(Addendum: For updates on the "Children First" New Agenda, or Blueprint, and for more perspectives on the new standard curriculum for New York City public schools, please see my Web article Chancellor Joel Klein's "Children First" New Standard Curriculum for NYC Public Schools.)
The following two email letters to New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein regarding the mathematics component of the "Children First" initiative are a follow-up to my Nov 26 Letter to Joel Klein, which was written in connection with my Predictions for Chancellor Joel Klein's Children First Initiative, of the same date. The present email letters also follow a conversation with Mr. Evan Rudall, Chair of the NYC DOE Children First Numeracy Working Group, in which I participated. Our Talking Points for that meeting, our earlier Survey responses for Children First Numeracy Working Group, and my subsequent Letters to Chair Evan Rudall of the Children First Numeracy Working Group (Dec 11 and 12) may all be of interest in this connection.
Chancellor Klein replied very quickly to my Dec 17 email to say that he has had lots of discussions with educators, teachers, parents, and students regarding mathematics education. My Dec 18 email then pointed out that an important category was missing from that enumeration, and provided some further pointers to what he might learn by talking with subject matter experts.
The Dec 17 New York Daily News article cited below is Klein Pans Math Programs, by Joe Williams. I reacted to it as well in a Letter to the Editor (not published).
From braams Tue Dec 17 14:52:54 2002
Subject: Conversation about Children First
Dear Mr. Klein,
Perhaps you recall my email of Nov 26 with my negative predictions concerning the Children First initiative and with reading suggestions.
If you would be interested in a conversation about mathematics instruction, please know that I am available for this purpose pretty much 24/7 at short notice, alone or with colleagues and other interested parties.
I continue to live in a state of mild despair with respect to the Children First initiative and your position in it. I am not aware that you are taking in advice from outside the circle associated with Ms. Lam and the various foundations. My Institute Director, for example, requested a meeting with you, but obtained only a meeting with Ms. Lam.
Today, however, I observed a sign that all is not lost. Joe Williams writes in the New York Daily News:
Sources said Klein's team is taking a close look at dumping a controversial "constructivist" math curriculum used in Manhattan's District 2.
Well, it is only one program and only one District, but for its political implications this third-hand report raises some hope. I would welcome the chance to discuss my hopes with you.
I have two visiting cards on matters of education: the NYC HOLD web site that I edit jointly with parent activist Elizabeth Carson, and my own Links, Articles, Essays, and Opinions page, which has a more scholarly ambition.
www.nychold.com/
www.math.nyu.edu/mfdd/braams/links/
Yours Sincerely,
Bas Braams
--
Bastiaan J. Braams (Research Associate Professor)
Dept. of Mathematics - Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
New York University - 251 Mercer Street - New York, NY 10012-1185
Email: braams@math.nyu.edu
Web: www.math.nyu.edu/mfdd/braams/
From braams Wed Dec 18 13:53:18 2002
Subject: Re: Conversation about Children First
Dear Mr. Klein
I hope that the omission of subject matter experts (mathematicians, engineers, scientists) in the enumeration in your email quoted below is an oversight in your email and not an oversight in your choice of contacts. These subject matter experts would be able to inform you, for example, what kind of school mathematics is required in order to prepare students for college level mathematics courses.
> [snip; see page intro for a paraphrase]
Some of us subject matter experts have spoken with Mr. Evan Rudall,
although not with other members of the numeracy working group. I
point to our talking points for that meeting and to some earlier
responses to a numeracy group questionnaire for a concrete focus on
the issues in New York City.
www.nychold.com/cf-num-021211.html
www.nychold.com/quest-0211.html
For further brief presentations from subject matter experts I would highlight especially the following. Annotations are taken from the NYC HOLD site and from my education page [0,1], which you know.
High
Achievement in Mathematics: Lessons from Three Los Angeles Elementary
Schools, by David Klein (Brookings, Aug 2000). The paper describes
characteristics and academic policies of three low income
(Bennett-Kew, Kelso, and Robert Hill Lane) whose students are
unusually successful in mathematics. Klein identifies as fundamental
ingredients: California's clear set of high quality grade by grade
standards; textbooks and curricula aligned to the standards;
sufficiently high teacher knowledge of mathematics to teach to the
standards.
http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/gs/brown/bc_report/2000/LosAngeles.PDF
A
Tale of Two Math Reforms: The Politics of the New Math and the NCTM
Standards (Draft, Apr 23, 2000), by Tom Loveless. The paper
analyzes the politics of mathematics education reform, comparing the
development of the New Math in the 1960's with the NCTM Standards
movement in the years after about 1985.
http://brookings.org/dybdocroot/gs/brown/papers/loveless_pom.htm
Math
Problems: Why the U.S. Department of Education's recommended math
programs don't add up, by David Klein (Apr 2000). In October 1999,
the U.S. Department of Education released a report designating 10 math
programs as "exemplary" or "promising." David Klein and other
mathematicians responded in an open letter that was published in the
Washington Post. This article elaborates the objections raised in the
open letter.
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/usnoadd.htm
The
Math Wars, by David Ross (2001). Discusses the NCTM-led reform
and its opposition. "By advocating mastery of the traditional
algorithms, the reformers' opponents have in fact established
themselves as the defenders of conceptual thinking in the Math
Wars".
http://www.objectivistcenter.org/articles/dross_math-wars.asp
Romancing the
Child, by E. D. Hirsch, Jr (2001). About the chasm between
progressive, romantic educational ideas and the classical approach to
teaching reading and mathematics.
http://www.educationnext.org/2001sp/34.html
[0] www.nychold.com/
[1] www.math.nyu.edu/mfdd/braams/links/
Bas Braams
--
Bastiaan J. Braams (Research Associate Professor)
Dept. of Mathematics - Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
New York University - 251 Mercer Street - New York, NY 10012-1185
Email: braams@math.nyu.edu
Web: www.math.nyu.edu/mfdd/braams/
The opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by New York University.