|
|
9486 in the collection
Accelerated Math Adds Up To a Division Over Merits
Ohanian Comment: What's the rush? Some parents are beginning to ask this question: Parents used to routinely petition principals for their children to be accelerated in math. Now, some are asking that their children be moved to less-challenging classes.
When all the kindergartners at a school pass an assessment of first-grade math skills, should we applaud or weep?
What have they lost?
And when you think about it, what the hell IS fifth grade math? Why not enrich math with interesting topics instead of rushing ahead to the next level?
By Daniel de Vise
Next fall, 26 of the sharpest fifth-grade minds at Potomac Elementary School will study seventh-grade math. The rest of the fifth grade will learn sixth-grade math. Fifth-grade math will be left to the third- and fourth-graders.
Public schools nationwide are working to increase the number of students who study Algebra I, the traditional first-year high school math course, in eighth grade. Many Washington area schools have gone further, pushing large numbers of students two or three years ahead of the grade-level curriculum.
Math study in Montgomery County has evolved from one or two academic paths to many. Acceleration often begins in kindergarten. In a county known for demanding parents, the math push has generated an unexpected backlash. Many parents say children are pushed too far, too fast.
Sixty Montgomery math teachers complained, in a November forum, that students were being led into math classes beyond their abilities.
"I don't think any teacher has trouble with acceleration," said a teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of displeasing his principal. "The problem is when the school district creates a quota for the school -- in other words, 'We want 80 percent of your eighth-graders in Algebra I, and 40 percent of your seventh-graders in Algebra I, and 20 percent of your sixth-graders in Algebra I.' "
Other area school systems also are pushing students far beyond grade-level math. The goal is to shorten the time it takes students to reach Algebra I and broaden access to a course considered a foundation for later success on the SAT, in Advanced Placement study and in college. In Fairfax County schools, 29 percent of elementary students are on an accelerated track that compresses six years of study into four, preparing them for algebra in seventh grade. A majority of Arlington County students enroll in algebra by eighth grade, and at least two-fifths of students complete algebra in middle school in most other Washington area systems.
Many applaud the trend. Parents in Montgomery and Fairfax have lobbied for more advanced courses, especially in math, a subject some children master years ahead of others. Advocates for gifted education point to the initiative as the best example of a separate course of study for advanced students at most schools. Many more low-income and minority students are engaged in advanced math than ever before.
"I think parents of what I call above-average to gifted kids . . . were all saying, 'Our kids are bored,' " said Louise Epstein, a Fairfax mother and president of the Fairfax County Association for the Gifted.
The backlash appears more pronounced in Montgomery than in Fairfax. Some Montgomery parents support acceleration but question the frenetic pace. Schools are chasing a countywide goal that 80 percent of students complete Algebra I in middle school by 2010, well above the current 56 percent. Parents used to routinely petition principals for their children to be accelerated in math. Now, some are asking that their children be moved to less-challenging classes.
Officials predict that parents and teachers will grow more comfortable over time with the accelerated approach.
"This is the opportunity, at any level, for students to get as far above grade level as they are capable of," said Leah Quinn, Montgomery's math supervisor.
The notion that students can master high school algebra before high school is relatively new, said Francis "Skip" Fennell, an education professor at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., who is past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. The share of students completing the course in middle school nationwide has gone from next to nothing a generation ago to about 25 percent in the late 1990s to about 40 percent today.
A D.C. public school spokeswoman said that she did not know how many District students study Algebra I in eighth grade or earlier but said officials will know more next year after students begin to take final exams.
Students studying advanced math typically delve into topics related to algebra, geometry and probability at an earlier age, work more complex problems and shoulder more homework. A third-grade question might ask students to identify the next shape in a pattern of polygons, but a fifth-grade question might ask them to identify the shape and explain how they knew what it was.
Montgomery teachers break classrooms into groups by achievement, a technique that allows them to take the most advanced students up to a full year ahead. Students can then be assigned to a class a year above grade level. Those classes, in turn, can be broken into smaller groups, pushing stronger students further ahead.
Karen Cole, of Garrett Park, whose fourth-grade son is studying seventh-grade math, is glad the option is available. She said, however, that some of her friends think their children have been pushed too hard. "All of a sudden it's shameful to be taking fourth-grade math in fourth grade," she said.
Montgomery's math initiative began in the late 1990s, largely at the urging of gifted-education advocates, and was hastened by School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, who arrived in 1999 and told principals to make advanced courses open to all.
The accelerated students are now reaching high school, and some teachers contend they are ill-prepared.
"There were no controls on kids being accelerated unduly, and that's the problem," said Julie Greenberg, a recently retired Montgomery teacher who is now senior policy director at the D.C.-based National Council on Teacher Quality.
She and other teachers say the problem is worst at less-affluent schools in eastern Montgomery, while students in Bethesda and Potomac, with more resources at home, tend to thrive. Weast has encouraged principals to recruit poor and minority students into advanced study as a matter of educational equity.
At Potomac Elementary, three-quarters of fifth-graders last year completed sixth-grade math; some finished seventh-grade math. This year, every kindergartner passed an assessment of first-grade math skills.
Angela Piwowarczyk, a fifth-grade teacher, has taught sixth-grade math for three years. The first was hard, she said, because acceleration was new. This year was easier.
"By the time they get to fifth grade, they don't have the gaps anymore," she said.
One recent morning, students in a corner of the classroom flipped coins to compare theoretical and experimental probability -- to see, in other words, how often the coin came up heads in the real world, a topic from the sixth-grade curriculum.
"It seems really easy to me," said Eugene Shim, 11, between tosses. Then, turning to the rest of his coin-flipping group, he said: "Guys, don't you think this is easy?" Five heads nodded in assent.
— Daniel de Vise
Washington Post
2008-06-04
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
[1] 2 3 4 5 6 Next >> Last >>
|
