GEORGIA adopts new Math approach

[marite]

I didn't read the GA program or I might have busted a vein! Thanks for alerting me.

[goaliedad]

xiggi just stumbled on what is driving this whole thing...

The textbook publishers seem to be driving this whole thing. Come up with a new way to teach a subject and find a few desperate cities/states willing to try anything and you can sell a lot of books (and then their replacements) that are junk. Lots of money to be made here...

[ellemenope]

I've never been a fan of integrated math. It didn't seem to have any continuity. Maybe if we could do Singapore math...whatever that might be.

[Atlmom]

Well the streamlined dumbing down math version fits Ga. Teach to the bottom....let the smart kids sit and their brains decay.....got to leave no child behind you know....including a huge influx of non english speaking students who are illiterate in their native languages.... IMHO, the HS curriculum was NOT broken. What is broken is passing kids onto next grade who can't add or subtract....of course they will struggle in H.S> but the errors came much earlier.

I am glad that my children are not going to have this approach but am dreading the test scores for the next group. If my child had it i would enroll them in traditional math on outside of school like kumon or another math tutorial.

I agree the publishers love to do research to sell new txt books. ...always a dollar to be made....bribes to be tendered....and ultimately some bandwagon to jump on . I want to know who decided this but its like TEFLON,
no one takes credit for this HUGE decision.

[Atlmom]

I do wonder if they are trying to create a cheap labor force to lure business to the state....come here, we have cheap dumb labor...ugh

[GA2012MOM]

UGH!!!!! Georgia adopted the "whole reading" approach when DD was in Kindergarten, and it was a complete disaster! Luckily I had taught her to read the year before with "hooked on phonics". If this math approach has the same results...... looks like Mississippi might be moving up in the rankings.

[xiggi]

Well the streamlined dumbing down math version fits Ga. Teach to the bottom....let the smart kids sit and their brains decay.....got to leave no child behind you know....including a huge influx of non english speaking students who are illiterate in their native languages.... IMHO, the HS curriculum was NOT broken.

While I fully understand your frustration, allow me to offer a divergent opinion. Our HS (and their curriculum) are broken, and have been for a long time, and well before the massive influx of "illiterates." For hundreds of years, our country has shown the ability of accepting immigrants and allowing them to make the country ... better. Today's reality is a bit different has new immigrants do not see the absolute necessity to be transformed into something that fits the vision of the "perfect" american waved by Samuel P. Huntington and many others.

As the world is becoming is becoming smaller, our population is also becoming more diverse than ever and presents a different set of "global" challenges. One disappearing facet of our society is the ability of melting everyone in one gigantic and common pot. And, our ability to push everyone through the doors of "a common school" is more or less an utopia that died in the last century.

For the sake of our elite students, and especially for the sake of our most deprived students, it's time to realize that our current model of publicly funded high schools is obsolete. By trying to focus on equality for all, we only create a common mediocrity. The saddest part is that we have not yet realized that this common mediocrity is not only found at the bottom of our academic world, but is everywhere, including the shores of Lake Wobegon and most of the 40% of students who earn an A average in high school.

[midmo]

In my opinion, the textbook publishers are in cahoots with education professors who have to keep coming up with new models in order to get big research grants.

xiggi, you will get absolutely no argument from me that the monopoly model of K12 ed has more than run its course, but I see that argument as distinct from the various math wars waging across the country.

Well, not entirely distinct. Many in this town believe that if we were allowed by our state law to establish a charter school, there would be one that offered parents an alternative to TERC and Everyday Math and Connected Math and IM and it would be swamped by parents wanting to escape the curriculum 'experts' running things in our public schools.

[idad]

For those interested in these issues here is an interesting video: YouTube - Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

[CBK]

^^^ no wonder the kids are so confused.
That had my head spinning.

[coolweather]

Almost every math testbook for public schools has a long list of reviewers thoughout the nation including school districts, colleges, universities, math departments,... I wonder the textbooks are actually reviewed.

[teresacubed]

I am a GA high school math teacher, and I can tell you I am worried. I am to teach by discovery to all levels and to every child. I have a "framework" to use, but also have a textbook that has a different chapter 1 than the framework chapter 1. I don't mind trying a new approach to teaching, but I want more guidance than the 5 days of training (2 of which were during the school year, taking time away from this year's students!). I plan to meet with the other math 1 teachers at my school during the summer to try to plan a common approach.

[mommusic]

idad: truly scary.

This discussion reminds me of Tom Lehrer's song "New Math."

YouTube - New Math (Tom Lehrer) Animation

[mommusic]

coolweather: Richard Feynman had a chapter in one of his books about reviewing textbooks (I think they were all science textbooks but the principle is the same.) Turns out reviewers were checking off the boxes for books they hadn't seen because they weren't published yet, and he refused to go along with the game.

[kelsmom]

I don't know how I missed this thread when it began. I am a bit late to the table, but I have experience with integrated math. I detest it!!! Unfortunately, S is currently in an integrated program. He is fortunate in that he has an extremely strong algebra background from a private middle school, a teacher who detests integrated math & supplements her lessons to go beyond the inch-deep-mile-wide approach, and an innate mathematical ability. His district, like most around here, has finally thrown out integrated math & gone back to a traditional program; S is a year too soon.

Last week, he missed the entire week of school due to illness. His absence coincided with a new chapter. If you know anything about IM, it jumps around without any rhyme or reason. He missed parent functions, translations, matrices ... and there had been nothing up to that point that helped it make much sense in & of itself. Lucky for him, I am pretty good in math & I was able to figure it all out and explain it to him. Believe me, there is NO WAY he could have understood it from the book. It provides NO explanation.

Teresacubed, I am sorry you will have to teach this mess. It is not easy. If your program jumps around like ours, you will find that there isn't enough time spent on an idea to develop much skill ... then you will jump to something completely different. It's tough on the kids. It will be tough on you, too.