Math Teachers Hold Key

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The math teachers’ national council has a slogan: “If you can do math, you can do anything.” Hold this positive, uplifting statement to a mirror to see its reverse: If you can’t do math, you’ve got a problem. And it’s a national problem.

Some have pointed out that our country’s general illiteracy in mathematics has been tolerated to an unacceptable degree, and this must change. In the winter 2005 issue of Northwest Education magazine (free online at www.nwrel.org/nwedu/11-02/), Editor Rhonda Barton quotes the founder of the Algebra Project, Robert P. Moses: “Failure is tolerated in math but not in English. Your parent may well lean over your shoulder as you struggle with the term paper your English class requires, or the book report that is due, making sure you write it, checking the spelling and grammar. But if you’re struggling with an equation while doing your algebra homework, more likely your parent will look over your shoulder, wrinkle a brow in puzzlement, then say something like ‘I never got that stuff either; do the best you can and try not to fail.’”

Barton underscores Moses’ point that the ability to do math is increasingly responsible for the gap between those who have and those who have not. It’s proving to be a key ability in this high-technology, knowledge-worker age.

Teacher knowledge of mathematics coupled with the ability to teach it well is a major factor in student understanding, Barton asserts. Quoting statistics from the Council of Chief State School Officers, she writes that “only 67 percent of the nation’s math teachers majored in that subject. In the Northwest, that figure drops to just 56 percent.” Thus the continuing professional development of today’s teacher force takes on critical importance. Northwest Education looks at the various forms of teacher development, following Idaho middle school teachers learning strategies for teaching geometry, watching Oregon teachers introducing algebra to young students, and looking at an intensive year-round program of “content and pedagogy.” in Montana

Thus it turns out the math teachers are among those needing to boost their math knowledge, specifically strategies for teaching mathematics to students with diverse needs. Johnny Lott, former president of the aforementioned National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and now the head of the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Montana–Missoula, noted in a Question and Answer interview with Barton that his first course in statistics came rather late. “Until I was in graduate school,” he said, “I never had a course in statistics or data analysis. Right now, you find data analysis in every middle school textbook. That’s just one example of how the mathematics has changed over time but the teachers weren’t prepared when they were in school to handle it. Even if they’re experienced teachers, they may know only what’s in their textbooks. Unless they’ve done professional development or continue to do it they’re not going to know what’s facing them”. Good professional development has to be challenging, Lott contends, it must be specific, and it must go beyond what they already know.

This column by Karen Lytle Blaha is provided as a public service by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, a nonprofit institution working with schools and communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.