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While I strongly recommend reading the ENTIRE article, here's a brief introduction:
At the start of the 2005-06 school year, Ramona began using textbooks developed for use in Singapore, a Southeast Asian city-state whose pupils consistently rank No. 1 in international math comparisons. Ramona's math scores soared.
"It's wonderful," said Principal Susan Arcaris. "Seven out of 10 of the students in our school are proficient or better in math, and that's pretty startling when you consider that this is an inner-city, Title 1 school."
Boy, those thin, unassuming Singapore Math books sure pack a wallop.Ramona easily qualifies for federal Title 1 funds, which are intended to alleviate the effects of poverty. Nine of every 10 students at the school are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. For the most part, these are the children of immigrants, the majority from Central America, some from Armenia. Nearly six in 10 students speak English as a second language.
Yet here they are, outpacing their counterparts in more affluent schools and succeeding in a math curriculum designed for students who are the very stereotype of Asian dominance in math and science.
At L.A. school, Singapore math has added value
By Mitchell Landsberg
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 9, 2008
UPDATE - March 10, 2008
You can weigh in on the Los Angeles Times Singapore Math story HERE.
10 comments:
I like this observation:
In part, that may reflect the inherent conservatism of the education establishment, especially in large districts such as Los Angeles Unified, whose math curriculum specialists said in December, a month after the Singapore texts were adopted by the state, that they hadn't even heard of them -- or of the successful experiment taking place in one of their own schools.
Oh brother.
Well I we'll give this article to the new 8th grade teacher Tuesday night when she talks to the PTA about our math curriculum.
In part, that may reflect the inherent conservatism of the education establishment, especially in large districts such as Los Angeles Unified, whose math curriculum specialists said in December, a month after the Singapore texts were adopted by the state, that they hadn't even heard of them -- or of the successful experiment taking place in one of their own schools
This isn't all that surprising. I well remember an incident in my previous school. I was teaching a regular seventh grade class, and had a student with a severe reading disability -- he had learned maybe fifty Dolch words, and that was it. He could not read or write anything, yet his oral comprehension and reasoning were very strong. Being an old DI aficionado, and trained in Slingerland in my early days, I knew exactly how to teach this kid to read -- but could not do it in a regular classroom setting, and because this boy had child care responsibilities, he could not come early, stay late, or stay for lunch. There was nothing I could do.
So, I referred him for Special Education assessment and placement. The testing showed he had the typical "dyslexic" profile, low phonological processing skills, weaknesses in short-term and orthographic memory, etc. So the discussion at the meeting was what kind of placement he could receive. There was no resource or LD at my school, which had a "total inclusion" policy. The boy's mom, who was Hispanic and had halting English but a good cr** detector, wanted to know what was on offer, and how would it help her son?
I got my 2 cents in by saying what the boy needed was explicit, direct instruction in reading and writing. The bigwigs from the SpEd department and the LD co-ordinator were there. They looked at me blankly. I said, "Any one of several well-known remedial programs would probably work well for A. Wilson Reading, Project Read, Barton Reading, Corrective Reading, Language!... " I reeled off a few more. The special ed people continued to look vacant. They said they had never heard of any of these things.
I tried again. "Surely you have heard of Direct Instruction and/or Multisensory Structured Language Programs (MSSL)? Orton-Gillingham?
Heads were shaking. "We can offer him a smaller class," they said. "He'll get more attention."
I was on trhe verge of losing it. "He doesn't NEED a smaller class-- he is a highly motivated kid, who works very well independently. He needs specific, structured INSTRUCTION."
"We don't have anything like that. We can just put him in a smaller class.... I've never heard of any of those things you mentioned and I know we don't offer them" (That at least was true, as I later learned).
Mom was taking this in. When she grasped that the boy wouldn't be given any special instruction, just bused across town to a "smaller class" she concluded the meeting by declining to have any more to do with it. He might as well stay in his own school where his friends were. His father owned a roofing business, so I hope he has managed to find a place in the working world in spite of his lack of literacy. But the fact that NOBODY knew anything about remedial reading instruction staggered me at the time.
Not now.
Ignorance at the top levels, even in those who ought to know, is truly mind-boggling.
Ben, make sure you get them a copy of the National Math Advisory Panel report as well. It's scheduled to be out on Thursday.
Ignorance at the top levels, even in those who ought to know, is truly mind-boggling.
Unbelievable. Stories like that are really hard to wrap my mind around.
Thanks -- I'll get the National Math Advisory Panel report when it's available.
As I've mentioned before, we don't have a bad math series in our school, but I'm convinced of Singapore's superiority.
>Unbelievable. Stories like that are really hard to wrap my mind around
I was pretty naive for a long time. But I can assure you, people would be "shocked and appalled" if they knew even a fraction of what really goes on -- in a number of areas.
As for the ignorance of those who should know, remember that the average GRE score of educational administrators is in the low 400's -- not enough intellectual ability to do challenging high school academic work. It is no surprise that they lack both depth of domain knowledge and sufficient critical reasoning to discern wheat from chaff.
What I find more common than rank ignorance, however, is false knowledge -- what they know that ain't so.
What I find more common than rank ignorance, however, is false knowledge -- what they know that ain't so.
And the more they know that ain't so, the more strident they are that it's true. Their modus operandi seems to be that if you say something loud enough, often enough, and with enough conviction it must be true.
It's no wonder many intelligent, motivated people avoid the education profession (as teacher or administrator). I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be to have lunks like that as your superiors, and for how many years until you got into a position of power or influence and could do something about it?? I'd last a day.
Ignorance was bliss. For awhile I had no idea what idiocy was all around -- I was too busy dealing with teaching my own students, and it took several years to get a handle on the basics of doing that effectively. When I did realize that there was systemic incompetence (and worse) all around, it was a fork in the road. Stay or go? Private schools were an option, but the students I most wanted to help would not be in private schools.
My solution was to consider myself one of the "underground" -- like those who resisted the Nazis in WWII. Now I know there's some hyperbole there -- by being an underground champion of effective teaching practices I am not risking my life the way people in the resistance did. But there are some similarities in modus operandi, including not attracting too much attention to yourself, saving your energy for what matters most (teaching kids, not fighting the powers that be), always keeping a sharp eye out for holes in the fence or opportunities to smuggle a prisoner to safety, so to speak, and using a variety of sleight-of-hand tactics to ensure that attention is diverted elsewhere and nobody notices what you're doing. The important thing is being effective, not being noticed. As an individual you can only help a small number, but that is better than nothing.
Or so I decided, anyway.
I long ago learned that the thing that matters most to one's superiors is not student learning, but supervision duty, paperwork, attendance at meetings, and so forth. By being 100% reliable in showing up for yard supervision, committee attendance and so on I can count on administrative approval and limited hassle over pedagogy (in fact a few covertly approve, but it's our secret).
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