As I'm sure he knows, Arnold Arons commented 25 years ago that we in the
universities have "trained" the elementary teachers who are so utterly
deficient in math and science. As I have reported here before, my
diagnostic test has shown a lot of university students with the math and
cognitive level of 10 year olds. I include in that some testing of
IN-SERVICE elementary teachers (this is not shown in the report I have
been sending out to some of you). In a "Teacher Opportunity Core"
(TOC)program at City University of New York, I tested 16 inservice
teachers working in the 4th through 7th grades. Not a single one scored
as competent or even marginal on the ARITHMETIC portion of the test. All
these questions should be answerable by a competent 8th grader. The
average score on the arithmetic portion was 25%.
When they are faced with a simple cognitive task involving fractions
(using the Cuisenaire rods) they go through the same anguished struggle,
at the same painfully slow pace as students I have seen in the 6th grade
(and in universities). As Arons said so long ago, this is the only place
where the vicious cycle can be broken. And it is OUR responsibility (in
the teacher training programs) to do this.
I spoke to a supervisor at City College in this TOC program, saying that
we wouldn't dream of sending someone with a 4th grade reading level in
to teach elementary school, but we send teachers with a fourth grade
math level in to teach elementary school all the time. The supervisor
replied (roughly) as follows: That is because large parts of the
education establishment, from the Ph.D.'s on down, are math phobic.
At Dowling College, in taching a "college algebra" course I had two
students who were graduating senior education majors about to enter
student teaching, and who had of course postponed their math
requirements as long as they could. They had no idea what the first
place past the decimal point meant. I had students there in a statistics
course(!) who had PASSED TWO previous math courses and who could not
multiply (1/2)x(1/2). How had they passed two previous college math
courses? It wasn't done by elementary school people. "We" did it.
Finally: last semester I taught a math course required of elementary
teachers at another branch of CUNY. I found there some quite gtood
students, but a significant fraction who were not competent in 6th grade
math. So I did some of the same material from my program that I do for
any entering students who test as stuck "way back there". Five students
clearly failed the course and should not have been passed into student
teaching, but the Acting Dean of Ed. seemed to me to go into a panic.
"What if the math department found out I was teaching them models of the
arithmetic of fractions?" The empire would crumble. "We must find a way
to give these students extra opportunities in January so that they can
all pass." And on, and on . .
It is so easy to say that these students should not be in college. Are
we, every one of us, really ready to face this issue? I doubt it. What I
have seen repeatedly is that as soon as the testing shows the reality,
both faculty and administration simply throw up their hands and walk
away, preferring business as usual.
Here are the facts as I see them: At the most selective colleges, if
students whose quantitative comprehension is at the elemntary school
level were not admitted, they would lose about 10% of their students.
Manageable no doubt. But for schools in the lower half of the
selectivity scale, trying, desparately often, to maintain enough bodies
in the seats, if they were to eliminate such students from their pool,
they would lose A MAJORITY of their students. Will they go that route?
Not on your life! At Bloomfield College (NJ) where my program began, had
they eliminated such students, I believe they would have lost at least
80% of their student body.
It's not a pretty picture. The reality is so hard to face. I think the
only hope for any progress, especially for schools in the lower half, is
to face the reality of what they are getting and make a real attempt to
repair this damage. It can be done. I believe I have proved that it can
be done. But it requires a serious commitment to education not just
looking good on paper. Beginning with some sort of "remedial algebra"
will not make a dent in this problem, as countless billions spent on
remedial programs has proved.
Sorry to be so negative, but I've been in this for a long time, and I
have paid a high price but letting people know that the emperor has no
clothes.
Jerry Epstein