Understanding your child's mathematics education

In mathematics, parental involvement maybe more critical than you think. Placing children in highly rated schools with qualified teachers and making sure they bring home good math grades is not enough.

Today, parents should be proactive for many reasons. Recent fads in mathematics education often decrease attention to rigorous achievement. They may emphasize calculators and downplay manual computation, or be so strongly biased toward discovery learning that they are devoid of clear explanations and worked-out examples. In fact, the country as a whole isn't doing very well in math compared to other developed nations. Also, grade inflation has watered down the meaning of an "A" in math. Here are some steps you take to get involved in your child's math education:

Identify what your child should know and be able to do. Children who are ready for algebra by eighth grade are much more likely to succeed later on than those who are not, and these children are doing about as well as students in the most successful countries. Effective mathematics education requires a plan of achievement across grade levels to put your child on the path for success. Parents need to identify clear goals that are explicit about what children should know and be able to do at a given grade level. The clearest and most explicit mathematics standards were recently adopted in California. They also deliberately set high expectations for achievement -California wants to bring their children up to "world class" levels.

Compare your child's achievement relative to these goals. Involved parents should know which standards their children can meet and which ones need more work. There are sample problems for each of the California standards through algebra that you can use with your children. You are diagnosing strengths and weaknesses, and this is critical for identifying your child's educational needs.

Compare your child's math learning experiences to the needs identified above. Study your child's math book and the work done both in school and at home. If you need more elaboration about the standards, see the curriculum framework document. This also provides guidelines that can be used to evaluate mathematics textbooks. Do your child's math textbook and student work build up achievement to fit the needs you discovered in Step 2 above? Unfortunately, many parents will find that there are areas where the needed progress is not likely to be forthcoming. If this is the case, you have found that the learning prescription for your child needs to change.

Fix the problems you found. (This is the hardest step.) Sometimes just talking to teachers and school personnel about your concerns will help. Other times, they may feel threatened or just tell you that such matters are better left to professionals. Don't be discouraged - just focus on what you your child needs to learn. Find a few other involved parents and share information with them. When the school system won't change enough to solve the problem, you may need to look for books or tutors to help fill in the gaps. In the worst cases, your child may need to do a lot of "extra" work. If you can set small, interim goals, at least you will be able to see progress. There is no easy solution, so the earlier you get involved the better.

-Paul Clopton is a biomedical research statistician with the Department of Veterans Affairs in San Diego. He became active in K-12 mathematics education in reaction to the experience of his own children in public schools. He is a cofounder of Mathematically Correct and has worked on the state mathematics framework, statewide tests, and textbook adoptions in California).