Thread by @HKorbey

Spoke with a TX mom this week re: her 5th grade son's math challenges. Her district has a new curr this year, leaning heavily into the idea that Ss should spend time "struggling" w/problems before they show them the standard algorithm (standard way to get the answer). 🧵

Since they launched it, her son's scores have gotten progressively worse. He's a good student w/good test scores, but now is consistently completely lost. Frustrated with HW. His architect dad who is good at math has no idea how to help w/HW.

From what his parents can tell, son's weeks look something like this: intro a new concept on Monday, "struggle" with minimal guidance for a day or two, then get shown the standard algorithm late in the week. Practice a bit, then take a quiz/test. Fails. Repeat.

They took him to a tutoring center, where an evaluation showed he's missing quite a few skills, incl from 4th grade. He goes 2-3 times/wk, where he gets explicit instruction from the beginning, guided practice, and then practices the missing skills.

After 3 months w/tutoring, he's now scoring high 80s consistently. Teacher congratulates parents on "getting him the help he needs." Failure cycle continues for kids whose parents can't afford the $400/month for tutoring.

This is the cycle I wrote about in this article, and researchers confirmed—why exactly are kids not getting enough math practice in class? Many stories sound a lot like this TX mom: edutopia.org/article/how-de…

Many math classes seem to be at cross-purposes w/themselves: acting as if they have all the time in the world for Ss to get a concept, when in fact curriculum is overstuffed and they move quickly. B/c math is so cumulative, kids can fall behind quickly.

“Inquiry learning isn’t necessarily bad,” said researcher Katie Maki. “It’s that those techniques are only helpful when kids have basic, prerequisite skills. Something we struggle with in math instruction is trying to implement those [inquiry-based] techniques too soon."