If your school has Everyday Math

If your school uses Everyday Math, you should be extremely watchful.  Everyday Math is problematic because it is a language-intensive-based program that

• stresses the use of calculators,
• wants the kids to come up with their own ways to solve the problems
• doesn't teach the traditional algorithms (the multiplication and division methods that they teach break down when using large numbers, but there is absolutely no reason to be able to compute large numbers nowadays, is there?),
• and does not advocate drill in any form.

Now, this means that some kids lose out:

• Kids who might have a language problem but would be really good at mathematics,
• kids who need the "rules" first and then they can come to the concepts (think phonics versus whole language),
• and kids who need drill in order to retain concepts.

Furthermore, if your child is mathematically gifted and is good in language, this program is just not advanced enough.

My town uses this and it is a disaster for both my kids. My daughter falls into the categories of needing the rule, then the concept and needing more drill. I am drilling my daughter in math concepts using a computer program, and she has improved dramatically. On the other hand, my son is so bored it is frightening. Particularly frightening is that I have read that it leaves out concepts that you need in order to go on to math at the highest levels. I’m doing more research on that now.

How did I find out about this and come to these conclusions? The state standardized tests; literally, thank God for the state standardized tests, the only test that allows a glimpse of what might be happening within the schools before it is too late. My daughter received a “needs improvement” on her 4th grade math scores.  Meanwhile, her math grades were all fine -- nothing that showed she should have received a needs improvement.

Of course, on receiving the score, I immediately contacted the school and asked for a copy of the test and her answers, which I received. I had her take the test in my kitchen to make sure that the results were valid. They were. Only one question off. I asked for a teacher conference, which I received. Her teacher didn’t seem concerned and said that she wasn’t a candidate for remedial math, and I can see why. My daughter gets concepts pretty quickly, but if she doesn’t drill to retain them, then they aren’t retained.

Furthermore, I found out at a school committee meeting that my daughter’s elementary school didn’t implement the curriculum correctly in comparison to the other schools in town. Everyday Math is based on a spiral – keep teaching the same concept in small doses each year. If you don’t get it that year, you will get it the next. Well, the teachers at my daughter’s school slowed down the curriculum so most children got it the first time. They didn’t go ahead as fast as they should have. As a result, they didn’t finish the program each year, and my daughter never was exposed to some key concepts at all. (This has since been fixed, but the parents who didn't listen to that school committee meeting were not informed.)

Fast forward to the end of 5th grade. It turns out that they give a pretest and a posttest for the curriculum. In other words, they give the final at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year to track the learning. My daughter received a 25 at the beginning of her 5th grade year in math, but she only received a 69 at the end of the year. Obviously, one year didn’t make up for what she was missing.

Clearly, intervention was needed. In the summer at the end of 5th grade, I had her try the Aleks computer program in math, www.aleks.com. The Charter School in my town uses it, and I decided to try it for my own daughter. A tutor would have been expensive and less than optimal in this situation because my daughter does get concepts, she just needs more drill (how can most kids hone their number sense if they aren’t ever asked to multiply and divide numbers continuously), and she needs algorithms that have fewer steps so there is less possibility of error (everything that Everyday Math does not provide.)

According to Aleks, my daughter only knew 21% of a traditional 5th grade curriculum – and this was at the end of 5th grade. Talk about having a heart attack! This was soon remedied. My daughter is now in the 6th grade and she has completed the 5th and 6th grade curriculum according to Aleks. I’m looking forward to the tests at the end of the year to see if my intervention worked.

All of the things that apply to my daughter don’t apply to my son. He gets everything the first time, including figuring out the multiplication tables, etc. He doesn’t need drill. He just needs to spend more than 60 seconds doing his math homework – something that is a bit more challenging. He isn’t going to get it from this program or the town’s teaching methods. When teaching reading there is more sophistication in the teaching methods, kids are broken out by ability and then brought back together. In math, every kid is the same. And every kid SHOULD learn math the same way; it doesn’t matter what their learning style is or what their strengths are – it doesn’t matter what IS.

So, bottom line? Kids in upper income communities will probably do OK despite the Everyday Math curriculum. Why? Because there are parents like me to pick up the pieces. If it isn’t Aleks, then it is high-priced tutors or mom or dad working with the kids each night. If there are concepts that are missing that are needed to become a mathematician, we’ll find out what they are and make sure they learn them.

Where Everyday Math will do real damage is in the communities who don’t have the knowledge or the resources to overcome the shortcomings.

And, sadly, who really gets shortchanged here? The kid who might be mathematically gifted but who has a language disability. All kids should have the opportunity to be good at something; these kids can’t even have that.

To find out what it could do if parents don't pay attention, read this: How Not to Teach Math, New York's chancellor Klein's plan doesn't compute, by Matthew Clavel (City Journal, Mar 7, 2003).

To find out what concepts are missing, read this: Review of the Everyday Mathematics Curriculum and its Missing Topics and Skills, by Tsewei Wang (April 9, 2001).

And for lots more criticism, go to this page: Reviews of UCSMP Everyday Mathematics.

Update: And for lots of contrarian views, read the comment section.

Update:

BTW, I'll be writing more about this, but my daughter made it into the "accelerated" math class for next year based on three things: her test score, her grades, and her teacher's recommendation. What a difference working with a traditional curriculum makes! Of course, her success will be attributed to the Everyday Math curriculum. But helping my daughter is much more important than "proving" a curriculum is broken for a lot of kids. And more math help here.

Additional posts here:

• More on How to Help Kids with Math: Math Tutoring (second post)
• More on Math... Math Sense: Stage 3 Help (third post)
• More Parents Find Out About EveryDay Math (fourth post)
• Everyday Math Exposed: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Reverses Course (fifth post)

Comments

[honeydo]

I am not saying that those in favor of EM math are wrong and as I told our principal, I'm sure it works great for some kids. But not for mine. I do not believe in this program, not one little bit. I did give it a chance...the whole second grade. Now the princ. told me that I needed to wait that in 2 years, he would be ok.

Backstory.....last year my son was in 1st grade, doing 4th grade math by the end of the year. GREAT. I'm proud. Never a calculator was used, he borrowed and carried to his heart's content and always got the answers right.

then......EM was instituted for second grade. Oh joy. I didn't understand it. But, ok, I'll give it a chance. After almost the entire year has passed, his math has gone down the drain. He cries during math at school, fakes taking his tests and outright refuses to do it. Why? Because he gets all the answers wrong. At this point he cannot complete a 1st grade math question properly when implementing the EM techniques.

I have gone round and round about this. Tried to use their "algorithms" and ways of solving problems. I have encouraged him to love math and follow the directions given to him by Mrs. H. I have supported this program despite my reservations. I have had to sign papers saying I will tutor him at home on the subject because he was doing poorly. NEVER in the history of that school have they had summer school or after school math tutoring....till now. Until they implemented EM into the curriculum. Almost the whole 2nd grade has to go to after school tutoring.

SO, last night I did an experiment. I let him do his HomeLink paper for EM. 4 problems on the bottom, 2 addition, 2 subtraction. Using the EM methods, all on his own, he got 1 right. 1. and done very inefficiently I might add, but I digress.

So, I re-wrote the problems on the back of his paper. I told him to do it the way Miss M. taught him. He lit up. "You mean the way I did it in 1st grade?" Yup, the way you did it in 1st grade. Lickety split, it was done. AND ALL 4 CORRECT.

Right there, spelled out in pencil. All on his own. HE responds to traditional algorithms best.

Math will now be homeschooled in our house and my children are now forbidden from learning Evil...errr....Everyday Math.

I'm probably going to get a phone call.

[TuLyn]

I have been working on a free math help site. Over 2000 video tutorials, hundresds of word problems and printable PDF worksheets. Please take a look : http://tulyn.com

[Diane]

I'm concerned with EDM. Our district implemented this program this year. My child is in third grade. For K thru 2nd she was not taught EDM, yet is expected to just "pick up" at third grade. There is no time for any drilling of multiplication facts, addition facts, subtraction, division. It is just "expected" that parents will do this. There is no time for the "games" that go along with this program as the teachers are just trying to teach the EDM curriculum. My child also is not the best reader. Therefore, she gets hung up on new words. For example, I gave her an example using the word "square" and she did the math problem very easily. Yet when the EDM test used words like "hexagon" "polygon", she did not get the math problem right.
Am I crazy or did our district make a mistake starting this program with kids who are in the 3rd grade? Any help with understanding is much appreciated.

[Mary Ellen Sofield]

I would like our school district to get rid of Everyday Math. When my daughter was in 2nd grade I realized she was not learning math facts. The only homework she received were single page worksheets that took her all of 30 seconds to complete and had no drill of math facts. I begged for homework but was told that research shows that homework is not effective. I enrolled my daughter in Kumon which gives her 20 solid minutes of math practice a day. Within six weeks her teacher told me how very happy she was with my daughter's progress and how well she suddenly knew all her math facts. Yes, I said, because she's been going to Kumon and doing homework - it's not because she learned it from Everyday Math. The school district and Everyday Math will use her good math grades to show how well Everyday Math works. She's learned math at Kumon. Also, we here in NJ pay a fortune in property taxes. 90% of the property taxes I pay in my town goes to support the school district. It makes me incredibly angry that on top of all that I have to pay Kumon $1200 a year so my daughter can learn the math that she's not learning in school.

[A student]

As a student, I hate ALEKS. Just about everyone in my school hates aleks. It makes me completely depressed. It's insanely time consuming and irritating. I can't explain why we hate it exactly. we just do. When I'm doing ALEKS, I feel as if the light and joy is being sucked out of my soul. It makes me want to run far, far away. And I am NOT the only one. Not by a long shot. Ignore me if you want, I can't stop you, and I'm glad if it helped your kids, but I have to speak for myself, my friends, my classmates and all the kids at my school. Our side of the argument needs to be heard.

[Ankit]

Nice Article. In India a2zExam.com is an Assessment company, which test students knowledge and skills and figure out what they know? Where they are weak? Whether they know concepts or they remember the rules.

Based on this it is very helpful for children, teacher and parents to work and improve on students learning. They call is Learning Outcome Management System.

[Marc DeMartini]

Friends-I am heartbroken and livid about Everyday Math. I suspect that at least 30% of my daughter's anxiety problems stem from repeatedly being unable to master problems that "spiral" past her. While there maybe other things contributing to her anxiety and depression relating to school, it always seems to peak when new math material is introduced. I suspect that she repeatedly sees herself as a failure because she knows she cannot solve the problems presented to her. Kumon has helped but she is being emotionally trashed by the EM program. She has an IEP and was using an alternative curiculum which she mastered so quickly that they mainstreamed her back to EM. That has been an ongoing headache. I always know when it is problematic because she refused to let me see her homework. Come next Monday, I am going to start pushing for her to let her go back to that other program. The school will whine about how overloaded their special ed resources are. We are paying for Kumon and counseling. But what really hurts is to see how miserable our daughter is.