(Vanity) New-Math, help wanted

Self

[codercpc]

I am looking for help. My sons (7th grade),school district has started to use "new-math" also known as Core Math. I am very unimpressed with this program. I have spoken to his math teacher (not an advocate), and have been told that their is no alternative standard in our district.

My problem is not that my son is doing poorly (quite the opposite), but the program itself. After exsaustive research this program stinks. There is absolutely no basic math skills involved. No learning of the basics. Instead the program centers on "community learning" (groups of kids working together to figure out a problem), technology (calculators) and estimation (thats right, estimate the correct answer.).

I have also found out that there is no accelerated learning (groups should advance at the same pace), so even though my son is getting 104% (new math says this is a possible percentage), and finishing 2-3 day assignments on the first day, he may not get into an advanced math class because they just don't exsist anymore.

I have talked to the principal and he says that the program is great because it is helping the slower children learn math? When asked about higher achievers I was basically told that the program doesn't recognize accelerated learners, so basically so what if my son is bored, those slower learners are finally learning something.

As you can tell I am furious. My worry isn't that my son is some great math genious, quite the opposite, I feel he is lacking in basic skills, I fear that when he takes his SAT's or college enterance exams this will keep him back.

My plea to fellow Freepers is HELP. Does anyone know of a on line assesment test I can give to my son to guage his basic math skills? Do any of you home schoolers have a math program that you would recommend that I could supplement his education with?

Thanks all for your help.

[codercpc]

One more thing, although I have the greatest respect for home-schooling, please don't tell me to "pull him out", the rest of his school is great. I do not have the will or the education to do a complete home school, and unfortuneatly the only private school in our area is a parochial school not of my denomination.

Again thanks for your help.

[hellinahandcart]

I have talked to the principal and he says that the program is great because it is helping the slower children learn math? When asked about higher achievers I was basically told that the program doesn't recognize accelerated learners, so basically so what if my son is bored, those slower learners are finally learning something.

No they're not. They're being "carried" by the smarter kids in those little consensus-is-more-important-than-correctness groups.

I don't blame you for being mad, but this "group math" sh!t appears to be sweeping the nation.

You might want to rethink the parochial school. I have a friend whose daughters are in Catholic school, and they're not Catholic. The religious instruction is not optional, but it has not affected the family's religious practices.

They are simply studying what the Catholics believe, rather like a course in comparative religion.

[Gorzaloon]

No learning of the basics. Instead the program centers on "community learning" (groups of kids working together to figure out a problem), technology (calculators) and estimation (thats right, estimate the correct answer.).

Ugh. This is so the students will fit into the "Team Concept" in the workplace, a nice management blame-sharing, credit-stealing, strategy to protect and exalt the talentless at the expense of the performers. What I tell my nieces and nephews is to endure the course, and promptly try to forget it. June is right around the corner.

I am not a "Team Player". But I help anyone, any time. There is a difference.

[netmilsmom]

Google search Saxon math. There are assesments for the younger grades. I'm not sure about the later ones.
Good Luck!

[Mr. Bird]

I do NOT have first hand experience with them, but you could try Sylvan Learning. It is my understanding that they have the assessments you could use, and other resources that may be of value. Please keep in mind my lack of experience with them, so you can ask for a reference from someone sho has used them before proceeding....

[Mr. Bird]

http://www.educate.com/centerfinder/getcenters.cfm?mapsection=-1&mapstate=WI

There's a link to all the Sylvan centers in Wisconsin. Good luck.

[Axolotl]

I think the brand name for this is "Investigations"...it is a nightmare. Do some web searching on that and you will find among other things, that math educators proclaim this program as the "best argument for school vouchers"...and give it a failing grade.

We have been working behind the scenes to keep formal math instruction in our kids' lives.

[monocle]

"No they're not. They're being "carried" by the smarter kids in those little consensus-is-more-important-than-correctness groups."

There is not much difference between this and the "fairness" crap Democrats spew out when talking about taxes. In both instances, the amount of effort expended is wholly irrelevant as long as the result is "fair".

[Blood of Tyrants]

The rest of the school can't be that great if they endorse this horse crap. The teacher ALWAYS has the option of teaching the right way. If she/he doesn't it is because he/she doesn't care enough to do it.

[RightWhale]

the program centers on "community learning" (

This techniques is also being encouraged in college. Maybe that is appropriate in music class where, after all, one might be expected to participate ensemble, but in math the best ones go ahead on their own and those who aren't the best are merely getting credits toward graduation.

[arthurus]

If you want your kids to actually learn math in the most painless most complete manner possible get Saxon Math textbooks and teach them at home. Saxon books are the ones used in the greatest part of homeschooling. Public school math courses are designed so that the student cannot learn the subject from the book alone. He must have further instruction from the teacher lest the teacher lose self esteem. With Saxon a kid who wants to learn the subject can learn it solely with the book. An unmotivated kid just needs oversight from a parent. If the parent is hazy on math, he can learn it right along with the kid. IT WORKS! If you do this one subject at home your child will soon be well ahead of his classmates. Check this link
SAXON PUBLISHERS

[netmilsmom]

Thanks for the link. They use this program in my daughter's charter school. She is adding 2 digit numbers in Kindergarten. I plan to buy the books for summer instruction. Our school will let her "visit" a higher grade if she is advanced. She tested 2nd grade 4th month in October of kindergarten.

[Publius]

New Math

Some of you who have small children may have perhaps been put in the embarrassing position of being unable to do your child's arithmetic homework because of the current revolution in mathematics teaching known as the New Math. So as a public service here tonight I thought I would offer a brief lesson in the New Math. Tonight we're going to cover subtraction. This is the first room I've worked for a while that didn't have a blackboard so we will have to make due with more primitive visual aids, as they say in the "ad biz." Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 - 173. Now remember how we used to do that. three from two is nine; carry the one, and if you're under 35 or went to a private school you say seven from three is six, but if you're over 35 and went to a public school you say eight from four is six; carry the one so we have 169, but in the new approach, as you know, the important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right answer. Here's how they do it now.

You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the tens place.
Now that's really four tens,
So you make it three tens,
Regroup, and you change a ten to ten ones,
And you add them to the two and get twelve,
And you take away three, that's nine.

Is that clear?

Now instead of four in the tens place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, ten, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look in the hundreds place.

From the three you then use one
To make ten ones...
(And you know why four plus minus one
Plus ten is fourteen minus one?
'Cause addition is commutative, right.)
And so you have thirteen tens,
And you take away seven,
And that leaves five...

Well, six actually.
But the idea is the important thing.

Now go back to the hundreds place,
And you're left with two.
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?

Everybody get one?
Not bad for the first day!

Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!

Now that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because the book that I got this problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. But don't panic. Base eight is just like base ten really - if you're missing two fingers. Shall we have a go at it? Hang on.

You can't take three from two,
Two is less than three,
So you look at the four in the eights place.
Now that's really four eights,
So you make it three eights,
Regroup, and you change an eight to eight ones,
And you add them to the two,
and you get one-two base eight,
Which is ten base ten,
And you take away three, that's seven.

Now instead of four in the eights place
You've got three,
'Cause you added one,
That is to say, eight, to the two,
But you can't take seven from three,
So you look at the sixty-fours.

"Sixty-four? How did sixty-four get into it?" I hear you cry.
Well, sixty-four is eight squared, don't you see? (Well, you ask a silly question, and you get a silly answer.)

From the three you then use one
To make eight ones,
And you add those ones to the three,
And you get one-three base eight,
Or, in other words,
In base ten you have eleven,
And you take away seven,
And seven from eleven is four.
Now go back to the sixty-fours,
And you're left with two,
And you take away one from two,
And that leaves...?

Now, let's not always see the same hands.
One, that's right!
Whoever got one can stay after the show and clean the erasers.

Hooray for new math,
New-hoo-hoo-math,
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!

Come back tomorrow night. We're gonna do fractions.

---Tom Lehrer, 1965

[codercpc]

Thanks, I will look into the Saxton website.

[netmilsmom]

http://www.saxonpublishers.com/

This is the link, hope it works.

[freemama]

Ditto on the Saxon math curriculum. Use it to give him a jump start this summer when he has no other homework. Then next school year have him use the books as part of his 'homework'. Just like he has an assignment from school, he will have one from you too.

BTW, what you are encountering in school is part of the outcome based education ideology that is in vogue now. Too bad it is geared to the slowest common denominator. Great for the slow kids, terrible for everyone else.

[codercpc]

Actually, his seventh grade math teacher hates the program, and has been fighting it. He has decided to give up, and retire after this year. He has been supplementing the course, and has sent an older course home with my son so that we can supplement at home also.

The problem is that next year, the two math teachers (neither of them math majors BTW) are huge supporters of the program, and they do not supplement, thats why I am looking for help, so that I can supplement.

I actually live in a fairly "Conservative" town, old fashioned may be a better word for it. And the push for this program seems to be more of a state wide thing. Many of the concepts are what are tested on in the eight-grade state test, so I am not really complaining that it is here, only that there is no alternative, and that my son is becoming bored.

[harpseal]

First, it is time to get on the case of evry member of the school board about this travesty. Either run for the school board yourself or get a candidate who will make certain that there is a program for high-achieving students. make it an issue in your community that the public schools do not have a math program suited to average and above average students. Get some other interested parents to run for the school board and make some changes.

[upchuck]

As you can tell I am furious. My worry isn't that my son is some great math genious, quite the opposite, I feel he is lacking in basic skills, I fear that when he takes his SAT's or college enterance exams this will keep him back.

Ahh... not to worry Fellow FReeper. The NEA will see to it that by the time your son has to face the SAT, the test will have been dumbed down to his level. :) This is one of the primary, if not THE primary reasons the NEA exists.

All joking aside, I do feel sorry for your son. Please reconsider the parochial solution.