teaching algebra

English: Square root of x formula. Symbol of mathematics. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Is Algebra Necessary? - NYTimes.com:   "Another dropout statistic should cause equal chagrin. Of all who embark on higher education, only 58 percent end up with bachelor’s degrees. The main impediment to graduation: freshman math. The City University of New York, where I have taught since 1971, found that 57 percent of its students didn’t pass its mandated algebra course. The depressing conclusion of a faculty report: “failing math at all levels affects retention more than any other academic factor.” A national sample of transcripts found mathematics had twice as many F’s and D’s compared as other subjects."

This NYT op ed on doing away with algebra in schools sparked a lot of debate. I think he has a strong point about math for citizens. But aside from feelings about algebra itself, wanting every human being to have the same cognitive skills is a problematic goal in many ways. Is it brainwashing and illegitimate control? Are we building a monoculture? Are human beings blank slates or do they possess gifts and abilities out of the box? Is it true that most math majors work for National Security? Our current public education system was built before the knowledge explosion of the 20th century: is this 19th century model really what we have to use?

Linked below are two previous posts on math, one presents a lecture on this topic at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and the second post discusses math textbooks. I've done a brief transcription of key concepts for the first lecture which discusses the math requirements in the US and their impact on drop outs and completion rates.

Few discuss the wisdom of extensive, top-down requirements that fill the entire 12 years of schooling and do not allow for any choice or control by the learner. In our local high school, kids get one elective, a choice among two defined things. That's it for the whole 12 years. I think we should move to far greater choice and control by every learner at every school. It might not ensure that everyone learned algebra but a great many still would choose to do that. We actually do not have many getting algebra now anyway if you read the numbers in these links. I suspect the most popular path ahead will be this one along with MOOCs that may breakthrough the poor quality of math teaching:

Algebra Can Be Taught as Basic Software Programming | Education News: "But my now-grown sons, two of whom became software developers, have been arguing since high school that learning computer software programming is essentially learning algebra, only infinitely more fun, interesting, and useful." 

background posts    

• post in space: mass higher ed and the dropout problem (too much math):   You can listen to the Leon Levy Lecture by Paul Attewell entitled Mass Higher Education and the Dropout Problem up at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Attewell touches upon the US math-obsession (see list below, bold) deriving from devotion to the liberal arts core, not exactly what you would expect in a talk at the famous Institute, located on Einstein Drive. Einstein, of course, would be pleased as he hated traditional pedagogy and rote schooling.

• post in space: down for the page count:  I read an NYT article about Connecticut schools taking Algebra I online and throwing out the 1000-page textbooks that dominate high school mathematics these days. This is a very good idea. Perhaps it is time to start counting the pages of math texts, or any text, in self-defense.

more on the GED changes

NOTE: (First post on the GED update is here)

More privatization.  The GED website announces changes to the GED and new collaboration with testing and textbook giant Pearson corporation.

Community College Spotlight | New GED will test college readiness: 

"The GED is being redesigned “as a step in a journey toward postsecondary training, rather than as an end in itself,” reports Education Week.  “The new exam, due out in 2014, will have two passing points: the traditional one connoting high school equivalency, and an additional, higher one signaling college and career readiness.” 

There will be a bridge program (more from the site) like that run in NY:

Since 2007, La Guardia Community College in New York has increased the college transition rate dramatically through its GED Bridge to College and Careers (pdf) program. While studying for the GED, students also learn college-level material to prepare for careers in business or health care. In addition, instructors also teach “college knowledge,” such as how to apply for financial aid. 

Before the bridge program was created, only 35 percent of GED students enrolled in college classes. Last year, 80 percent of bridge graduates went on to certificate or degree programs. "

New York state is considering other options to this costly privatization:

State may bypass GED - Times Union: 

"The change is a "radical departure" from the current system, according to Kevin Smith, deputy commissioner for adult career and continuing education services. That's partially because it greatly diminishes the state's role in the process and turns it over to a private company, he wrote in an October memorandum. The test would only be on computer, instead of pencil and paper, which could be a significant hardship for some test takers, according to Smith."

The article also adds this (below) and grasp that this could easily undercut the privatization in New York where a longstanding commitment to a free GED has been in place. Most other states charge and those charges are expected to go up.

One of the new options the state may offer is a local diploma for those over 21 who can demonstrate high school skills and knowledge through their work and other experience.

This privatization is costly:

GEDTS would administer the new exams and the company would take greater control over the process, authorizing test locations, examiners and test scorers. Currently, only 19 Pearson test sites are operating in New York. The state is concerned that it will not be able to accommodate the surge of applicants who want to take the tests before the current one ends in December 2013. 

Company officials have said the new exam would cost substantially more.
The 2012-13 state budget provides $2.71 million to purchase and administer the tests. The current computer-based testing costs $120 for each set of exams, and at that rate the state's cost would more than double to $6 million. King said that price hike could cut the number of test takers.

Pearson isn't worried about those who don't take the GED since they also manufacture tests for those in prisons, the other state-paid pathway for those whom poor-quality schools fail. In fact, Pearson is pretty much school-in-a-box for Texas these days.

Remediation: Can You Spell C-A-S-H?

The windfall for community colleges of so-called remediation services has been huge and the debt and costs incurred by families that cannot easily afford them have been huge. The credential game is a rigged one all the way down the line and it penalizes the poor, all the way down the line, as well.

General Educational Development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: 

"In March of 2011, ACE and Pearson, the world's largest education and testing company, announced a new business that will develop changes to the design and delivery of the GED test. The new business will retain the name "GED Testing Service." The GED Testing Service plans to make several changes. The first change is that the test will no longer be available as a pen and paper test but will be strictly on computer. After that, there will be changes in both the content of the test and how it is scored. Finally, there will be two levels of GED testing. One will be for students interested in high school equivalency and job readiness. The other will be for people who want to go to college. The hope is that students who pass the higher level test will then be able to pass college entrance exams at a level sufficient to avoid having to take any non-college credit, developmental (a.k.a. “remedial”) courses. Those courses eat up precious college financial aid resources but generate no college transcript credits."

background posts
school in a box from Pearson
the remediation windfall

update on the GED

(Update: second part of this post with more info)

In Today's Economy, How Far Can A GED Take You? : NPR:

""The GED is a credential. Is it adequate for gainful employment and a living wage in the United States of America today? I do not think so," says Los Angeles Schools Superintendent John Deasy. His top lieutenant in charge of adult and career education, Ed Morris, is even more blunt.
"If I were prepared today with a GED, and that's what I had as an 18-year-old, I'd be scared to death of the future," he says."

and this:

"Some critics would like to scrap the GED altogether, but Chestang says that's not going to happen. Instead, in 2014, the GED will morph into two new tests — one that's aligned with more rigorous high school standards, the other more attuned to career and college readiness."

Lots of good comments, too, at the site (NPR)

More on the changes coming and this, too and the GED site as well

The new business, modeled to represent a public-private partnership, will retain the GED Testing Service name. The new GED Testing Service will build on its past experience in adult and continuing education by harnessing the considerable resources of Pearson, the world's largest education and testing company, with the nearly 70-year history of ACE to expand access to the GED Test, ensure its quality and integrity, and adapt the GED Test to 21st century testing practices. The three primary components of the GED 21st Century Initiative will include:

• A new, more rigorous GED Test aligned with Common Core State Standards designed to ensure career- and college-readiness;
• A national test preparation program featuring an expanding array of innovative and personalized learning resources; and,
• A transition network that connects GED test-takers to career and postsecondary educational opportunities.

watching students

Security cameras under review - Half Moon Bay Review : News:  Mass coerced schooling and crowd control.  If schools were community learning centers and families could have real choices, like what classes to take and when, a lot of triage and self-sorting would help stressed communities and families.

"The data suggesting a decrease in campus crime doesn't point to a clean drop in suspensions because lightweight infractions have piled up. The school's tougher stance on smaller infractions like tardies, truancy and defiance in class makes for an overall increased rate of suspensions. (The minor infractions can add up to a suspension.) 

There were, however, fewer suspensions due to major offenses like fighting, drinking, drugs, bullying, stealing and sexual harassment, which administrators attribute to more oversight. These misdeeds carry more lengthy suspensions.
Students rarely fight on campus anymore, likely because of the cameras and the school culture of accountability they create, Streshly explained. Actually, students now venture off campus to fight. Taking it off campus makes little sense, Streshly points out, because administrators are responsible for students during the entire school day, regardless of where they are, something students rarely understand."

two-year high school

This video up at Big Think has Bard College's Leo Botstein asking Should We Cut High School to Two Years?  



Eight States to Test Two Year High School Plan - ParentDish: 

"In fall 2011, 10th graders in eight states will be allowed to pass a series of tests -- including English, science and history -- that will allow them to graduate from high school and then enroll in community college, The New York Times reports. Students who plan to continue their education at 'a selective college' may continue with college prep courses in their junior and senior high school years. Students who fail the 10th-grade tests can try again at the end of their 11th and 12th grades, the newspaper says."

New Plan Will Let High Schoolers Graduate Early - NYTimes.com: 

“This would reform that,” Dr. Holliday said. “We’ve been tied to seat time for 100 years. This would allow an approach based on subject mastery — a system based around move-on-when-ready.”
The new system aims to provide students with a clear outline of what they need to study to succeed, said Phil Daro, a consultant based in Berkeley, Calif., who is a member of an advisory committee for the effort.

‪suspension stories‬‏

One from the site:  ‪suspensionstories's Channel‬‏ - YouTube where kids tell their own stories.



From the video:  "We're not criminals, we're students."

Mass coerced schooling makes police a part of education and that is a fundamental misdesign of what should be a public social service for families.  Real school change means understanding how and why children and young people are forced into learning situations where they are graded and sorted and blamed for being themselves.  The taxes families pay fund a system that requires poor families to attend and be told they don't measure up. How can schools be removed from legal action if students attend for 12 years and do not get a good job?

I blog that moving toward voluntary attendance would change all the dynamics in schools and place families and kids at the center instead of being disenfranchised as they are today. I favor a system that upgrades this coercive Victorian relic designed as a literacy factory to a modern social service that focuses on serving the needs of families and kids.

the cost of getting tough

VOYCE Demands End to Harsh Discipline at Chicago Public Schools! | Voices Of Youth in Chicago Education

CPS’s overuse of harsh discipline policies has cost the city millions of dollars and has diverted funds from more effective and proven approaches to school safety, such as guidance counseling, mental health supports, and peer mentoring.

-          Last year, the budget of the Office of Safety and Security was 48 times larger than the budget of the Office of Student Support and Engagement, and 84 times larger than the budget of the Office of Teaching and Learning.

-          Last year, CPS allocated just $3.5 million towards school-based college and career coaches, and $51.4 million towards school-based security guards.

Also:  Students in Chicago Demand to End Harsh Discipline Policies | Suspension Stories: 

GED

Among homeschoolers, you could get a pretty lively discussion going anytime you mentioned the GED: from the GED and the military to diplomas, there was usually a lot of discussion.  Of course, homeschooling is not compulsory schooling where kids have no control over anything.  The GED can be a way to get on with something else.  We could step up and do that all the way along by allowing kids and families to choose what they want to study and when. 

Aligning the GED to College and Career Readiness – ED.gov Blog 

The New York Department of Education and the sponsors of the General Educational Development program yesterday took an important step in the effort to raise expectations for all students. 

At an alternative education center for youth and adults in Manhattan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and Molly Broad, the president of the American Council on Education, which sponsors the GED, announced the start of a pilot program to align expectations for GED program to standards that prepare participants for success in college and careers.
“The GED needs to be more than a substitute for a high school diploma. It needs to be a passport to college and careers,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at the event. “This pilot project will demonstrate ways to ensure that all individuals who pass the GED are prepared to succeed in college and careers.”  The pilot project is building on the state-led effort that has created a common core of standards in math and English. So far, 40 states and the District of Columbia this year have adopted the Common Core standards in math and English. 

Now, New York City is leading the way to make these standards a game-changer for adults in the GED program. The 500,000 adult learners who pass the GED exam every year deserve to know whether they truly are ready to succeed in college and careers. 

Related articles

• GED rolling out computerized test in 4 states (seattletimes.nwsource.com) 
• GED Test Costs Up, Officials Hope Students Still Take Exams (Loganville Tribune)
• General Educational Development (wikipedia)
• Official Site of the GED Test  (ACE | GED)
• Key Labor Market Findings from Young GED Credential Recipients in the 21st Century: A Snapshot from NLSY97 (2011‐1)

high school as a business model

Doc Searls has a post up Curing High School.  Homeschoolers talk about socialization and discuss how children and adolescents fare when they spend more time outside the hierarchical peer camps of our current school structure.  Many homeschoolers feel children and youths are better socialized when they have strong family ties and spend time in groups that are not solely peers.  Some unschoolers discuss how the entire schooling process impacts our ways of thinking and categories about learning as they attempt to live free of these categories and limits. (Just as Searls discusses moving past corporate silos of blogging ... )

The viewpoints of software developers, their mental models of social interactions, their unconscious acceptance of the high school social experience, define how they build the applications that, in turn, define activity on the web. If all developers were homeschooled, would our apps differ?

I often wonder about search and its overemphasis on peers/popularity/links (outmoded by the social web)  versus search modeled on a natural process or mathematical patten that occurs in nature like the Fibonacci series.   Better yet, give me 17 buttons, one for each type of symmetry and I'll be happy.

From Searls' blog (he then quotes Whitman):

Wishing for popularity and approval is a mark of adolescence, a term invented to describe a normative high school condition—specifically, one in which childhood is prolonged. The best cure I know is chug down some Whitman. 

resources for teens from the AFSC

A publication of the American Friends Service Committee, the book, It's My Life: A Guide to Alternatives After High School is a free download.   The book has chapters on:

• Surviving the Next Few Years
• Thinking About Jobs and careers
• Serving Your Country (military alternatives like NCCC, Americorps Habitat, Peace and Social Justice Jobs, and more)
• Seeing the World
• Training for the Future
• Greening Your Career
• Paying for College

More good resources for youth thinking of enlisting are here , also at the American Friends Service Committee's website in the Youth & Militarism section.  There is information about military recruiters and suggestions for alternatives to military service.

There is a chapter on Green jobs, small businesses, apprenticeships, sustainable farming, construction, and one on paying for college. All are addressed to the youth themselves.