kitchen table math, the sequel: it is important that Trailblazers is not put down

Monday, November 26, 2007

it is important that Trailblazers is not put down

Scarsdale to try new elementary math programs
by Carrie Gilpin

In an effort to "see what's out there,” Scarsdale is trying out four math programs in 30 K-5 classrooms this year, according to assistant superintendent Paul Folkemer, and will settle on one of them, or remain with the existing program, Trailblazers, by spring. A few teachers at Scarsdale Middle School will also participate in the pilot math program.

"We have been very happy with Trailblazers and it has served us well for 10 years, but change is healthy and we want to see what is out there," said Math Committee chairman Nancy Pavia.

“The process is energizing, and puts the subject area on the front burner," said Folkemer. "It is good for us, and at the end, we could come out of this staying where we are with Trailblazers."

Implementing any new program next fall would also be "a budget issue," said Folkemer. "We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we won't be able to make any decision until a draft of the budget is completed. We will go in under the assumption that we have the funds to move forward by fall."

Each of the 30 volunteer teachers will test two of the four programs, substituting units of Trailblazers for similar units of one of the test programs. The district is awaiting materials and will begin the first of the pilot program trials at the end of this month, said Pavia.

Pavia said the timing of the pilot is excellent since Trailblazers' second edition is out and needs to be purchased by the district. or a different program purchased.

"This has been very thoughtfully done," she said, stressing there is broad representation of teachers within all five elementary schools and in all six levels from K-5.

A few teachers in middle school will also participate in the pilot. "Increasingly, we have been trying to invite them into conversations with us about elementary school math," said Folkemer.

Some teachers involved in the pilot program announced it to parents at the elementary schools' open houses. Folkemer said he is scheduled to give a report on the pilot program, as well as other district initiatives, to the Scarsdale Board of Education on Tuesday, Oct. 9, during the board's regular business meeting at 8 p.m. The board will meet that night at Edgewood School.

Pavia said parents would see different materials coming home in their child's backpack during the year, and that nothing would be sent home for homework that hasn't already been covered in class.

Will pilot program math students be confused? "I don't think so at all," Pavia said. "The methodology is slightly different but that shouldn't make it confusing. If parents have questions, of course they should address them with the teacher," said Pavia, stressing that naturally it will not be "perfect."

Both Pavia and Folkemer said it would not be possible to test out a new math program without actually teaching it to students.

Pavia said teachers have been discussing a change in program for several years. They considered many possible programs and came up with the following four: Everyday Mathematics, a program from the University of Chicago; Think Math!; Scott Foresman"s Investigations; and Singapore Math. The programs all have slightly different approaches and the National Council of Teachers of Math has endorsed the first three.

“Singapore Math is the one that is slightly out of the box. It is very rigorous and is written by the Ministry of Education there. It is structured slightly differently and has many positive aspects,” said Pavia.

Folkemer said that many teachers “really like” Trailblazers, a program felt by many parents to be heavily language-based.

“Any program we use must have a balance of a strong skill base with conceptual and problem-solving elements,” said Folkemer.

“Language is all around us, and mathematics requires language. But to calculate accurately is critical. Algorithms and fact work is just as important,” Pavia said.

Trailblazers functions on a "spiral” method, where a unit of say, fractions, is touched upon, then students move to another topic, and then com around to fractions again.

“Math by its nature is a spiral, but Trailblazers is a very tight spiral. The programs we are looking at are not quite as structured. Whatever program we use, we will modify it to match it with our own curriculum,” said Pavia.

Folkemer said a presidential commission on math teaching led the NCTM to come up with a list of “Curriculum Focal Points”—important math topics for each grade level, pre-K through grade 8. Focal points are areas of emphasis that serve as organizing structures for curriculum design and instruction at and across grade levels.

“When we Trailblazers years ago, we adopted it as our curriculum,” said Folkemer. “Now, we have written our own math curriculum and any program we use will be modified to fit within our curriculum.

So why does the district need to purchase any program if it has written its own curriculum?

Pavia said it would not be a good idea to teach math without a purchased program. “Teachers are generalists. I’ve always had a program, which is critical for consistency among the schools. It is a foundation upon which we will build and teach our own curriculum,” she said.

“I think it is important that Trailblazers is not ‘put down,’” said Pavia “Change is forward movement and we are looking and learning if there is a better way to teach math,” said Pavia.

Scarsdale Inquirer 10-5-2007

28 comments:

TerriW said...

I wonder if they are allowing parents to choose which pilot program they're in. (For example, I would be busting down the door to get my kids into the Singapore track.)

Catherine Johnson said...

Having a friend in Scarsdale I feel I can say with some confidence that parents will have no say on anything where their children's education is concerned.

None whatsoever.

Catherine Johnson said...

I can say they will have no say???

word reppppppp-----aaaauuuuggghhh

SteveH said...

"We have been very happy with Trailblazers and it has served us well for 10 years, but change is healthy and we want to see what is out there," said Math Committee chairman Nancy Pavia.

"change is healthy"?

That's a stupid comment.

Rule 1: Never admit you were wrong.

SteveH said...

"I wonder if they are allowing parents to choose which pilot program they're in."

That was my first thought. No. It was guinea pigs.

SteveH said...

“Singapore Math is the one that is slightly out of the box. It is very rigorous and is written by the Ministry of Education there. It is structured slightly differently and has many positive aspects,” said Pavia.

"very rigorous"

This is the reason it won't be selected. Can you imagine 3rd grade Trailblazer students going into a 4th grade Singaore Math class? And they are going to decide after only one year? This is educational malpractice.

Catherine Johnson said...

Rule 1: Never admit you were wrong.

prime directive

Catherine Johnson said...

change is healthy

math is a spiral

it's important Trailblazers not be put down

I'd love to know how Singapore Math got into the mix

Catherine Johnson said...

What burns me is the utter lack of concern for the kids and their learning.

The teachers are happy with TRAILBLAZERS so TRAILBLAZERS is great.

Catherine Johnson said...

Ed went to the focus groups the other night where people were seriously griping about the SMART Boards. (They bought 45 of them last year; this was part of the Strategic Plan. My plan is: buy 45 SMART Boards.)

As usual the teachers who were present started effusing about the wonderfulness of the SMART Boards and how much the teachers LOVE the SMART Boards, but this time no one was having it.

Ed said, "Have you measured whether the SMART Boards have improved student learning?"

The answer was no.

Haven't measured, not gonna measure.

SteveH said...

"I'd love to know how Singapore Math got into the mix."

It's just to placate some parents. They know it will never be picked. By the way, how, exactly, is the selection done? Test scores? I doubt it. Most likely, only one or two people will decide based on some vague ideas in their heads.

Catherine Johnson said...

The terrific thing about the focus groups was that they included students.

whoa nelly

One student said the h.s. teachers use their SMART Boards no more than half the time.

A middle school student said they'd had a teacher "who taught us nothing for two years."

This was a student talking.

"taught us nothing"

Nothing will be done about any of this. The administration gave a tenure presentation in which they said that more than half the new hires have had no experience at all; the rest have had less than 5 years' experience. The intention is to give tenure to all new teachers if possible. If a new teacher is having difficulties she is mentored and supported so she can succeed and be tenured.

The focus - the entire goal - is to hire very young, very new, relatively inexpensive teachers and expose them to enough professional development to be able to be able to justify giving them tenure.

The middle aged teachers are just about gone; the place looks like a college campus.

A certain number of the best young teachers will leave, too, of course. They'll go into administration in other districts.

I'm thinking it could take a generation for the district to recover.

SteveH said...

"What burns me is the utter lack of concern for the kids and their learning."

I think they care, but they don't have the professionalism, knowledge, and skills to do the job.

Catherine Johnson said...

I don't think so.

There's a reason Jay Mathews titled his book "Class Struggle."

There is a great deal of hostility toward parents and their kids in affluent districts.

SteveH said...

"There is a great deal of hostility toward parents and their kids in affluent districts."

I haven't seen clear examples of that. What is the hostility based on?

I could say that teachers and administrators are extremely territorial and do anything to keep parents from meddling. I haven't met with open hostility, but then again, maybe I haven't pushed hard enough. I have noticed, however, that a number of teachers don't seem to like smart kids.

Catherine Johnson said...

You may not have the same situation there.

I hear very unpleasant tales coming out of Scarsdale.

Trying to think what I can write here.....

Think I'm going to leave this as an assertion.

Education schools position their students as champions of the oppressed. I spent an afternoon looking at every single book assigned to students in the NYU education school. Everything was Pedagogy of the Oppressed along with numerous bios of heroic white teachers saving black and Hispanic students.

That is the ed school narrative.

Well, who are the oppressors?

The oppressors are affluent white people.

The future oppressors are the children of affluent white people.

Catherine Johnson said...

I haven't met with open hostility, but then again, maybe I haven't pushed hard enough.

All of the parents in Ed's focus group spoke openly of teachers in 6-12 making it clear to parents that they don't want to hear from us.

Across the board. Every parent said this.

All of the parents said, too, that they feared retribution if they spoke up, rocked the boat, etc.

Ed heard from the super today that teachers have it in their contract that they don't have to do parent-teacher conferences.

Think about that.

The union has negotiated a right for teachers 6-12 not to have parent-teacher conferences.

Anonymous said...

Great news! Texas drops Everyday Math...

"Rejected math book raises brows"

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/robison/5327819.html

NYC Hold has the details...

http://www.nychold.com/chart-tx-era.pdf

Tex said...

Yesterday I called my 10th grader’s guidance counselor and told her I would like to meet with his teachers because my son is having some difficulties in school. I told her I wanted to hear what his teachers had to say and to learn if they had any suggestions for improvement.

She vigorously pushed back on my suggestion of meeting with teachers. “Do you really think this will solve the problem?; It’s highly unusual for a 10th grader’s parent to meet with teachers; If you do this now in 10th grade will you also do this in 11th or 12th grade, Of course you do have a right to meet with them”, etc.

Curiously, one of her first comments was how one of his sub par grades could be raised because that teacher is so “flexible”.

Hostility? Tying to keep out a meddling parent? I definitely felt this.

Tex said...

BTW, our school district is next door to Scarsdale.

Tex said...

Wow! That linked Houston Chronicle article contains a weird spin on the EM story. It’s actually more of an editorial slam against the religious right.

In the comments: So "Everyday Math" dosn't do a good job teaching math.....There MUST be a book called "Everyday Writing" that is used by the Chron staff.

Barry Garelick said...

Speaking of EM, the NY Sun ran a story on same (about Texas rejecting it for 3rd grade) and they published my letter to the editor about their front page story. See:
http://www.nysun.com/article/66970

SteveH said...

"The oppressors are affluent white people. The future oppressors are the children of affluent white people."

I was at a parent-teacher school improvement meeting once where they (mostly teachers) talked about having our (mostly white and affluent) kids do role playing to teach them about racism. The assumption was that since ours is a mostly white community, the kids, by definition, have racist tendencies at the very least.

SteveH said...

"All of the parents said, too, that they feared retribution if they spoke up, rocked the boat, etc."

This is a big problem at all levels. We have our first (only?) 15 minute teacher meeting on Friday. Fifteen minutes. "Hello. Your son is doing fine. Goodbye."

My wife and I want to talk about rubrics that are (apparently) not handed out, the non-linear grading of the rubrics, the meaningless rubric report card, the dominant use of coloring pictures for homework, the lack of textbooks, and the lack of knowing anything about what they're teaching and where they're going.

My wife and I spend quite a bit of time preparing for these meetings because we don't want to create problems. We have to take the approach that all of the problems have something to do with our son not paying attention or not giving us correct information. I don't believe it one bit, but we have no proof.


Just like tex said:

"I told her I wanted to hear what his teachers had to say and to learn if they had any suggestions for improvement."

You have to approach it with the assumption that it's the child's fault, even though, deep down, you know that something else is going on.

Catherine Johnson said...

Barry!!!

You wrote a letter!!

Fantastic!

I'm going to go look it up now.

I am SO under the crunch I just couldn't get to it.

Catherine Johnson said...

Tex - Find out what the union contract says.

The guidance counselor is probably enforcing the contract.

Catherine Johnson said...

I was at a parent-teacher school improvement meeting once where they (mostly teachers) talked about having our (mostly white and affluent) kids do role playing to teach them about racism. The assumption was that since ours is a mostly white community, the kids, by definition, have racist tendencies at the very least.

Exactly.

I'd love to see a sociologist do a study of an affluent public school district.

I'll get the Richard Elmore slides on "nominally high performing schools" posted. They're terrific, but they don't tell the whole story by any means.

I believe you have to bring Freudian concepts into the analysis to understand what's going on. Transference, denial, displacement....all that good stuff.

Catherine Johnson said...

You have to approach it with the assumption that it's the child's fault, even though, deep down, you know that something else is going on.

We don't really do that anymore, if we ever did.

We ask what C. needs to do that he's not doing. Is he misplacing assignments? Is he not understanding what's wanted & not asking for clarification? etc.

This part of any communication is about what C. is doing wrong.

But we also point out, directly, what he needs from the school in order to succeed.

Ed had a conference with the social studies teacher last week. C. was down to a 71 on his weekly grade in social studies. This is his best subject. A 71.

The teacher said C. hadn't turned in a first draft of an assignment and had gotten a 0. C. had told the teacher he did the draft but then lost it.

Ed was horrified that the teacher hadn't told us this and we both assumed C. had lied. We were furious.

Turned out C. did do the draft; Ed found it on his desk. When Ed talked to the teacher the teacher said C. is so reliable he knew he was telling the truth (teacher was right!)

Ed asked him to let us know the instant an assignment is missing, which he has done this week.

Ed also had a lengthy discussion with the teacher about problems with the most recent writing assignment. Those problems have nothing to do with C.

I don't know that this has gotten us anywhere but, otoh, I don't know that it hasn't.

The math class is FAR more reasonable now. At the beginning of the year, when C got a 60 on his first test, the class covered all 4 classic word problems in 4 days. (There were other brand-new topics they covered at the same rate.)

It was insane.

I jumped all over that. I did it politely, but I did it. I wasn't subtle.

Ed did, too.

That class has gotten better and better. C's last grade was a 95 and he told me yesterday that he had been "on fire." He could factor out loud all the trinomials they were doing in class & he could do it fast.

Now, it could just be that the teacher is expert enough to be able to pick up on where the kids are and adjust accordingly.

I'm sure he has teacher antennae.

By he also got very clear, very direct feedback from us that the class was moving way too fast to allow our kid to learn.

I imagine he's had some input from the principal and the assistant superintendent as well. He's a respected teacher; I'm not talking about pressure from administrators. I'm talking about administrators filling him in on the situation.