U.S. students are lagging behind their peers in other countries in science and math, test results out Tuesday show.U.S. students ranked 24th in math.
The test, the Program for International Student Assessment, was given to 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries last year. It focused on science but also included a math portion.
The 30 countries, including the United States, make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which runs the international test.
Not surprising. I finally ordered the Singapore curriculum for my kids and have begun our first lessons. My pre-K-er is sailing through the Kindergarten materials. However both I and my 3rd grader are struggling with the 2B materials. Don't get me wrong, I actually LOVE their approach so far - efficient strategies that work. He is just having a hard time remembering to use the strategies (he wants to guess! - remember he's in a school that uses Investigations). I'm struggling to adjust to the Home Educators guide - it is very thorough and I just need to put more prep time in myself. I also started a math blog for our school - if you remember we are the charter school with constructivist curriculum where I'm spearheading the effort to change the math curriculum. My biggest frustration is that all the parents who've agreed with me in conversation refuse to publicly comment on the blog to back me up (I've stayed positive mind you - there is serious paranoia) - every single one of them has promised me to my face that they would and no one has so far. I also can't get the administrators to let me publicize its existence at the school. Word of mouth is a great way to market a restuarant, but so far a terrible way to get people to enter a conversation about their kids math future.
ReplyDeleteAs much as my bleeding heart would like to steer the school towards a math program (any math program) that works, I could envision myself cutting my losses and homeschooling in the somewhat near future. It makes me sad, this is such a great little school otherwise. I'm just feeling frustrated....spaced repetition right?
katy --
ReplyDeleteI think many of us have experienced how other parents are reluctant to speak out publicly against their child’s school. Heck, I’m paranoid about this and that’s why I try to remain anonymous.
You’re doing what you can to save people from themselves, but of course your priority has to be your own child.
Your post hits close to home. Too close really. This summer I decide to cut my losses and run. I'm homeschooling my fifth grader this year and will be homeschooling the other two by the fall. I just couldn't and can't wait for my children's schools to get it.
ReplyDeleteIt's been one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make and even more difficult to implement well. But, I'm so glad I did.
I live in a town where few go to private schools and almost no one homeschools because the schools have an extremely good reputation. People move here for the schools and to admit that the public schools aren't preparing our children as they should would be the equivalent of admiting that the emperor is naked. Most people know he's not wearing any clothes but they are afraid to say something about it. And so it goes.
Tex is right, focus on your child first and foremost. Then, if you have the time, resources and stomach for it, carry on with what you know to be right for the sake of other children.
My eldest child is not yet 2, but I have friends with children, and what I see in the schools makes me want to cry. We're in the Twin Cities, and even when I hear of people who love their child's school, or hear how great the private school X is, or hear about the magnet school, I investigate enough to find TERC, or Investigations, or other versions of constructivism, and I think I'm going to have to homeschool. That makes me sad, because I would rather start my own school and teach it to EVERYONE. But even thinking about that, or talking about it, I find I'm the only person who cares AT ALL about the math curriculum. The other parents I meet worry about that, but they aren't going to remove their kid from their pleasant school for a math curriculum, or they don't want to be viewed as rocking the boat. The others that are already homeschooling seem to have such a great view of unschooling that I know no serious math can be learned. I don't see how I could ever get anyone to think Direct Instruction is the way to go anyway--where would I hire the teachers from? Where?
ReplyDeleteIt would never work, economically, either. I can't imagine how I'd convince people to support it when I was basically starting with the principle that the current school offerings are abyssmal. Insulting everyone off the bat sounds like a bad way to go.
If I don't start this school before my eldest child is old enough to attend, then it isn't going to happen for all the reasons you above cite: because my focus will then need to be on my children.
Hi Allison!
ReplyDeleteI'm in the Twin Cities too, so rest assured there are others in these parts who are concerned about the abysmal math curricula that infect all the district schools in the metro area (and the private schools that I am familiar with, too).
But there are some charter schools, and Catholic schools too, I think, that have decent math curricula. And in Minnesota we have a statute that allows us to opt out of a curriculum that we object to, and provide it at home instead. I know at least one person who has used this to opt out of constructivist math and homeshool only in math.
Color me VERY unsurprised!
ReplyDeleteI'm in Singapore at the moment and one of the engineers I'm working with has his kids in Kumon. I'll try and discover his reasoning.
Chris
---But there are some charter schools, and Catholic schools too, I think, that have decent math curricula.
ReplyDeleteReally? I've looked around, and while I've found a couple K-6 Catholic schools with Saxon, that's the extent of it. There's no science, and there's no math that's great after that. Saint Paul talks good game about great schools, but it's more like "nice" schools. No matter who I talk to, the only answer appears to be that the people who seriously care about math get their kids into the U of MN program which replaces 7-12 grade math in private and public schools. That's great that the kids meet each other, but then there's the question of science, and it's utterly deficient. Judging from the state science fair, Wayzata High is good, marginally, and that's it.