Missouri top schools in math
Photo by Fábio Pinheiro
As part of my mission to widen the focus from St. Louis area to at least the state, I looked at the top school districts in Missouri in math in fourth grade and tenth grade. I chose fourth grade to give students the first year of testing to get used to taking standardized exams. I chose tenth grade as the highest grade of testing to look at the overall or “final” results of the district’s teaching. I looked at the median scale score instead of the number of proficient and advanced as I felt it was more representative of the spectrum of abilities including the advanced students. Also, this would discourage districts from overfocusing on the “bubble” students and, instead, work with each one equally. The median is more representative than mean as it is less affected by a student who fills in bubbles in cute patterns or one or two 0 scores. Many of the top school districts have grade levels that are quite small, so I included the numbers for perspective. I also included the median Terra Nova score to provide some national comparison and a frame of reference for the MAP scale score.
Missouri top 30 school districts 4th grade math
Missouri top 40 school districts 10th grade math
I dipped down to the top 40 (41) instead of the top 30 for the 10th grade math to pick up three more St. Louis County school districts.
To me it’s clear that while St. Louis County schools are strong, they have some competition in the state that should be acknowledged.
Yikes, the teachers aren't certified
I have a friend who insists that research shows that teacher certification means nothing. He's not the only one.
I thought I would throw out there the correlation numbers for St. Louis County school districts between the certification rate and the median math score on the Terra Nova for third graders: .72 (excluding Special School district).
Occasionally districts will hire someone who will finish certification within a specified time frame because they believe that teacher is an excellent choice. This may especially be true in some of the more specialized areas. My theory is that the difference between 100 percent certification and 99.4 isn't much. When I sorted by certification percentage and only checked the correlation of districts below 99 percent, the number decreased slightly to .70. However, by using only the districts below 98 percent, it increased to .76. It stayed the same for under 97 percent
The highest correlation numbers I found were when sorting for median score and then only using the lower numbers.
So schools with a lower median Terra Nova math score in third grade highly correlated with certification rates. Maybe some time I'll run more numbers to see if this holds up both with other grades and other content areas.
Correlation numbers are far from conclusive but do show an area in which to do more precise research. Does this only work in an area with competing districts? Within a larger district? Over an entire state? What areas are the non "highly qualified" teachers teaching in? Enquiring minds want to know.
(Numbers from DESE)
Moving beyond the math wars
I'm agnostic on the math wars—I see the arguments to both sides. Traditional curricula don't do enough to teach the why's of math, but the reform lacks rigor on the how's. So I'm excited to see my favorite curriculum make its way to the St. Louis metro area public schools.
❝Wentzville is believed to be the first public school district in the St. Louis area to plan a widespread adoption of Singapore math, said Jeffery Thomas, president of SingaporeMath.com, which supplies school districts and home schoolers with books for the program. Some other districts in the region have recently purchased review materials, he said. The program or something similar already is taught in some private schools in St. Louis, and about 800 schools nationwide.❞
Singapore is rigorous with an inspired visual method of teaching problem solving that leads kids into algebra using bar diagrams. Even those who use a different curriculum could supplement with its Challenging Word Problems books. But this doesn't come at the expense of students who need more help like one of the private schools that have already started using Singapore.
❝City Academy, the private school on North Kingshighway that targets disadvantaged students, introduced the program this year. It is already reaping the benefits of the switch from the way math is traditionally taught in the United States.❞
The U.S. distributor recently revamped the series to match California standards, which should make it easier for public schools to adopt it because the scope and sequence should line up better with standardized tests.
Singapore may use the traditional algorithms, but it still isn't like a traditional math program.
❝William Tate, professor and chairman of the department of education at Washington University, said that a series of workshops for parents consistent with what the teachers learned about the Singapore math would be vital. The program is different enough from traditional teaching that parents will have a steep learning curve, he said.❞
Now that parents are finally figuring out reform math, but the effort is well worth it.
Teachers can do research too!
The St. Louis Post profiled an elementary teacher in the beleaguered city school system.
❝Johnson labored at night and through winter and summer breaks for three years, and the product of that passion is a supplemental learning project. It represents one teacher's homegrown effort to solve one classroom's deficiencies, with the hope of later helping to turn around an entire district.❞
The program works by having students progress through levels as they learn their basic math facts down cold.
❝When a master steps to the podium, there's good reason that mesmerized classmates congregate at the podium like mere mortals gathering at the cage while Albert Pujols takes batting practice:
A master can write the answers to 100 multiplication questions in 110 seconds.❞
It sounds like a personalized version of the Fastt Math that is becoming popular in suburban districts.
I want to highlight one of the problems with the attitude of the city school district.
❝Though district officials subscribe to the theory that the achievement gap needs to be erased one classroom at a time, they say educational practices must first undergo rigorous research and academic review.
"He knows what works for him. That's not to say he doesn't have a program that works well for his students. But he doesn't have the research base yet to implement what he is doing on a larger scale," said William Parker, an assistant superintendent for elementary education.❞
I understand wanting to use research-based curriculum changes, but the district is essentially telling its teachers that no matter how hard they work and how effective they are since they can't provide the large research basis that commercial suppliers can, they are not as important. A better response would be to work with him to run a larger pilot study and to help publish. Working with teachers as collaborators instead of just implementers of off-the-shelf but "researched" curriculum would go a long way toward improving working conditions.
❝When his wife, Cathy, asks why Johnson remains in the city when he "could be making $10,000 more to work in the county" his response is uniform. And it starts with those students who hail, as he did, from a single-parent home absent a father.❞
While the city schools don't pay that much less than the county, an effective African-American male elementary teacher is highly recruitable. The city shouldn't rely on his desire to help kids from single-parent homes and should provide the supportive environment that teachers like him need, including helping them know how to share their work with others.
Barbie likes math!
Since I have a daughter
interested in math, I've been closely following the
girls in math topic for awhile. I was ecstatic to
hear how well the girls' math olympiad team did
in China. More importantly, they had fun.
Ira Flatow, of NPR's Talk of the Nation: Science
Friday, interviewed the coach and one of the
team members in a segment on Women, Girls and Math. In an
interesting "comment," Flatow asked the girl if
team had been invited to the White House like so
many winning sports teams. I think our country's
priorities were demonstrated by her answer.