[Ohiogift] Education next on America's math performance

[Margaret DeLacy]

Friends:

Below is a link to and excerpt from an article that appeared in the winter 2012 issue of Education Next.

Margaret


http://educationnext.org/solving-america%E2%80%99s-math-problem/

Solving America’s Math Problem
Education Next Issue Cover
Tailor instruction to the varying needs of the students


By Jacob Vigdor

....America’s lagging mathematics performance reflects a basic failure to understand the benefits of adapting the curriculum to meet the varying instructional needs of students....American attempts to homogenize the math curriculum in secondary schools, although sometimes successful at improving the performance of the average student, have come at the cost of preparing the nation’s most promising students for mathematically intensive study....
... American public schools have made a clear trade-off over the past few decades. With the twin goals of improving the math performance of the average student and promoting equality, it has made the curriculum more accessible. The drawback to exclusive use of this more accessible curriculum can be observed among the nation’s top-performing students, who are either less willing or less able than their predecessors or their high-achieving global peers to follow the career paths in math, science, and engineering that are the key to innovation and job creation. In the name of preparing more of the workforce to take those jobs, we have harmed the skills of those who might have created them. Although there is some evidence of a payoff from this sacrifice, in the form of marginally better performance among average students, some of the strategies used to help these students have in fact backfired....