A Heavy Heart

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A Heavy Heart

Paul RichardsonCopyright © 2010



My Concern Is For How Our Kids Are Being

Educated, A Little History

In 1983, the A Nation at Risk reportbemoaned a rising tide of mediocrity and saidthat if a foreign power had imposed oureducation system on us we would consider it

an act of war.



More History

Over a third of a century ago, Robert Kennedycalled the achievement gap between minorityand disadvantaged kids a stain on our national

honor. In the meantime we have spent billionson finding a solution but the problem isdemonstrably worse now than when RFK madehis observation.

C olorado C losing the Achievement Gap C ommissionFinal Report, (11/05)



More History

The 2007 report T ough C hoices or T ough T imes

points out, While our international counterpartsare increasingly getting more education, their

young people are getting a better education aswell. And American students and young adultsplace anywhere from the middle to the bottomof the pack in all three continuing comparative

studies of achievement in mathematics, science,and general literacy in the advanced industrialnations.



What Experts Say About Our Education

Problem.

E.D. Hirsch calls the current situation a perfect stormof Bad Educational Ideas. The reason for this state of affairs tragic for millions of students as well as for the

nation is that an army of American educators and

reading experts are fundamentally wrong in theirideas about education and especially about readingcomprehension. Their well-intentioned yet mistakenviews are the significant reason (more than other

constantly blamed factors, even poverty) that many of our children are not attaining reading proficiency, thuscrippling their later schooling.

T he Knowledge Deficit



Hirsch continued

The dominant ideas in American education are virtuallyunchallenged within the educational community. American education expertise (which is not the sameas educational expertise in nations that perform

better than we do) has a monolithic character inwhich dissent is stifled.

Principles that constitute a kind of theology are drilledinto prospective teachers like a catechism. The onlyway to improve scores in reading comprehension and

to narrow the reading gap between groups is tosystematically provide children with the wide-ranging,specific background knowledge they need tocomprehend what they read.



Hirsch again

Massachusetts got rid of the harmful and

never effective how-to based approach (the

Hirsch stimulated Massachusetts Miracle)

replacing it with a content rich approach and

saw their achievement scores soar. Of course,

in Massachusetts the educators didnt lead

the charge, it was required by the legislature.



The Progressive Catechism

His view was that subjects should be taught to studentsbased on their direct practical value, or if studentsindependently wanted to learn those subjects. Thispoint of view toward education comported well withthe pedagogical methods endorsed by progressiveeducation. Limiting education primarily to utilitarianskills sharply limited academic content, and thishelped to justify the slow pace of student centered,

discovery learning, the centerpiece of progressivism.

William Heard Fitzpatrick--David Kleins A Brief History of American K-12 Mathematics Education in the20th C entury





More Augustine

It can, of course, be argued that comparing averages andmedians tells only part of the story, as indeed is often thecase. But in this instance, further parsing of the datagenerally reveals that the United States has a

disproportionately small share of the highest performersand a disproportionately large share of the lowestperformers. Although this is widely overlooked, it is notsimply the poorer-performing students who are fallingthrough the gaping cracks of our educational system butalso the highest performers whomuch to the nations

detrimentare frequently being forced to learn in anenvironment approaching the lowest commondenominator.



Final Augustine

The problem of low expectations has not beenconfined to California. Alabama, for example, reportedthat in 2005, 83% of its fourth-graders ranked asproficient on its state test of academic achievement.

But in the most widely accepted national test, theNational Assessment of Educational Progress, only 22%of Alabamas fourth-graders scored at or above theproficient level. In truth, neither of the measuresmatters much. What counts today is how the children

of Alabama rank with the children of Singapore,Moscow, Hong Kong, Delhi, Beijing, and Berlin. Thereis little consolation in being first among losers.



Some specific local examples

Using example detail info on District 11 It is not unique in its problems



D11 Math CSAP 09



Initial Conclusions from the data

The math teaching process in D11 is performing at anunacceptable level. It transforms the mostly proficient 3rd

graders into mostly unproficient 10th graders over time. Agood process would start well and end better.

The chart shows that students are advancing each year inmath skill much less than the very weak Colorado standardsincrease.

Below Proficient Proficient or Better

Grade 3 27% 73%

Grade 10 68% 32%



You Might Ask How Other Districts Do?

Every large district has charts that have the same shape.

± They shift up and down with the demographic luck of thedraw for their student population. The following are 2009 CSAPnumbers.

± I am not in any way saying that the gap kids cant learn if theyare expected to and educators believe they can.

± The next slide shows why that has to be addressed.

District Gr10 P+A District Gr10 P+A

Co. Sprgs 11 32% Adams 12 24%

Academy 20 48% Poudre 42%

Falcon 49 32% Doug Cnty 43%



©

NAEP vs. TIMSS, 8th grade Math

Singapore 73

S. Korea 65

Hong Kong 64

Japan & Chinese Taipei 61

Belgium (Flemish) 51

Netherlands 41

Hungary, Slovak Rep., Slovenia,

Canada, Russia, Australia

39 to 35

Czech Rep., Malaysia, Bulgaria,Finland

32 to 29

United States 27

% Proficient or Higher, examples, from American Institutes for Research (2007)



How do Colorado standards stack

up against other states?



Colorado Achievement Standards

CSAP Tests

T he Proficiency Illusion, Thomas Fordham Institute and

NWEA, October 2007 Compared state achievement rigor across 26 states including Colorado.

They looked at reading and math NCLB cut scores across all grades for allof those states.

Colorado ranked lowest in both reading and math, while South Carolina

ranked highest. The differences were BIG!

Conclusion: Colorado has set the standards at very low levels. Why?

± Makes it easier to avoid NCLB sanctions?

± Makes it easier to feel good about our performance?

± Afraid the public will not tolerate higher standards which would highlight the weakness

of the education their children are receiving?

± Deathly afraid of the everyone provision?



Average Ranking of States according to difficulty

of reading cut scores across all grades



Average Ranking of States according to difficulty

of math cut scores across all grades



Colorado Specific Comments

The Proficiency Illusion

This study linked data from the 2002 and 2005administrations of Colorados reading and math tests tothe Northwest Evaluation Associations Measures of

Academic Progress (MAP) assessment, a computerizedadaptive test used in schools nationwide. We foundthat, for purposes of complying with the federal NoChild Left Behind Act (NCLB), Colorados definitions of proficiency in reading and mathematics are much

less difficult than the standards set by most of theother 25 states in this study. In other words, its easierto pass Colorados tests than those of almost all otherstates.



Colorado Achievement Standards

CSAP Tests - 2

Assessing the Role of K-12 Academic Standards in States:

Workshop Summary, Natl Academies Press, 2007

Different methodology, using the NAEP performance of statesto determine the relative differences in standards for subjects

and grade level.

Same basic conclusionColorado is at the bottom of the

pack.

Yes, I know that for NCLB purposes the CDE waved a magic

wand and defined partially proficient as proficient. They

didnt have much faith in our education process, did they?



What is progress toward 100% Gr 10

proficient or better?



What is progress toward 100% Gr 10 proficient or better?



Time to 100% prof or better for tenth

grade

The overall trend line increases about 7% in 5years or about 1.4% per year.

The current level of 32% prof or better leaves

only 68% improvement required.

So, 68 divided by 1.4 gives only 48.6 years orso to get to 100% prof or better at the current

rate. That is only sacrificing 2 generations of kids to uncompetitive skills in the globalcompetition.



D11 Grade 10 CSAP Disaggregated

Math, Prof or Better



Killem With Kindness

John McWhorter, who is black and is now a linguisticsprofessor at Berkeley, remembers that in high schoolhe quite deliberately refrained from working to myhighest potential because I knew I would be accepted

to top universities without doing so. He goes on:Imagine telling a Martian who expressed an interest inAmerican education policy: We allow whites in only if they have a GPA of 3.7 and a SAT score of 1300 orabove. We let blacks in with a GPA of 3.0 and a SAT of

900. Now, what we have been pondering for years iswhy black students continue to submit higher gradesand scores than this so rarely. Well, mercy mewhat aperplexing problem! Michael Barone, H.A., S.A.



Effectiveness of Math Teaching Process

As in any process the quality of the final productis the real measure of success or failure. That is,how perfect is the finished TV or car? Ineducation, What is the diploma worth?

Dont worry, the math feature doesnt work toowell but they can read, sort of .

In math education we measure results in the thirdthrough tenth grades and each grade level result

must be considered in the context of how itcontributes or detracts from the final result (10th

grade in this case).



What is the Approach of the Top

Competition Globally?

A quote from the Singapore Ministry of Education is

instructive, from their Nurturing Every C hild,

booklet (2006), Teach Less, Learn More--

Syllabuses will be trimmed without dilutingstudents preparedness for higher education. This

will free up time for our students to focus on core

knowledge and skills

Their approach is the antithesis of the American

mile wide, inch deep time wasting approach.



What must the elementary piece provide if

success at higher grade levels is important?

Mastery (not a passing acquaintance) withfoundational elements: ± Math facts, drilled to automatic level so never have to

think about it again. See Daniel Willinghams W hy

Students Dont Like School, where he notes that drill isimportant to handling increasing complexity (at highergrade levels)

± Operations proficiency, including fractions, standard(optimized) algorithms for long division,

multiplication, order of operations, etc. ± A strong sense of how the number system works; base

10, base 2.



Why isnt it happening?

Two main reasons

Too little math subject knowledge amongteachers, esp. elementary.

Misunderstanding of hierarchical nature of the

study of math. T he goal in elementary mathmust be providing the foundation for higher level study, NOT being able to solve arithmetic

problems with a calculator or simplistic, non-universal algorithms, even though that is what

is tested at the elementary level.



What Can the Research Tell Us?Knowing and T eaching Elementary Mathematics, Liping Ma

Backgroundshe compared Chinese elementary

teachers to American elementary teachers

Chinese teachers have 2 to 3 years of NormalSchool training after a 9th grade education

American teachers have 16 to 18 years of

formal education

Her research used the TELT* study model.

Teacher Education and Learning to Teach Study



Background 2

Chinese students typically outperform U.S.

students on international comparisons of

mathematics competency in spite of the extra

education level of U.S. teachers.



An Example Problem

Ma used in her research

1 ¾ ÷ ½



An Example from Mas Work

Teachers Knowledge of Division by Fractions



The Bottom Line

Mas research found

± Even expert teachers, experienced teachers whowere [inappropriately] mathematically confident,

and teachers who actively participated in currentmathematics teaching reform did not seem tohave a thorough knowledge of the mathematicstaught in elementary school.

± Teachers subject knowledge correlated very wellwith their students achievement.

± Number of math courses taken in college did not.



Conclusion

If improving student math achievement is

important then teachers must have

upgraded math knowledge.

Harmful constructivist curricula for example,

Whole Language (and its derivatives) and

Everyday Math must be thrown out.



Why doesnt it get better after decades of

having the problem well defined?

The Progressives Education Fiefdom



Final Words from E.D. Hirsch

speaking on Book TV

The bottom line is that the current educational

methods yield the results favored by`progressive' and `liberal' educators, while

their methods drive everyone down,

particularly the poor. Hirsch says,

It is hard to conceive of a greater social evil.



Other Hirsch Comments

Our schools need to teach the founding principles of the Enlightenment and the blessings of liberty, not anintellectual tyranny.

The last 50+ years have been characterized by;

technically wrong ideas, fragmented courses, watereddown texts.

Critical thinking skills are powerfully knowledgedependent, meaning that the current goal of teachingcritical thinking skills in a content-free environment is a

waste of time. The how to approach has always failed and always

must fail.



How about reading?

I did a regression analysis on D11s 2008 CSAPreading scores, using the % of free and reducedlunch and grade as independent variables.

The result showed that the correlation of themodel was 97.4%

The overall reading at proficient or better wascentered on 80% for those not eligible for free orreduced lunch and centered on 60% for those

eligible for free or reduced lunch. Thus, reading performance is unacceptable as

well.



Finally

Since we cant bear to face and fix the abysmal

state of our public education failings, we need

to do one thing. Teach our kids to say

Lei yiu mut yeh low seeThat is, phonetically in Chinese,

How may I serve you master?

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A Heavy Heart