Changes in math curriculum don't usually stir parents to political action, but in Frederick County, the introduction of a new math textbook has caused a minor revolt by county residents, 600 of whom have signed a petition to persuade the county school board to return to a more traditional approach.
"Our primary objection is the lack of solid math content. It has been replaced with fluff," said Tom Neumark, a Frederick resident whose daughter will be a kindergartener next year.
The battle these parents are having with the county is just one part of a larger discussion taking place around the nation and among federal education officials over how math should be taught. Some education experts are calling for states to adopt national standards that would narrow the focus of the math curriculum and make American students more competitive internationally. Maryland is on the verge of reviewing its standards and deciding whether to make changes.
On the grass-roots level, Stacey McGiffin is part of the parents group that would like to see changes at the state level. She says her second-grade son is bored with the math he is doing in a new curriculum called TERC. She and other parents say the program requires teachers to spend too much time explaining why math works and not enough time having students practice how to do problems. "TERC takes discovery learning to an extreme. In trying to make math 'fun,' TERC fails to teach the fundamentals that will ultimately prepare kids for algebra and beyond," McGiffin said.
TERC uses an approach called reform math that has grown popular in the past decade. Used in thousands of classrooms, according to its creators, TERC stresses conceptual thinking rather than a more traditional approach of solving problems. Frederick County schools adopted TERC in its elementary grades this school year after having used it at Lincoln Elementary School for several years.
A number of school systems in the Baltimore area have chosen to use textbooks that attempt to blend both methods and have not chosen to use TERC exclusively as Frederick has. In Baltimore County, teachers supplement a more traditional textbook with TERC. Anne Arundel County uses a similar approach, approving TERC only as a supplement, but no schools there have chosen to use it.
Such programs have come under scrutiny as national leaders suggest that math programs in foreign countries where students are most proficient give students more practice at solving difficult equations, and they do them at an earlier age.
