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Carolyn mentioned the subject of parent mentoring, which reminded me of an LA Times article I read about Singapore way back when, before there was Kitchen Table Math.
So if we were to crib from the valedictorian of nations, what would we find? A school system based on two credos: one very American-competition-and one unimaginable in the U.S.-total government control. For students, this means high-pressure exams at the end of grades four, six, 10 and 12 that help determine not only what classes they take but, ultimately, whether they will wind up as doctors or cabdrivers. For schools, the pressure is to attract the best students-who have their pick of campuses.
Then there is:
A national curriculum. In Singapore, there are road maps for instruction at every level, molding tests, tutoring and teacher training. The documents are amazingly concise-eighth-grade math is covered in 10 pages, listing 19 topics within algebra, geometry, etc. (Students, for example, must be able to calculate the "volume and surface area of sphere, pyramid and cone.") By contrast, American eighth-graders race through 30 or more topics, learning them so superficially that they have to be repeated over and over.
Involved parents. Here, that doesn't mean just showing up for Back to School Night. Parents get on waiting lists for the best tutors, who charge $300 a month. They buy two sets of books to ensure that one is always available for homework. Hundreds pay $300 to attend 30 hours of weekend training so they can understand changes in math instruction. "As parents, we think of always buying the best computers, giving them the best tutors, to play it safe, you know, so they can score high on their examinations," says Siew Yok as she purchased software so her 12-year-old daughter could cram to qualify for prestigious Raffles Girls School.
So here we have it, the Secret of their Success:
- parents get on waiting lists for the best tutors
- parents pay $300 to attend 30 hours of weekend training so they can understand changes in math instruction (now there's a potential revenue stream the folks at EVERYDAY MATH haven't thought of)
- parents buy 2 sets of books
That pretty much describes me to a 't.'
hiring the best tutors = KUMON
- spending $300 on a weekend seminar = writing Kitchen Table Math so I can learn math & how to teach it from Carolyn & the resident KTM Math Brains
- buying 2 sets of books = buying 2 sets of books, one set via taxes, one set via American Express payments to Amazon.com
Assuming this article is true, in Singapore the job of seeing to it children actually learn what the teachers are teaching belongs to the parents.
Good thing I live in America.
If I lived in Singapore I'd be getting caned on a regular basis.
compare and contrast (Singapore vs US)
slave parents in Singapore
18 comments:
I think there is a difference between hiring expensive tutors to make sure your child has the slight edge it takes to get into the most elite school vs. hiring expensive tutors to make sure your child doesn't end up in remedial math at the local community college.
well put!
I may have to tattoo that to my forehead
this is the point I'm constantly trying to get across here....people AREN'T hiring tutors to get their kids into the most elite school
I'd love to know what their assessments are like -- in other words, how much do the teachers know about what the kids know?
That has been the ongoing, chronic issue around here for the past two years.
The school doesn't know what my kid knows -- and hasn't expressed in knowing, either (although the assistant super is now bringing in formative assessment at least as a pre-test...which should be enormously helpful).
"A school system based on two credos: one very American-competition..."
Not in no U.S. public schools, Ah don't think, nossirree Bob!
I didn't have expensive tutors. When it came to assessment books, I was a bit like your son actually ...
I honestly never got the tutor thing ... maybe if I had a tutor, I would have scored a 99 on PSLE math, as opposed to a 91 (both are band 1 grades anyway :D).
But we peers studied together. Here it seems that it's almost taboo to discuss your common assignments (beyond questions like, "are you doing okay in your work?") with your friends even if you're in the same class.
The teachers would schedule supplementary and remedial classes for everyone for the PSLE, even if you were doing well in class.
But honestly, buying tons of assessment books for practice is perhaps the feasible thing parents can do. Assessment books aren't expensive in Singapore -- some are as cheap as the daily newspaper, or a bit less than your general paperback. (E.g. they don't cost 80 USD like American textbooks).
I was never into the whole assessment book thing, but it's the one thing that I think works. I can't testify to the effectiveness of 300 dollar per hour tutors (maybe I would have liked to discuss multivariable functions while still in primary six, I don't know?), but solid alternatives include accepting the school's recommendation for afterschool remedial classes, doing homework with friends, getting a mathy uncle to come over.
And oy, we only cane for major crimes leh (like drug trafficking, or vandalism) -- well, when it's done by the law at least. Here it's acceptable for parents to cane their children -- as long as it's not excessive, of course -- it's far more mild, since it's rattan and doesn't have the spiked barb at the end.
What are "assessment books"?
Are these what I call "test prep" books?
Or do they really assess where you are?
I'm very interested in peer study.
The two kids I know who are doing best are fraternal twins who always study together, and who are highly competitive with each other (fraternal boy twins are THE single most competitive siblings in existence -- this comes from twin research, not from me).
They teach each other all the time. When one twin doesn't know something the other teaches him and vice versa.
C. needs a peer study partner, but so far doesn't have one.
The friend he's most likely to study with, who lives closest to our house, is probably going to leave for private school, unfortunately.
Assessment books are really books full of problem sets.
They don't really do assessment in the US standardised test sense -- they're basically practice workbooks.
But we call them assessment books anyway. Now that you do inquire though, I wonder when the term was first used.
I may have to tattoo that to my forehead
Catherine, you must have a big ol' honkin' forehead to fit that much into a tattoo, unless you go to one of those "Your Name on a Grain of Rice" booths at the home show.
Try it with a t-shirt, first. It's a little less permanent.
:-D
Are the assessment books the "Federal Test Papers?"
I always assume in these online conversations that everyone is intimately familiar with all the products sold at the singaporemath.com website. I don't know if they sell this supplment anymore but it's a book of tests on each topic as well as mid-year and year end cummulative tests. Each test has a multiple choice section as well as "show your work" word problems. They are HARD compared to the regular series!
It is interesting they're called assessment books.....
We desperately need practice workbooks to go along with our textbooks.
I've found dozens of practice workbooks online for Glencoe, but of course none of them have the answers.
Our school has purchased all these books, but they aren't going to give out any answers, and they aren't going to correct any extra homework.
I'm relying on the Glencoe Parent Student Study Guides, all of which I downloaded from the internet.
But I think those are going away...you can't find them easily on the Glencoe site any more, though they're still there.
The COOG guy told me I can FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) the answers, but the school, if it wanted to be legalistic about it, could claim that any one of these problems might end up on a test, so they have to keep the answers for themselves.
He said that, if they did that, I should go to the board and ask how such a stance serves the educational needs of students.
That would accomplish nothing, though.
The district has a profound kind of conservatism and respect for authority.
If the math chair says "No answers" then the board will say "No answers."
Board members have said publicly, on numerous occasions, that you have to trust the people you've hired -- and that they don't know education, so they will rely on the judgment of administrators and teachers.
There is, at present, no independent measure of student achievement and no independent voice for parents and students.
Administrators and teachers speak "for" us.
I should add that I don't know for a fact that the math department will refuse to give out answers.
I assume they will refuse to give out answers, because they refused to supply answer keys for the test prep books last year as well as for any of the problems assigned in the textbooks.
I'm told things will be different this year, but so far things are the same as they were last year.
Here it's acceptable for parents to cane their children -- as long as it's not excessive, of course -- it's far more mild, since it's rattan and doesn't have the spiked barb at the end.
My mom used a flyswatter.
We used to hide it.
Then she'd get really ticked off.
silly old mom
t-shirt would be better
definitely
Myrtle: By Federal Test Papers, are you making a reference to the Federalist Papers? ;-)
I mean, a lot of the assessment books are not regulated centrally, e.g. some guy with a doctorate or other decides to write his own line of educational material for primary and secondary school children. Generally in order to be helpful, the problems are written in PSLE format. Some are officially endorsed by the MOE, some aren't.
They're the tons of workbooks you find when you walk into a Singaporean bookstore. ;-) Or a school bookstore (depending on what the school endorses).
"My mom used a flyswatter.
"We used to hide it.
"Then she'd get really ticked off."
My grandmother had a solution to that for my dad and his siblings: the number of strokes depended on the number of seconds it took for the kids to bring the stick.
That changed the incentive structure quite a bit.
8-)
Thank God my mom never thought of that.
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