When will recess be over?

Years ago, I attended an orientation at my son's school. He was about to begin elementary school and the teachers and the principal were giving presentations about what students and parents could expect. The longest presentation was on Math. The principal got up and began to talk. I sat in disbelief as she described how students, beginning in first grade, would be allowed to use a calculator. Her justification was that people use calculators everyday, so students of all grade levels should know how to use one properly. She used the same justification to explain why they would teach students how to estimate. I am sure the school administrators had loads of data about calculator use and estimation teaching. I am sure they could produce studies to show research had been done to support their decision. They probably attended seminars on how to teach calculator use and estimation techniques.

I am sure they had the best intentions, although, maybe not towards the students. I am also sure they never gave much thought to what the effects would be if you taught math this way. I have been in meetings where management proposes a change that will do immeasureably more harm than good, and they insist on you joining in their celebration as they explain the benefits of everyone jumping off the same cliff, at the same time. By the end of the meeting people are nodding their heads and proclaiming that those who will not join them, or who ask for parachutes, are against them. I am sure there were many teachers who reminded the calculator/estimating proponents that math is more that coming up with the right answer. It is about training the mind. It is about discipline. It is about thinking through a problem and coming up with the process to solve it. But, alas, their common sense, experience, and grasp of the obvious were no match for professionally bound studies and catered seminars.

Fast forward twenty years. An April 29, 2009 article in the WSJ said that over the last thirty eight years U.S. High School students have not made any significant gains in reading or math. The report, which sampled about 52,000 students, was from the National Assessment of Educational Progress and it said that since 1971, when tests in math and reading were first given, scores for 17 year olds have improved from 285 in 1971 to 286 in 2008. This is based on a 0 to 500 point scale. Younger students did not fare much better. 13 year olds have improved five points and 9 year olds have improved 12 points, since 1971.

A week earlier a national study found that about one in four students in the U.S. drop out of high school. This increases to fifty percent in the nations fifty largest cities.

Last month President Obama announced his intention to have teachers get and keep their jobs based on merit, rather than seniority. In the same speech, he exclaimed, rightfully so, that the parents have a responsibility, as well. While each are steps in the right direction, neither fully addresses the complete educational needs of the students. Certainly, along with the students, teachers and parents have a responsibility, but almost forty years of essentially running in place shows that there are also problems with curriculum and the approach to education. The above calculator/estimator example is just one way in which students are taught improperly. Tests are not so much about knowing the answer, but about knowing how to find an answer. Rather than teaching for a test, we should examine how to teach students to reason, explore, research, and think. Tests should measure these characterisitics, rather than memorization skills.

Over the next few blogs I will explore various ideas to achieve these goals. As always, I will not claim to have the perfect solution, but will attempt to provide a dialogue that examines the problem and proposes a workable solution.