Nancy
>
> November 5, 1997
> Education Week on the Web
>
> Math Showdown Looms Over Standards in Calif.
>
> By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
>
> Conflicting philosophies and dueling documents could lead to a
> showdown over how to teach math to 5.6 million schoolchildren, as
> the California school board begins reviewing proposals for the
> state's first-ever content standards.
>
> In a state that is often the nation's bellwether on education
> issues, the battle between supporters of new methods of math
> instruction and advocates of a more traditional approach is
> expected to be the most contentious and closely watched as the
> state moves toward adopting standards in core academic subjects.
>
> The draft standards--broad outlines for what students should know
> written by a special state commission--call for students to gain a
> more conceptual understanding of the subject. The first draft from
> a separate state panel charged with creating the more specific
> frameworks that guide math instruction emphasizes basic
> computational skills, however.
>
> The effort to reconcile the two approaches is expected to dominate
> the next stage of the process. The state school board was
> scheduled to meet this week to discuss the standards proposals. It
> must approve standards in mathematics and language arts by Jan. 1,
> and then will turn to making the frameworks, which describe the
> curriculum in greater detail, reflect those standards. Other
> subjects--history and science--will come next year.
>
> The proposals for language arts have been, for the most part,
> accepted without contention. "But there is a lot of dialogue in
> the state of California, if not the nation and world, about
> mathematics," said Yvonne W. Larsen, the state board's chairwoman.
> "It's a pretty hot topic."
>
> The commission charged with creating the standards for the four
> subjects includes educators, scholars, and business and civic
> leaders. It is seeking standards that are both rigorous and
> reachable for all students, said Ellen F. Wright, an education
> consultant who is the panel's chairwoman.
>
> "Commissioners from all different backgrounds and different
> educational experiences came together and fought hard to discard
> the politics and stick to the issues," she said. "We came up with
> standards that are among the highest in the world."
>
> Competing Visions
>
> Some state board members, including Ms. Larsen, who praised the
> work of the standards commission, said they were leaning toward
> making the math standards reflect a more traditional organization
> of the discipline. That view, some in the state are predicting,
> could win out in the final revisions.
>
> But officials of many of the state's education associations have
> widely applauded the math-standards proposal in its current form.
>
> "We are definitely moving in the right direction. ... There are
> basic skills embedded throughout the standards, but there is also
> a nice emphasis on problem-solving," said Margaret DeArmond, the
> president of the California Mathematics Council, which represents
> math teachers. "I hope that the state board adopts these very
> high standards so that we can start to find ways to implement them
> locally."
>
> The math standards were modeled after those of Japan and
> Singapore, according to officials on the standards commission.
> Those were the highest-performing countries on the Third
> International Mathematics and Science Study, released in fall
> 1996. U.S. students scored in the middle of the pack out of 41
> participating nations.
>
> William H. Schmidt, a national research coordinator for TIMSS and
> a consultant to the California commission, said the final draft
> improved upon earlier versions of the standards.
>
> "The fact that [the standards for] 8th grade changed from an
> algebra class to a mathematics class incorporating algebra and
> geometry is very consistent with what most other countries in
> TIMSS do," Mr. Schmidt wrote in a September letter to the
> commission.
>
> But others disagree.
>
> Bill Evers, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover
> Institution who was one of the dissenting voices on the
> commission, believes the standards aren't rigorous enough.
>
> He also objects to the introduction of geometry in the 8th grade,
> noting that many teachers at that level are not trained in the
> subject, and the integration of Algebra 1, geometry, and Algebra 2
> throughout the high school grades.
>
> "The basic problem is that they spread all this material all over
> hill and dale," Mr. Evers said. "Overall, I don't think that if
> you have requirements, you should experiment with a whole state
> population of children. You should have only a proven, research-
> based curriculum."
>
> Mr. Evers has proposed his own set of standards that prescribe a
> traditional sequence of algebra and geometry.
>
> His alternative document won the endorsement of Mathematically
> Correct, a grassroots citizens' organization that advocates
> traditional math instruction. The group objects to the integrated
> approach taken by the commission's draft, saying there is little
> research to back it up.
>
> "It's not that I don't think the integrated curriculum isn't
> interesting and something that should be explored," said Martha
> Schwartz, a founder of the San Diego, Calif.-based organization.
> "But it's still in the experimental stage."
>
> Careful Steps
>
> The state board, Ms. Larsen said, will proceed carefully, wary of
> making a decision that will bear the brunt of the blame should the
> standards fail to raise achievement.
>
> "We don't want whatever we do to be the 'California experiment,'"
> the chairwoman said. Critics of the draft standards have charged
> that endorsing the integration of math subjects would be
> reminiscent of the state's widely criticized move away from
> phonics toward a literature-based, or "whole language," reading
> program a decade ago.
>
> But the state superintendent, Delaine Eastin, and other backers of
> the draft standards point to the support the document received
> when the commission approved it last summer. The vote by the 21-
> member panel was 15-2 to adopt the draft, with two abstentions and
> two members absent. The frameworks committee members were deeply
> divided, but approved their draft 13-9.
>
> "There was strong consensus on the standards," Doug Stone, Ms.
> Eastin's spokesman, said last week. He said it makes sense for the
> state board to adopt follow the philosophical approach favored by
> the standards commission, "then align the frameworks to them."
>
> The commission, appointed last year by Gov. Pete Wilson, Ms.
> Eastin, and the legislature, must come up with similar
> recommendations in history and science by next summer.
>
> Once approved, the standards in all four subjects will provide the
> basis for realignment of the respective frameworks, the
> development of a state testing system, and accountability measures
> for individual districts and schools.
>
> The high-stakes assessment system is expected to put some muscle
> behind the voluntary standards and ensure that all 1,000 districts
> adopt them or devise their own rigorous guidelines.
>
> The math recommendations, however, have been complicated by a
> somewhat illogical process that has resulted in the simultaneous
> development of standards and frameworks. The two must eventually
> be aligned but remain, at this point, at odds in their approach.
>
> The state, which has been a national leader in the development of
> curriculum frameworks over the past decade, appointed the math-
> frameworks committee to review the existing guidelines before the
> standards commission convened. The proposals for revising the
> frameworks have been sent to districts for review and comment.
>
> Revision of the state's language arts framework has been halted
> until the standards in that subject area are approved. Frameworks
> in history and social sciences were revised earlier this year.
>
> Smoother Sailing
>
> The draft for the language arts standards has been a much smoother
> part of the process. The standards commission, which approved the
> document 18-0, has apparently struck a balance between phonics-
> based instruction, which emphasizes learning the sounds that make
> up words before reading sentences, and whole-language approaches.
>
> "The standards are rigorous and comprehensive," said Donald A.
> Mayfield, the policy chairman for the California Association of
> Teachers of English and a secondary-language-arts coordinator for
> the San Diego County schools. "The standards speak to a balanced
> curriculum. It says [use] phonics when necessary and good
> literature for all, and also emphasizes writing and speaking."
>
> The document also recommends that students read numerous books,
> newspapers, and magazines outside the classroom. It prescribes
> that middle school students read a million words each year in
> addition to what they read in school and that high school students
> read 2 million. The standards have won praise from a variety of
> educators and have yet to rekindle the long-running debate over
> reading instruction.
>
> Regardless of what California's final standards in the various
> subjects look like, educators and policymakers agree that the
> exercise will have been fruitless if lawmakers fail to provide the
> money to implement them. Without state support for curriculum
> development, teacher training, and assistance for low-performing
> students, they say, many districts won't be able to hold their
> students to the standards.
>
> "The standards are incredibly rigorous. We need to sit back and
> look at the road map for implementation," said Holly Colvin, an
> assistant executive director with the California School Boards
> Association. "The major [challenge] will be to make sure teachers
> in the classroom have the training to teach the standards."
>
>
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>**************************************************************************
>Ian Peat
>Executive Director
>Ohio Mathematics and Science Coalition
>Miami University tel: 513-727-3237
>4200 E. University Blvd. fax: 513-727-3367
>Middletown, OH 45042 email: peati@muohio.edu
>
>**************************************************************************
>
Nancy J. Sattler
Curriculum Chair
Terra Community College
2830 Napoleon Road
Fremont, OH 43420
phone:419-334-8400, ext. 179
fax: 419-334-9414
email: nsattler@terra.cc.oh.us
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