WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. "Math In White Plains:" An  Interview with Francis “Skip” Fennell, President  of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.  First of a Series. November 21, 2006: Last winter several White Plains parents addressed the White Plains Board of Education expressing concern that their children were not being taught basic math. One of those parents,  took the case of her 4^th grade daughter whom she said, “was missing significant pieces from her math curriculum, including the use of vertical math computations, and math enrichment.” She stated that “vertical math computations have been completey eliminated from my daughter’s math curriculum,” and that the TERC math instruction program had been implemented without informing parents of the district until January of 2006.

The local "math rebellion" was a harbinger of controversy to come. When the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times published articles portraying the new Curriculum Focal Points issued by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics as a change in direction and the failure of conceptual math, WPCNR contacted Francis "Skip" Fennell, of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics  at his office in Reston, Virginia,  to learn where TERC and “conceptual” programs like it fit in with the Curriculum Focal Points.

Francis "Skip" Fennell, President, National Council Teachers of Mathematics:

The nation's number one man in Math explains the new emphasis on the Basics.

Photo Capture from NCTM website.

The parent stated concerns about the TERC program in the White Plains elementary schools: “My daughter’s overall understanding of math has gone down significantly with the complete implementation of pure TERC and this really caught my attention by December, 2005. Understanding TERC homework and completing them were commonly on issue…my daughter was confused and frustrated because of the wording of the material…she did not have enough math skills learned to answer the homework.”

Focal Points Spawn Major News Articles

The White Plains parental protest was a harbinger of things to come.

Nine months later, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times wrote two articles criticizing the TERC math method and similar conceptual math techniques and making much of the September issuing of a new policy on Focal Points, by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, as admission that conceptual math programs such as TERC were not doing the job.

Francis "Skip" Fennell, President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,  issued two scathing letters to both newspapers for their articles. To The New York Times he wrote,

“What some refer to as basic skills have always been a fundamental core of elementary school mathematics. Always. But we want more. We want children to understand the mathematics they are learning and we want them to be able to solve problems, which is, in the long run, why we do mathematics. Our recently released Curriculum Focal Points identifies important mathematical topics in each grade, from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It identifies the mathematical content students need to understand deeply and thoroughly for future mathematics learning.

It offers a framework to guide states and school districts as they design and organize revisions of their expectations, standards, curriculums and assessment programs.

This is not a change, but reflects what has been the council’s commitment to teaching and learning for more than 80 years.”

And to the Wall Street Journal, which described the issuance of the Focal Points as “new marching orders,”  Mr. Fennell objected to their editorial labeling of the Focal Points as an admission that math instruction with conceptual math was going in the wrong direction:

Contrary to the impression left in your article, learning the basics is certainly not “new marching orders” from the NCTM, which has always considered the basic computation facts and related work with operations to be important. Nor is the new focal-points approach to curriculum development a “remarkable reversal” for NCTM. As stated in NCTM’s 1989 and 2000 standards, conceptual understanding and problem solving are absolutely fundamental to learning mathematics. The council has never promoted estimation “rather than precise answers.” Estimation is a critical component to the overall understanding and use of numbers.”

Given the concerns expressed locally by the parents at the January, 2006 Board of Education meeting, which prompted Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors to report the next month, “We do teach basic math,” WPCNR contacted Mr. Fennell at his office in Reston, Virginia,  to learn where TERC and “conceptual” programs like it fit in with the Curriculum Focal Points.

Mr. Fennell: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics doesn’t get connected in any way with comments relative to a particular textbook or curriculum series that a school district or state might adopt. I know that program (TERC Investigations). It’s fairly new. It’s fairly popular. I know it was negatively criticized in the Wall Street Journal on September 12, when we released our Focal Points.

WPCNR: You do not endorse one method (curriculum, program) over another?

Fennell: We don’t endorse curriculum materials one over another regardless of what the mathematics is, or what the instructional path is so I really can’t comment on that.

WPCNR: Why were the Focal Points issued?

Fennell: Forty-nine of our 50 states have curriculum guides. They probably range from 20 or so objectives in a given year to over a hundred. The Focal Points is a document – 40 pages – and is to help the local school districts decide among those objectives (in some elementary grades there are over a 100 at particular grade levels) – clearly they’re (all) not of the same level of import or significance at this particular grade level. The Focal Points is to begin the discussion about thinking about the most important content, the most important mathematics at particular grade levels.

             We’re trying to get some coherence in what’s important in terms of the mathematics kids learn at these grade levels. We’re (the states) essentially all over the map. If you look at the New York framework there are certain skills that are introduced in one grade, while in another state they may be introduced in another grade. We’re trying to have a conversation around what’s important and when it is important.

WPCNR: Do the focal points put more emphasis on teaching the basic skills to use them more in problem solving?

Fennell: We’re certainly calling for fluency in the ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers and fractions, but that’s not a departure from things we’ve said in the past. The answer to that (your question) is YES.  I suspect that (and I can’t talk to TERC investigations or any curriculum), that any curriculum would have similar goals.

WPCNR: What makes TERC Investigations so popular?

Fennell: The TERC Investigations was one of three curriculums supported in the mid to late 90s by the National Science Foundation. I can’t give you a sense of how popular it is. Do I know it’s popular?  Absolutely.  You’re better off talking to TERC. I’m not the right person to talk to about the popularity of any curriculum program.

WPCNR: The Curriculum Focal Points are essentially saying that some of the objectives are producing test scores are declining?

Fennell: When you examine the international math and science data, the person most well-known for professional analysis is Wayne Smith of Michigan State University. When he first carded those scores in the late 90s he sort of pronounced the United States mathematics curriculum “is a mile wide and an inch deep,” meaning treating topics with relative shallowtry. To some extent, the focal points are to begin a discussion about what’s important at various grade levels, and how that’s delivered, whether it’s TERC or Houghton Mifflin or what have you.

WPCNR: If we’re a mile wide and an inch deep what has this (math atmosphere) produced?

Fennell: What he’s saying is they looked at curriculum from around the country and other countries, including those that scored better than ours in international assessments have fewer topics and go deeper into those topics.

WPCNR: Does this say American math students would be doing better if they had a better understanding of certain basics i.e., resulting in your focal points?

Fennell: I think you could probably say that a lot of teachers would be interested in a discussion about what is important in my grade level, pick your grade, 3,4,5,6 and then one of the things they need to do is to make sure they (the students) have a pretty solid understanding of  whole numbers…fractions (processes) as it relates to their ability to solve problems in that area.  Teachers, as you well know are driven by the sort of straight test that comes out of the No Child Left Behind Legislation, many of those (tests) if not all of them mirror the curriculum frameworks that have however many objectives they have, and so the (basic) elements themselves and the tests themselves  are sort of shallow in the depths of understanding which they’re able to get kids to note so one can certainly hypothesize that a conversation around what’s really important at these (lower) grade levels could have an impact not only on state frameworks, but potentially, the state tests as well.

WPCNR: You’re based in Reston, Virginia. You’re familiar with the Maryland State School System, I was reading a Washington Post article how the Maryland Middle School Schoolers have done extremely well on the state tests, unlike the White Plains middle schoolers. You’re Maryland Middle Schoolers are passing at an excellent rate (68% -- 90% on Advanced Math courses in the 8^th grade). What do they do in the lower grades that’ s different?

Fennell: What we have here is an apple and oranges situation. The Maryland state test is based on the Maryland Curriculum, the New York State test is based on the New York Curriculum, they’re not one and the same.

The National Assessment of Elementary Progress Test

An Overview:

Fennell pointed out that the only way you could draw a comparison was to see how Maryland eighth graders and New York State eighth graders did on the National Assessment of Elementary Progress mathetics test, given to a representative selection of districts in each state every two years. (In 2007, 340 schools in New York State have been selected by the U.S. Department of Education to participate in NAEP 2007, according to the NY State Education Department website, www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/naep//home.shtml.

The test is 90 minutes long and will assess only one subject (reading or math in grade 4, reading, math or writing at grade 8, and reading and writing at grade 12.) White Plains schools were not sampled in the White Plains School District for 2005 or 2006 NAEP, and no White Plains schools have been selected for NAEP 2007, according to John Burman, Media spokesperson for the NY State Department of Education.

WPCNR: Do you have a comment on what Maryland does to produce such extraordinary scores? (Kensington Maryland 8^th graders  achieved the 90% passing at the Algebra I level in 8^th grade, and 67% passing at the 8^th grade math level as a whole -- for reference White Plains math passing effort is 58% in 2006, according to the State Education Department) What is the good thing Maryland does in math in the lower grades?

Fennell: The Montgomery County Public School District has over a hundred elementary schools, and they have done a lot of work with the school districts on a state level. Donna Washington, the Math Coordinator at the State level has done a lot of work making sure that supervisors are very familiar with what they refer to here as the Voluntary State Curriculum and the assessments that go along with it.  It could be the kind of preparation that begins at the state level and trickles all the way down to the classroom level, in this case, in Kensington.

WPCNR: What do they do in Kensington to make such consistent performance?

Fennell: The various staffs of the Montgomery County Public Schools deserve some credit for making sure the teachers are up to speed.

(In the next Part of this Series, WPCNR discusses with the Math Coordinator of the Montgomery County Public Schools, how they approach their math program.)