About 50-60 people braved the weather this evening to attend the First Annual District Parent Math Night at Mount Nittany Middle School. There were a lot of teachers, principals, and SCASD administrators there (and two school board members – Chris Small and Rick Madore), and I’d guess that only a little more than half of those in attendance were parents.
The presentation tonight was very similar to what has been presented at previous math nights, sort of like a Tupperware party except that the hosts were selling “Investigations”. Teachers and administrators took turns at the microphone, first giving an overview of the District’s elementary math program, then showing, grade by grade starting with kindergarten, how the elementary math program prepares students for algebra and beyond. Parents were asked to complete various math activities along the way, led by 1-2 teachers sitting at each table. Parents were asked to hold questions until the end, but during the third-grade teacher’s presentation a couple of parents couldn’t help themselves and started asking questions and voicing complaints about Investigations (it’s too abstract and not concrete enough for young kids; the various activities are not tied to standard math; there’s too little homework). Barb spoke a couple of times to second what one of the other parents was saying.
There were some differences between the presentation tonight and the presentation made at math nights last winter and spring. At the outset tonight it was made very clear that fact fluency (i.e., the times table) and the U.S. algorithms (i.e., carrying, borrowing, long division, etc.) are central parts of the approach used in SCASD, but then were not mentioned again during the rest of the presentation. Barb pointed this out in the question period and was referred to the “pacing charts” on the SCASD web site. At previous math nights, a great deal of time was spent pointing out how the U.S. algorithms are error prone and how “the child who is made dependent on his ability to memorize [rules] is painfully vulnerable.” Also missing from the old presentation were links to TERC and Mathematically Sane.
It’s hard to say how effective the presentation was. SCASD obvsiously has been trying to refine its presentation of “Investigations” and put the best face on it following the controversy last spring. The parents who go out of their way to attend Math Night, however, are generally not 100% satisfied with their kids’ math instruction, so there’s a disconnect between what they are being told and their own experience. SCASD doesn’t use examples like, “Find a button. Write down all the words you can think of that describe your button” at Math Night, but that’s the kind of “Investigations” activity that brought many parents to Math Night in the first place.
One last note: Afterward I talked to School Board candidate Penni Fishbaine, who seems to have a really good handle on why so many parents are frustrated with this curriculum.
I am thankful for this report, since I wasn’t able to attend the meeting. Penni Fishbaine looks good on many accounts for the school board. I’ll be voting for her come Nov 3. Is there a link anywhere to the positions of the other school board members with regard to Investigations?
Maren – You can find the candidates’ responses to our questionnaire from last spring (before the primary election) on the ‘Files’ page on this site. Taylor is also collecting the candidates responses to another questionnaire and I think he’s just about ready to post the results here – stay tuned.