Correcting the Corrective Math problem, III
by Guest blogger on Apr 20 2010 Posted in Community voices
Corrective Math from Dr. Caroline Ebby, a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. Dr. Ebby already went over the current math curriculum in the District and issues withCorrective Math. This week Dr. Ebby describes alternatives to Corrective Math.
Corrective Math is not the only remedial program available for students who are below grade level. The availability of funding for RTI (Response to Intervention) has resulted in newly developed remedial programs that are based on what we know about how children learn mathematics, have a solid research base, are aligned to the PA State Standards, and are actually designed to help students succeed in reform programs like Everyday Mathematics and Math in Context.
Even the names of these newer programs make it clear that they are designed to empower students as learners of mathematics, rather than communicate to them that they are in need of correction. Moreover, they illustrate that remediation can be accomplished while still engaging learners in doing real mathematics.
Do The Math (Scholastic), developed by renowned mathematics education expert Marilyn Burns, is a remedial program for grades 2-8 that “helps students develop the skills they need to compute with accuracy and efficiency, the number sense they need to reason, and the ability to apply their skills and reasoning to solve problems.”
Knowing Math (Houghton-Mifflin), developed by mathematics scholar LiPing Ma, is a remedial program for grades 4-6 that “draws on the mathematical knowledge that students already have, although fragmentary and insufficient, to repair and re-organize it to build a sound foundation for future learning.”