This might have something to do with it:
As it is now, fewer than a third of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students score at the proficient level in math. And U.S. students score below the international average on tests of math and science knowledge.
Inadequate instruction is at least part of the reason for those scores. An estimated 38% of math teachers in grades 7-12 lack either a major or minor in math.
- USA TodayThe article this came from says that the teachers unions believe the solution to the problem is higher salaries for teachers.
I believe everybody is missing the larger points. While I'd certainly agree that teacher competence in the subject area is critically important, addressing that problem alone will do little to solve the problem.
Even highly competent Math teachers can't produce better results if they are imprisoned in a system that tolerates mediocrity, places "self-esteem" above results, and punishes teachers for setting high standards.
Let's say your local High School has on its faculty the best Math teacher in America. He has advanced degrees in Mathematics, along with the unique ability to make his classes interesting and challenging for his students.
But to really excel, he knows that Math education requires effort and attention from students. Not an extreme effort; merely the expectation that each student complete a daily assignment of between 1 and 2 hours. Without this daily homework practice, students cannot possibly absorb the material as they must to advance in the subject.
Inevitably, students complain to their parents that the teacher is unfairly loading them down with homework. Parents complain to administrators that the Math teacher is unfairly assigning too heavy a homework burden on their children. The parents are even more perturbed that their children are suddenly receiving C's in Math, when they have always been given A's in the past. Local activists petition the School Board to censure the teacher, because minority students are unable to complete assignments and are therefore failing his Math classes. And the High School coaches complain to the administration that their star players are in danger of becoming academically ineligible because they are failing his Math class.
What happens next? The Math Teacher is summoned to the Principal's office, where he is given a choice: He can either lower his standards so that 95% of his students pass the class, or he can be reassigned to teaching in the Learning Disabled program and become the Detention Supervisor and Lunchroom Supervisor. (We'll assume he is tenured, so they can't fire him.)
The result: A disillusioned Math Teacher who may no longer challenge his students to excellence, but must accept mediocrity and pass nearly everyone. He marks the rest of his teaching career by doing his best to teach and inspire students who don't want to be inspired and giving away inflated grades to students who never really learned the subject matter. If he's lucky, he finds a way to be encouraged by the handful of truly motivated and talented students who pay attention in class and absorb what they need from him to succeed in College.
So if you think increasing the numbers of qualified Math and Science teachers in schools will solve the problem, go right ahead. Will that action bring results? Not so much as 1 percentage point.
2 comments:
Struggles in education go so much further than the student, though. The majority of my learning in high school was outside of class instruction proper - playing with computers, reading, talking with my similarly nerdy friends. The desire to learn must be instilled in the students, and I think that's where we're going wrong. As a high schooler, I was completely depressed about anything after high school, and I frankly blame an education system that utterly fails to convey certain essential knowledge about WHY we learn.
Hi Dan,
I finished reading your blog about Math Morons, and all I could do was exhale, relieved. I was once considered to be that bright teacher from Pluto, but had to undergo the passion of the idealists in order to rise as the mediocre teacher from the bunch, where one more is never too many. I wonder if the system, or the people involved playing other than teachers say, parents, administration, board of ed, union, is seeing through this whole charade because believe me I think it is too obvious to be ignored, or is it only us teachers, and I will have to specify, us math teachers, that are caught in that said charade. I encourage your insight, hoping others will see it the problem from that angle as well.
Luis, from the Dominican Republic.
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