Cassy Turner – Page 36

Utah’s Math Education Initiative: Incentives to Adopt Singapore Math

February 19, 2011 by Cassy Turner 4 Comments

This week, Utah State Sen. Howard Stephenson (R-Draper) introduced legislation that would provide incentives for schools to adopt the Singapore Math Curriculum. On February 18, 2011, the Senate Education Committee passed the measure, S.B. 179-the Math Education Initiative, by a 4-2 vote.

S.B. 179 appropriates $1.813 million in ongoing Education Funds for the Math Education Initiative. It directs the Board of Education to award grants to school districts and charter schools to adopt Singapore Math ($1 million), to schools offering honors mathematics courses ($63,000) and to math teacher training programs ($750,000).

Statewide Interest in Singapore Math

During Friday’s hearing, Sen. Stephenson said:

“We have had an interest in Singapore Math being available by many parents across the state because they learn that this is a math program that is producing the best math results in the national rankings of industrialized nations. It is a very visual method, very intuitive and seems to correspond to our human ability to understand math.”

S.B. 179 uses grants, not mandates, to encourage schools to adopt Singapore Math. Sen. Stephenson said, “Mandates don’t work very well, but when we provide an incentive, it can really move the world because there’s a competitive nature to it.”

Sen. Lyle Hillyard (R-Logan), an Education Committee member, commented:

“sometimes we need to incentivize things to have them happen, but this seems to me to make so much sense. Why don’t school districts do it anyway?”

Several others spoke about S.B. 179 at the hearing.

JoDee Sundberg, President of the Utah School Boards Association (USBA), said that while her organization has no position on S.B. 179, they are concerned that Singapore Math materials do not support the Utah Common Core Standards. In addition, USBA is, “not supportive of any additional funding being used until we fund education and growth and some of the other areas that we have recommended.”
Kevin Sheridan of the consulting firm Southwest Education spoke in opposition to the bill, stating that Singapore Math materials have not been recommended by the State Instructional Materials Commission.
Former Rep. Laura Black expressed concerned about the cost of S.B. 179 and said that districts are working hard to improve math scores.
Martell Menlove, Deputy Superintendent of the Utah Board of Education, said that the Board took the position that S.B. 179 is unnecessary and, “imposes on the Board’s constitutional role in general control and supervision.” Dr. Menlove said the Board has:

“not brought a math initiative forward during the session because of the position of the State Board that our first priorities are that the basic program and that growth be funded, and not to put things in competition to that…our math initiative would be somewhat different than this…it would have more concentration on interventions for students and not the use of outside programs or to the use of outside companies to try to tell us what to do.”

Curtis Blanco, an electrical engineer at Hill Air Force Base and supporter of the Math Education Initiative, testified that geometry has been gutted compared to what it used to be. Blanco said that if we want to produce scientists capable of solving tough challenges like getting us to the moon, we can’t offer watered down mathematics like we are doing now.

Committee members wanted clarification about how Singapore Math aligns to the Common Core.

What’s Next

S.B. 179 now moves to the full Senate. Sen. Stephenson acknowledged that the amount of the appropriation sought in S.B. 179 is an issue, but that the initiative is worthy of consideration on the Floor. Utah’s legislative session is 45 days long, with the 2011 session to conclude on March 10.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Singapore Math curriculum, Utah's Math Initiative

Singapore Math and the Common Core State Standards

February 16, 2011 by Cassy Turner 1 Comment

Achieve, an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization has found that Singapore’s Math Syllabus aligns well with the Common Core State Standards. They conclude:

Overall, the CCSS are well aligned to Singapore’s Mathematics Syllabus. Policymakers can be assured that in adopting the
CCSS, they will be setting learning expectations for students that are similar to those set by Singapore in terms of rigor,
coherence and focus.

Read the full document:
Comparing the Common Core State Standards and Singapore’s Mathematics Syllabus

Achieve is comparing the Common Core State Standards to Singapore’s Math Syllabus, not the Primary mathematics curriculum materials.

Filed Under: Math Resources Tagged With: Common Core, Singapore Math Syllabus

Singapore Math Model Drawing Seminar

January 8, 2011 by Cassy Turner Leave a Comment

(Limitless or limited resources. Courtesy of Indexed.)

In response to requests about upcoming trainings, here is an update on one of my Singapore Math workshops that is open to the public:

Boost Students’ Math Problem-Solving Skills Using Singapore Model Drawing
(Click though for location and registration info.)

Mesa Convention Center
Mesa, AZ
January 19th.

This in-depth look at the Singapore Math Model Drawing method will help your students understand and master problem solving. (Plus you a get a handy-dandy handbook!)

Filed Under: Training

Successful implementation: Buying books is just the first step

December 17, 2010 by Cassy Turner 2 Comments

Schools considering Singapore Math programs in their schools frequently ask me what the biggest challenges are when adopting the curriculum. Let me give you an example from a third grade classroom I visited recently.

The math period started with a mad math minute type of activity of either addition or subtraction, depending where the students were working. For the lessons on multiplication and division by 8’s and 9’s, the teacher chose to list the tables from 2 x 8 through 9 x 8 on the whiteboard and have the students copy them down, like this:

Next, the teacher had the students make flash cards and quiz each other. Finally, in a class of 27, they played around the world. The game where two students compete against each other to see who can get the answer to the problem on the flash card faster.

The lesson in the textbook does include some multiplication charts. The textbook was open on the teacher’s desk and she did refer to it at least once during the lesson:

Primary Mathematics 3A Textbook, U.S. Edition:

Notice how the textbook draws out a student’s prior knowledge to show the patterns behind the computation?

The 3A Teacher’s Guide includes a more comprehensive lesson based on a deeper understanding of the number 8 and it’s multiples. I couldn’t find it in the room.

(Click to enlarge)

Can you see the difference in the depth of a student’s understanding after the Primary Mathematics lesson?

Note that the subsequent three lessons are:

Multiplying a 2 or 3 digit number by 8.
Dividing a 2 or 3 digit number by 8.
Word problems that require multiplying and dividing by 8.

The sequence of lessons follows the same pattern for the number 9.

When I asked the teacher about the lesson, she essentially said, “well, I didn’t think to look at the teacher’s guide. I’ve always taught this way.” She’s new to the school and only had about 2 hours of training.

Back to the original question. One of the biggest challenges for schools adopting the Singapore Math curriculum is the need for adequate training. If teachers don’t understand what makes Singapore different or if they lack content knowledge, they’ll continue to teach the way they always have. Effective training will give teachers an understanding of Singapore Math’s philosophy and approach and leave them with confidence in their ability to teach it.

Buying the curriculum is the first step. Successful schools invest in content-based training.

Filed Under: Implementing Singapore Math, Math Resources, Training Tagged With: Singapore Math curriculum

Understanding trumps tricks

December 11, 2010 by Cassy Turner 1 Comment

My friend Allison (MIT graduate in Mathematics) recently explained why she struggled with inequalities as a child.

To help students remember which way the inequality sign pointed, the teacher drew an alligator mouth. You know the lesson. Here’s an example from songsforteaching.com: