I am a math teacher in a private Christian School. My duties include teaching upper level math and science courses for college credit. These are introductory college courses identical to those offered at our local community college. I find that my students cannot do the mathematics required to do these courses. They are woefully ill-prepared in both algebra and arithemtic—I must take precious class time to remediate these kids—and these are high-achievers!
Most of the blame lies not with the students, as they are hardworking and willing to learn. The blame lies with the New York state curriculum. The curriculum uses a technique called cycling, which means the teachers hop from topic to topic, never dealing with anything in depth. Too much time is wasted in review. There is also the push to be fun and relevant—our own district actually BRAGGED that it no longer troubles the poor kids by demanding third-graders learn times tables.
There is also a trend toward cooperative learning (very chick-friendly). So awful is this program that fully 65% of our districts’ students failed the first Math A (9th grade) exam when the course was offered in 2000. There is a parent group at one local public high school whose name is “teach our kids math”.
The final straw is the push in new york against elitism. Honors courses in math do not exist—yet “tracking” is ok in sports and in music—after all, who wants their band to sound bad or their sports team to lose?
What a parent can do is to get involved, I guess. And find individual teachers who are good. And investigate private schools.
My oldest son will be starting his second year (8th grade) in private school, with a classical education. We tried a year of public middle school and he was bored out of his mind. The quality of the education was not only poor but as they get older the troublemakers in the class become worse and more dangerous. Public schools are not an ideal place to learn, there are too many distractions. It is costing us a fortune for tuition now and that will double when we send the 5th grader there next year. I will most likely have to get a job in order to pay the tuition for both of them but I can’t imagine a better investment.
We are in the suburbs of Chicago. When our son was in 3rd grade, they brought in the University of Chicago math program. It also used the cycle system and relied on calculators. When asked at what point in the cycle they would require mastery, they had no answer. Mastery is not part of the program. We ended up pulling our son out of public school the beginning of 4th grade and homeschooling. I figured if I had to spend all that time after school teaching him math, I might as well just do it myself and save time.
We put him into a Christian private school the 2nd half of 5th grade, where the academics were at a significantly higher level than the public school. Our son has thrived in this enviornment. He was allowed to take 7th grade math during the summer between 6th & 7th grade and started algebra in 7th grade. He is now 15 and will be a junior. He will be taking calculus at the community college (his school doesn’t offer it and sends the students to college). According to the college, most kids coming out of our public schools are extremely lacking in math skills.
I've been reading Tom Friedman's “The Earth is Flat”. He spends a fair amount of space describing on-line ( webcam) tutoring from **India**!
These Indian teachers are **extremely** well educated, very dedicated, and highly professional. They earn about $200 to $600 a month!
If I had to do homeschooling over, I would advertise on Craigs List for an Indian elementary teacher for my entire homeschool program. Homeschooling is very efficient! It only takes about 2 hours of direct instruction a day. So...A personal Indian teacher would be **very** affordable if paid by the hour.