Saxon: Proposed Math -Testing Standards Damaging to Minorities "Too often, tests designed for other purposes have been used unintentionally as filters that deny underrepresented groups access to the further study of mathematics. Today the mathematical development of each child in a diverse multicultural society must be valued. Assessment procedures must no longer be used to deny students the opportunities to learn important mathematics. " From: XcongressX Date sent: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 01:14:55 EST To: education-consumers@tricon.net Copies to: DNSBNA@aol.com, CAREYJDA@aol.com, brucec76@ix.netcom.com Subject: Re: Chicago Math (math standards in general) Saxon: Proposed Math -Testing Standards Damaging to Minorities Saxon Publishers Inc. 1320 West Lindsey Norman,OK 73069 (800) 284-7019 When African-American students and Hispanic students make high scores on a normed test such as the SAT or ACT the scores prove to the student, to the students' teachers, and to the students' prospective employers that the students understanding of mathematics equals that of able white and Asian students and exceeds the understanding of most students. The job of math educators is to find ways for blacks, Hispanics, and all other students to make high scores. The authors of the Assessment Standards for Mathematics, published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in May 1995, do not seem to share this view. A careful reading if the Assessment Standards has convinced me that the leaders of the NCTM want to raise the grades of the self-esteem of minority students and other students by changing the way tests are given and graded instead of ensuring that the students know what they should know. The leaders of the NCTM do not seem to realize that the approach they recommend will delay the day of reckoning until the students graduate from high school and try to get into a college or try to find a good job. Then the students will find that they are totally unprepared to compete and will spend the rest of their lives thinking that the world is unfair. I believe that this "feel good" approach to grading is wrong as it will cause grievous long-term damage to many of the very students that the NCTM wants to help. Introduction to the Assessment Standards contains the passage, Too often, tests designed for other purposes have been used unintentionally as filters that deny underrepresented groups access to the further study of mathematics. Today the mathematical development of each child in a diverse multicultural society must be valued. Assessment procedures must no longer be used to deny students the opportunities to learn important mathematics. The statement that tests given to measure what students have learned deny students access to the further study of mathematics is ridiculous. If students score poorly, it informs the teacher that there is a problem that should be addressed and corrected. At first, I was puzzled by the phrase underrepresented groups; however, the words diverse multicultural society gave me the clue needed to understand this new euphemism. My understanding was further enhanced when I read further and found this statement: Assessments have too often ignored differences in students' experience, physical condition, gender, and ethnic, cultural, and social backgrounds in an effort to be fair. This practice has led to assessments that do not take differences among students into account. The document also says that new assessment strategies and practices need to be developed that will enable teachers and others to assess students' performance in a manner that reflects the NCTM's reform VISION for school mathematics. For school assessment practices to inform educators as they progress toward this VISION, it is essential that we move away from the 'rank order of achievement' approach in assessment toward an approach that is philosophically consistent with the NCTM's VISION of school mathematics and classroom instruction. We have printed the word "vision" in bold face because the authors of the NCTM Standards seem enamored of this word. The word "vision" appears 56 times in the first two volumes of the Standards and appears 18 times in the first six pages of the Assessment Standards for a total of 74 times. I am pleased that the NCTM has "visions" but what we need are measurable gains in students' achievement. We do not need "visions" We need a way to teach mathematics that works and we need it now. The NCTM assumed control of the philosophy of teaching mathematics some thirty years ago. They were responsible for the "New Math" of the seventies, the Agenda for the Eighties, the Standards for Curriculum (1989), Standards for Teaching (1991), and now we have the Standards for Evaluation (1995). The NCTM did not then, or does it now, test and prove its recommendations to be effective before they are forced on the nation. The "New Math" was not tested and its failure was blamed on the teachers. The Agenda for the Eighties was not tested and did not work, and now we have yet another totally untested and unproven set of recommendations called the Standards. The major book companies are in business to make money for their stockholders. This is the American way and this is true for all of our corporations. In fact, it is the emphasis on the bottom line that makes America productive. So don't blame the book companies. They will do whatever is required to stay in business. They cannot be blamed if their customers demand and purchase inferior products. For thirty years these companies have done their best to follow the recommendations of the NCTM. I do not know of a single school that has used books that follow the NCTM's methods to produce measurable gains. Schools of education at our universities are parroting the recommendations of the NCTM, so public school administrators are afraid to think for themselves. The public schools can cover their fannies if they use books that follow the recommendations of the NCTM even though this results in no gains for their students. You can's blame the superintendents and the curriculum directors because few of them have ever taken college calculus, chemistry or physics - subjects that are taught at the college level in their high schools. I was in the book store at the University of Oklahoma last week and saw used copies of the NCTM Standards for sale. I assume that this fine university and other universities all over the nation are following the party line and teaching the totally untested Standards as gospel. What else can their department of education teach and be respectable? The preface of the Assessment Standards states that the senior author was Dr. Thomas Romberg, Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin, and that the recommendations of the Assessment Standards were endorsed by the last six presidents of the NCTM. It lists the names of 41 distinguished educators who helped in its creation and further states that the document was revised as a result of more than two thousand responses from reviewers. How could all of these fine people be endorsing pedagogy that has not been tested and proven to be effective? The Standards are not standards in any sense of the word. They are totally non-specific and talk about giving students "mathematical power" - whatever that is. Read these documents yourself. They are full of vignettes and suggest pedagogy that might be effective. The Standards recommend that the emphasis in mathematical education be switched from teaching fundamental concepts to teaching the art of problem-solving. This is a horrible mistake! Teaching the concepts and the skills necessary to apply the concepts to solving problems must come first. We had three generations on non-productive nonsense from the NCTM. Enough is enough!! The denizens of many state departments of education follow the lead of the NCTM and write recipes for success from vantage points of failure. Texas and California have led the way in this effort for over two decades and the results have been catastrophic. Scores in California have hit rock bottom, as have the scores in many Texas systems. In addition, Kentucky and South Carolina have set the NCTM recommendations in concrete and I believe that the math achievement in these states will go even lower. Oregon has also copied the recommendations of the NCTM Standards to the dismay of many teachers. Hans Christian Anderson pointed out that only a child can, with impunity, say that the emperor is wearing no clothes. I am a septuagenarian and not a child, but I can speak with impunity because I own my own company. I cannot be fired or intimidated. The math scores of students in America have been failing for decades as schools have slavishly tried to follow the recommendations of the NCTM. Scores on college entrance exams have improved a little recently, but this improvement came because the tests have been renormed. Almost all of our major state universities have huge numbers of students in remedial math classes. Many people are realizing that it's time for the NCTM to put-up or shut-up. We need no more "visions." America desperately needs a method of teaching mathematics successfully in inner-city schools. We need a method that works in rural schools, in small-town schools, and in suburban schools. We need something that works, and has been proven to work in massive test programs, and we need it now. We can no longer afford to implement untested pedagogy because it is recommended by people who are supposed to be experts. The NCTM recommends introducing calculators in elementary schools, having students write essays about how they tackle word problems, using groups to solve "real-world" problems, and giving group grades for those projects. They have not been able to name one school that has used these methods to cause measurable gains. I don't say they are wrong. I just say we have had enough of their pie-in-the-sky "visions." Saxon Publishers has used other methods to create a mathematics program for grades K-12 that has produced huge gains at all grade levels and at all ability levels. The books have been tested and found to be effective in thousands of schools nationwide. Most of the high schools that have used the Saxon math books have raised college board scores in math a minimum of 20 percent, have doubled the number of seniors enrolled in academic math courses, have tripled calculus enrollment, and have reduced the enrollment in "dum-dum" (remedial) math classes such as consumer math by over 50 percent. These books have produced wonderful gains across the entire ability spectrum. Hillary Clinton attended Maine East High School in suburban Chicago in the tenth and eleventh grades. When Saxon Math was introduced at Maine East they had three sections of calculus. Last year, they had ten sections of calculus, and thirty-eight seniors completed three semester hours of differential equations. College board scores have rise 19 percent. At inner-city North Dallas High School, the passing rate on the Texas math test rose from 10 percent passing to 91 percent passing. In five years, the pre-algebra enrollment went from 160 to 320. Algebra I enrollment increased from 75 to 270. Algebra II enrollment increased from 20 to 170, and calculus enrollment from 5 to 16. In spite of these increases, which were reported by Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes," the superintendent threw the Saxon books out - probably because of the objections of people who believed in the NCTM. The numbers of math teachers quickly dropped from twelve to eight because of decreases in math enrollment and the number of classes of Algebra II dropped from eight to two. The school board of the Dallas Independent School District watched this happen and did nothing. The school boards in other major school systems also turn to the NCTM for guidance, forgetting that the NCTM's recommended methods have, to our knowledge, produced no measurable gains in any inner-city school in America. The NCTM seems to ignore this on-going inner-city tragedy. Saxon Math books have been used with great success in many schools with heavy minority enrollment. Over one hundred schools in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi have proven that minority students can make great gains by using Saxon Math books. In thirty years, the NCTM has come up with nothing that works, yet they denigrate and deny at every opportunity the gains caused by the Saxon Math books. Responsible organizations should lead, follow, or get out of the way. The NCTM has proven that it is incapable of leading and yet refuses to get out of the way. They haven't been successful in teaching and now they want to use "feel good" grading. I am sick and tired of the ineptness of these people. Large school systems tend to have curriculum coordinators and math coordinators who have what I call an "NCTM mentality." They ask if the publisher uses the methods recommended by the NCTM and they don't seem to care about results. Saxon Publishers uses the NCTM methods that work and refuses to use the NCTM methods that do not work. Because we think for ourselves and are critical of the NCTM, many school systems are afraid to try our books because the administrators have become senior administrators by playing the game and going along to get along. They will not risk their fine jobs by trying programs that are not approved at the state and national levels. Saxon Math books produce measurable results at all grade levels and for students at every ability level. The results are most immediately apparent in elementary schools in grade K-5, which causes us to place emphasis on the promotion of our elementary books. This year we offered to give a class set of books for one class in each of the grades K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in one thousand schools so that teachers can watch the wonderful things that happen when Saxon Math books are used. Unfortunately, at this time we have only five hundred takers. (At $3,500 per school, this amounted to $1,750,000 in free books for pilots.) We plan to do the same in two thousand elementary schools next year for a total of $7,000,000 in free books for pilots. We also have pilot programs for middle school and high school math books. Teachers and administrators have to see it happen to believe it is possible. Many of my friends have urged me to temper my speech and not be so critical of the NCTM. They remind me that one can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I reply that I am not trying to catch flies. I am trying to improve math education in America, a task that is very difficult when the NCTM refuses to test its recommendations and prove that they are effective, when it is hostile to any other approach, and when so many math and curriculum directors do not realize they are trying to implement "visions" by using methods that are suspect because they have not been tested and proven to be effective. The NCTM refuses, for example, to consider the fact that the over-use of calculators in elementary schools is increasing the number of middle school students who are bereft of fundamental skills. The NCTM also refuses to realize that all they have done for thirty years is to produce "fads for the decade." They are so insistent that their untested fads be implemented that the others are not encouraged to find a way that really works. Thus, book companies are afraid to innovate. To be dogmatic is one thing, but to be so wrong that it prevents others from trying to end the disaster is totally inexcusable. ____________________________________________________ Jimmy Kilpatrick Phone 713 520-9715 Coordinator of Community Programs Fax 713 520-7214 E-mail j2652368@earthlink.net University of Texas at Austin 1723 Westheimer Road Charles A. Dana Center Houston, Texas 77098-1611 EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE