had those in 7-8th grade and HS (GUHSD) and learned nothing beyond what I was supposed to do to solve the problem. I learn more about math from reading those family letters that come home with those homelinks than I ever did in my own math classes. In HS, I learned how to find the circumference of a circle by multiplying pi x the diameter. From the third grade EM math, I learned WHY I did that - because the circumference is roughly 3x's the diameter of the circle. Makes much more sense when you know the why, not just the how.
Perhaps it is time to look at the teaching and the professional development, not just the curriculum.
As for mastery - some kids do get it the very first time. Some kids get it the second time. Some kids get it the next year. It's all pretty developmental, and you can't expect all kids to master a new concept the first time around. At some point a teacher has to move on and hope they get it the next time around, otherwise the rest of the class sits around bored.