More Fun with Math Wars

There's now a petition making the rounds--full of inflammatory language and 1/2 truths. I don't love TERC. My opposition to TERC is well-known. I'm famous for being one of the parents who always brings up math at meetings. But I really, really don't like it when people object b/c "We're just above Roosevelt in the rankings!" Gasp! Not the black school district!

Though it's kind of fascinating, some of the classism around here. One kindergarten teacher (I wish I knew her name--I'd happily publish it, b/c she deserves it) told us on the down-low that she wasn't surprised a particular elementary school's scores were low: she could tell by the kids coming into that school. She went on to say that the people on that side of town were poorer and less well-educated, and that there were more families with two working parents who didn't have enough time to go over the kids' homework. My, my. True story.

My take: not enough school time devoted to math for grades five and six, who are in the middle school. Not enough teacher buy-in to the program. Not enough parent support when we switched over. Some weaknesses in the curriculum (no work on basic facts), exacerbated by ideologically purist administrators who blithely told us, "You don't need to do three-place long division. That's what calculators are for." That's red meat to parents who long for the olden days of math education. Weaknesses in the constructivist approach in general (if that's the only thing you do, you're not going to be able to cover as much material, b/c discovery learning just plain takes longer). All this + no preparation for special needs students' potential difficulties = big PR disaster for the administration.