Teaching Concepts over Process
As a mathematics education researcher, I study how math instruction impacts students’ learning, from following standard math procedures to understanding mathematical concepts. Focusing on the latter, conceptual understanding often involves understanding the “why” of a mathematical concept; it’s the reasoning behind the math rather than the how or the steps it takes to get to an answer.
So often, in mathematics classrooms, students are shown steps and procedures for solving math problems and then required to demonstrate their rote memorization of these steps independently.
Principals need Mentors
These ideas can guide novice or even seasoned principals facing the challenges of working at a new school.
In many schools, the summer months can be a time of change. Veteran principals retire or move to new positions, and others are selected to assume their roles, some in their first assignment. How can a new principal be an effective part of this change? My best advice is to begin searching for the individual(s) who will become your mentor(s) and provide needed help.
I was fortunate. On the first contracted day of my assignment, a veteran principal from a school 10 miles away in the same rural Ohio school district visited me and greeted me warmly. We had never met; he was a friend of my predecessor, and I was new to the district and won the job over people he knew. Regardless, he welcomed me and stressed that if I needed anything or had any questions, I was to pick up the phone and call him—anytime.
The Harmful Effects of School Closures
Students who attend a school that closes during their K-12 career have lower test scores along with worse attendance and behavior in the short term. In the long term, they’re less likely than their peers to complete college and have a job, and their earnings tend to be lower.
Each year, hundreds of schools across the country close because of low enrollment, budget shortfalls, and poor performance. Decades of research have shown that those closures have a short-term, negative impact on students’ academic achievement, with researchers documenting drops in test scores, attendance, and high school graduation rates that usually recover after three years.
The Power of Relationships
As I look at the impact of the pandemic on adolescents, two very different sets of data stand out. First, we have seen huge declines in teenagers’ mental health. In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health, pointing to soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts. In March 2022, the Centers for Disease Control reported that more than 40 percent teenagers are “persistently sad or lonely;” a follow-up report in February 2023 found that number rises to 57% among teenage girls.
Are test scores enough for EB learners?
English learners’ strengths in spoken comprehension and conversation are among other factors that should be considered, says one expert.
Though 4th-grade reading scores for English learners on the National Assessment of Education Progress, may look stagnant to some for the last 20 years, those who work with these students say the scores reflect something different — that the system is working.
Students entering these courses are expected to be at beginning levels, although some have more proficiency than others, said Sarah Sahr, head of education and events with TESOL International Association, a professional organization for English language teachers. And characterizing their scores as stagnant, she said, is a “deficit approach.”
Expanding Access to Algebra
Bob Moses, who helped register Black residents to vote in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, believed civil rights went beyond the ballot box. To Moses, who was a teacher as well as an activist, math literacy is a civil right: a requirement to earning a living wage in modern society. In 1982, he founded the Algebra Project to ensure that “students at the bottom get the math literacy they need.”
As a researcher who studies ways to improve the math experiences of students, I believe a new approach that expands access to algebra may help more students get the math literacy Moses, who died in 2021, viewed as so important. It’s a goal districts have long been struggling to meet.
