+OK 12003 octets Received: from smtp07.nwnexus.com (smtp07.nwnexus.com [192.135.191.4]) by mail1.halcyon.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA10921 for ; Sat, 13 Feb 1999 00:22:39 -0800 (PST) Received: from alaska.ktn.net (alaska.ktn.net [206.159.13.2]) by smtp07.nwnexus.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA18415 for ; Sat, 13 Feb 1999 00:21:13 -0800 Received: from ktn.net (ktn-ts1-p19.ktn.net [206.159.13.73]) by alaska.ktn.net (8.7.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id XAA11572; Fri, 12 Feb 1999 23:21:54 -0900 Message-ID: <36C5342F.E2D0CE9F@ktn.net> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 23:13:36 -0900 From: al johnson X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Johnson's Educational Loop" Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: Open House at The Accelerated School] Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="------------50368009B0AAFE339BC4932D" Status: This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------50368009B0AAFE339BC4932D Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Good Evening, We almost had one of these Accelerated Schools in Ketchikan. However the message in this post is the quality of the mathematics that is the subject. enjoy - amj --------------50368009B0AAFE339BC4932D Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-POP3-Rcpt: ajohnson@alaska Return-Path: RLMANDELL@aol.com Received: from imo13.mx.aol.com (imo13.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.3]) by alaska.ktn.net (8.7.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id KAA02655 for ; Fri, 12 Feb 1999 10:32:08 -0900 From: RLMANDELL@aol.com Received: from RLMANDELL@aol.com by imo13.mx.aol.com (IMOv18.1) id 9PHUa05309 for ; Fri, 12 Feb 1999 14:09:09 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3ca5b8e9.36c47c55@aol.com> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 14:09:09 EST To: kbibby@ici.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Fwd: Open House at The Accelerated School Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary="part0_918846550_boundary" X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 205 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_918846550_boundary Content-ID: <0_918846550@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII --part0_918846550_boundary Content-ID: <0_918846550@inet_out.mail.calstatela.edu.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline Return-Path: Received: from rly-yd03.mx.aol.com (rly-yd03.mail.aol.com [172.18.150.3]) by air-yd04.mx.aol.com (v56.26) with SMTP; Fri, 12 Feb 1999 00:28:01 -0500 Received: from eagle.calstatela.edu (eagle.calstatela.edu [130.182.1.1]) by rly-yd03.mx.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id AAA27191 for ; Fri, 12 Feb 1999 00:28:00 -0500 (EST) Received: from ganymede.calstatela.edu (ganymede [130.182.113.45]) by eagle.calstatela.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA06132; Thu, 11 Feb 1999 21:25:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from desktop (nts2-09.calstatela.edu [130.182.127.109]) by ganymede.calstatela.edu with SMTP id VAA00830; Thu, 11 Feb 1999 21:30:33 -0800 Message-Id: <4.1.19990211211329.01483470@ganymede.calstatela.edu> X-Sender: wbishop@ganymede.calstatela.edu X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1 Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 21:28:57 -0800 To: "RLMANDELL@aol.com" From: Wayne Bishop Subject: Open House at The Accelerated School Cc: "Martha & Rick (Richard)" , Paul Clopton , Mike McKeown , "Larry Gipson" , "David Klein" , "Steven Oppenheimer" Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Hi Bob, Here's what I did today, a horrendous lecture to our school of education. I wouldn't be surprised if the school thanks me and takes my advice. The school is a charter school in a South Central LA with a ton of money and primary sponsorship by our school of ed. They'll hate me even more but they'll thank me and be civil about it. Wayne. ------------------------------------------ Dear Kevin and Johnathon, Thank you so much for the tour of The Accelerated School this morning, There is no doubt that this is a great opportunity for the future and that there is much that is good already under way. That said ... The mathematics program that I saw in the higher grades reinforced the supposition that I already had from looking at the STAR scores: 3 4 5 6 60 40 32 27 By grade 6, 55% of the students scored in the bottom quartile and that was pretty clear in the 7th grade classroom I visited. By contrast, my daughter's private school, High Point Academy in Pasadena, has 100% of its students in Saxon's Algebra 1/2 in grade 7 (or before) and 100% of its students algebra competent by the end of grade 8. They score very well on the ERB end-of- course algebra, above the 90th percentile nationally. If this school is truly going to merit its name "accelerated", nothing short of competent eighth grade algebra must be the goal. The current class average is at least a grade below *regular* grade level let alone accelerated above it to meet the algebra challenge. I had a nice chat with Tien Winden who was teaching the 7th grade class and he seemed most receptive to my concerns, ahead of them in fact. *Great* things were going on in Rita Kanell's class but these scores clearly confirm that this great start is not being sustained much thereafter. Part of the problem, I am sure, is that pupils leave and new ones come in and it's impossible to "blame" lack of sufficient progress of students who have not even been in the school. I also suspect, however, that the population of The Accelerated School is much more stable than that of neighboring schools so there is less of a problem than with truly transient populations that faces some schools. Be that as it may, the continuation of progress up through the grades must be improved dramatically if the school is to be the model of success that everyone seeks. I am convinced that the heart of the problem is adherence to the pedagogy and principles espoused by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the California Mathematics Council, the NSF, the AAAS, and the majority of mathematics education professors across the country. A decade into the NCTM Standards (March 1989) there has been great retreat from the curricula designed to meet its precepts. Student performance simply never met the hype and the industry continues to refuse to subject itself to honest evaluation. Meanwhile, districts that enthusiastically endorsed MathLand, for example, quickly found themselves supplementing extensively from the very texts that were being replaced. IMP and CPM are being rejected in many districts as it becomes obvious that most of the students are never becoming algebra competent, even those who had strong math performance on standardized tests coming in. http://www.press-enterprise.com/newsarchive/1998/04/26/893547127.html Those mentioned above are *not* curricula used by The Accelerated School but they are philosophically similar. Everyday Mathematics, the UCSMP elementary school curriculum, is dangerous. That is the word I used in my review of it for the Core Knowledge Foundation, available at the Mathematically Correct website: http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/bishop4.htm In fact, the early grades at The Accelerated School appear to be doing exactly what is required to make Everyday Math effective in spite of its shortcomings. Rita described it as without the developmental structure needed for mathematics learning and she, and I assume others, are compensating appropriately and successfully. By grade 4, however, the deficits and lack of structure are piling up. By that seventh grade class, it is profound. Something must be done and must be done immediately. Tien pointed out that the Dale Seymour's "Connected Math Program", developed at Michigan State University under massive NSF assistance and encouraged by LA-SI, is already available in the classroom. I assured him that using this curriculum would be more of the same lack of sufficient structure and incremental review. This is a middle school curriculum that Mathematically Correct has rated as "not suitable": http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/books7y.htm It is interesting to note that AAAS recently rated this as one (of only two?) curricula that it *does* consider acceptable. This is more of a measure of the science and mathematics education profession than of reality. For some honest criticism of the program from Michigan State itself, there is a researcher in the Cyclotron lab there who posts relevant information: http://lynch.nscl.msu.edu/tsang/CMPeval.htm An excellent seventh grade curriculum is Saxon Algebra 1/2 (which is, by the way, very similar to the Japanese Grade 7 Mathematics book) but this cannot be done without antecedents that the majority of these students simply do not yet have, perhaps none have. Without dramatic change of direction, the vast majority will never have the concept and mechanical skill competence needed to pursue an honest algebra course, one crucial gateway to educational success. These students must be identified as to their *actual* level of performance and must be directly taught *at that level*, with mandatory attendance and mandatory homework. Retaining some at grade level may very well be necessary. Everyone in my daughter's fourth grade class is on the same page (P. 262, Lesson 88) in Saxon 65 but some of your seventh grade students will test at that same level, others a cut above, only a few and perhaps none will be ready for what the California Mathematics Standards recommends for grade eight, that first course in algebra: http://www.cde.ca.gov/board/k12math_standards.html Despite the controversy that the mathematics education community has imposed on the acceptability of these standards, the best appraisal was given by the Fordham Foundation which rated them number one in the country. http://www.edexcellence.net/standards/math.html The idea that heterogeneous mathematics classes can be conducted in a somewhat transient community, where some do the work and some do not, and where some don't even come to class regularly - just by learning through well planned project activities with students writing about their ideas instead of developing conceptual and arithmetic automaticity - is an idea whose time has passed. The educational leadership isn't recognizing that fact yet but it will. Programs exist that can reverse the number sequence at the beginning of this message and that is what these kids need, not more of the same. That would be a model for the region if not the country. Please do not hesitate to contact me as needed in helping to make these changes. I am more than willing to help in any way that I can, other than coming in to teach classes (except for faculty, if that be necessary). University expert faculty in math and science is a panacea that is done across the country with ample praise for the selflessness of the participating faculty. The fact is that day-to-day competence is what's missing, not an inspired class on some aspect of higher mathematics that can be introduced at an elementary level. Again, congratulations on a good start, Wayne. Wayne Bishop Math & Comp Sci Work: (323)343-2159 Home: (626)794-1380 --part0_918846550_boundary-- --------------50368009B0AAFE339BC4932D-- .