Whoohoo! I just learned my school district has decided NOT to pilot TERC as they had planned for this spring. Don’t know any more details, but I will say that some choice emails I sent to some parents have been getting a bit of attention. I just emailed the Ohio article out.
Word around here is that TRAILBLAZERS will be gone in 3 years' time. It was first implemented in school year 2004-2005; two and a half years later it's on life support, large numbers of K-5 parents are activated and angry, a school bond has been defeated.
School districts need to ask themselves whether they need this kind of headache.
Yes, administrations and school boards have the power to impose a curriculum by fiat, as happened here. Three hundred parents formally protested the adoption of TRAILBLAZERS; the administration adopted it anyway.
But there is a cost to rolling over parents and taxpayers. Power isn't free.
how politics work
I have no idea how politics work; I wish I did.
However, in the past two years of writing and reading ktm I think I've discovered the arguments that work - or have the best shot at working:
- who's the expert? if mathematicians reject these programs, the school must reject these programs, too; at a minimum the school must not force these programs on parents who object. Teachers have expertise in teaching; mathematicians have expertise in math. When teachers and mathematicians disagree, mathematicians' word goes.
- compare and contrast: schools must adopt curricula that will bring our children up to the level of their peers in Europe and Asia, which means curricula that allow our children to study and master algebra in the 8th grade. Can a TERC, EM, or TRAILBLAZERS student pass the Singapore placement test for 6th grade?
- choose your battles: Does the school really want the kind of headaches these programs bring with? Do school administrators and board members want angry emails from parents? Do they want news stories about parents taking their kids to KUMON? Do they want citizens wondering out loud why they have to pay taxes for TERC-EM-TRAILBLAZERS and for tutors to remediate TERC-EM-TRAILBLAZERS? Does any of this sound fun?
With math, I don't talk "research shows." Research doesn't show; the research on math instruction is nowhere near the broad scientific consensus that exists on early reading instruction.
So I don't talk "research shows," and I'm unwilling to listen to an administrator talking "research shows" to me. There is no research.
I talk mathematicians, I talk international comparisons, and I talk horse sense. Horse sense meaning I don't care what the NCTM has to say; it makes no sense to start a war with parents over a math curriculum.
Speaking of wars with parents, because I strongly favor parent choice I don't support removing TRAILBLAZERS by fiat, either. We have parents who feel TRAILBLAZERS is working well for their children; one of my closest friends, a mom who knows math, is a fan of the program.
If TRAILBLAZERS is going to go it should be phased out the same way it was phased in - or it should remain as an option if we have a core of parents who want it for their younger children.
Parent choice.
Parent choice means that parents who have fared well with TRAILBLAZERS should have TRAILBLAZERS.
And parent choice means that those of us who want a curriculum endorsed by mathematicians should have a curriculum endorsed by mathematicians.
Time to open things up.
I'm more ambivalent on the whole mathematicians as experts thing. There's a fair number of them that fall into the same trap as math educators. Yes, they have agood idea as to what the aspiring student needs to know, but they don't always know the best way to there.
ReplyDeleteLet's call it the "understanding" parqadox. They know that understanding math is important but don't realize that building understanding in novices is different that the understanding possessed by experts (i.e., them). these guys seem to be just as gung-ho on the worst excesses of constructivism as some math educators.
The only legitimate experts are those educaotrs who have successfully educated students across the board, from dull to bright. These are few and far between and the research base is sparse.
The only legitimate experts are those educaotrs who have successfully educated students across the board, from dull to bright. These are few and far between and the research base is sparse.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
However, I'm talking about arguments I can make in any political context, given my limited experience and skill in extemporaneous speaking.
Ed - who's had 25 years experience formulating and delivering off-the-cuff arguments - could probably give that one a good go.
At this point I can't.
Though if we can work this down to a sound bite, then I'll have a shot.
Also, the appeal to expertise and authority is actually important to make where the question of what content to be taught is involved, and it is always involved.
The Middle School Model, which our administration has been planning to implement wholesale, would do away with all disciplines, establishing interdisciplinary studies in their place.
The only way to block that is to cite the expert of authorities inside those disciplines - unless Engelmann's got a whole bunch of research on the superiority of teaching disciplines as disciplines tucked away somewhere.
Once you get to middle school you're fighting to preserve any intellectual content at all.
We have another issue here, which is that parent expertise is systematically spurned.
ReplyDeleteOne of the parents in town is a major NYC contractor and builder - major.
He offered his services free of charge as a project manager on the middle school; board turned him down cold.
Ed talked to another parent this weekend who says people following the spending on the middle school estimate we probably lost $2 million due to the Board's refusal to accept the volunteer services of a parent with expertise.
That's true across the board.
Ed can't be involved in any decisions concerning history curriculum, I can't be involved in decisions concerning writing curriculum, parents working in math fields can't be involved in math curriculum decisions, etc.
This wouldn't be as large an issue in every community, but it's a big one here.
We're pushing respect for expertise across the board.