Georgia math students stymied by accelerated pace and complex concepts expected in high school
One of the most well-informed group of posters on this blog has been parents and teachers concerned over the state’s new methodology for teaching math. I am eager to hear their comments on the statewide End of Course test results for Math II.
Only 52 percent of the students who took the End of Course Test for Math II in May passed, the state recently reported. Many students in metro Atlanta schools who took the tests squeaked by with barely passing grades, earning modest average scores of C’s and D’s for their districts.
The freshman class, meanwhile, fared somewhat better on the Math I End of Course Test, with 64 percent passing.
The benchmark scores reflect what several educators and parents have been saying all along: The new math curriculum, souped-up to get teens competitive for college, is leaving some students in the dust.
Tamela Cosby, an Atlanta Public Schools high school teacher, said only 20 percent of her ninth- and 10th-graders passed the final. They also struggled with the material in class.
“Since the course is a little difficult for the students, it’s not enough time to teach to mastery,” Cosby said. “They are not really understanding the material. For a lot of them, it’s the reading comprehension. They are not understanding what is being asked of them. It’s not just two plus two, there are word problems. They are not used to thinking in that aspect.”
About 80,000 teens statewide failed final exams in Math I and Math II in May.
Students in Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett schools earned a C-average for their district on the Math II End of Course Test. The lowest marks went to Atlanta Public Schools and Clayton County Schools, sharing a D-average on both Math I and Math II End of Course Tests. Two more affluent districts at opposite ends of the metro area — Forsyth and Fayette — rose to the top of the class, however, with students earning the equivalent of B’s on both Math I and Math II exams.
Kelly Price, a curriculum coordinator in Forsyth, saw her district do well, but she understood the challenges.
“Some students were good at the other way of doing math because all they had to do was memorize and regurgitate,” she said. “They never applied or understood, but they were good at spitting it back out. Now, we are asking them to put the pieces together. That is a whole different level of demonstrating mastery.”
The state Department of Education is optimistic that math scores will improve over time as teens adjust to the accelerated pace and get more familiar with complex concepts in algebra, geometry and statistics, which are being taught to students sooner than ever before. They see the end goal of dramatically improving state SAT scores and churning out classes of grads able to compete globally for jobs and admission to top colleges without remediation as within Georgia’s reach.
“We have to have well-educated students no matter what they are going to do after high school,” said Janet Davis, math program manager for the state DOE. “Our students have to be mathematically able to function in a 21st-century society. They are going to have to be problem solvers in a very different world.”
Beginning with the Class of 2012, every student must pass four years of math to receive a college prep diploma even if he or she plans to attend a technical school or enter the work force after graduation.
Some teens on the path to graduation got off to a shaky start. About 39,400 students failed the Math II End of Course Test, which accounts for 15 percent of their grade. About 40,600 students failed the Math I End of Course Test.
For the failing and near failing, help could soon be on the way. The state may allow some struggling math students to take an emergency break to keep them from veering off course toward a timely graduation.
State math officials have asked the Board of Education to consider a measure at their August meeting that will allow low-performing students headed for Math III — an Algebra II and statistics course – to instead take the slower Math III support class full time to meet their third-year requirement. Support classes for struggling students, taken in concert with math courses, spend more time on explaining complex math lessons. They were designed to help students be more successful at passing math core classes.
“This is a bridge measure we could put in place for the first two graduating classes instead of continuing to push them on into Math III,” Davis explained. “Our goal has always been to make sure that our students are learning the concepts at the most rigorous level possible, but not at the expense of our students.”
If successful at Math III support for the year, students could then take Math III senior year, Davis said.
If the state board approves the option, it could soon be extended to students across metro Atlanta where math final test scores were mediocre.
Despite her best efforts, even Donna Aker, a Gwinnett high school math teacher, said her daughter earned only a D in her Math II course with tutoring at school and at home from Mom. Aker said her own classes of Math I freshmen didn’t fare much better. Only about 60 percent of them passed the Math I course — with D’s, not A’s or B’s, as they tried to recall facts and formulas she says some may not even use after graduation.
“This is a true college-bound curriculum we are teaching — not all children are going to college,” said Aker. “I just don’t think that the one-size-fits-all approach is the way to go.”
It was a different story in Forsyth. Price said she is pleased with her district’s scores, adding that they will curb anxiety parents and students had about the state’s accelerated math program.
Price attributes Forsyth’s success to staff development and teachers sharing information on lessons that unlock the mysteries of math for struggling students. Math support also was used to help slower learners achieve better results.
Why are other students struggling in math? Aker, a 28-year veteran teacher and co-president of the Gwinnett County Association of Educators, says the math is aggressive and fast, which can intimidate slower learners; teachers are still learning the pitfalls of the curriculum, and they have to cover more ground.
Aker also said parents should be pushing their kids to work harder at home and at school.
Weisu Nugent of Atlanta says the new math curriculum will benefit students if they stick with it and study hard. She says her daughter, an 11th-grader at Druid Hills High, is soaring in accelerated math classes.
“If a child doesn’t have the habit of studying, when you reach a certain age, it gets more difficult,” she said. “It is hard for them to start high school math because when they reach high school, a lot of the kids don’t have a solid foundation. You have to practice every day.”
State officials predict that math final exam scores will climb. The new math curriculum was introduced to sixth-graders in 2005. The Class of 2019 will be the first to have had the accelerated math exposure from kindergarten through 12th grade.
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277 comments Add your comment
Color me confused
July 30th, 2010
3:15 pm
Dunwoody Mom
There was never a plan for the following issues:
Students whose skills in math were significantly behind.
Students who move into GA in the middle of a level — be it middle school or high school.
In fact, at an early meeting about the proposed changes to GA’s math curriculum, someone asked about the fact that GA was one of the fastest growing states in the country, with literally the fastest growing county in the country at the time, and what role would that play into curriculum design.
That person was told NONE.
Great plan, I say.
Lori
July 30th, 2010
3:16 pm
A one size fits all approach is stupid. Not all kids can achieve the same level in math or any subject for that matter. We seem more concerned about not hurting kids feelings because they aren’t in the same class as others, than we are about helping each kid reach his or her OWN potential. When I was in school we had accelerated, average, and basic level classes and everyone was assigned to a class based on his skill/performance. What is wrong with that set up. Not every kid is meant for college, so why make them flunk a bunch of classes they don’t need? It would be a better idea to give them a good foundation of skills that will help them in whatever vocation they choose, rather than let them waste time in a class they can never pass. And for the accelerated learners, why hold them back so the others can catch up. We need to push gifted students to further excel. You can’t do this putting everyone in the same class.
South GA Math II Teacher
July 30th, 2010
3:17 pm
To help with so many students being absent from the flu last year, I put over 7 hours (64 videos) of Math II lectures on YouTube to help my students. If you are a Math II Student or Teacher you should check it out. Search “MrCoachCollins” Subscribe so that you will be notified of new videos. Oh yea, I had over 85% pass the EOCT during the spring.
john konop
July 30th, 2010
3:24 pm
I am voting for Attentive Parent!
East Cobb Parent
July 30th, 2010
3:59 pm
I agree with John Konop! It is refreshing to find someone with facts and does not get in a huff because someone disagrees. Instead AP always comes back with the facts.
college prof
July 30th, 2010
4:01 pm
“Math and science are areas where knowledge is cumulative.” YES.
“Math is a sequential subject. ” Not necessarily. There are many math topics where the sequence really doesn’t matter. There is nothing in nature of mathematics that says we have to study Geometry after Algebra I. How can we argue that we wait too long before we discuss a related topic in Mah 1, 2, 3, and 4 while ignoring a 1-year gap between Algebra 1 and 2? What about geometry? Why is it ok for students not to see geometry for a year (or more) before they take the formal study of geometry?
Some teachers teach well and others are mediocre, at best.
Some students “succeed” in some contexts, but not necessarily in others.
It wasn’t like our students were succeeding so much in the traditional HS courses, either.
Mom of 2 boys
July 30th, 2010
4:28 pm
I understand GA wanting to imporve math test scores, buy why couldn’t they have copied what another successful school system in another state was using? This would have had the advantaege of KNOWING that the curriculum worked. Why did they have to reinvent the wheel? This experiment also doesn’t take into consideration our mobile society. I pity the kids who move in or out of GA schools.
As a parent of two kids, class of 2012 and 2013, I’m concerned about this “experiment” in teaching math in GA. What if these kids don’t get it?
Mine are doing fine, they are both in advance classes, something the powers that be didn’t take into consideration since they didn’t have the curriculm prepared for the advanced kids in the class of 2012. The rising 10th grader will be taking Math 4, so even though he will have completed what others can graduate with, he has to take more math to have 4 credits of high school math.
In talking to teachers in several districts in GA, they say it doesn’t allow enough time for review for the kids who have trouble grasping the concepts and doesn’t offer a remedial course to allow kids who learn at a slower pace than others to at least grasp SOME of the concepts.
What a farce for the majority of the kids of our state.
Really amazed
July 30th, 2010
4:50 pm
Once again, thank you all for this wonderful blog!! I will keep busting my behind to keep sending my children to private with traditional math. Sure do wish Georgia could/would get it together for our children’s sake! This was one of the very reasons to begin with that they are still in private. My son is such a wonderful math student and didn’t want to mess things up! Although I bet he would have been fine. Just wasn’t willing to gamble with his future!
Frustrated and Disgusted
July 30th, 2010
4:50 pm
Maureen,
What East Cobb Parent said about Fordham is correct. Several of us have made the call and spoken to them directly. Sounds to me like GA did a “bait and switch” and the AJC continues to tout erroneous information.
As for what I’d like to have seen changed, you’re darn right the previous curriculum was not challenging enough. I knew that when my eldest hit 1st grade and was immediately bored. But, I contend, it could have been beefed-up without the glorified sprinkling of snake-oil we have today. Private schools and public schools in other states seem to do rather well with traditional math. What were they doing different than GA? Maybe the DOE should have followed their curriculum instead of spending millions on this new curriculum.
What about different abilities? Rapid-fire topic changes result in more frustration and angst for struggling students. Additionally, these same topical switches don’t allow for mastery or flexibility should more/less time be needed. Traditional demarcations (Algebra, Geometry, etc.) with more emphasis on real world situations/examples would have allowed more depth in material to be reviewed to help out struggling students, in addition to allowing those academically advanced in math to double-up on classes should they so desire. That’s what I did and I found it very helpful when I went to Georgia Tech.
Let’s also talk about the benefit of math in discreet units as it relates to teachers and content. Irrespective of the discovery methodology being pushed like crack, the half-baked souffle we currently have demands that the teacher is totally versed in all math subjects and can accompany the class through the sporadic topics. Notice, I did not say “lead”. This ill-conceived and poorly implemented curriculum also mandates that the student generate their own knowledge fountain by tapping into the fire hose the state looped around their necks. This is a recipe for disaster as there is no MASTERY.
Math is, for lack of another term, a “language”. To speak it well, you need to learn the roots and then apply them. Asking students to “discover” math on their own while distracting them with 20, 30, …different content streams only leads to spotty knowledge and incorrect assumptions.
Who is being served here? Not the students, their parents, or the teachers. Follow the money and you will see who benefits most from edufads. Here’s a hint: tutors, publishers, and grant writers.
Dunwoody Mom
July 30th, 2010
4:53 pm
Back in time, we took Algebra I, then Geometry, then Algebra II. That was all the Math that was required when I was coming up through the DCSS.
Dunwoody Mom
July 30th, 2010
4:55 pm
The “real” answers, imo, will come with the SAT MAth scores of this year upcoming junior class, class of 2012.
Gwinnett HS Teacher
July 30th, 2010
4:56 pm
@ Atlanta Mom
Implementation has a great deal to do with it. If you read the article it states that the 2019 class will be the first class to have the accelerated program from K to high school. These students should be much better prepared for the high school courses than those students of today.
Kathy Cox should have delayed the implementation of the “new” math until students had the opportunity to learn the required skills taught at lower levels. Instead she pushes forth the high school implementation plans before the students are prepared enough to be successful.
john konop
July 30th, 2010
5:03 pm
college prof ,
Not everyone can be college professor. In the real world I would rather see a kid coming out with a skill for a job than be a lab experiment for you and Kathy Cox that becomes a drop-out who has a high chance ending up in prison.
I realize cutting hair, plumbing….is all beneath you in your mind. But some of us less intellectual people call it a respectable job and a talent.
HS Math Teacher
July 30th, 2010
5:20 pm
I would love to thank the Atlanta Journal & Constitution for putting this vent column up on their website. It does give us teachers, parents, and concerned citizens of Georgia the opportunity to get our frustrations out, to share ideas, and to be heard. And I thank Maureen Downey (love the Irish) for bringing up this topic, over and over. She is willing to take some on the chin for the good of openness and clarity.
Now, with that said, and knowing that people who have the highest decision making power at the Georgia Department of Education get wind of such cesspools of thought, how much more does it take to get you into action & create a less demanding track of education? The recent crack in the armor of Math III Support counting as a Carnegie unit….are you freaking kidding?!?!?!? There are kids in school that will never be employed, much less rise to the level of short order cook at a convenience store!!!! Do you think that all kids want to learn about, care for, or are capable of learning the intricacies of Conic Sections?!?!?!?! I’m not complaining about the curriculum. Smart, motivated kids can learn just about anything they put their minds to. I’m talking about the bottom of the barrel that some schools in the north end of the state don’t have to worry about.
I just got through going over about 30 different school systems “average EOCT scores” from around Georgia (not just South and Middle Georgia), and all I see are C’s & D’s for Math I & II. Last year, they were so horrendous, they weren’t released. Almost all of the schools that had C’s were in the low 70’s. The highest C was a 76. This year, cut scores were lowered to around 50% of questions answered correctly, and we still have crap for grades. As I mentioned earlier, my average Final Grade for the year of the students I taught in one of these Japped-up courses was just 5 points higher than the average score for the EOCT. Both sucked to the highlands of my native Scotland.
The prevalent thought seems to be…”Well, we think that everything will get better over the next few years.” EVERY YEAR MEANS A DAMNED LOT, WHEN YOU’RE ONE OF THE KIDS IN THE “EXPERIMENT”!!!! NOT EVERYONE HAS A 100K DOLLAR A YEAR JOB WHERE YOU LOOK OUT THE WINDOWS OF THE SLOPPY FLOYD BUILDING AND SAY…TISK TISK…MAYBE THE KIDS WILL GET SMARTER IF WE FORCE THEM TO BE.
Concerned 1
July 30th, 2010
5:38 pm
Why does my schedule have to be adjusted for “Teach For America?” Why? Might as well dig my way to China. Nobody appreciates me here.
high school teacher
July 30th, 2010
5:53 pm
john konop, Gwinnett Parent asked if the new math curriculum was the reason that the high school kid at Kroger couldn’t figure out 75% of 3.00. I replied that kids couldn’t count change even when they were being taught on the old curriculum. Not sure why you think I am implying anything with that response.
Iggy
July 30th, 2010
6:01 pm
I agree with those who think we need an addional emphasis on a lower track. For most people, what they really need is good arithmetic skills, basic algebra, and a smattering of statistics to function in 90% of jobs and in their personal lives. Better to get students who don’t need advanced algebra or pre-calculus build their skill in arithmetic and algebra. Fluency in solving word problems is essential. Why make kids take classes they will do poorly in that they don’t even need. It’s a waste of self-esteem and resources.
college prof
July 30th, 2010
6:55 pm
john konop,
Don’t put words in my mouth (on my fingers???).
Some people may want to keep certain groups of people “in their places,” but I want to give all children opportunities to pursue the careers THEY want to pursue. Mathematics, like it or not, is a gate keeper, and we need to keep the gate open as long as possible for all students – no matter what the color of their skin may be or how rich their parents might be.
Veteran teacher, 2
July 30th, 2010
7:04 pm
I am really tired of hearing the same arguments by the same people on both sides. This is what, the 7th or 8th blog on this topic? No one on either side has changed their mind.
As for myself, I am going to teach math. My students will hopefully learn math. Hopefully, we will all have a fun and rewarding experience!
booklover
July 30th, 2010
7:06 pm
I agree with much that has already been said, especially about some students not being ready in 9th (or even 10th!) grade for the abstract concepts as presented in Math I. Furthermore, I agree that the authors of this “curriculum” clearly have no knowledge whatsoever of developmental psychology and therefore shouldn’t be authoring textbooks for developing brains.
Student mobility is a HUGE issue in my district because we encompass a military base. The comment from the GA-DOE about not even CONSIDERING student mobility and transition is very, very telling. How are 10th grade students coming from other states supposed to adjust to this math system? What about the kids who leave after 9th or 10th grade?
Veteran teacher, 2
July 30th, 2010
7:06 pm
I am really tired of hearing the same arguments by the same people on both sides. This is what, the 7th or 8th blog on this topic? No one on either side has changed their mind.
As for myself, I am going to teach math. My students will hopefully learn math as they have for the past 30+ years. Hopefully, we will all have a fun and rewarding experience!
HS Math Teacher
July 30th, 2010
7:13 pm
Veteran teacher, #2: If you’re tired of hearing the same complaints, from the “same people”……then…….GET YOUR LITTLE ASS OFF THIS VENUE, AND GET READY TO HAVE A BANG-UIP YEAR AT YOUR SCHOOL!!!!!!
Ella Smith
July 30th, 2010
7:18 pm
Cherokeemom,I am sorry that happen to your daughter and you. I can understand your frustration. Was your daughter not getting some special education services for her deficit in math? Was she not being team taught or Co-taught? We make rigid rules in school but sometimes they hurt students instead of helping them.
Maureen Downey
July 30th, 2010
8:02 pm
@East Cobb and Frustrated, I am surprised at your experience with Fordham as I participated in a conference call last week that included all the reviewers of the standards and the leadership staff of the institute, including the president and CEO.
I specifically asked about Georgia math and no one made any mention of what you were told. If there were problems, the folks at Fordham thought they were in implementation and not in the standards themselves.
Have you looked at the Fordham report on Georgia math and English standards?
Maureen
Ole Guy
July 30th, 2010
8:24 pm
Hey, Dunwoody Mom, hubby’s right on the button…MATH IS MATH. The study of mathematics is the study of a language. If you look at it that way (if kids can visualize it that way), English is English, just as dialects from across a particular country all spring from the basic language. Just as English spoken in Louisiana, Alabama, and New York may sound somewhat alienated from one another, they all spring from the common study (presumably) of English structure, grammar, and useage. The very same might be said of the perhaps hundreds of dialects spoken across the vast expanse of a particular country…they all have commonalities in one strange way or another.
If kids could be “trained” (perhaps “conditioned” would be a better way of expressing this concept) to view the complexities of math in this manner, the floodgates could conceivably burst open in the classrooms across Georgia.
As I understand the recent article on the issue, much of the difficulties lie, not so much in the mechanics of arithmetic, but in hidden confusion of word problems…being able to translate the written language into a workable mathematical solution. The problems lie, not so much in a lack of math acumen, but in the language aspects of the math world.
I don’t want to appear as minimizing the issues which face these kids, but if they, just for the moment, stop viewing math as a complex machinery, and instead visualize it as just another communication media…just another language intended to portray value/numerical relationships within this crazy world, we just might see some rather pleasant results.
Like my Papy used to say, “Can’t hurt”!
Count DeKalb's Legal Fees
July 30th, 2010
8:30 pm
What kind of math do we need, Maureen, to count up the almost $6,000,000 in legal fees for the DeKalb County School System? This, by the way, is a much more interesting topic. This math stuff is quite boring.
East Cobb Parent
July 30th, 2010
8:36 pm
The question I asked Fordham was if given the complete document to review would the score have been the same. The response is what was reviewed is not what is in place. What question did you ask about GA’s math?
john konop
July 30th, 2010
9:13 pm
college prof,
WOW, play the race card when you get caught. You arrogant attitude about education is hurting poor people of all races the most. People with money can hire tutors or use private schools while you and Kathy Cox fail at your science experiment with kids.
This is not about race; it is about educational elitist like you treating people with less money like rats in a lab. The irony of you playing the race card; while playing sick games with students with less money!
So you're suprised!!!
July 30th, 2010
9:26 pm
So, are you really surprised that this hasn’t worked? How many new initiatives has the GA Dept of Ed come up with in the past 25 years? I don’t know the answer, but with every new initiative performance declines. So, when are we going to wise up and quit listening to them.
Let’s go back to reading, writing and arithmetic. Keep students in the 1st and 2nd grade until they can read. Keep them in the 4th grade until they can do long division. Make them write til their fingers cramp; recite til their voices fade; math problems til they can do them in their heads and not their calculators. Don’t promote them til they master the subject. Don’t allow them to get a drivers license at 16 unless they are on grade level.
Got the picture. Raise the bar and hold them, and their parents, accountable. Our teahers can do it if we get the professional educators in Atlanta and Washington out of the classroom.
college prof
July 30th, 2010
10:04 pm
Truth hurts, huh?
Attentive Parent
July 30th, 2010
10:30 pm
Maureen,
If you spoke with Fordham last week, wouldn’t you have been talking about the Common Core Standards?
I have discussed with the head reviewers of the 1998 and 2005 Fordham math reviews about what happened in Georgia. I have also corresponded with the individual reviewers on 2005.
There are 2 essential problems. In both reviews the state failed to supply the existing instructional frameworks as requested; thereby implying they did not exist.
Secondly, the 2005 review did not include the high school standards which are the subject of this column. Furthermore if you actually read the 2005 report the reasons Georgia was graded down were the fuzzy, inquiry oriented features of the standards that became the hallmark of the actual state imposed implementation.
Why don’t you set up a discussion with the Fordham authors about the GPS and the implications of a curriculum centered around the learning tasks of the Instructional Frameworks?
For added fun we will discuss how the new Model Teaching Standards under Common Core essentially mirror the frameworks. It will be an illuminating experience.
The days when the Fordham name could stop a substantive discussion of the facts are over.
nutty shell
July 30th, 2010
10:53 pm
@Iggy
I would also recommend students need more plain number sense. Decimal place, how to read numbers. Most tech jobs require an understanding of tolerances (measure). PSI, load, current, converting metric to standard and back again. Remember what happened to the Hubbel because of faulty measurement. Also didnt we lose a space probe because of incorrect miles to KM conversion.
Like the Dodge/Jeep commerical has stated when Americans build something it makes us feel good. I know some want to say we are becoming an infomation society but we still have to BUILD stuff here in our country. Tanks, ships, planes, trains, etc….
I got to say also America got two things right:
FREEDOM and CARS
got a hemi
school starts next week!
July 30th, 2010
11:13 pm
South GA Math II Teacher: Thanks for the video links!!
Really amazed
July 31st, 2010
12:03 am
I am still very confused. If Georgia wins RTTT won’t they be forced to go back to what math the common core standards are?????? I believe traditional math??? Does anyone know the answer to this or is this another surprise that one day in the middle of the school year they will announce? Just when the teachers finally figure out and are use to intergrated/combo meal math.
Mike Honcho Himself
July 31st, 2010
12:09 am
Georgia standards are very similar to the common core standards. However, I’d be surprised if other states would agree in the order Georgia is currently teaching them. If the goal is for many states to take the same test, then I hope the order in which the common core standards will make common core sense.
ScienceTeacher671
July 31st, 2010
12:11 am
Maureen, I haven’t had much time today but would like to quickly address the question “2. Our students were not doing well on national and international comparisons on the old math. Do you think we need to change at all and, if so, to what?”
IMO, the problem was not the old math curriculum. The problem then was the basis of much of the problem now: Our students don’t learn basic skills in elementary school, but they get socially promoted anyway. They have no foundation upon which to build when they reach high school.
That’s one reason I’d like to see a correlation of EOCT scores with CRCT scores. I’d bet that most of the students who are failing have been behind since 3rd or 5th grade.
Mike Honcho Himself
July 31st, 2010
12:11 am
It is late
last sentence should have read “are taught” between standards and will.
ScienceTeacher671
July 31st, 2010
12:12 am
If the problem was the traditional progression of math courses, why is it that most of the students attending such schools as MIT had the traditional sequences?
john konop
July 31st, 2010
5:51 am
College prof,
The truth is that many of us were screaming for years that we could see that kids were having problems with the lab experiment from you and Kathy Cox. And now the real numbers are finally released after Kathy Cox resigned to become a lobbyist money changer in Washington and the numbers indicate it is even worse the most of us were warning about.
The biggest victims were poor people of all races and you call me a racist. How do you sleep at night?
Old School
July 31st, 2010
8:06 am
Seems to me this country’s infrastructure, architecture, factories, recreational facilities, even its ever-changing technologies were all designed and built by people who were schooled in the traditional maths. Today’s teachers who are presenting it to today’s students (with few exceptions) studied the “old fashioned” maths.
If the current courses are to be successfully taught, the teachers expected to teach it must first master the concepts and then master the best methods of presenting it to the students. Just my opinion, but I think it’s a valid one. Teachers must be comfortable and competent in their subject area and I seriously doubt if many math teachers across our state are.
MADMOMof3
July 31st, 2010
8:32 am
I find the whole thing frustrating. There are no text books, there is no “back up” plan. There is no clear direction for the teachers teaching the curriculum for the first time. I’m VERY angry that when this was being discussed, the state was targeting parents of older children for discussion, not the parent of 6th and 7th graders at the time. This has been disastrous for HS career. Lots of turmoil, lots of tears and now she’s going to have a smeared transcript following her around for the rest of her life.
Way to go GA DOE! You validate Neal Boortz’s assertion that public school is the most insidious form child abuse.
Results
July 31st, 2010
9:10 am
I’m having trouble finding the 2009-2010 EOCT results. We are the state, district and local results published?
Results
July 31st, 2010
9:14 am
Are the EOCT results for the state, district and local schools published somewhere?
Attentive Parent
July 31st, 2010
9:31 am
Looks like we are not the only ones wondering what is Fordham thinking with its Common Core recs and why?
http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/97110.html
I would add that it’s important to understand the Philanthropy Roundtable and how it works in education to really appreciate who the vested interests are.
Would it surprise anyone to know that Chester Finn, the President of Fordham, is also on the Board of Philanthropy Roundtable or that Fordham gets a lot of Gates money?
I have long admired Finn’s work but I think he has spent too much time in the echo chamber on this issue I did not find his explanation of his contrary 1997 views on national standards to be persuasive nor was he forthcoming that he had previously taken the opposite position in print.
Curious.
Maureen Downey
July 31st, 2010
9:44 am
@Results. The AJC has districts posted but not individual schools
http://www.ajc.com/news/2010-end-of-course-580598.html
Attentive Parent
July 31st, 2010
9:51 am
To those with a strong interest in the Common Core Standards, here’s a link to the Pioneer Institute Report detailing why they will be a step backwards for Massachusetts and California.
http://www.educationnews.org/ed_reports/thinks_tanks/97124.html
Dekalbite
July 31st, 2010
10:18 am
What is Georgia doing to attract and retain top notch math teachers? Do parents and administrators think these math students who are graduating at the top of their college classes are just sitting around begging for teaching jobs?
Until Georgia puts a real effort into paying this scarce commodity more than other teachers, reduces their paperwork, and seeks and uses their input when designing, approving or implementing math programs, our taxpayer dollars will be wasted and Georgia students will fall further and further behind in math.
Results
July 31st, 2010
10:29 am
It would be interesting to know if the students in the accelerated math classes had better scores on the EOCT’s in Math1 and 2. Why don’t they seperate the scores?
ScienceTeacher671
July 31st, 2010
11:03 am
@Results – they ought to separate the EOCT results by accelerated, regular, and with-support, since that basically gives us three tracks of Math I students. MAUREEN, on Monday could you ask the DOE about that?
I thought they ought to have the EOCT results by school by now, but the DOE doesn’t even have them posted by district yet. I’d also like to see them by strand and by subgroup, but hopefully our testing coordinator and/or department head will have those next week.
international studies
July 31st, 2010
12:17 pm
@science teacher,
US students have traditionally performed about the middle of the pack or a little below in international studies. As much as HS teachers blame MS/ES teachers and MS teachers blame ES teachers (and all teachers blame parents), in the more recent international studies, ES students perform (relatively speaking) better in math and science than MS/HS students. For HS teachers, it is the easiest excuse to blame their counterparts in MS/ES, but the results of these international studies seems to show that the problem may be at MS and HS levels.