Parents Say Math Course Data Don't Compute

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 2, 2008

The math wars in Prince William County are not over for some parents, but the conflict might be on hiatus.

County school officials have presented data indicating that elementary students are improving in math. Surveys show, however, that parents and teachers have mixed impressions about whether the county's Investigations in Numbers, Data and Space program is effective.

Representatives from the School Board and a parent group appear locked in opposition.

School Board Chairman Milton C. Johns (At Large) and Vice Chairman Grant Lattin (Occoquan) said in interviews that the system needs to push on with the Investigations program as long as it is balanced with traditional lessons.

But Alexis Miller, who is spearheading the group of opposing parents, said that parents will continue to scrutinize school system data and might file Freedom of Information Act requests to examine documents related to the evaluation of the program.

Loudoun County school officials began introducing some of the Investigations lessons last fall in elementary schools. A math review committee is considering whether the use of the curriculum should be expanded, one of several issues it is studying as it undertakes a broad assessment of math instruction in the district.

The Investigations program requires students to use inanimate objects and protracted methods. Prince William school officials say the program prepares students for algebra, but some parents say it does not focus enough on traditional drills and the memorization of algorithms.

"Certainly, School Board members will keep tabs on math scores and continue to listen to concerns from parents and get updates on teachers' professional development," Johns said. "But for right now, there's no more formal activity on the agenda. We are taking a balanced approach, and we are seeing improvement in all groups and narrowing those gaps" between whites and minorities.

Johns was referring to recent data from the Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test showing that all first- and second-graders, particularly whites, improved their scores from last year to this year under the Investigations program.

Blacks and Hispanics made gains, but they barely missed meeting the exam's "expected" score, according to the data. Third-graders posted flat results over the same period on the state Standards of Learning exam, with 90 percent of students passing each year and about 49 percent reaching the "advanced" level.

Many parents question those results, and some have said they think the school system is experimenting at their children's expense.

They cite how the percentage of third-graders reaching the advanced level remained flat on the SOL exam in the past two years. They also say that if Investigations were working, the number of advanced students would rise to the higher levels from previous years.

Miller, who has two children in elementary school, said she wants more data from a survey distributed to schools and parents.

It showed mixed results: Most principals, teachers and parents said students enjoyed math during the 2007-08 academic year.

But only a little more than half of the teachers and parents said the program "meets students' mathematics needs"; about three-quarters of the principals surveyed said it does.

"They are gambling our kids' education, and every single year, it's slipping away, and they could be making more progress," Miller said.

Lattin, the School Board vice chairman, disputed that notion. "The other side of the debate says, 'So, you're going to use our kids as guinea pigs?' " he said. "My response is, if the data was showing that the scores were plunging, I'd be the first one to bail out. But that's not what the scores are showing.

"Are we seeing great improvement? No, because there's little room to improve at the elementary level."

The more complicated question, Lattin said, is whether Investigations will help elementary students perform well on state middle school exams.

He said the school community should be more alarmed about performance in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

The results on the middle school math SOL tests show that in the past three years, more students have been passing in each grade.

But that could be because the overall percentage of passing students has been low, and much lower compared with figures at the elementary level.

The percentage of sixth-graders who passed this year rose to 70 percent from 54 percent in 2006; for seventh-graders, that percentage was 54 percent this year, up from 43 percent in 2006. For eighth-graders, 86 percent passed the math exam this year, up from 78 percent in 2006.

"For me, the change in teaching math was intended to bring up the conceptual level at middle school, where we were very poor before and where we still are," Lattin said. "It's way too early to tell whether Investigations is going to change middle school test scores, but our hope is that it's going to bring them up."

In Loudoun, school officials say they are holding off on any decision to expand the Investigations program so they can analyze data about its impact on student achievement.

This school year, Loudoun elementary students will get two units of the Investigations curriculum each quarter. A unit can last up to a week.

The Loudoun math review committee conducted an online survey of parents scheduled to end yesterday, asking them what elements of math teaching, curriculum and assessment they consider most important.