Great article about Everyday Math.
Stanford math Professor R. James Milgram although less critical, said the district is "taking a huge risk" with EM. Among whole math programs, EM is the best, he said, but teaching the program correctly would demand someone who’s majored in math at a top university.
"It just doesn’t work for typical teachers," he said.
According to Milgram, the root of the problem is that universities, which produce the nations’ teachers, generally are disconnected from professional mathematicians and scientists.
"They don’t listen to us because we’re not the ones they’re educated by," he said.
But the U.S. government is listening, because the stakes in this math war are high. The nation’s economic future hangs in the balance: the U.S. is producing less of the world’s technology and innovative products when compared to other developed countries, Milgram said. He’s part of a newly formed national board that advises Congress on such matters and supervises the Institute of Education Sciences, which provides information to the Department of Education on the effectiveness of programs and practices that improve academic achievement.
"There’s concern in Washington that we’re just not matching up," said Milgram.
As for the department calling EM "promising," Milgram said that label was withdrawn a couple of years ago.
"District after district, the outcome is abysmal," he said of math programs such as EM.
Recently, Cobasko sent Milgram a video of EM being taught in a CVUSD classroom. "From looking at the video," Milgram said, "the teachers in your district are not qualified to teach EM."
Please read the whole thing!
Here are a series of posts on math:
