Math project's teaching methods don't add up to student success

    Unless you are somehow involved with education, what follows most likely will come as a shock.
    Broadly speaking, it is but one of the latest examples of why most American elementary and high school - especially high school- pupils have trouble mastering academic subjects. And it comes from this state!
    It is a guide to the teaching of intermediate-school mathematics.
    Developed at Michigan State University, it is called the Connected Mathematics Project and has become widely used coast to coast.
    But it has problems; one of which, critics say, is that it is hostile to the teaching of mathematics.  That may be partly because in at least one case, the creators of the project answered one of its questions wrong. The correct answer required nothing more complicated than the ability to calculate percentage changes.  The authors couldn't do it, evidently.
    The mistake was discovered by a university professor.  It is not reported that it was discovered by anyone who has been using the MSU plan in a classroom.
That may be because the teacher manuals that go with the plan seem to discourage teaching, even by parents.  "Showing them (the pupils) how to do something" produces only an "impression" of success.  "It is important that you do not show your child rules or formulas for working with fractions," for example.  How are the youngsters supposed to master mathematics?  Apparently through things such as class projects, during which they are expected to figure it all out on their own.  The results of outside testing, such as state tests, indicate a failure to do so in many districts.
    Yet the MSU math project has been deemed "exemplary" by the U.S. Department of Education.  "These are the prevailing standards of the country," Education Secretary Richard Riley said.  Aren't they, though!
    This sort of thing would be unknown to most of us were it not for the fact that publications such as The Weekly Standard, and no doubt others, have brought it to our attention.  Please understand that the approach to math education by MSU is nothing new under the sun.  A decade ago, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued guidelines for math education in the elementary and secondary grades.  Numbers, the guidelines say, must be made  "useful" or "engaging" in the eyes of pupils.  Direct teaching, such as a teacher at a blackboard explaining something, should be minimized.
    The council was critical of "preoccupation with computation and other traditional skills." Such as knowing how to find and use percentages, perhaps?
As if that weren't enough "dumbing down," the council gave its blessing to the use of calculators for any but the simplest math.  California eagerly concluded its high school graduates no longer need to master long division the old-fashioned way.  The state's schools also adopted a math program called "Mathland" that not only embraced calculators but also suggested teaching "big numbers" by having the youngsters count out a million bird seeds, one at a time.
    Parents revolted, and California eventually got rid of it, but it is said to be in use in many other states.  And "Mathland" has been labeled “promising” by the federal government.
    Youngsters taught in such a way don't have a snowball's chance of achieving decent state test scores, much less being able to function in the real world someday.  It should be noted there apparently are Michigan districts that have yet to change their methods.
    Are you shocked yet?

Neil Munro