State math standards ranked last nationally

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Education Writer

Hawai'i's math standards received the lowest scores in the country in a Thomas B. Fordham Foundation review of each state's expectations for its public school students.

According to the report, Hawai'i's standards are weak because they minimize the importance of prerequisites, introduce calculators and other technology too early — as early as the second grade —and recommend controversial textbooks and math programs that have been criticized by professional mathematicians.

State Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said the Fordham Foundation is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the DOE as far as math teaching goes.

In fact, he said, they are in isolation from many other educational organizations across the country.

According to Knudsen, the report criticizes every state that modeled its standards after the recommendations of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

"In other circles, it's highly respected," he said.

The Fordham Foundation review of math standards gave A's to only three states. California received the highest score, followed by Indiana and Massachusetts. Only three states received a B grade.

While Hawai'i received the lowest score, 11 other states received F's and 18 received D's.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit foundation, which supports education research and reform, says it is the only group to take an in-depth look at the quality of the standards, although other organizations, such as the American Foundation of Teachers, do short overviews. The AFT study is used by Education Week in its annual report card that will be released today.

Over the years, AFT has noted improvements in Hawai'i's standards.

Knudsen also pointed out that Hawai'i's performance in the National Assessment of Educational Progress test scores — popularly known as the nation's report card — is on par with that of Fordham's favorite, California. New Hampshire and Minnesota, which received the highest NAEP scores, received an F and D, respectively, from Fordham, Knudsen said.

David Klein, a math professor at California State University-Northridge and the main author of the Fordham math report, said the biggest flaw in Hawai'i's standards is they essentially say prerequisites in math don't matter, which could mean you don't have to know arithmetic to learn algebra.

"That really bowled us over," he said. "That's pure nonsense."

But Knudsen said that rather than take the back-to-basics approach recommended by Fordham, Hawai'i wants students to develop a deeper understanding of math concepts rather than just a rote memorization of formulas, as well as give all students the opportunity to take higher-level math courses.

This is the third time Fordham has examined the standards and the first time since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was passed three years ago, prompting many states to revise or replace their standards.

Fordham President Chester E. Finn Jr., said it was critical to re-examine the standards now, especially as they "have become the linchpin of No Child Left Behind and standards-based reform at the state level."

The study, done this year, looks at the latest versions of Hawai'i's standards, including draft revisions.

"We're in the process of revising some of the standards now, but math was one of the least in need of reform," Knudsen said.

Klein advised looking to California as a model for exemplary standards. Where Hawai'i's standards are criticized as vague in some areas, California's are "crystal clear" and include sample questions, the study said.

Hawai'i was criticized for putting too much emphasis on probability, statistics and estimation and not even mentioning standard algorithms (problem-solving procedures) for basic arithmetic. California was praised for requiring that students memorize basic number facts and algorithms, as well as requiring that students understand why those algorithms work.

California does not let students use calculators on its assessments before the 12th grade, and in class only when appropriate.

Sandra Stotsky, a research scholar at Northeastern University, wrote that Hawai'i's language arts standards "tend to be vague, undemanding and unmeasurable."

Stotsky recommended that the language arts standards set forth clear objectives for the teachers, developing strong vocabulary instruction and crafting content-rich and content-specific standards that provide an outline for teaching essential content in the secondary English curriculum.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8014.