Poverty NOT the problem with K-12 mathematics

Laurie H. Rogers - A Spokane school district spokesperson was quoted in a Feb. 27 column in Rosetta Stone The Spokesman-Review. According to column author Chris Cargill, of the Washington Policy Center, the district spokesperson said: “Instead of criticism, we’d like some help” (“Schools don’t shine in index”). The quotation made me laugh. What kind of help would that be, exactly?By Laurie H. Rogers, author of Betrayed: How the Education Establishment Has Betrayed America and What You Can Do About ItA Spokane school district spokesperson was quoted in a Feb. 27 column in The Spokesman-Review. According to column author Chris Cargill, of the Washington Policy Center, the district spokesperson said: “Instead of criticism, we’d like some help” (“Schools don’t shine in index”). The quotation made me laugh. What kind of help would that be, exactly?For four years and six weeks, I’ve tried to persuade central-office administrators to adopt math materials that will get our children to college readiness in math. They don’t appear to want that help. On March 14,?the executive director of instructional programs?told parents the district?wouldnt replace Connected Mathematics for at least two more years.I’ve tried to persuade a few principals to allow me to begin a free tutoring program in arithmetic. Other community members also have tried this. The district doesn’t appear to want that help.I’ve been asking questions since January 2007. I write?a blog. I’ve written a book. Central-office administrators and a quorum of board directors appear uninterested in my research, my desires as a parent, my daughter’s needs, or what would cause me to spend?four years in this way.Occasionally, I get a glimpse of what some of them?think about me and my efforts to help the children. Often?shockingly arrogant and?immature, their comments also?indicate they havent budged?an inch on reform math.I’m working now with two STEM professionals to give people Rosetta Stone Cheap the information they need to help their children and grandchildren. Administrators definitely don’t want that help. They continue to argue passionately for their approach. It’s obvious to everyone but them that this approach completely fails the children.Read through my blog “Betrayed” and see how central-office administrators have obstructed, undermined, and dismissed all help from the community … unless it supported their philosophy toward learning or came with a check. The district administration doesn’t want “help.” It wants scapegoats.A favorite scapegoat, used shamelessly and with impunity, is poverty. I heard it?from self-identified teachers at a March 12 legislative town hall meeting. I saw it in the March 9 weekly newspaper The Inlander. I hear it frequently from district administrators.“We have so many poor people,” they say sadly, bellies up and paws waving. “Can’t you see we’re doing our best? It’s the poverty. We can’t overcome poverty. Poverty is the problem. We also have ineffective Steelers Jerseys teachers, uninvolved parents, unmotivated students, social issues, lack of money, changing standards, testing, No Child Left Behind, huge classes, and … uh … a bunch of other things for which we’re definitely NOT responsible … But, the main problem is poverty.”“Poverty is the key,” a district employee said at?my Feb. 7 community forum. “If you could fix poverty, you would fix the math problem.” He thinks he’s absolved from responsibility. Pass rates on standardized math tests do tend to be lower for disadvantaged students, but that isn’t because poverty is the problem with math. Jaime Escalante, Ben Chavis and Geoffrey Canada all have capably taught math to disadvantaged children.I could give every poor family in Spokane millions of dollars, fancy suits, and a Lamborghini. If their children went through the district math program, and?without outside intervention, they would Rosetta Stone American English V3 eventually park the family Lamborghini in the community college parking lot and walk inside to take multiple remedial math classes – which about half would fail.Four things are required for any classroom to be effective. I call those things the “Square of Effective Learning.”