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ABSTRACT: I (a) give more accurate and complete
references to Bill Gates's testimony before the
U.S. Senate on 7 March 2007, that emphasized the
need to improve high school education; (b)
discuss Jerry Epstein's evidence that progress in
raising high school academic standards requires
"a far better job of training teachers in pre-
high school levels"; and (c) argue that general
improvement of K-12 requires higher education to
fulfill its responsibility to adequately educate
pre-college teachers.
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In response to my post "Gates Testifies Before
Senate that U.S. Needs to Improve High Schools"
[Hake (2007a)], Jerry Epstein (2007a), in his
PhysLrnR post of 30 Mar 2007 wrote:
"And as I have pointed out many times, no
progress will be made in the high schools
(especially in raising standards) until we do a
far better job of training teachers in pre- high
school levels. Their condition, I can document,
is far worse than Mr. Gates has any idea."
In the following I quote from three (A, B, C) of
those many times over the past decade:
A. In "Cognitive Development in an Integrated
Mathematics and Science Program," [Epstein
(1997)], Jerry wrote [bracketed by lines
"EEEEEEE. . . . . "; my insert at ". . . .
[insert]. . . . "; my CAPS]:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
While it is now well known that large numbers of
students arrive at college with large educational
and cognitive deficits, many faculty and
administrative colleagues are not aware that many
students lost all sense of meaning or
understanding in elementary schoolŠŠIn large
numbers our studentsŠŠ[at Bloomfield College (NJ)
and Lehman (CUNY)]Š..cannot order a set of
fractions and decimals and cannot place them on a
number line. MANY DO NOT COMPREHEND DIVISION BY A
FRACTION AND HAVE NO CONCRETE COMPREHENSION OF
THE PROCESS OF DIVISION ITSELF. Reading rulers
where there are other than 10 subdivisions, basic
operational meaning of area and volume, are
pervasive difficulties. MOST CANNOT DEAL WITH
PROPORTIONAL REASONING NOR ANY SORT OF PROBLEM
THAT HAS TO BE TRANSLATED FROM ENGLISH. OUR
DIAGNOSTIC TEST, WHICH HAS BEEN GIVEN NOW AT MORE
THAN A DOZEN INSTITUTIONS SHOWS THAT THERE ARE
SUCH STUDENTS EVERYWHERE see Epstein (2000)]. .
. . .
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
B. In a paper "'The '0.7 Barrier' on the FCI - a
Suggestion of the Underlying Problem and a
Proposal for Further Research," [Epstein (2000)]
wrote [my CAPS]:
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The results cited above for high school science
teachers (mostly Biology teachers in a physics
class) are depressingly poor. What about teachers
at more basic levels? I have used the
arithmetic/reasoning portion of the test with
populations of in-service and pre-service
teachers on two occasions. A population of 16
in-service teachers of grades 2 to 7 in a
Master's program at City College NY took the test
in 1997. Not a single teacher scored 50% on the
arithmetic portion of the test. The average was
25%. This would seem to indicate, that for this
population (all of whom had been through New York
inner city schools themselves), not a single one
could operate at the level of a competent 8th
grader. Most were at the 4th grade level or
below. In a course for pre-service teachers in an
elementary education program at Brooklyn College,
most of the items from the test were used,
although the test was not formally given or
scored. Approximately one-fifth of the teachers
were competent with the mathematics itself.
Perhaps another fifth were marginal and showed
some comprehension of concepts. BUT MORE THAN
HALF WERE AT A LEVEL NO HIGHER THAN THE
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO
TEACH ONE OR TWO YEARS LATER.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
C. More recently, in a RUME (Research in
Undergraduate Mathematics Education) post
"calculus concept tests" of 2 March 2007, Epstein
(2007b) wrote [my inserts at ". . . . .[insert].
. . . ":
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
People interested in tests with strong predictive
power for success in basic courses should write
to me . . . .[
<jepsein@duke.poly.edu>] . . . . off list
about the Basic Skills Diagnostic Test (BSDT).
Now some 20 years old, there is a great deal of
data from this, and a validation study. . . . is
underway. Just as in the FCI (physics). . .
.[Force Concept Inventory, Hestenes et al.
(1992)]. . . . and the CCI . . . .[Calculus
Concept Inventory (Epstein, 2006)]. . . ., the
results immediately show a level of functioning
on extremely basic things (MUCH more basic than
the CCI or even pre-calc) that ALWAYS shocks
people who administer the test. AT EVERY SCHOOL
WHERE IT HAS BEEN GIVEN, THERE IS A POPULATION
THAT LOST ALL MEANING IN MATHEMATICS AT ABOUT
AGE 10. [my CAPS]. The only thing that changes as
one goes to more selective institutions is the
percentage that are in that condition. At
Polytechnic (an engineering school with a 150
year track record), something like 40% of our
entering students are incompetent at the
elementary algebra level or earlier.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Regarding the sad state of U.S. K-12 education
generally, in Sect. 8 "The Failure of Higher
Education to Improve the Public Schools" of [Hake
(2007b)], I wrote:
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
. . . .could it be that the U.S. education system
is so singularly resistant to change because, in
part, higher education has failed to properly
educate prospective K-12 teachers and
administrators? The NSF's (1996) report "Shaping
the Future" hit the nail on the head [my insert
at ". . . [insert]. . . . ."] "Many faculty in
SME&T. . . .[Science, Mathematics, Engineering, &
Technology]. . . at the postsecondary level
continue to blame the schools for sending
underprepared students to them. But,
increasingly. . .[but not conspicuously]. . . the
higher education community has come to recognize
the fact that teachers and principals in the K-12
system are all people who have been educated at
the undergraduate level, mostly in situations in
which SME&T programs have not taken seriously
enough their vital part of the responsibility for
the quality of America's teachers."
The failure of higher education to play a
substantive role in the improvement of K-12
education has been lamented by, e.g.:
a. Sherman Stein (1997), writing of mathematics
education, but his comments apply as well to
other branches of education: "The first stage in
the reform movement should have been to improve
the mathematical knowledge of present and
prospective elementary teachers. Unfortunately,
the cart of curriculum reform has been put before
the horse of well-prepared teachers. . . . .If
all teachers were mathematically well prepared, I
for one would stop worrying about the age-old
battle still raging between "back to basics" and
"understanding." On the other hand, if
mathematics departments do nothing to improve
school mathematics, they should stop complaining
that incoming freshmen lack mathematical skills."
b. Herbert Clemens (1989), again concerned with
math education, but he could have been talking
about almost any discipline: "Why don't
mathematicians from universities and industry
belong in math education? The first reason is
that it is self-destructive. The quickest way to
be relegated to the intellectual dustbin in the
mathematics departments of most research
universities today is to demonstrate a continuing
interest in secondary. . .[or even worse,
primary]. . . mathematics education. Colleagues
smile tolerantly to one another in the same way
family members do when grandpa dribbles his soup
down his shirt. Math education is certainly an
acceptable form of retiring as a mathematician,
like university administration (unacceptable
forms being the stock market, EST. . .[ Erhard
Seminar Training?]. . . , or a mid-life love
affair). But you don't do good research and think
seriously about education.
The crucial importance of effective K-12 teachers has been emphasized by e.g.:
a. John Goodlad (1990): "Few matters are more
important than the quality of the teachers in our
nation's schools. Few matters are as
neglected.... A central thesis of this book is
that there is a natural connection between good
teachers and good schools and that this
connection has been largely ignored, "
b. Larry Cuban (2003): ". . . I know from both
experience and research that the teacher is at
the heart of student learning and school
improvement by virtue of being the classroom
authority and gatekeeper for change. Thus the
preparation, induction, and career development of
teachers remain the Archimedean lever for both
short- and long-term improvement of public
schools," and
c. Arnold Arons (2000) [commenting on the
ground-breaking work of the forgotten pioneer
Louis Paul Benezet (1935/36) [see also Mahajan &
Hake (2000)]: . . "I have looked at the Benezet
papers, and I find the story congenial. The
importance of cultivating the use of English
cannot be exaggerated. I have been pointing to
this myself since the '50's, and am delighted to
find such explicit agreement. I can only point
out that my own advocacy has had no more lasting
effect than Benezet's. [You will find some of my
views of this aspect in (Arons 1959)] . . . .
Benezet taught excellent arithmetic from the very
beginning just as it should be taught. What he
removed was useless drill on memorized algorithms
that had no connection to experience and verbal
interpretation. . . . This, of course, brings us
back to the same old problem: WHENCE DO WE GET
THE TEACHERS WITH THE BACKGROUND, UNDERSTANDING,
AND SECURITY TO IMPLEMENT SUCH INSTRUCTION? THEY
WILL CERTAINLY NOT EMERGE FROM THE PRESENT
PRODUCTION MILLS." [My CAPS.]
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
". . . I will look primarily at our traditions
and practices of early schooling through the age
of twelve or so. There is little to come after,
whether of joys or miseries, that is not
prefigured in these years."
David Hawkins in "The Roots of Literacy" (2000), p. 3.
"Although we in higher education are very
skillful at ignoring the obvious, it is gradually
dawning on some of us that we bear a substantial
part of the responsibility for this sad situation
[in K-12 education]."
Don Langenberg in BHEF (2001), p. 23]
Langenberg is a physicist and was, at the time,
Chancellor of the University of Maryland System
Arons, A.B. 2000. Private communication to R.R.
Hake of 30 June concerning the Louis Paul
Benezet's (1935/36) pioneering replacement of
rote memorization with interactive engagement in
a sector of the Manchester, New Hampshire public
school system.
Benezet, L.P. 1935/36. "The teaching of
arithmetic I, II, III: The story of an
experiment," Journal of the National Education
Association 24(8), 241-244 (1935); 24(9), 301-303
(1935); 25(1), 7-8 (1936). The articles were: (a)
reprinted in the Humanistic Mathematics
Newsletter #6: 2-14 (May 1991); (b) placed on the
web along with other Benezetia at the Benezet
Centre; online at
<http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/>.
See also Mahajan & Hake (2000).
BHEF. 2001. Business - Higher Education Forum (a
partnership of the American Council on Education
and the National Alliance of Business), Winter,
"Sharing Responsibility: How Leaders in Business
and Higher Education Can Improve America's
Schools" online at
<http://www.bhef.com/includes/pdf/sharing_responsibility.pdf> (244 kB).
Epstein, J. 1997. "Cognitive Development in an
Integrated Mathematics and Science Program," J.
of College Science Teaching 27(3): 194-201;
online to subscribers at
<http://tinyurl.com/2og7kv>.
Epstein, J. 2000. 'The '0.7 Barrier' on the FCI -
a Suggestion of the Underlying Problem and a
Proposal for Further Research," Physics Education
Research Conference 2000: Teacher Education
(University of Guelph); online at
<http://www.sci.ccny.cuny.edu/~rstein/percpaps/epstein.pdf> (52 kB).
Epstein, J. 2006. "The Calculus Concept
Inventory," abstract online at 2006 Conference on
Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education,
online at
<http://mathed.asu.edu/CRUME2006/Abstracts.html>,
scroll down about one third of the way to the
bottom.
Epstein, J. 2007a. "Re: Gates Testifies Before
Senate that U.S. Needs to Improve High Schools,
PhysLrnR post of 30 Mar 2007 23:40:20-0500,
online at <http://tinyurl.com/34ojxz>. To access
the archives of PhysLnR one needs to subscribe,
but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on
[<http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/physlrnr.html>
and then clicking on "Join or leave the list (or
change settings)." If you're busy, then
subscribe using the "NOMAIL" option under
"Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may
access the archives and/or post messages at any
time, while receiving NO MAIL from the list!
Epstein, J. 2007b. "calculus concept tests," RUME
post of 2 Mar 2 16:24:21 EST 2007, online at
<http://tinyurl.com/2arlx8>.
Goodlad, J.I. 1990. "Teachers For Our Nation's Schools" (Jossey-Bass).
Hake, R.R. 2007b. "Should We Measure Change?
Yes!", online as ref. 43 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>. To appear
as a chapter in "Evaluation of Teaching and
Student Learning in Higher Education," a
Monograph of the American Evaluation Association
<http://www.eval.org/>.
Hawkins, D. "The Roots of Literacy." University
of Colorado Press. 2001. Amazon.com information
at <http://tinyurl.com/2baxpk>.
Hestenes, D., M. Wells, & G. Swackhamer. 1992.
"Force Concept Inventory," Phys. Teach. 30:
141-158; online (except for the test itself) at
<http://modeling.asu.edu/R&E/Research.html>. The
1995 revision by Halloun, Hake, Mosca, & Hestenes
is online (password protected) at the same URL,
and is available in English, Spanish, German,
Malaysian, Chinese, Finnish, French, Turkish,
Swedish, and Russian.
Mahajan, S. & R.R. Hake. 2000. "Is it time for a
physics counterpart of the Benezet/Berman math
experiment of the 1930's?" Physics Education
Research Conference 2000: Teacher Education,
online at <http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0512202>.
NSF. 1996. National Science Foundation Advisory
Committee. "Shaping the Future, Volume II:
Perspectives on Undergraduate Education in
Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and
Technology," Advisory Committee to the National
Science Foundation Directorate for Education and
Human Resources, chaired by Melvin George, online
at:
<http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/1998/nsf98128/nsf98128.pdf>
(1.8 MB). This report is one of the few that
emphasizes the crucial role of higher education
in determining the quality of K-12 education.