We understand that a committee comprised of educators and administrators is currently reviewing the K-5 math curriculum as part of the five-year review process and to align the curriculum with the new Common Core Standards for Mathematics. As parents of Glen Ridge children, we would like to take the opportunity to express our thoughts in the hope that the curriculum chosen will be reflective of our aspirations for our children’s education. Our intent is not to hinder or work against the review process, but is to support our teachers, administrators, and school system while raising our concerns in the hope that they will be considered during the review process. We are all trying to reach the shared goal of providing our children with a strong math foundation that allows for success in higher math, and opens up multiple career opportunities to Glen Ridge students. With that in mind, we request the review committee strongly consider the following during the review process:
- Mastery of math concepts
The world is changing and many of our children will have to compete in the highly competitive international markets. In addition, a number of careers (such as statisticians, economists, doctors, engineers, applied scientists) require a mastery of math concepts. Without a solid foundation and fluency in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other basic math concepts, students will be disadvantaged when they reach less-concrete math concepts and sciences in higher grades. We ask that the math program selected address these concerns. A curriculum that uses math concepts as building blocks, allowing one to rest on the foundation of another, previously mastered concept would help ensure success in higher math.
- Allows for parental involvement
We want the best education for our children, and we are here to support our children’s teachers to reach that goal. With the current program, concepts are introduced in a spiral fashion and are taught without text books. Without a background in the “concept” introduced and no ability to look at a text book, it is difficult for parents to reinforce or even appropriately supplement what is being taught in the classroom.
• Allows teachers flexibility with students at different rates of learning
The current program and one of the other programs under consideration provides for math concepts to be introduced in various ways via a spiral. A concept is touched upon and reintroduced at a later time. A criticism of the spiral method of teaching is that it does not provide enough flexibility to encourage students who understand the math concept earlier on in the spiral to move forward with other concepts. It can also be detrimental to a child having difficulty with a concept because many different methods for making a calculation are introduced during the various stages of the spiral, but not enough time is spent with any one method to allow mastery.
- Building blocks
While we cannot speak for all the parents and children of Glen Ridge, those who have signed this letter have a concern about the spiral teaching methodology currently being used. It is at the core concern for each of the considerations we outlined above. Regardless of program selected, we ask that a more linear method of instruction be considered for the day-today math instruction, where one concept or a set of concepts is introduced and students are given some time to master the ideas and skills as a way of building the foundation for subsequent learning.
We are thankful to live in a community that cares about our children and takes their education seriously. We hope that the concerns outlined above in this letter will be taken into consideration as changes in the math curriculum are addressed. Thank you for your time.
Respectfully submitted,