Like it or not, the way math is taught in our schools is changing dramatically, but not everyone is happy about it.
Iowa Core, based on the Common Core, is a set of standards the state expects students to meet in all public and accredited non-public schools. When legislation was passed in 2008 requiring all schools to adopt Iowa Core, districts chose how they would meet those standards. Many changed the way they teach math and language.
Bettendorf schools adopted Iowa Core in 2010.
“Most of us when we went to school, the research wasn’t out about how students learn,” said Marty Beck, math curriculum leader at the Bettendorf School District. “What we’re doing now is trying to help [the students] understand the why. Why does multiplication work the way it does, why do we use linear functions?”
According to Beck, the new way of teaching math at Bettendorf schools will help the students gain a deeper understanding of math. So instead of memorizing the steps to arrive to the answer, they will understand why those steps are there, and why the answer is what it is.
It can challenge many parents, who memorized multiplication tables, for example. Using core methods, students are taught different ways to arrive at their answers, sometimes using pictures or graphs to better demonstrate the problem.
"(W)hat that’s doing is helping them have a visual of what multiplication really means. Eventually, we want them to learn the facts automatically, and not need those pictures and those drawings," Beck said.
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Not all students, or parents, are thrilled about the new curriculum.
Many students, caught in the middle of the transition from procedural to conceptual math, can struggle to learn the different way math is taught, and their parents are at a loss as to how to help them.
“It’s frustrating for me, because I have to watch my kid be stressed out and worried about her grades, and I don’t know how to help her because I didn’t learn it that way," said Jessica Willette, whose daughter Makenna is a sixth-grader at Bettendorf Middle School.
Makenna is one of the students struggling to make the switch from procedural math to conceptual math. She had always been taught procedural math, and now she has to make the switch to learning math conceptually. It has not been an easy transition.
“I can help her get the answer, but I can’t write it out the way that [her teachers] want her to,” said Jessica. “They have [the students] writing and drawing a lot of pictures, and it’s just a lot of unnecessary steps that don’t make a lot of sense.”
Makenna is struggling so much that she dropped out of chorus, and enrolled in a special class for students who need extra help in math.
“There are a lot of kids in the class and, you know, it’s all the kids. It’s the kids who are straight-A students, who have no problem with anything else, and are also taking this class because they are having a lot of problems with the math.”
The state required the Bettendorf district to implement Common Core at the high school level first, and then gradually roll down to lower grade levels. That left the older students, who had been exposed to one way of learning math, to learn a completely new way of learning math overnight.
It’s a problem that Mike Raso, Bettendorf’s Assistant Superintendent, understands first-hand.
“I had a daughter that graduated here last year, and she was one of the first ones who went through the change,” said Raso. “It was very difficult for her because she was one of the ones who could memorize a lot of things. She would get the procedure and memorize it, but now she had to think and explain why she was doing it this way.”
“For math, it seems to be okay if you can’t do math,” Raso said. “We’re trying to change that. Math is more than just a bunch of numbers, it’s a process.”
Teachers struggle with the new way of instructing math as well. That’s why the district brought Jocelyn Kyte in, as a teacher for the teachers. Kyte says that once kids get through the transition they thrive, and they're often more excited about math than ever before.
The Bettendorf School District offers online courses and instruction for parents who want to better understand the new math their kids are learning.
That isn't much consolation for some parents, who say they don’t have the time or energy to learn math all over again.
“I work as a single mom, so I don’t have a whole lot of time to sit there and try to figure out a whole different way of doing math and understanding it,” said Jessica.
Bettendorf School District leaders think core methods will catch on as they become the norm for students at all grade levels.