The formal US education system has been around since the 17th century and continues to be something that nearly every US child attends in some form or another for many years of their life. While there have been many changes and improvements between then and now, there is no such education system that is perfect. Some of the greatest dysfunction from our perspective is that many kids graduate high school without adequate math competency. Other students have mastered the skills, but they are coming out of school with a disdain for it instead of appreciation for everything math provides us with in life. Why is this the case? What is the stem of some of these problems? Can they be fixed? Read more to find out some of the biggest reasons why math education is suffering and what can be done about it.
Outside of minor adjustments and technology advancements, the way math is taught is pretty much the same. Sure, some physical math workbooks have been replaced with e-books and computers and white boards and chalkboards and overhead projectors have been replaced with whiteboards and SMART boards, but the basic structure of how math concepts are taught is strikingly similar to those of our grandparents’ generation. Students often sit on rows, math teachers often lecture in the front of the classroom and then give time to students to work on a set of problems, unit tests are given to measure competency and then grades are assigned. After testing or quizzing, the entire class moves on to the next set of concepts and this happens whether students get a good grade on the test or not. They generally aren’t given time for remediation or better mastery of a concept – even if they don’t fully understand. And this isn’t because of a lack of teachers wanting all students to understand before moving on, it’s more because of pressure teachers have to stick to a certain pace determined by school districts and states. This leaves kids frustrated with math anxiety and sometimes behind.
Math curriculums need to be less vast for teachers in order to help students who need remediation to catch up. Individualizing instruction to be able to go at a pace where all students understand, which would take a higher teacher to student ratio, would be ideal. This goes for accelerated students, too. Teacher to student ratio is something that we heavily believe in at Mathnasium of Littleton, which is why we maintain a very low instructor to student ratio.
Kids take a lot of tests in most schools… but are they always measuring the correct things? Unfortunately, many of lack the ability to help teachers identify student learning needs – especially standardized tests. Standardized tests change from year to year so it’s hard to benchmark exactly what improvement has been made over a year’s time and kids have often moved on to another topic or even class by the time teachers receive the results of standardized tests. Units tests aren’t much better, because they only teach material taught in the last few months. Together, these types of tests make it difficult to assess an individual’s growth. They also don’t address skills gaps and gaps in foundational knowledge that might exist from previous grades. An algebra teacher might not know that a student never mastered fractions, but the lack of mastery will come up when they try to learn the quadratic equation.
It seems obvious that the answer would be to give teachers the proper diagnostic tools, however, they would be pointless unless teachers could modify the stride of the curriculum for individual kids. If teachers could have comprehensive diagnostic tools, similar to those who work specifically in special education and more control over the pace of instruction, they would be more successful regarding bringing all kids to math competency.
This is related to the two issues above, as it directly relates to the education system and lack of teacher tools, but is also goes beyond that into the psyche of children everywhere: math is boring and they just aren’t equipped with a “math brain.” Despite overwhelming research that nearly everyone has the ability to do math, many females and minorities believe otherwise. Math takes time, effort and a plan for success, but it is accessible to most people and gifted mathematicians can come from all walks of life.
Shifting attitudes and stereotypes is something that can take generations and sometimes public service campaigns to boot. There have been recent pushes from NASA to make math accessible to all via after school and in school programs, especially for inner city students who might be lacking resources otherwise. Mathnasium of Littleton, as well as others are working to do the same in breaking down barriers. You can help at home, too, but speaking positively about math with your child, despite if you’ve struggled with math in your life or not.
If you feel your child is struggling somewhere along the path to a strong math foundation, reach out to us as Mathnasium of Littleton. It is our job to help develop good number sense in kids and see them use it to confidently tackle their math gremlins. We’d love to see you!
(303) 979-9077
(303) 979-9077
