Common Core “College Ready” Standards Inadequate

Several months ago the National Governor’s Association, as part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, issued a draft of it’s “College Readiness” standards. These standards claim to provide the essential mathematical skills necessary for High School students to move onto college level mathematics courses.

Unfortunately, the standards do nothing of the sort. They fail to provide any standards for high mathematical competencies necessary for students to compete for and obtain degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM). Furthermore, the “College Ready” standards fail to address mastery of numerous Algebra II and Geometry topics which are necessary for inclusion in non-STEM fields at many Colleges and Universities across this country.

According to the US Coalition for World Class Math, “This omission of significant portions of essential Algebra II and Geometry content renders the Common Core Standards inadequate for students who will enter undergraduate programs in STEM or even non-STEM disciplines in much of the country.” The Coalition encourages the states participating in the Common Core Initiative (and this includes Virginia) to refrain from adopting the “College-Readiness” Standards until they have adequately identified the content required for success in credit-bearing mathematics courses in their state universities.

You can find the US Coalition’s full review of the “College Ready” standards here.

Seems the Teach Math Right Petition was Correct….

The Teach Math Right petition states the following as documented deficiencies of TERC Investigations:

DOCUMENTED DEFICIENCIES OF “Investigations”:

• DOES NOT teach proven standard, simple efficient and effective methods of solving mathematics problems.
• DOES NOT promote mastery of basic arithmetic facts.
• DOES NOT teach mastery of multiplication tables.
• DOES NOT teach simple long division.
• DOES NOT provide sufficient practice for children to master math concepts and applications.
• DOES overemphasize the use of calculators.
• DOES rely on “group think” and “discovery” by children vice individual mastery through teacher instruction and quality materials.
• DOES progress at a remedial pace.

Even now the PWCS Math site contains a document claiming that these statements are false.  Yet again, however, the facts show that statements made in the petition drafted by Greg Barlow are absolutely TRUE.

Lets’ look at those points one by one.

DOES NOT teach proven standard, simple efficient and effective methods of solving mathematics problems

This is True.  The standard algorithms are not taught.  They’re each covered in one 75 minute session which even the authors of TERC admit amount to “study” , but they aren’t taught.  Certainly not to fluency or even close mastery.

DOES NOT promote mastery of basic arithmetic facts

True. Just ask any local 1st grader what 15 – 8 is.

DOES NOT teach mastery of multiplication tables.

True. Just ask the parents who just got the division letter.

DOES NOT teach simple long division.

True. TERC admits that long division is not included in the program. PWCS has added long division as a single 75 minute supplementary lesson in 5th grade. Anyone want to bet how many students will understand long division after that lesson? Yet I’m quite sure the PWCS math staff will claim that that one lesson teaches long division to mastery. Heck – if the kids spend 2 weeks skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s in 2nd grade I’m sure one day with long division is sufficient (that was sarcasm).

DOES NOT provide sufficient practice for children to master math concepts and applications.

True. Clearly, if sufficient practice had been allocated to learning concepts and applications then 5th graders wouldn’t be struggling with their division facts.

DOES overemphasize the use of calculators.

True. See our previous articles here and here.

DOES rely on “group think” and “discovery” by children vice individual mastery through teacher instruction and quality materials

Know what you get when four 2nd graders attempt to figure out the number line for subtraction? Four 2nd graders who don’t know how to subtract.

DOES progress at a remedial pace

Sticker math. Need I say more?

There are so many instances of lies and misrepresentations by PWCS officials that it’s almost laughable. Almost, because these are the people who are supposed to be providing the programs our kids follow.

You can still sign the petition, here, or send an email, here, or, better yet, come to a board meeting and let the school board know how you feel.

TERC Investigations Doesn’t “Do” Division

One of TERC Investigations many shortfalls is the fact that it just doesn’t teach division well.  In fact, it barely teaches division at all.  The division materials covered in 5th grade are all largely supplemental.  Long division, by the way, is covered in a single 75 minute class. PWCS must be extremely thankful that calculators are allowed on the SOL exam in 5th grade.

Over the weekend we began hearing reports of an interesting letter sent home to parents of PWCS 5th grade students.  The letter states the following:

Parents,

Today your child took the attached assessment on basic division facts.  They were given 2 minutes to complete as may problems as they could.  After 2 minutes, I had them switch to a pen and complete the remaining problems.  Please talk with your child about how they did.  I would like you to discuss where there are strengths and weaknesses in your child’s division.  Please develop a plan for improvement with your child below.

I_________________________(child’s name), with the support of my parents, plan to

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________.

to learn my basic division facts.

Student Signature_________________________________

Parents Signature_________________________________

Please return this completed form on XXXX

Know what?  Division facts (like 81 / 9) are basic core competencies our children should have acquired and mastered in 3rd grade – according to the state standards of learning and the PWCS curriculum.  It is inexcusable for any child to still be struggling with his or her division facts in 5th grade.

This ought to be warning sign to any parents with children in PWCS or any school district that follows TERC Investigations.  After close to 6 years of TERC your child will not be able to complete the simple arithmatic  expected of a 3rd grader.  If you want your children to be able to complete a college level mathematics class, or even remotely envision a future in a math dependent field for them, then you need to hire a math tutor or start teaching math at home.

School Overcrowding is Good – At Least in PWC

It seems like Avendale, the proposed 300 – 500 home development in the rural crescent in Bristow, is back on the schedule for the PWC BOCS.

Our previous article, Let’s Cram More Kids Into Overcrowded Schools, discusses the development in more detail.

For families in the Bristow / Gainesville area this is a big deal. Our children have never attended schools that weren’t severely overcrowded. The local high school had to rent a bathroom trailer because there were so many kids and so few bathrooms that the school was violating health codes. Recess is rationed at the elementary schools, the hallways are jammed. It can take 5 minutes to walk from the entrance of the elementary school to the classrooms at the start of the day. One local elementary school, which has been overcrowded for more than 9 years, is literally out of space for trailers and two more are expected next year.

More on PWC 2009 SOL Scores

The state breaks SOL rates into a number of categories – All, Male and Female, LEP and Not LEP, Economically Disadvantaged and Not Economically Disadvantaged, and others.

Limited English Proficiency (LEP) students are required to take the Math SOL and to have their scores aggregated into the overall (All) scores for the school they attend. LEP student’s scores are not aggregated for English, Science, or History. Because so much of the exam is language dependent, the state allows school districts to use an alternate assessment, the VGLA, for some LEP students.

About 76.5% of PWC elementary students are English proficient while 23.5% have limited english proficiency (LEP).  In the Spring of 2009 PWCS increased the percentage of LEP students tested with the VGLA. Because of the increased use of the VGLA and the shifting LEP population at some schools, it is difficult to note trends in pass or advanced rates when examining the overall rates for a given school.

In order to  eliminate that variability, rather than examine the overall rates for PWC, we examined pass and advanced pass rates for the English Proficient and LEP students as separate populations. We looked at pass and advanced pass rates for those populations on a year by year basis to see if we could spot trends and on a cohort, or class, basis.  We also compared PWC’s rates to those state-wide and in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties to see if trends were unique to PWC or occurring in our neighboring jurisdictions.

Our analysis is below.

Calculators, for Kindergarten Kids, in VA?

If you’re wondering what to get your 5 year old this year for Christmas or his / her birthday, you might want to consider a calculator.    In Virginia calculators are a major part of our elementary mathematics curriculum,  starting in Kindergarten.

Yes, Kindergarten.

Got 5th graders? Better Get a Calculator

If you have a 5th grade student in PWC,  you better make sure he /she has a calculator.  Because the PWCS Investigations based curriculum for grade 5 is all about calculators.

PWC 2009 SOL Scores

The revised 2009 SOL scores have been out for several weeks. Our analysis of the PWC scores is below.

So Much For Balance…..

Last year the Prince William County School Board passed a motion calling for “balance” in the county mathematics program. To support their “balance” initiative the school board purchased and provided a copy of the Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley homework master to every county teacher.

In addition to calling for a balanced program of instruction, the school board motion granted teachers the authority to depart from the mandated lesson pacing guides at their own discretion, although funds to purchase alternate instructional materials were not provided.

Teachers and parents looking for a more balanced instructional program waited for the release of the revised lesson pacing guides to see what changes might be reflected in them. Of particular interest were the new Investigations based fifth grade pacing guides as Investigations was not adopted by the state for Grade 5 because it met so few state standards.

The revised pacing guides are out and there are few changes. Computation and number sense, long considered one of Investigations weaknesses, is rarely supplemented beyond the core Investigations program – even in Grade 5. Long division is covered in one 75 minute lesson. Fractions, which had 4th grade students county-wide stumped last year, is unchanged.

The level of discretion afforded to teachers in adapting lesson pacing is summed up with the following statement which appears in the pacing guide for every grade, “Teachers may need to make adjustments based on their specific classroom needs and schedules. However, it is critical that teachers stay as close as possible to the pacing guidelines to ensure that all of the Standards of Learning (SOL) have been taught prior to the Virginia SOL Test, and that, as children move within the Division, their math instruction remains coherent”.

One new document was created over the summer, which bears mentioning. Each unit now has an overview which should have been provided to each teacher and, according to the PWCS web site, will be available online shortly. The unit overviews list the SOL objectives covered in each unit, provide suggested Investigations units for differentiated instruction, and lists the exercises from the SFAW homework master which correlate to the Investigations unit.

Unfortunately, changes to the actual lesson pacing guides are few and far between. Contrary to statements by county officials, the PWCS elementary math program continues to be virtually all Investigations all the time. About the only time balance appears is in promises by administration officials.

Did PWCS Follow the Law?

Did PWCS follow the law when it selected Investigations for K -5 students in county schools?

The answer to that question should be a resounding Yes and easily verified.  But here we are, almost 2 years since that question was first asked, and we still don’t have an answer.

The Virginia Department of Education reviews textbooks submitted to it for content match with the SOLs.  Reviewed textbooks are then listed as either state recommended or non-state recommended, based on that review.   The state allows local school districts to select any textbook they want for their students, whether the textbook is or is not recommended, provided they follow the appropriate regulations.

The state has issued two regulations local school districts are supposed to follow when selecting a textbook –   local adoption of state adopted textbooks and local adoption of non-state adopted textbooks. Investigations, the textbook PWCS adopted for use in grade K – 5 in all county schools, was not adopted by the state for Grade 5 because it didn’t meet enough state standards of learning.  To select Investigations and follow the law, PWCS needed to follow the procedure provided in the regulation governing local adoption of non-state adopted textbooks.

The state regulation governing local adoptions of non-state adopted textbooks is pretty straightforward.  The school district has to convene a committee that’s representative of the district in general, it has to consider the state adopted textbooks, it has to develop a list of evaluation criteria and have those criteria approved by the local school board, and it has to let the state know which textbooks it selected.

Determining whether PWCS did or did not follow these simple steps has been extremely difficult -  particularly determining whether the PWC  school board approved the textbook evaluation criteria – a step which was only necessary because the textbook the school district was considering was not recommended by the state.

Initially PWCS officials claimed that Investigations was approved by the state.  These statements were made by various officials in writing, in testimony before the PWC School Board, and in statements at Math Nights.

Then, after admitting that Investigations was not state adopted for Grade 5, PWCS officials asserted that they didn’t need to follow the state regulation because they’d adopted a subsequent edition of Investigations. Unfortunately, the subsequent edition hasn’t been reviewed by the state which means that the county would still need to follow the state regulation for non-state adopted textbooks.

Then, in written responses to questions submitted under FOIA,  PWCS officials asserted that the textbook evaluation criteria hadn’t been approved by the school board because it wasn’t the school board’s job to approve the textbook evaluation criteria.

Finally, in response to a request that the Attorney General review the applicable regulations to ascertain whether they did or did not apply to PWCS, the attorney for the PWC school board claimed that the textbook evaluation criteria had been approved by the school board when it approved regulation 653-2.

As before, this claim seems to disregard reality in two key areas:

• The textbook evaluation criteria PWCS officials claim are contained in regulation 653-2 in part II D aren’t contained anywhere in the rubric of criteria PWCS officials admit was developed to select a math textbook; and,
• PWC regulation 653-2 was approved by the PWC School Board in September 2004. The VA Board of Education approved the list of recommended and non-state recommended textbooks on January 15, 2005. The regulation PWC officials claim contains the actual textbook evaluation criteria was approved by the PWC School Board four months before the list of state adopted and non-state adopted textbooks was released.

By that logic PWC could select a non-state adopted textbook that teaches that the earth is flat and not obtain school board approval for the criteria used to select that textbook because the actual criteria were contained in a  county regulation passed in 2004.

Determining whether PWCS followed the appropriate state regulation or not shouldn’t be this difficult.

Maybe it’s time for the State Board of Education to investigate.