Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
16
N.C. State study to focus on racial gap
In thousands of elementary schools throughout the nation, the racial achievement gap is never smaller than on the first day of kindergarten.
It's a frustrating reality that researchers trace to various factors, including the critical roles of parents and others outside of school.
But the most practical place for educators to close the gap is inside the classroom -- the place where two N.C. State University professors will soon focus a five-year, $3.6 million study.
Ron Tzur and P
tricia Marshall, both associate professors in the university's College of Education, will eventually work with 120 Wake County teachers from kindergarten through second grade as part of the project paid
for by the National Science Foundation.
Focusing on math instructio
n, the two will use dozens of research assistants to help monitor the way teachers explain math concepts to children of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Extra attention will be given to the way in which teachers work with minority students.
"We know that math is more than calculating," Tzur said. "It is also about how people communicate ideas to each other and apply reasoning."
It is also obvious, the researchers said, that the average scores of minority children lag behind those of white students.
"To what degree is it beneficial for teachers to relate to a child's cultural experiences when teaching concepts involving math? That is the question we wan
t to explore," Marshall said. "Are we really communicating with all kids about math in a way they understand?"
The university's effort is expected to dovetail with a new
push by Wake school officials to alter the district's approach to math instruction. Instead of relying on rote memorization, teache
rs are being told to make sure students also understand the fundamental logic of mathematical concepts.
"Sometimes we assume that a child can't succeed mathematically because they are poor or maybe a minority," said Lee Ann Segalla, Wake's senior director of elementary school programs. "My dad would probably say these are the kids who aren't book smart, but they are street smart."
But children who are street smart are also children who understand concepts, which in turn means they can understand math, Segalla said.
Math instruction criticized
Supporters of traditional math instruction have been critical o
f the national effort among educators to find a balance between the importance of understanding math concepts and the need to perform rote calculations. The effort, they say, inevitably leads to mud
dled instruction that leaves children poorly prepared.
Tzur and Marshall counter by saying the current system already produces countless children with weak math skills, especially
poor and minority children.
They also think the design of their project will provide specific answers about the importance of teaching students within the context of their cultures -- the routines, habits and expectations that are most familiar to the children and their families.
The two investigators will formally begin their study this summer, when they meet with national experts to discuss the final details of such issues as the best way to work with teachers and log classroom observations. Wake administrators, who have already talked at length with Tzur and Marshall, are expected to suggest specific element
ary schools for the project by early 2005.
After a summer orientation program, 30 teachers from five schools will have their math classes regularly videotaped by research assistants begin
ning in the fall. The teachers also will meet weekly to discuss the successes and failures of specific teaching strategies.
In the second year of the program the first 30 teachers will train 30
new teachers. Those 60 teachers will then train 60 more teachers in five additional schools during the third year of the project.
Throughout the study, Tzur and Marshall will collect test scores, work samples, teacher summaries and observation notes from each classroom. The entire process will take several years, but preliminary analysis will begin as early as spring 2006.
The results will be compared against a control group of five other similar schools.
Karen Banks, who oversees research and testing programs for Wake schools, said the way in which the results of the project are measured will be crit
ical to its credibility, given the many disagreements over how math should be taught and the inherent difficulty in measuring something like cultural sensitivity.
Positive atte
ntion
But Banks thinks the attention brought to the issue through the teacher training sessions, recording of classroom lessons and regular discussions about students' cultural differences can't help but infor
m teachers.
"It's an interesting question, the kind of question you think someone would naturally want to know more about," Banks said. "But collecting the data is so labor intensive we could never afford to do this ourself. It's a great opportunity for us."
******************
What an idiot. This is doomed to fail. Why is it that bef
ore integration the U.S. had no problems with math instruction? We built the A-Bomb. We built computers, TV sets, all kinds of electronics devices. Electronics is math heavy. You can't do electronics if you can't do math. Every continent on the planet earth has contributed to the knowledge of mathematics except two, one of those is Antarctica, the other is black Afreaka! Suddenly, we don't know how to teach math anymore, well, that's not exactly true, we don't know how to te
ach math to n-ggerS! Screw 'em! Put your money on a horse that has a chance of winning!
Reference:
Welcome to a Mathematical Journey through Time
T.N.B.
N.C. State study to focus on racial gap
In thousands of elementary schools throughout the nation, the racial achievement gap is never smaller than on the first day of kindergarten.
It's a frustrating reality that researchers trace to various factors, including the critical roles of parents and others outside of school.
But the most practical place for educators to close the gap is inside the classroom -- the place where two N.C. State University professors will soon focus a five-year, $3.6 million study.
Ron Tzur and P
tricia Marshall, both associate professors in the university's College of Education, will eventually work with 120 Wake County teachers from kindergarten through second grade as part of the project paid
for by the National Science Foundation.
Focusing on math instructio
n, the two will use dozens of research assistants to help monitor the way teachers explain math concepts to children of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Extra attention will be given to the way in which teachers work with minority students.
"We know that math is more than calculating," Tzur said. "It is also about how people communicate ideas to each other and apply reasoning."
It is also obvious, the researchers said, that the average scores of minority children lag behind those of white students.
"To what degree is it beneficial for teachers to relate to a child's cultural experiences when teaching concepts involving math? That is the question we wan
t to explore," Marshall said. "Are we really communicating with all kids about math in a way they understand?"
The university's effort is expected to dovetail with a new
push by Wake school officials to alter the district's approach to math instruction. Instead of relying on rote memorization, teache
rs are being told to make sure students also understand the fundamental logic of mathematical concepts.
"Sometimes we assume that a child can't succeed mathematically because they are poor or maybe a minority," said Lee Ann Segalla, Wake's senior director of elementary school programs. "My dad would probably say these are the kids who aren't book smart, but they are street smart."
But children who are street smart are also children who understand concepts, which in turn means they can understand math, Segalla said.
Math instruction criticized
Supporters of traditional math instruction have been critical o
f the national effort among educators to find a balance between the importance of understanding math concepts and the need to perform rote calculations. The effort, they say, inevitably leads to mud
dled instruction that leaves children poorly prepared.
Tzur and Marshall counter by saying the current system already produces countless children with weak math skills, especially
poor and minority children.
They also think the design of their project will provide specific answers about the importance of teaching students within the context of their cultures -- the routines, habits and expectations that are most familiar to the children and their families.
The two investigators will formally begin their study this summer, when they meet with national experts to discuss the final details of such issues as the best way to work with teachers and log classroom observations. Wake administrators, who have already talked at length with Tzur and Marshall, are expected to suggest specific element
ary schools for the project by early 2005.
After a summer orientation program, 30 teachers from five schools will have their math classes regularly videotaped by research assistants begin
ning in the fall. The teachers also will meet weekly to discuss the successes and failures of specific teaching strategies.
In the second year of the program the first 30 teachers will train 30
new teachers. Those 60 teachers will then train 60 more teachers in five additional schools during the third year of the project.
Throughout the study, Tzur and Marshall will collect test scores, work samples, teacher summaries and observation notes from each classroom. The entire process will take several years, but preliminary analysis will begin as early as spring 2006.
The results will be compared against a control group of five other similar schools.
Karen Banks, who oversees research and testing programs for Wake schools, said the way in which the results of the project are measured will be crit
ical to its credibility, given the many disagreements over how math should be taught and the inherent difficulty in measuring something like cultural sensitivity.
Positive atte
ntion
But Banks thinks the attention brought to the issue through the teacher training sessions, recording of classroom lessons and regular discussions about students' cultural differences can't help but infor
m teachers.
"It's an interesting question, the kind of question you think someone would naturally want to know more about," Banks said. "But collecting the data is so labor intensive we could never afford to do this ourself. It's a great opportunity for us."
******************
But children who are street smart are also children who understand concepts, which in turn means
they can understand math, Segalla said.
What an idiot. This is doomed to fail. Why is it that bef
ore integration the U.S. had no problems with math instruction? We built the A-Bomb. We built computers, TV sets, all kinds of electronics devices. Electronics is math heavy. You can't do electronics if you can't do math. Every continent on the planet earth has contributed to the knowledge of mathematics except two, one of those is Antarctica, the other is black Afreaka! Suddenly, we don't know how to teach math anymore, well, that's not exactly true, we don't know how to te
ach math to n-ggerS! Screw 'em! Put your money on a horse that has a chance of winning!
Reference:
Welcome to a Mathematical Journey through Time
T.N.B.