Using Video to Reinvent Education

Have you all heard about Khan Academy? It's a wonderful online resource for math instruction and tutoring. The above video from TED.com came to us through an interesting blog post from Reading Rockets.

Sal Khan hosts video lectures on math concepts in an entertaining, easy to understand way.  He even says that teachers have starting assigning his video lectures as "homework" and then using class time to work out problems (used to be "homework").  Kids seem to be learning well this way!

To read more on their suggestions for online learning, click here.

Click here to link to Khan Academy.

Oh - and one more thing.  You know I always harp on my pipe dream of giving all students an iPad or Kindle loaded with their textbooks instead of making them lug around heavy, expensive textbooks (at least in middle and high school)... Well, the pushback has been due to the "cost" of the technology.  But -- get this - once you buy the hardware (at a discounted bulk rate of course), then you can download all the FREE Open Source textbooks you want at ck12.org. So, costs not looking as bad, eh?  Check it out by clicking here.

'Algebra-for-All' Push Found to Yield Poor Results

This just in (from Education Week) --

A new study has confirmed, “Simply sticking students in courses without preparing them ahead of time for the class does not seem to work as an intervention,” said Chrys Dougherty, the author of the Arkansas and Texas analysis, published last month by the National Center for Educational Achievement, in Austin, which is owned by the test publisher ACT Inc. “It seems to work with adequately prepared students, but not for the most challenged students.”

That said, when students were given a "double-dose" of daily algebra, their test scores improved.

As the trends became evident, the school system in 2003 began requiring 9th graders who scored below the national median on standardized math tests in 8th grade to take an algebra “support” class in addition to a regular algebra class. Students who scored higher continued to take a single period of algebra.

For the Chicago consortium’s study, the researchers compared outcomes for students just above and below the cutoff for the “double dose” classes.

Worried about the potential for reintroducing tracking, the district also provided professional-development workshops and other resources to the teachers of the support classes, according to Ms. Allensworth.

“Because teachers had more time and resources, the instructional quality in those classes improved quite a bit,” she said. “But the classes ended up concentrating more students with attendance and behavioral problems.”

In the end, the study found, failure rates increased for both the targeted students and for their peers in single-period algebra classes. On the other hand, algebra test scores rose substantially for the students in the double-dose classes.

“The district thought [the double-dose initiative] was a failure because it did not improve pass rates, but our analysis showed that test scores improved a lot,” Ms. Allensworth said. ...

Tom Loveless, the author of the report from the Washington-based Brookings Institution on “misplaced” math students in algebra, said the issue is even more complex.

“No one has figured out how to teach algebra to kids who are seven or eight years behind before they get to algebra, and teach it all in one year,” said Mr. Loveless, who favors interventions for struggling students at even earlier ages.

Nationwide, research findings may diverge because testing content varies—the TIMSS test has more algebra content than many state exams taken by 8th graders—and because course content varies from classroom to classroom.

“If you take what’s called algebra class, and you look at the actual distribution of allocated time, you find that many of those teachers spend a very large portion of that year on basic arithmetic,” said Mr. Schmidt, who is a distinguished university professor of education at Michigan State’s East Lansing campus. His research on U.S. classrooms has found, in fact, that nearly a third of students studying algebra are using arithmetic books in their classes.

Likewise, Mr. Loveless’ study found that “misplaced” students tended to attend large urban schools where their teachers were more likely to have less than five years of experience, less likely to hold a regular teaching certificate, and less likely to have majored in math than teachers of typical 8th grade algebra students.

“It may well have more to do with whether students have been given adequate opportunities to learn this stuff,” Mr. Schmidt said of the disappointing findings that have emerged from some studies.

Let’s Talk about K-12 Mathematics

A Morning with Parents - - attend these seminars

January 30, 2010 at Oak View Elementary School

February 20, 2010 at Peachtree Middle School

February 27, 2010 at Miller Grove High School

• 8:30-8:45 A.M. Continental Breakfast
• 8:45 A.M. Welcome and Overview of the Day
• 8:45–11:25 A.M Concurrent Sessions
• 11:30 A.M. Closing Session and Door Prizes

Elementary School Session Descriptions

9:00 – 9:45 AM

I. Georgia Department of Education’s Parent Resources

The state department for education in Georgia has a wealth of information for parents to learn about the Georgia Performance Standards in mathematics. This web site also includes information about the CRCT and brochures for parents. This web site also has the state frameworks for mathematics instruction that contain a collection of learning activities based on major mathematical concepts.

9:50 – 10:35 AM

II. Education Place Web Site for Student Textbook in Math and Other Resources

In this session, parents will learn about the student Math Georgia textbook that is available online at no cost. The Eduplace web site has: (1) parent letters regarding math instruction, (2) vocabulary, (3) games, (4) parent tools and resources, and (5) the Math Georgia Textbook.

10:40 – 11:25 AM

III. DeKalb Resources for Mathematics to Expect and/or Ask to Receive In this session, parents will receive an explanation regarding pertinent parental involvement resources that communicate information about elementary mathematics. Parents will receive hard copies of these resources so they can ask about them when they work with the teacher in discussing their child’s progress.

Middle School Session Descriptions

9:00 – 9:45 AM

I. The Georgia Performance Standards

In this session, parents will learn about the Georgia Performance Standards Curriculum. The session will include information about standards-based education, how and why the mathematics curriculum has changed, and the course sequence options for middle school students.

9:50 – 10:35 AM

II. Website Review for Student Textbook and Georgia Department of Education’s Parent Resources

In this session, parents will learn about the Connected Mathematics2 textbook web resource which has: (1) parent letters regarding math instruction, (2) homework help, (3) multiple choice skill practice, and (4) vocabulary practice. The session will also focus on the Georgia Department of Education website which has a wealth of information for parents to learn about the Georgia Performance Standards and CRCT test preparation. The websites includes the state frameworks tasks for mathematics instruction, parent letters designed to explain mathematics content aligned with the framework tasks, and sample CRCT practice problems.

10:40 – 11:25 AM

III. Middle School Mathematics and the Standards- Based Classroom In this session, parents will learn about what to expect in a standards-based classroom and become more informed regarding the Look For’s that will help equip parents with questions to ask during parent-teacher conferences.

High School Session Descriptions

9:00 - 9:45 AM

I. GPS v QCC This session will provide information regarding the new curriculum, Georgia Performance Standards (GPS), as it compares to the former one, Quality Core Curriculum (QCC).

9:50 - 10:35 AM

II. The Standards-Based High School Math Classroom This session will discuss and model the standards-based instructional strategies, which should be used in each high school mathematics classroom.

10:40 - 11:25 AM

III. Testing 101 This session will highlight the high-stakes tests associated with each grade level as well as provide test-taking strategies that parents can implement to benefit their children.

RECAP of links:

Click here for GA Performance Standards

DeKalb Online Assessment Access

Georgia Online Assessment Access

Pearson textbook web resource

Visit this link to register.

So, Shayna was right!

Fulton educators are waffling on the new math. As reported recently in NorthFulton.com, "It’s out with the new and in with the old for 2010 as the Fulton County School System prepares to dump the controversial math curriculum in favor of back-to-the-basics traditional math."

Shayna kindly wrote an article for this blog back in July, called, "All About Math" in which she made an incredibly cogent argument for holding off on the wholesale implementation of the new Georgia math curriculum. Shayna researched the topic diligently and came to the conclusion that, while the curriculum is a good one at it's core, it is very difficult to teach and requires an incredible amount of teacher training. She further noted that although Cobb and Gwinnett chose to layer the new curriculum over the old a piece at a time, DeKalb instead chose to go in "whole hog". Her findings were very interesting and although she shared a copy of her article with each board member and appealed to them as a speaker at a board meeting, the program was implemented - "all in" - anyway.

Now comes Fulton County, reporting, "“While students were certainly challenged with [the new standards], the way of teaching with the discovery or inquiry method was confusing to some students, teachers and parents,” said Loe.

The system also began to see fewer students being accelerated or advanced, and students not working to their full potential, noted Loe. More significantly, high school math teachers began seeing students who lacked basic computation skills and math scores on nationally-normed tests began flat-lining or dropping."

Fulton leaders also tell us, "In coming to the decision to dump Investigations and Connections, Loe and her staff looked at the results of a recent book which summarized 50,000 studies of student achievement to determine which practices actually correlate to higher achievement. What the study found was direct instruction far exceeded results over inquiry-based learning."

This could be bad. Are there math teachers out there or parents who would like to share their experiences with DeKalb's new math? We really need to keep our eyes on the math ball -- even as our administration continues to distract us with all kinds of irrelevant emergencies.

New Math Finally Explained!

SwitchedOnMom in her blog, The More Child, which focuses on giftedness and teaching advanced and AP courses, has this to say to Jay Mathews regarding pushing the math curriculum in high schools:

Jay Mathews, as they say, has some “’splaining ” to do. From his column in today’s Washington Post.

Nobody writing about schools has been a bigger supporter of getting more students into eighth-grade algebra than I have been. I wrote a two-part series for the front page six years ago that pointed out how important it is to be able to handle algebra’s abstractions and unknown quantities before starting high school. I have argued that we should rate middle schools by the percentage of students who complete Algebra I by eighth grade.

Now, because of a startling study being released today, I am having second thoughts.

Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, has looked at the worst math students, those scoring in the bottom 10th on the National Assessment of Educational Progress eighth-grade test. He discovered that 28.6 percent of them — let me make that clear: nearly three out of every 10 — were enrolled in first-year algebra, geometry or second-year algebra. Almost all were grossly misplaced, probably because of the push to get kids into algebra sooner.

For more on the subject, read her post titled, "Just Say No to Accelerated Math", or the recent post by blogger Frizzle titled, "Algebra and AP - No, not for everyone".