Closure would end math program Closure would end math program (February 11, 2005)

Slater elementary in second year of three-year study

By Allison Gerard

A three-year math study at Slater Elementary will end prematurely if the school closes at the end of the school year.

The study is led by Liping Ma, a senior scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, and is aimed at trying to find better ways to teach math.

"From our perspective, we feel if the school is closed our work can not continue," said Ma. "We also see that these teachers are making progress, but it takes a long time to finish the process of this program, and it would kind of just leave them in the middle if we ended it."

The study, which is being conducted only at Slater, involves videotaping teachers and evaluating the data in order to find effective methods of teaching math.

It appears to have worked so far. Kindergarten and first-grade students who were involved in the study last year improved their scores on a district assessment test. The percentage of students who passed it went up from 66.6 last year to 85 this year, Slater Principal Nicki Smith said.

If Slater closes, the educators and researchers involved would be disappointed.

"We will continue using the same curriculum, but the difference is the teachers are really looking at the math involved and making sure the kids have a good grasp on the concept," said Smith. "What is happening is the kids are really getting it."

Matt Ellinger, program associate at Carnegie Mellon said the closing of Slater would be unfortunate for the study. "As a researcher, it would be hard to not get another year because the data won't be as rich," he said.

The original plan for the study was to collect data from Slater for three years and then use that knowledge to help teachers throughout the country teach math more effectively.

Last year all of the kindergarten and first grade teachers participated in the study and this year the majority of the school is participating in the volunteer math study program.

"It's in the second year that a lot of the concepts are understood and in the third year that it's implemented, so to cut it off in the middle is a tremendous loss for the school and America," said Bonnie Laster, a kindergarten and first-grade teacher.

Ma has studied the differences in American and Chinese methods of teaching and is applying that to her work.

"In order to teach math, you need to know the math in a deeper way so that you are not only teaching the process, but the students also learn why they do the math in this way," said Ma.

A traditional method of teaching math in the United States is to show an example of how to work a problem and then assign 10 problems. In China, a teacher may spend all day on one problem and work the problem in several different ways.

The teachers have responded. "This is my 21st year teaching, and I've never been involved in anything as exciting as this," Laster said.

E-mail Allison Gerard at agerard@mv-voice.com

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