These are some of the online reader reactions to a debate about the math program called Investigations.
This holistic approach to teaching math has been in place in Prince William County elementary Schools for 18 months.
I HATE IT! In first grade my son loved math and he got A's. Now he is in third grade. He's lost his love for math and
I fear has lost his confidence in it. He no longer gets A's.
He struggles with assignments and I feel helpless because he doesn't understand my concept of traditional math and
I don't understand his Investigations.
Why not teach both in class? My child's education is important to me and I am terrified. My husband and I are relocating
in a couple of years. What happens to him then?
* * *
Investigations sounds like a useful tool used in conjunction with traditional math. Exploratory methods in Investigations
will encourage interest in math.
However, the basic skills must also be mastered before students move to the application phase. The experimenting and
waiting until test scores tell us our methods are lacking remind me of the old whole language versus phonics debate. What
do the children do to catch up three years down the road when PWCPS discovers scores have declined?
* * *
Well, unless you're over the age of 60, you probably learned via the new math! LOL. I attended elementary school in
the mid-'60s and I remember my father trying to help me with my math homework and denouncing the new math of the time.
So now it's come full circle. I have to remind everyone that this program didn't just appear in PWC schools this year.
It started last year and the county held numerous open houses and workshops for parents and the community at-large. I attended
one at our school, and another at Forest Park High School.
* * *
The absolute worst math program I have seen in my life. This program has been tried in other places and dropped.
It is the only program given the lowest ratings across the board. I like how it was stated that the kids are still
expected to know basic math.
It surely isn't being taught at school. In desperation, I have resorted to teaching my daughter the real style at home
and even if she gets the answer right at school, it is marked wrong because she didn't follow the new format.
* * *
Parents actually having to contribute to their child's academic well-being at home? What an outrage! Don't worry, however.
In the current paradigm, by the time your kids are in high school they won't be able to do ANY math without a calculator.
Some Reader's Reaction
Posted on 12/27 at 06:57 AM
PWC school system has run amok. An overhaul is desperately needed. Can these teachers
actually teach this math? Where did they learn it? What parent can help with homework. The school has too much money to spend
on far out crap. Maybe with the housing market and economy downturn there will be much less - let's hope so. We could do with
some bureacracy cuts also. The system is out of control. Do we even need a School Board for that matter?
Anonymous
Posted on 12/27 at 05:44 AM
I didn't realize this was an experimental program. My granddaughter - who lives
with us - is in 3rd grade and cannot make change for a dollar - has no idea how to add and subtract - and is doing well in
school. This program is ridiculous - whoever smoked the dope and dreamed it up - on taxpayer dollars - should be shot.
kmccarn
Posted on 12/26 at 09:16 PM
The school board YET AGAIN makes another multi-million-dollar decision against
the wishes of its constituents in the name of the infamous "best nterests of the students."
ugh
Posted on 12/27 at 06:57 PM
'"We have a multi-million dollar investment in this already," Walts said. "If it
was a disaster, [tests] would show that."'... so, as usual with the PWC public schools, its all about the money. and tests
showing that the program is failing certainly wouldn't help requests to the BoC for budget increases, would it...
John B
Posted on 12/27 at 03:18 PM
Bill Quirk, PhD/Mathematics, states "This program is very bad...it omits standard
computational...methods...formulas...terminology. TERC says...their program moves "beyond arithmetic" to offer "significant
math," including important ideas from probability, statistics, 3-D geometry, and number theory. But math is a vertically-structured
knowledge domain. Learning more advanced math isn't possible without first mastering traditional pencil-and-paper arithmetic."
http://wgquirk.com/TERCSV.html
MDH
Posted on 12/27 at 02:41 PM
"I am not only a teacher, I am a facilitator and even partner." Pretty much says
it all, My children don't need facilitators or partners, they need instructors! "I just did as I was told and memorized math,"
said a Rosa Parks Elementary School teacher. And so did most of the rest of us, which is why we can perform basic math functions
in our heads. Just one more example of the schools run amok, using children as test beds and forgetting that their mission
is education not grant procural.
Junior-cant-add
Posted on 12/27 at 12:52 PM
I'm in the 11th grade in PWCPS and I think that this is outrageous. I was taught
math the good old fashioned way: 4 x 3 = 12. I've gotten this far without any problem, now why do they need to go and screw
up a perfectly good system of learning? What if the student moves to another school district? How can this school board GUARANTEE
that these kids will know how to do basic math? It's nice to know that us students are just "experiments" for the curiosity
of the school board. Nice people, eh?
Anonymous
Posted on 12/27 at 12:02 PM
Whose idea was it to mainstream the schools out of their special education programs
so those "savings" could fund stupid ideas like these?
what would DR. KELLY do?
Posted on 12/27 at 09:42 AM
Well, now is the time for someone to buy a few Kumon franchises and open them in
PWC. Fairfax Co. has at least a dozen Kumon centers and plenty of their students from high-scoring schools get outside tutoring
from them. All you have to do is google on TERC and Investigations and you will see what other parent's have had to do to
supplement programs like TERC.
Nicksmama
Posted on 12/27 at 08:40 AM
The US ranks 35th - 35TH! - in the world for mathematical achievement among high
school students. This is completely appalling. PWCS implementation of Math Investigations is using the children of this community
as guinea pigs in what is proving to be a failed experiment. TERC states "traditional elementary math must be discarded because
it...focuses on learning a particular set of procedures for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers,
fractions, and decimals."
MDH
Posted on 12/27 at 08:35 AM
Wilfried Schmid, Dwight Parker Robinson Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University,
stated in remarks at a lecture about TERC "the students are supposed to arrive at mathematical facts and procedures through
a process of communal discover...TERC teacher doesn't explain, and..doesn't teach...If we mathematicians had to re-discover
mathematics on our own, we would not get very far...By the end of fifth grade, TERC students have fallen roughly two years
behind where they should be."
MDH
What more proof do county schools need?LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Potomac News
Friday, January 4, 2008
Regarding your Dec. 27 "Schools will keep Math Investigations," the quoted School Board member, Mr. Richardson, states,
"absent any evidence it's not working we should continue [with the program] and get the evidence that it is working."
What evidence does the school system need? Test scores for PWCS first and second graders last year were in the 44th
and 45th percentile nationally in computational skills under this program!
That's dismal for the Northern Virginia region, so clearly data and math are secondary concerns. "Investigations" is
a program that has been removed from acceptable curriculum in California, Utah, New York City and districts across the country
due to dismal results -- children end up two years behind by fifth grade simply because they're not allowed to master the
basics of mathematics.
I believe the board would think differently if the majority of them had second or third graders suffering under this
fuzzy math program and contending with the burden of finding tutors to make up for the deficiencies.
But as they don't, they're content to continue the experiment on the children of others. Our children and our tax dollars
deserve better.
ROBERT G. BARLOW
Dumfries
Maintaining math Investigations
ONLINE READER REACTION
Potomac News
Friday, January 4, 2008
These are some online readers' comments in reaction to a Dec. 27 article about the Prince William County School
Board's decision to keep the math program, Investigations.
"We have a multi-million dollar investment in this already," Walts said. "If it was a disaster,
[tests] would show that." So, as usual with the Prince William County public schools, its all about the money. And tests showing
that the program is failing certainly wouldn't help requests to the Board of County Supervisors for budget increases, would
it?
* * *
"I am not only a teacher, I am a facilitator and even partner."
Pretty much says it all. My children don't need facilitators or partners, they need instructors!
"I just did as I was told and memorized math," said a Rosa Parks elementary school teacher.
And so did most of the rest of us, which is why we can perform basic math functions in our heads.
Just one more example of the schools run amok, using children as test beds and forgetting that their mission is education
not grant procural.
* * *
* * *
The US ranks 35th -- 35TH! -- in the world for mathematical achievement among high school students.
This is completely appalling. Prince William County Schools implementation of the math program,
Investigations, is using the children of this community as guinea pigs in what is proving to be a failed experiment.
* * *
The Prince William County school system has run amok. An overhaul is needed. Can these teachers
actually teach this math? Where did they learn it? What parent can help with homework?
The school has too much money to spend on far-out crap. Maybe with the housing market and economy
downturn there will be much less.
We could do with some bureaucracy cuts also. The system is out of control. Do we even need
a School Board for that matter?
