Fast Learners

Walstein says he is not opposed to acceleration; when he finds exceptional math minds, even in kids as young as 7, he will tutor them, he says. In fact, both supporters and critics of the county math curriculum agree that building in flexibility to accommodate students who can handle learning math at a fast rate is a good thing.

Edward Nolan, the math department head at Albert Einstein High School, says he generally supports the county math curriculum, particularly because it allows many more students the opportunity to take algebra in seventh grade than was the case 15 years ago. "Compacting means you do things faster, and you don't get the depth that we did in the past, so, in that sense, I see it as students not being as well prepared as they may have been in the past. But that's in part the role of the teacher, to reach back and remind students of what they did before," Nolan says.

Walstein says it's more than reminding these days. While he says some teachers apparently manage to provide the necessary background, increasingly students coming into the magnet have not been taught certain math concepts in enough depth for the concepts to become ingrained. In addition to acceleration, the compacting of the algebra curriculum can be traced to Maryland's High School Assessment exam for algebra, a substantial portion of which focuses on non-algebraic data analysis, including basic probability and statistics. To cover these lower-level objectives, teachers must take time away from teaching algebraic concepts. The result, say Walstein and others, is that explanations that connect concepts and reinforce the learning are lost. Yet the reasoning skills developed by making these connections and finding their logical extensions are crucial to success in higher levels of math.

In addition, Walstein says, some children are not cognitively ready for algebra as early as the county wants to give it to them. "Have they passed from the concrete into the abstract? {lcub}hellip{rcub} Different kids' brains are ready at different times," he says.

While many Montgomery parents support the county curriculum and push to have their children accelerated, not all of them do.

"There are several parents at our school, my husband and I included, who have decided that our child will repeat the previous year's math class rather than promote to the next class," wrote Jean Hickey of Silver Spring, in a response to a query on a parent listserv. Hickey said her daughter this year will repeat the fifth-grade math she took in fourth grade. "We want her to truly understand the concepts . . . I wonder how many other parents in the county are now taking a stand like this rather than letting the county dictate the pace of the child's progression?"

The evolution of the county's math program parallels nationwide changes in the way math is taught, Brown says. In the 1980s, research by Harvard University and organizations focused on math education led to making calculus more concept-based, as opposed to focused on process. Next, algebra instruction was reevaluated, and part of what came out of that was the increased use of calculators, she says.

The county further refined its math curriculum after a 2000 audit by Phi Delta Kappa International, a nonprofit organization for education professionals, urged creating a consistent curriculum throughout the county's schools to address an excessive achievement gap on standardized tests between white and Asian, and black and Hispanic students, Brown says. The previous year, Jerry Weast had been hired as county superintendent, and he made closing the achievement gap a top priority. Weast championed opening up advanced courses to more students, and the county's goal is now that 80 percent of students complete Algebra I in middle school by 2010, well above the current 56 percent. The Fairfax County public school system also is accelerating more students. Nearly half of Fairfax students have taken Algebra I by the end of eighth grade, and the school board has set a goal to increase that number of students, though a target has not been established, according to Craig Herring, the system's high school math specialist.

The current math curriculum "involved a real deliberate and real thoughtful approach to seeing what it is kids need to be able to do in calculus {lcub}hellip{rcub}and with a real conceptual emphasis," Brown says. "And then we have gone step by step back through each of the courses to make sure that we have put into place what kids need to learn to be successful at the next step." The county took the requirements of the Maryland standardized tests into account, she says, but went well beyond them, or students "wouldn't have been ready for college."

One result of the county's new curricular strategy is that while classroom math teachers are still involved in shaping the curriculum, experts in math education theory now play a much larger role.

Walstein and Bunday believe this change has led to a less effective curriculum. "It's top down . . . the county has it all figured out," Bunday says. "They know how to raise test scores . . . and we have to respond to directives that don't always make sense."

Responds Brown: "We can say that our curriculum is requiring a new way of thinking and approaching mathematics, and it's highly likely that we're asking teachers to teach in a way that's different from the way they learned math or {lcub}hellip{rcub} were trained to teach math."

So, is this just Walstein's version of that standard grandfatherly tale of woe? ("When I was your age, I walked 10 miles every day, in the snow, uphill -- both ways! -- just to get to school. You young whippersnappers have no idea how easy you have it!")

There might be a little of that. Walstein admits that few get as agitated about the issue as he does. But if it's not such a big deal, he asks, what explains the need to create that emergency Algebra II class for magnet students at Blair? And what explains the gaps in understanding he sees among his students?

Montgomery County Council member Mark Elrich, who taught math at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park for 16 years, says Walstein's observations are spot on. "It looks good because you can say . . . look at all the kids who have gotten algebra," Elrich says. Montgomery students do well on the state's standardized tests, but when some of them take the SATs, "the truth comes out."

As usual, Walstein puts it more bluntly.

Sitting in his classroom, he bangs his fist on a desk in frustration and booms, "What they're doing to these kids is wrong!"

Emily Messner is a writer and researcher in Arlington. She can be reached at emessner@stanford.edu.