Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
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Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
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Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#2It's interesting to use an ethnic achievement gap as a legal basis for opposing a particular math program. That most United States school districts don't simply use Singapore Math
http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_s/21.htm
shows that most math curriculum adoptions are not made on the basis of best results for least expense.
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#3From the article >>In this approach math is substantially dumbed down for "equity" reasons and students are asked to discover age-old principles on their own.
Charlotte Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, wrote the free eBook (pdf) "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#4I am made uneasy about someone that contrasts 'low income' and 'white' in their graphs.
I do however, still holding a low opinion of the discovery math pedagogical model in general, as it requires more math sophistication than is likely to be found in an elementary/middle/high school's teacher.
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#5It's interesting to use an ethnic achievement gap as a legal basis for opposing a particular math program. That most United States school districts don't simply use Singapore Math http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_s/21.htm shows that most math curriculum adoptions are not made on the basis of best results for least expense.
It's mainly convenience. In the educational establishment and some courts, equality is more important than quality. Challenging curricula on the basis "this is bad for non-asian minorities more than others" is more likely to be successful than "this is bad for everyone".
It is considered better for 100% of every group to be a moron than for 70% of blacks and 30% of whites to be a moron.
[Edit: Added words "it is considered" to last sentence. Before it looked like I endorsed this view, which I don't.]
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#6Welfare. These low-income and minority kids know they won't starve to death, they think that learning is "acting white". Here's the result.
Oh well, better for the rest of us.
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#7I am made uneasy about someone that contrasts 'low income' and 'white' in their graphs. I do however, still holding a low opinion of the discovery math pedagogical model in general, as it requires more math sophistication than is likely to be found in an elementary/middle/high school's teacher.
I was disturbed by the "low income" vs. "white" separation. Does the white group also include low income white students? Or, to further their point, did they decide low income whites aren't really white?
Nobody should have to "rediscover" the Pythagorean Theorem. I'll go out on a limb and say Newton, Leibniz, Einstein, Descartes, etc. just went ahead and read Euclid, and they did pretty well for themselves.
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#8From the article >>In this approach math is substantially dumbed down for "equity" reasons and students are asked to discover age-old principles on their own. Charlotte Iserbyt, former Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education, wrote the free eBook (pdf) "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/
"Dumbing down" and "discovering age-old principles on their own" are not necessarily the same. There is definitely value in learning to do creative work in math and science, beyond just rote memorization and learning to regurgitate what the teacher tells you. It pretty clear that many people with high grades in school are poorly prepared for situations where you actually have to do original work, like grad school. Of course, there has to be a balance between base skills and that.
Also, for another take on math education, see http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_03_08.html
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#9I am made uneasy about someone that contrasts 'low income' and 'white' in their graphs. I do however, still holding a low opinion of the discovery math pedagogical model in general, as it requires more math sophistication than is likely to be found in an elementary/middle/high school's teacher.
I was disturbed by the "low income" vs. "white" separation. Does the white group also include low income white students? Or, to further their point, did they decide low income whites aren't really white? Nobody should have to "rediscover" the Pythagorean Theorem. I'll go out on a limb and say Newton, Leibniz, Einstein, Descartes, etc. just went ahead and read Euclid, and they did pretty well for themselves.
Learning to prove mathematical theorems is an important skill in mathematics. If you only learn to use what comes served on a silver platter, where will you learn to handle situations where you haven't had the theorem taught to you in advance? My impression of UC undergraduate students is that "find the correct formula and plug in the numbers" is the only type of math they know how to do, and encouraging that doesn't seem like a way forward.
Re: Lawsuit against "Discovery Math" in Seattle Schools
#10As a university level instructor, I find so many things high school teachers have to put up with appalling. I choose my text book for one. My lesson plans are not approved by anyone except me (yes, in fact my sister-in-law had to use recycled old lesson plans because they were "AP approved") The decision rights should be located as close to the in-the-trenches information unless the coordination benefits outweigh the costs. I doubt the benefits come anywhere close here.