Math Forum: The Experts' Top Ten Recommendations for the New Superintendent

Tuesday evening, February 17, 2009, a group of twenty parents, students, teachers, and community activists gathered at the Somerset Town Hall to hear Parents Coalition math education experts Julie Greenberg, Jerry Dancis, and John Hoven discuss "The Top Ten Math Initiatives for the Next MCPS Superintendent." Also present in the audience was Phil Kaufmann, one of the newly elected Board of Education members, who stated that he was very interested to hear the community's concerns on this topic.

John Hoven led off the discussion with the proposition that there is too much "fluff" currently in the MCPS math curriculum. He gave the example of students spending several days learning the difference between "acute" and "obtuse" angles by plotting cities they would like to visit on a map and drawing lines between them, and measuring the "angles." Mr. Hoven also urged for a true class in statistics, and decried so many of the math activities that purport to teach statistics by having the class survey their friends on their favorite foods and making a bar chart about it.

Jerry Dancis spoke about the fact that at the college level, kids are coming in knowing less math than they did ten or even twenty years ago. Calculators are being used as a shortcut. He presented a chart showing the percentages of MCPS graduates by race and ethnicity who are minimally ready for college math when they entered a college in Maryland.

Julie Greenberg talked about the importance of professional development in the specific content area. She showed a quiz taken by one of her neighbors, which was graded as an "A", and showed why it really deserved a "D". She suggested "immersion institutes" for professional development, and said there are certainly plenty of content experts in math in this area who could do that.

Topics for discussion from the audience included: lack of textbooks, Singapore math, what to do for students peforming below grade level, placement directives from the central office, principal pressure to place students in higher level classes even though the kids aren't ready, "BCRs" for math, etc. Board Member Phil Kauffman suggested that those people concerned about math curriculum and education should figure out how their concerns can best be reflected through the strategic plan, since everything always comes back to the strategic plan.

The Parents' Coalition certainly should thank Julie Greenberg, Jerry Dancis, and John Hoven for hosting this informative event.