Free Press –
Integrated Math, Haycock
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Before I get to the controversy surrounding integrated math, let me set the stage. It’s interesting to see how three Upper Bucks school districts are reacting to parental unrest.
I first became aware of how American public school students were measuring up to their foreign competitors in math and reading several years ago. To refresh our memories, here are the first paragraphs from the New York Times as reprinted in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Dec. 4, 2004).
“High school students in Hong Kong, Finland and South Korea do best in mathematics among those in 40 surveyed countries, while students in the United States finished in the bottom half, according to a new international comparisons of 15- year olds. It ranked 28th of 40 countries on math and 18th on reading.
“The United States was also cited as having the poorest outcomes per dollar spent on education. The study noted that while the Czech Republic spent only one-third as much per student as the United States did, it was one of the study’s top 10 performing nations, while the United States performed below the average of all nations surveyed.”
By the way, the study did not mention that although Asian countries like Chinese Taipei, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea were in the top five, their class rooms held nearly twice as many students as American class rooms do. And the number of teaching days approximates 240 compared to the American standard of 180 [days].
And now to the problem right here in Upper Bucks.
Is there a connection to quality education and Haycock Township residents wishing to secede from the Quakertown school district…join Palisades instead? I don’t know. But Haycock will survey its residents to gauge public support for switching school districts.
The Quakertown area has become a hot bead of discontent. Richland Township thinks it should have more representation on the Quakertown school board. Quakertown is searching for a new borough manager. Its residents are unhappy with accelerating fees for electricity, water and sewer. The municipal and school board elections promise to be ugly in 2007.
Equally unsettling, the Quakertown school district is looking for a new superintendent.
And now to math.
The three Upper Bucks school districts teach the Integrated Math method, which emphasizes problem solving, rather than rote learning. In 1989, recommendations from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics led to methods currently taught. However in November, a generation later, this same organization advises that public schools should return to the basic math instruction which most of you readers [and I] went through.
Palisades will give its students the option to remain with Integrated Math or return to the old system. Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Marilyn Miller, said that students will register for one of the two math programs this month. The Pennridge Superintendent, Dr. Robert Kish, told me that while his school uses Integrated Math, students receive big doses of basic math too.
In recent months, several of my columns dealt with what Quakertown area residents are saying about Integrated Math? A few families in Palisades are critical about Integrated Math as well. They believe that their children are not up to speed in college math. Some college students have abandoned a career in math or science because they weren’t adequately prepared in high school.
It certainly sounds similar to the complaints I’ve heard about the Quakertown schools. Last week, Marcella Hreiz wrote a scathing letter to the editor in which she criticized the Integrated Math system. In addition, several families have appeared at school board meetings, urging the school board to abandon IM and go back to basics.
What will Quakertown do? How will it respond to the growing criticism?
Several weeks ago, I met with David Landis, the Acting Superintendent for Quakertown schools, Debbie Kopp, the Director of Elementary Education and Assessment, and Bridget O’Connell, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction.
We talked about the Bucks County Intermediate Unit (IU), which recommended Integrated Math for the Quakertown schools in 2000, and the appearance of Dr. Stephen Maurer of Swarthmore College at a recent public meeting. I listened intently at that gathering as the IU and Maurer defended Integrated Math. Maurer was on the evaluation team. He also is a member of the content advisory committee for the writers of the second edition of Core Plus, the senior high school version of Integrated Math.
I asked them if there was an inherent conflict of interest?
“No,” Landis replied. “We asked for an evaluation of how the Quakertown school system is running Integrated Math, not should it continue or abandon it. Maurer was a part of the evaluating team because he was an expert on Integrated Math.”
Landis emphasized that a task force
would be evaluating IM and make recommendations to the school board in
February. He told me that 19 people would comprise the task force…two from the
Community Action Committee (
Friends, that committee is weighted heavily (15 to 2) in favor of the paid professionals.
Last week, one of the school directors from Haycock Township asked his fellow board members to give the students a choice…Integrated Math or traditional math…for the academic school year beginning next September. The board voted 5 to 4 to table Paul Stephanoff’s resolution. You remember pesky Haycock?
Fellow school director Nancy Tirjan opposed Stephanoff’s motion because she said it would tie the hands of the task force and force a stacked outcome.
Maybe.
But remember, public schools are a bureaucracy. The state board of education mandates the curriculum and neither school boards, administrators, nor teachers relish change…especially when pressured from outsiders. Public schools are a monopoly and there’s little oversight.
The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission governs monopolies like transportation, water, sewer, and electric rates. Schools answer to no one except government bureaucrats…unless voters begin to grumble. Judging by November’s election, voters across America are grumbling.
Last, was anyone surprised by the Quakertown School’s student newspaper, “Paw
Prints?” The Free Press included the eight-page tabloid written by students last week. There was no reference to the math controversy. Does this mean that the students are oblivious to the unrest…or the presence of heavy-handed faculty advisors?
We’ll have to stay tuned.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith