Aptos High School in the Pajaro Valley (Santa Cruz, CA) has said bye-bye to an "innovative" math program that left its participants flunking the California standardized assessment in big whopping numbers:
Known as the Interactive Mathematics Program, the nationally recognized curriculum is a sharp departure from conventional math education and has earned the praise of instructors at Aptos High School.
Yet, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Mary Anne Mays said last year's IMP participants at Aptos High scored below the basic level on state standardized tests and has called for the program's end. On Wednesday, she drafted a letter canceling IMP at all schools in the district.
What's the Interactive Mathematics Program? Why, Mathematically Correct already has the scoop on it, in a 2002 literature review which concludes that IMP is best for students who do not plan to attend college or who plan to major in non-math subjects. It "lacks the depth of study for students who will study math in college" and "is not a college prep math curriculum."
Unsurprisingly, though, the supporters of IMP claim that those nasty tests just don't gauge how good a job this allegedly-shallow program does at helping kids understand math:
Many math teachers like Claudia Ayers said that alternative programs like IMP can't be gauged by standardized tests. "Standardized testing pulls in a very narrow curricular direction - just back to the basics and math facts - whereas IMP and the reform programs pull towards conceptual understanding," she said. "Authentic learning pulls in one direction and standardized testing pulls in the opposite."
Because, as we all know, mathematics is a subject in which conceptual understanding has absolutely no relation to the understanding of basic factual information. "Authentic learning" of mathematical concepts can in fact take place in the absence of, or prior to, the learning of basic-level mathematical concepts and functions.
Riiiiight.
Does Ms. Ayers understand the basic mathematical concept of percentages? She must not, if she's so eager and willing to ignore these results:
....According to recently released test results, of the 140 students who participated in IMP in 2003, 95 percent scored below or far below basic. In 2002, 100 percent scored below basic. This year's IMP 2 students did only slightly better with 87 percent scoring far below basic, while 85 percent of the IMP 3 students scored poorly.
Conventional students at Aptos High also did better on the 2003 SAT test, averaging 42 points higher that those who participated in the IMP program.
Apparently, part of IMP's "innovative" technique is that it does away with the old, fuddy-duddy tradition of teaching mathematical concepts in sequence (algebra followed by trigonometry followed by calculus). Instead, students learn "non-linear" segments which "fuse" each curriculum together and are, in their first year, allegedly introduce to all the ideas within the entire mathematical field.
Because, as we all know, mathematic concepts do not build on one another, and calculus concepts can be successfully introduced to students who do not have a firm understanding of algebra.
Riiiiight.
I assume the state standardized test referred to in this article is the California Standards Test; here's the Algebra blueprint. Here's the summary Mathematics Exam. Skip to page 7 of this document for all of the Mathematics standards. The highest possible scaled score is 600. To score below basic, a student must receive a scaled score of less than 299.
It gets worse. Thanks to all this non-linearity, students in IMP don't actually get credit for finishing an algebra course until they've completed four years of IMP. Unfortunately for them, the state's test is set up in a way that assumes tenth-graders have mastered not only algebra but geometry.
But the brave IMP supporters forge on, completely unconcerned by the fact that their program is completely out of alignment with state standards and test content, and by the fact that the tests indicate that IMP students are not mastering basic math content at any level:
Still, teachers like Melville and Ayers remains undeterred. "This is what we're dealing with: 'How do we withstand the pressure of politicians and administrators who don't understand the meaninglessness of the numbers and would rather focus on (test scores) than authentic learning?'" Ayers said. "That is the crux of determining how to deal with people who are not on the same page as we are."
I believe Melville and Ayers are profoundly qualified to speak about the "meaninglessness" of numbers, given the quality of the math instruction they provide.
Posted by kswygert at November 19, 2003 11:02 AM