I just finished grading my students’ algebra unit tests, and I am thrilled with how well they did. In fact, the sixth grade algebra unit is the best unit I teach, and the one in which my students are most successful, every single year. Why? It’s fun. While most of us might remember learning algebra as a set of rules and steps, for my sixth graders, algebra means solving number tricks, “bowling” with numbers, and making up puzzles. It’s a blast, every single day.
This is because our algebra unit, unlike every other unit in our district, was written by teachers. It’s not just math; it’s accessible, interesting and fun- and the kids love it. All the other units in my district’s curriculum were purchased from Pearson, the testing giant (currently located in Ireland where it doesn’t have to pay taxes, and standing to make over a billion dollars from our nation’s public schools with its standardized tests, the “PARCC”). They are not the same.
Pearson’s math curriculum is, with few exceptions, dry, confusing and dense. It’s built around the assumption that teachers can’t create their own lessons, so it includes all the words a teacher might say if she wanted students to “discover” a concept (which a good teacher could do without this script), meanwhile leaving out any explanation of how to actually solve a problem.
For example, if you want to teach students how to find the area of a parallelogram, Pearson’s lesson will help them “discover” or construct some sort of way to do that. But it will leave out any solid information, such as the actual formula for the area of a parallelogram (or triangle, or any other figure). Then, when a student tries to do homework after “discovering” something, his parents end up searching the internet, or emailing the teacher.
The standardized testing (the PARCC and the “Smarter” Balanced) being foisted, by Pearson and others, upon children across the country is equally inaccessible, if not worse. The tests are designed to fail most students (currently, approximately 30% of students will even “pass” them), and they’re pedagogically unsound, tedious and confusing. I am horrified that we are heading at a rapid pace towards giving these tests this spring. I am sickened to think that I will be a party to the unfair, poorly designed testing which my students will be forced to take.
Please consider reading the commentary at these links:
Peter Greene samples the PARCC practice test (from his “Curmudgucation” blog):
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/...
A teacher describes the stress that PARCC preparation is causing for her students (from Diane Ravitch’s blog):
http://dianeravitch.net/...
Testimony given by one of four brave teachers in Renton, Washington, recently (from Anthony Cody’s “Living in Dialogue” blog:
http://www.livingindialogue.com/...
“Pearson’s Money Machine”- February 10, Diane Ravitch’s blog:
http://dianeravitch.net/...