Thanks for the pointer, Delbows. That was a truly depressing article. The one bright spot is that the teacher, Walstein, seems like he is really something special. I wish there were more like him around.

For those who don't have time to read the whole thing, here's the executive summary:

Walstein, "arguably the most highly regarded high school math teacher in the county", teaches in the math and science magnet program at Montgomery Blair H.S. in Silver Spring, MD. He claims that, in their zeal to reduce the achievement gap (one of the directives of NCLB, no?) administrators have ruined the math curriculum in MD. The problem, he claims, is that their strategy has been to dumb down middle school math so that more kids can do well in it. The result is that more kids are taking advanced math earlier, but they leave these classes less prepared than they used to be. This doesn't show up on the test results because the MD state exams are so rudimentary. More kids do well on the exams and the state gets to congratulate itself, but nobody gets a solid foundation in the fundamentals. At least that's what Walstein claims. The administrators, of course, claim that Walstein and his colleagues are just curmudgeons. If it's true that he's such a star teacher though (and the article gives some pretty good evidence) then I'm inclined to believe the boots on the ground.

In this end this all seems like one of those depressing stories about how bureaucracy screws up education. Even NCLB - which I'm no fan of, by the way - has a potentially reasonable motivation. Namely, it wants more kids to learn more. All else being equal, that sounds like a good idea. The problem is in the accounting. If you can make it look like more kids are learning more by dumbing down the tests and then teaching to them, then there's lots of bureaucratic pressure to solve the problem that way. Certainly much easier than actually teaching the kids! So that's what happens. And the resulting curriculum effects the brighter kids too, since the teachers aren't given time to teach the subjects in any depth, even to them.

One more reason why in an ideal world I would home school my kid. Unfortunately, for all the usual reasons, it's not an ideal world.

BB

sigh...I read a similar report some time ago.

So you raise the broom stick so all kids can limbo under it.

Very nice way of putting it.

Sigh...

BB

"While he says some teachers apparently manage to provide the necessary background, increasingly students coming into the magnet have not been taught certain math concepts in enough depth for the concepts to become ingrained."

That seems to sum up how we feel. It is our biggest concern for our daughters who show both an aptitude and interest in math. DD8 could be much further ahead, but we've tried to introduce different formats for the same concepts to alleviate boredom. Also, when she does move ahead we spiral it back and do a little re-emphasis of what she learned.

I'd love to hear what the really math savvy parents think about this issue.
In addition to BB and Dazey, of course!

This is exactly what I was talking about on another recent thread, with my fears about "algebra for all" in 8th grade, .

I read a similar article in the Washington Post a while back that attempted to compare Algebra 1 classes across the different MD districts. They found wide variability among individual schools with some learning to use calculators as the main part of the curriculum while others were doing real Algebra. As you might guess, it was the schools with the lower achievement rates that had the "easier" classes. I followed the reaction to the article and there was some discussion about standardizing the curriculum and a lot of opposition on the argument that you need to meet children where they are.
My guess is there will always be some who want Algebra to be a weed out type of course, and others who want to gently encourage kids to not be afraid of abstract concepts. The people that set the curriculum standards have a difficult challenge. Did these discussions take place pre NCLB?

You all know my stand on this

If forgot, read The Calculus Trap.

It takes knowledge on the parents site to relize that getting A in class and having no problems with assigned exercises does not mean that your child is actually learning anything. Last year, when DS was in Algebra 2 I spoke at lenght with other parents that had kids in that class. None saw the problem ! They all looked at me like I was from Mars or something - after all my son is a math genuis at this school, so why am I complaining???
What I am finding ironic and really sad in this article, is that it is the teacher from a well known science/math magnet school that is raising an alarm. The teacher who gets the brightest in the district. How are other kids doing, the ones that did not get to M.Blair but also took Alg 2??? A huge disservise to not so bright math students too, ha?

It took me a while but I did learn. And DD is not taking Algebra this school year as a 6th grader. She will do pre-Alg,even though the rest of her class from last year will be in Algebra. Funny thing is , she was the best math student in that class

Is this what you referred to?

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/AoPS_R_A_Calculus.php

I wish I knew how to figure out if my child is learning in enough depth. Can my son just work through Aleks and get what he needs? He certainly doesn't learn the way I did. Is there some test that can tell me when he really has all those pre-algebra concepts down well enough to move on to algebra?

My husband's 37-year-old boss was never grade skipped and she learned math concepts well enough in public school that she was able to test out of college level calculus right after high school. I think she could probably figure this out, but the highest level math I took was college algebra and that was years ago. I never took calculus. How am I supposed to know if my son is learning concepts in enough depth? I don't think I understood math concepts as well as some people who were more interested in math, but I did well enough on tests that I studied for and then forgot it because I never used it.

All of my son's gifted friends all have parents who are teachers or were teachers at one time and I know they are curious about what we do at home. His friends ask us a lot of questions about what we do for different subjects, and what grade levels he is working at, and I feel good about everything he is learning except for the math. I really do need a math mentor.