Math Task Force Stops Short of Urging Fundamental Reforms

The report of the state task force charged with devising ways to improve math instruction is far less sweeping in its recommendations than that of the reading task force.

Like the reading task force, the math group calls for a balance between basic skills such as computation and so-called analytical skills such as problem solving and conceptual understanding. But it stops short of calling for a rewrite of the state’s progressive 1992 math framework.

Still, the task force concluded that students’ math achievement is “unacceptably low” and said that teachers remain uncertain about what is the right way to teach.

The 25-member task force is recommending:

* Establishment of “clear and specific content and performance standards” for mathematics. The 1992 framework did not include any such standards.

* Creation of a testing system to monitor students’ progress against those standards.

* More time for instruction, better instructional materials, more college-level math training for teachers and more time for teachers to collaborate.

* Research to determine whether the 1992 framework is being used and how it is working.

* More cooperation between schools and parents.

Wayne Bishop, a Cal State L.A. math professor and a member of the task force, resigned over what he considered to be the weakness of those recommendations.

He was rebuffed by the other members of the committee in his effort to have it endorse the use of a nationally recognized test to measure California students’ ability to compute and use quantitative reasoning.

Math instruction became controversial last year when the state Board of Education selected textbooks that supported the so-called “thinking curriculum,” while downplaying the role of basic skills such as computation.

School districts began purchasing those textbooks this year but growing opposition to the framework and its methods caused many districts to put off those decisions. Even supporters of the new curriculum say that it will take years and half a billion dollars or more annually to fully train teachers in the new progressive philosophy.