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Ky. schools look to Singapore to raise math scores

Antoinette Konz
The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
Katie Wilson, left, and Tiffany Parrett, both Hite Elementary School kindergarten teachers, play a game of Bullwinkle during a training session at Middletown United Methodist Church in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 8. Educators were learning Singapore Math, a teaching method based on Singapore's curriculum, where students consistently score high in international math tests.
  • Common Core standards have been attacked by religious and conservative groups
  • New approach borrows from success the Southeast Asian country has had in math scores
  • Singapore Approach helps students master concepts through problem-solving and hands-on activities

LOUISVILLE -- Surrounded by colorful number cards, beads and blocks, dozens of elementary teachers from across Louisville sat inside a packed training room last week, learning a new way of teaching math that focuses on problem-solving and in-depth understanding rather than rote memorization.

It's called Math in Focus: The Singapore Approach modeled after a curriculum that has made Singapore a world leader in math education. More than a dozen Jefferson County, Ky., public elementary schools this fall are adopting it as part of the district's move to meet the more rigorous demands of the new Common Core standards.

"Our old math program just wasn't getting it done," said Tim Hagan, principal at Hite Elementary School in Middletown, Ky., which is adopting Math in Focus. "Our kids weren't understanding the concepts; we would see fifth-graders using their fingers to add and subtract. And with the new standards, we needed to find a better fit."

Three years ago, Kentucky became the first state to adopt the Common Core standards in reading and math, designed by states to better prepare students for college and the 21st century workplace. Since then, 45 other states, Washington, D.C., four territories and the Department of Defense Education have adopted them.

There has been push-back.

The Common Core standards, along with the Next Generation Science standards that Kentucky also is adopting, have been attacked by some religious and conservative groups as an attempt by the federal government to co-opt education. Kentucky protesters have derided the new science standards that teach climate change and evolution as "fascist" and "atheistic."

But Jefferson County Public Schools and Kentucky education officials have been staunch supporters of the new standards, which clearly describe what students need to know before they complete each grade level. The decisions on how to teach that knowledge, and what textbooks to use, are left to each school and district.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said he is encouraged by the number of schools trying "innovative" efforts such as the Singapore Approach to teach the new education standards, particularly in math, where American test scores lag well behind most industrial nations.

"Singapore was one of the benchmarks used in the development of the Common Core math standards," Holliday said, adding that students in the Southeast Asian country consistently score far above their American counterparts. "Their performance on assessments and growth in science-, technology-, engineering- and mathematics-related industries is certainly something the United States, Kentucky and (Jefferson County schools) can use to improve our performance."

Search for success

The Jefferson County schools are continually making changes to figure out the best strategies and methods for teaching students the math, reading and science knowledge that Common Core and Next Generation say they need to succeed.

New, more rigorous statewide testing has shown that many schools have work to do.

Test scores released last fall showed that Kentucky's more rigorous academic standards took an expected toll on reading and math proficiency rates.

Statewide, scores dropped roughly one-third at the elementary and middle school levels, although officials have cautioned against comparing last year's scores directly with those of past years, since the testing standards have changed.

In response, many Jefferson County schools are trying new teaching approaches to reach students.

"As our schools become more familiar with the standards, they are making adjustments to how they teach," said Dewey Hensley, chief academic officer for the county schools. "Some schools are turning to new programs and textbooks, while others are just changing the way they teach in order to make it more rigorous and more aligned with the Common Core."

Stephen Tyra, principal at Bowen Elementary in Lyndon, Ky., recently implemented a different math program called Go Math! at his school, and his teachers will start a new reading program called Journeys this fall.

"The standards have changed and it's time for us to update our instructional material to match the more rigorous learning expectations," said Tyra. "These are two programs we felt would be the best match for our students."

Hensley said the district is "empowering" its schools to make important curriculum decisions.

"Our schools know their kids better than anyone else and they understand their teachers," he said. "From a district level, we are giving them the framework, and it's up to them to operate within that in whatever way they feel best."

Singapore solution

Supporters of the Singapore math approach say it addresses the fact that all children learn differently.

It has a framework that carefully paces instruction and focuses on teaching fewer math topics each year so students aren't barraged with a slew of different ideas.

It also helps students master the concepts through problem-solving and the use of hands-on activities, such as model drawing or using items such as beads, blocks, cards and puzzles.

"Some students need to see and touch in order to comprehend and understand," Hagan said. "... The program is structured in a way so that students will not be able to move on until they have mastered a topic."

Thirteen elementary schools will implement the Singapore approach during the 2013-14 school year.

It's not cheap. Hite is spending $45,000 from its school budget to pay for the curriculum provided by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Hagan said.

Sheri Matter, assistant principle at Hite Elementary, demonstrates using Place Value Strips to help students learn place values and for building numbers in expanded form. The strips are also used in adding, rounding numbers, and divisibility rules.

While it may be new in Jefferson County, the Math in Focus program is well established in other Kentucky districts, including Fayette County, where all but two of Lexington's 34 elementary schools have implemented the program over the last five years.

"It has really taken off in Fayette County, and teachers are seeing results," said Michelle Reynolds, director of curriculum and assessment for the district. "Students who previously could do one-step word problems at the end of the year were doing three- and four-step word problems."

Reynolds said a lot of other textbooks "jump right into memorizing formulas without getting into the 'why?' " while this approach "helps students understand the concepts of math instead of just memorizing them."

On the most recent round of Kentucky statewide test results, 53% of Fayette County elementary students tested proficient or higher on math tests, compared with 48% statewide. Jefferson County elementary scores were at 42%.

Melissa Moody, whose stepson will be in third grade at Hite this fall, said she is excited about the new program.

"Our son is more of a visual learner, and he struggles in math, mostly because there are so many different concepts they want him to memorize," she said. "I felt like he was doing all of this memorizing but never understood why he was doing it.

"I think he's really going to enjoy the hands-on learning."

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