Bellevue, WA teachers being instructed on how to deal with parents

This is a video of Phil Daro and Uri Treisman of the Dana Center, during a visit to Bellevue, WA. They are instructing teachers on how to deal with parents opposed to reform math. In a nutshell: "Lie".

The synchronization between sound and image is off, so lip movement will not match the words. Doesn't matter; even if it did, the effect would still be nauseating.

Phil Daro does this kind of thing routinely, and he is part of a group called the MARS team. MARS stands for Mathematics Assessment Resource Service, which operates in part from a grant from NSF. ( Grant No ESI0137861). The MARS team has a website, and it contains all kinds of useful information including "tools". One such tool is setting up a "peace treaty". According to the web site, the peace treaty

"...is a disarmament tool – a brief statement of common beliefs that the non-specialist public can understand. It is not a compromise, but a response to the legitimate concerns of the public, especially parents. It can be adopted as a policy of the district, circulated to the press, or by any other means of getting it to the public as a representation of what the district math leadership believes about the issues spelled out in the Treaty. To build such a consensus, it is important also to bring in mathematicians from the local academic community who are interested in mathematics education in schools but have not adopted extreme positions. The letter and meeting agenda are designed for this purpose, complementing the text of the Peace Treaty."

Note that the key qualifications for mathematicians from the local academic community are that they not adopt "extreme positions"; loosely translated this means they should not be against fuzzy math.

The peace treaty is "to help change agents, if and when the 'Math Wars' impact their system, to take the heat out of the exchanges by seeking common ground and civilized discussion of areas of disagreement."

I think that's what Daro is doing here in this video, though he is talking only to teachers, and he seems to definitely be quite defensive against those pesky parents.

The last blurb on the web-page on the "peace treaty" provides the following advice:

"Do not worry about getting people to sign the treaty. You sign it and make it public. Then challenge anyone who attacks you on the grounds they are attacking what you stand for in the treaty. Dare critics to sign on or publicly expose their disagreement with it. Do not add divisive language, even if it warms your heart. Do not use this tool as a public education tool. It is a public engagement tool. It is already understood by the public. They want to know if YOU understand it. This is not an expression of your philosophy. It is a direct response to issues framed by the public. Don’t change the subject."

Mathematically Sane's review of the NMP Report

For fans of Mathematically Sane, here is their review of the National Math Panel report. My editorial comments are in green. They are not meant to intrude but to "enhance" your reading experience.



Friday, March 21, 2008
Really Says it ALL!
Presidential Math Panel Vows to Increase Learning Disabilities
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:17 AM
Gary Stager

In the last year of his term, the President of the United States and theDepartment of Education are now trying to do for math what they did for reading. The notable achievements of Reading First include massive fraud, profiteering, junk science, federal control over classroom practice, fear and hysteria. [Ed: They also found unprecedented success in school districts that had been written off by many.] While the National Reading Panel was stacked with ideologues sharing the same educational philosophy, the National Math Panel co-opted the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) by appointing the organization’s President to serve on the committee.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, never known for its radicalism, swung hard towards “the basics” last year in its Curriculum Focal Points and now finds itself in the uncomfortable position of having to disagree with NCTM’s President and the President of the United States. “Skip” Fennell did neither his members nor millions of American schoolkids any favors by participating in this unnecessary process. These federal education expeditions seek to narrow both the range of content and pedagogy permissible in public schools. The private and religious schools the GOP wants to support with taxpayer-funded vouchers are immune from these intrusions. The one-size-fits-all prescriptions for what ails public education are justified by claiming that schemes are research-based. [Ed; "Research-based". Where have I heard that before? Aren't Everyday Math and Investigations "research-based"?]

The rigid definition of “scientific evidence” enforced by Department of Education may be fine in testing remedies for restless leg syndrome, but is ill-suited for the complexities of education. [Ed: Such reasoning may explain why teachers believe that teaching algorithms in the lower grades is harmful to such students]. But hey, these are the folks who have mangled the English language to imply that theory is merely an unproven guess.

There is a lot wrong with the recent math report, but making Algebra the holy grail of K-8 mathematics is wrong-headed and goes unquestioned. Stressing the importance of fractions as critical prerequisites forAlgebra adds insult to injury. In a world-class display of side-splitting math teacher humor, panel member Frances “Skip” Fennell told the New York Times , “Just as“plastics” was the catchword in the 1967 movie The Graduate, the catchword for math teachers today should be ‘fractions.’“ What Fennell doesn’t realize is that the person who said, “Plastics,” in The Graduate was emblematic of everything wrong with society. “Plastics,” was a metaphor for a shallow, superficial, inauthentic culture focused onthe wrong values. The National Math Advisory Panel’s greater focus on fractions represents a “plastic” version of mathematics that will do more harm than good.

It’s easy to see how someone might think that several years worth of fraction study prepares a child for Algebra. Fractions have numerators over denominators, separated by a horizontal line. Many algebraic equations have something over something else, also separated by a line.That’s all you need to know. Right? [ Um, uh...]Not only is the progression from arithmetic manipulation of fractions to Algebra tenuous, but neither of the assumptions underlying the value of teaching fractions or Algebra are ever questioned. [Uhh, well, they did discuss that at the very first meeting. Were you not there, or did you not read the transcript?] The President’s Math Panel, like most of the math education community maintains a Kabbalah-like belief in an antiquated scope and sequence. [Ed: A scope and sequence which managed to be successful for a great many people despite claims to the contrary in Mathematically Sane and other places] Such curricular superstition fuels a multigenerational feud in which educators fight over who has the best trick for forcing kids to learn something useless, irrelevant or unpleasant.

Despite the remarkable statement in the 1989 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards, “Fifty percent of all mathematics has beeninvented since World War Two,” the NCTM has been in full retreat ever since. [Ed: Not everyone remains outwitted by stupidity.] Although much of this “new” mathematics is playful, practical, beautiful or capable of being visualized via the computer, little new content has made its way into the curriculum. [Ed. Well at last we agree. There is little to no content at all in NSF-funded programs like Investigations, Math Trailblazers, CMP, and others.] Against this backdrop of unimaginative heuristics and a leadership vacuum, math class has become increasingly torturous for too many students.

Children who struggle to manipulate fractions do so because the skills are taught absent a meaningful context in a culture where fractions are rarely ever used. [Ed: Rational numbers are fast becoming passe as well.] Fraction fans might argue that fractions are important in following a recipe, but little cooking is done during fraction instruction. Even if kids did get to learn fractions by cooking, they might add, subtract or even multiply fractions, but one hardly ever divides fractions. The fact that there are four arithmetic functions doesn’t justify drilling kids for several grade levels. [Ed: Hats off to you, Mr. Stagers. Just when I think you can't outdo yourself, you do!] I wonder how many members of the Presidential panel can coherently explain how division of fractions works beyond repeating the trick – multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction? [Ed: Can't give you an exact number but I believe Wilfried Schmid, Hung-Hsi Wu, Vern Williams, Tom Loveless, Sandra Stotsky, and Liping Ma can do so. Maybe Deborah Ball. Not sure about Skip Fennel.]

The Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel does not dispute that teachers spend lots of time teaching fractions. The report merely urges that teachers do even more of the same while hoping for a different result. A definition of insanity comes to mind. It would be bad enough if wasted time was the only consequence of the fanatical fraction focus, but too many students get the idea that they can’t do math. This damages their inclination towards learning other forms of mathematics. Given the importance of mathematics and the widespread mathphobia sweeping the land, students can ill afford to a diminution in their self-image as capable mathematicians. Educators should not be complicit in creating learning disabilities regardless of what the President or his friends say. [Ed: I guess this means you won't be voting for George W. Bush again any time soon!]