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Study Finds Lower Math Scores in Catholic Schools
By Debra Viadero

Children in Roman Catholic schools make no more progress in reading in the early grades than similar students in public schools, and make even less progress in math, a new study finds.

“I was actually surprised to find the results that Catholic schools are worse in mathematics,” said Sean F. Reardon, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of education and sociology at Stanford University. “But, if Catholic schools aren’t subject to the same accountability requirements as public schools are, then they may not spend as much time on mathematics and literacy.”

Time to attach numbers to state’s math problem
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: March 7th, 2008 01:00 AM

Washington’s community colleges have long complained about the large numbers of incoming students who need remedial math instruction. But when University of Washington professors join the chorus, you know our math problem has reached epidemic proportions.

A group of 60 math, science and engineering professors recently issued an open letter warning that a growing number of UW freshman can’t do even middle-school math.

These are smart students. Incoming freshmen have to earn, on average, a 3.7 grade-point average just to get in the door at UW. If they aren’t coming out of high school with functional math skills, imagine how much worse off the kids who don’t graduate near the top of their classes are.

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings Highlights No Child Left Behind at West Virginia State Capitol, Visits Saint Albans High School

Contact: Samara Yudof or Elissa Leonard
(202) 401-1576

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito today hosted an education policy roundtable discussion on No Child Left Behind at the West Virginia State Capitol Building with First Lady of West Virginia Gayle Manchin, West Virginia State Superintendent Steve Paine and West Virginia policymakers, educators, teachers, parents and business leaders. Secretary Spellings applauded West Virginia’s efforts to raise content standards of assessments and discussed opportunities for improvement and innovation under No Child Left Behind.

Secretary Spellings also today visited Saint Albans High School in Saint Albans, W.V., and delivered remarks to students, teachers and school officials at a school assembly, recognizing the progress Saint Albans High School students have made under No Child Left Behind.

“I commend West Virginia for narrowing achievement gaps in sixth grade math and science and for raising the graduation requirement for the class of 2010 to four years of math. The success of students at Saint Albans High School demonstrates progress that West Virginia is making towards getting every student performing on grade level,” said Secretary Spellings. “Six years after No Child Left Behind changed the education game in this nation, we can be proud of where it has brought us. The law’s core principles now guide our conversation on education, and now is the time to build on that foundation.”

At the policy roundtable, Secretary Spellings commended West Virginia for being one of the first seven states to have approved science assessments. Secretary Spellings also applauded the state’s efforts to start raising standards, noting that West Virginia’s proficiency levels have been among the lowest in the nation. In addition, Secretary Spellings discussed other opportunities for improvement that could help build on West Virginia’s progress such as reducing n-size to prevent students from slipping through the cracks.

Secretary Spellings also emphasized the need to equip every child with a highly qualified education and prepare them for the 21st century global economy. She urged that as a nation we must find ways to address consensus areas such as employing growth models to allow schools to measure individual student performance over time; using a more nuanced accountability system to distinguish between schools missing performance goals across the board and those who come within range; taking more aggressive steps to address and improve high school graduation rates; ensuring that more eligible students are taking advantage of free tutoring; and doing a better job of recruiting and preparing good teachers and getting them in to schools where they are needed most.

In January, Secretary Spellings marked the sixth anniversary of No Child Left Behind with President Bush in Chicago, where he charged her with visiting States to discuss how the federal government can work together with them to move forward under No Child Left Behind. Following her visit to West Virginia, Secretary Spellings will continue the dialogue on No Child Left Behind and priorities for 2008 next week with a trip to New York.

To view Mapping West Virginia’s Educational Progress for 2008, please visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/westvirginia.pdf

For Mapping America’s Educational Progress 2008, visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/nation.html.

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By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 19, 2008; A01

Greg Barlow, an Air Force officer in the defense secretary’s office at the Pentagon, was helping his 8-year-old son, Christian, one recent night with a vexing problem: What is 674 plus 249?

The Prince William County third-grader did not stack the numbers and carry digits from one column to the next, the way generations have learned. Applying lessons from his school’s new math textbook, “Investigations in Number, Data, and Space,” Christian tried breaking the problem into easier-to-digest numbers.

But after several seconds, he got stumped. He drew lines connecting digits, and his computation amounted to an upside-down pyramid with numbers at the bottom. His father, in a teacherly tone, nudged him toward the old-fashioned method. “How would you do that another way?” Barlow asked.

In Prince William and elsewhere in the country, a math textbook series has fomented upheaval among some parents and teachers who say its methods are convoluted and fail to help children master basic math skills and facts. Educators who favor the series say it helps young students learn math in a deeper way as they prepare for the rigors of algebra.

The debate over “Investigations in Number, Data, and Space,” a Pearson School series used in thousands of elementary classrooms, including some in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Howard counties, is one of the newer fronts in the math wars. Such battles over textbooks and teaching methods are fueled in part by the anxieties of parents who often feel powerless over their children’s education, especially in subjects they know.

The curriculum, introduced in the 1990s and updated in a second edition issued last fall, offers one answer to the nation’s increasingly urgent quest for stronger elementary math education. The nonprofit organization TERC, based in Cambridge, Mass., developed “Investigations” with support from the National Science Foundation.

Some experts and parents find it wanting. “There’s very little substance. I read through all the kindergarten curriculum. It’s wishy-washy,” said Steve Santee, an engineer whose daughter Olivia is in first grade at Cedar Point Elementary School in Prince William. “My wife and I are very fortunate. She’s a former math teacher, and we can teach her all the way up to calculus.”

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