r/DetroitMichiganECE

>A recent RAND survey found that the students who are the most likely to maintain interest in math are those who understand and enjoy it, feel supported, and see themselves as “math people.” It also found that nearly a third of high school students have never identified that way.

>When children build robust mathematical ideas and skills early, their later reasoning and fluency grows stronger. If they miss a key idea, the confusion can snowball, leaving gaps that grow as math becomes more complex. In fact, preschool children’s mathematical knowledge predicts their later academic success in both reading and math even more than reading skills do.

>Young children are natural mathematical thinkers. Infants can tell the difference between two objects and three objects well before they know the words “two” and “three.” And by age two, they begin building on their intuitive numerical perceptions through exploring patterns, comparing objects, and counting blocks.

>Research underscores just how important it is for us to understand how young children really learn math. A recent meta-analysis of 39 studies found that guided play—playful exploration thoughtfully supported by an educator—was more effective than direct instruction at developing early math skills, and more effective than free play at building spatial vocabulary. If educators can channel children’s natural mathematical curiosity into playful, guided exploration that leads to mathematical competence in the early years, they set the stage for future success.

>It’s a mistake to pit learning against play. Young children can play and do serious math at the same time. For young children, play often is the way they explore quantity, patterns, and relationships. By teaching math through play, educators tap into children’s natural ability to recognize numerical concepts and build formal language around them.

>Most adults don’t remember what it was like before they knew that “two” is the same as “2,” which is the same as two fingers held up in the air. It can be tempting for grown-ups to move quickly from concrete examples to symbols on a page, but it takes time for young children to make the connections between concrete and abstract representations.

>If students don’t have opportunities to connect mathematical notation to the ideas it represents, they start to see math as pushing symbols around on a piece of paper rather than something they’re already doing in the world.

>Earlier in my career, a graduate student ran an experiment to try to influence her own students’ math success through building math identity. She asked half of her students to write “I am good at math” at the top of each test next to their name. Their test scores were no different than the half who wrote only their name. This simple experiment suggests that mathematical success doesn’t come from self-affirmation alone, but from real mathematical understanding and skill.

>Let’s be blunt. Michigan spends $24.1 billion (state and federal funds) annually on an education system of 1.4 million PK-12 Michigan children, and no one is getting the return on investment needed.

>Real change is the most talked about, but least acted upon, concept when it comes to public education. To say you are in a good school district in Michigan, given our national and global competition, is like saying you are the smartest kid in the remedial class; it is a dubious honor at best.

>The current public education system in Michigan has been static since adopting the Carnegie Unit structure 100 years ago. While this system once served the nation and our state well, it is long overdue for a major overall.

>Multiple education reform plans to improve student academic success in Michigan were made public this spring. Where is the plan from educators? Former governor, Rick Snyder, and former state senator, Doug Ross have a plan, “The 21st Century Learning in Michigan Innovation District legislation.” Launch Michigan has a plan, “Michigan Education Guarantee.” Ed-Trust Midwest has a plan, “Ready for Rigor.” The Business Leaders for Michigan have an education plan in their strategic roadmap, “Michigan in a New Era.”

>We need accountability. Everyone is in charge and no one is accountable. Michigan has 883 different education entities (local districts, charter schools/academies and intermediate school agencies) all of which operate independently from each other. We need to restructure and realign leadership beginning with enhancing the authority of the state superintendent of schools to align the 883 entities in their efforts around improving student outcomes and to hold them accountable.

>If we truly want to improve student academic outcomes, educators need the same high-quality professional learning. We need to grant the state superintendent the authority to require specific training related to state initiatives, such as early literacy teaching and learning, and provide the resources to develop the training and disseminate it for required use in all school districts throughout the state.

>We need to provide literacy coaches in every school who are trained in research-based, effective practices for teaching and assessing reading and can use data to inform instruction and train and coach teachers and school principals.

>For many students, the senior year of high school is a waste of time. They have already met the high school graduation requirements and are no longer interested in their classes. We should restructure the senior year of high school to offer such things as attending a college, trade school, or gaining skills through an apprenticeship, and many other options.

>Look to other states that have implemented reforms to improve student achievement, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Mississippi, Massachusetts and others. Learn from them and request to have those reform efforts funded at the same level.