Curriculum

The War Against Grammar -  by David Mulroy (review by Jeremiah Reedy)

An Interview with Dr. J. Martin Rochester: About Schools, Learning and Class Warfare

Where's The Math? - Video On TERC and Everyday Math - "MJ McDermott, Q-13 TV Weather Forecaster, explains the differences between teaching standard (traditional) algorithms and teaching with Investigations/ TERC and Everyday Math."

National Mathematics Advisory Panel - Preliminary Report

http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.index.htm

New York Times 9/18/06 - Teaching Math, Singapore Style - .pdf - "The countries that outperform the United States in math and science education have some things in common. They set national priorities for what public school children should learn and when. They also spend a lot of energy ensuring that every school has a high-quality curriculum that is harnessed to clearly articulated national goals. This country, by contrast, has a wildly uneven system of standards and tests that varies from place to place. We are also notoriously susceptible to educational fads."

"One of the most infamous fads took root in the late 1980’s, when many schools moved away from traditional mathematics instruction, which required drills and problem solving. The new system, sometimes derided as “fuzzy math,’’ allowed children to wander through problems in a random way without ever learning basic multiplication or division. As a result, mastery of high-level math and science was unlikely. The new math curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes, touching on dozens of topics each year."

The New York Sun 9/15/06 - Turnaround in the Math Wars" - .pdf - Proponents of 'fuzzy' or constructivist math eschew the idea of teaching math by drilling or by formula. Thus memorization of times tables was discouraged, so much so that the Thomas Fordham Foundation found that only two-dozen states required that students commit multiplication tables to memory. In many school districts, children are no longer taught long division."

"This is simply because there are too many adults who put their own interests ahead of those of the children."

Townhall.com 9/14/06 - Fuzzy Memory on Fuzzy Math - .pdf - "This mess started when true believers turned math into a faith-based folly. When angry parents and teachers rebelled, the faddists denied that they had moved away from the basics. After years of clashes within curriculum commissions and fierce textbook battles, they now deny there was a curriculum war. Then they wonder why no one believes them."

What Works Clearinghouse - Elementary Math - "The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) review of this topic focuses on math curricula designed for use in elementary schools with attention to student outcomes related to math achievement."

The Myths and Realities about "FUZZY MATH" - Education News.org by Sandra Stotsky -"As a member of that constituency and an advocate for authentic reform in mathematics education, I was part of a group that decided to pre-pare a point-by-point refutation of a set of common myths spread nationally and internationally by mathematics educators in our schools of education and NCTM officials. These myths are often presented as facts to policy makers and the general public."

The New, A-maze-ing Approach to Math - .pdf - EducationNext.org by Barry Garelick -"The math wars revolve around a four-part problem: A disputed theory of education that informs NCTM’s standards; state boards of education that base their standards of learning for mathematics on the NCTM standards; textbooks written to incorporate these standards; and teachers and others in the education establishment who are indoctrinated in the disputed education theory and who may not possess enough knowledge of mathematics to overcome the first three factors."

City Journal, Spring 1998 - Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Teach by Heather Mac Donald - .pdf - "Americans’ nearly last place finish in the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study of student achievement caused widespread consternation this February, except in the one place it should have mattered most: the nation’s teacher education schools."

Singapore Math - The Singapore Math Implementation Project (SMIP) Listserv and Discussion Board - What can the United States learn from Singapore's World-Class Mathematics system?

Curriculum was always a problem for the Harutunian administration. There were architects to feed, schools to sell, documents to hide, "fuzzy math" textbooks to buy and lucrative business contracts to maintain. Who had time to deal with curriculum?

Is the Schettini administration doing better?

LDAdvocates.com - Recommended Battery of Testing for Suspected Reading Disabilities - "The performance of American students in mathematics is mediocre at best. In many cases, mathematics instruction is not serving our children's best interests. In order to help all students achieve success in school mathematics courses, to be adequately prepared for mathematics based college courses and careers, it is important to examine the direction of recent attempts at mathematics education reform."

Education News.org - Why American Students Do Not Learn to Read Very Well by Sandra Slotsky -"Most states test their elementary teachers using licensure tests influenced by two organizations -- the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. Both of these organizations basically ignore the research-based approach to reading instruction and are avid proponents of whole language. Unless states test elementary teachers over the research-based reading research, it is highly unlikely that education schools will change their instruction; and our schools will continue to hire newly certified teachers who are poorly equipped to follow the latest reading research. - Donna Garner "

NYC HOLD - Honest Open Debate On Mathematics Education Reform - "The performance of American students in mathematics is mediocre at best. In many cases, mathematics instruction is not serving our children's best interests. In order to help all students achieve success in school mathematics courses, to be adequately prepared for mathematics based college courses and careers, it is important to examine the direction of recent attempts at mathematics education reform."