Singapore Math School Videos

Two videos were recently published by schools that adopted Singapore math programs last school year.

Melrose Elementary School Mathematics/Science/Technology Magnet has seen impressive results with its new Singapore Math program, Primary Mathematics. Math Coach Lacy Endo-Peery announced:

We had a 32% increase in students who were advanced or proficient in Math last year. Our students went from 43% to 75 % in one year!

The school has put together an informative 8-minute video about their experiences with Singapore Math. It’s always helpful to hear teachers sharing the reasons why Singapore math works with their students, the importance of sustained training, and why the school selected Singapore math.

Singapore math materials tend to be light on practice for mastering math facts. To compensate for that, many schools supplement using the activity in the video referred to as a math sprint. These were designed by Professor Yoram Sagher (also in the video) and are used widely in U.S. schools. While sprints are designed to help students become fluent with computation, they are not a part of the Singapore math curriculum. (Sprint books for teachers are available at SingaporeMath.com.)

Reynolds School District in Fairview, Oregon is expecting student achievement to rise with their adoption of the Math in Focus version of  Singapore math materials. Before the adoption, the 12 elementary schools in the district were using different curricula, which was an issue for students that changed schools within the district. In the video, both teachers and students report how much they like the visual component of the materials.