The Math Divide

For a long time now, people have been concerned about the achievement gap between whites and minority students on standardized tests such as the state exams, the SATs, and the GREs. Many articles have been written attempting to explain this phenomenon, but no single explanation has been widely accepted.

Last night, I was looking at practice questions for the GRE, and I realized two things: most of the math on standardized tests (even for college & grad school) is taught in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades (I had students in the after-school program doing problems similar to the ones on fractions, squares, and factors that I saw last night), and the standardized test format requires you to have a good knowledge of basic facts, so that you can make calculations quickly without the aid of a calculator (at least in the case of the GRE).

The GRE, therefore, puts test-takers in an unnatural situation, rewarding them for skills which are rarely necessary in ordinary life and which are no longer the focus of math education in the public schools. This is true for all who take it, but it is particularly unfortunate for minority students.

In the past year, I took a course learning the new TERC Math curriculum used through the Boston Public Schools. While TERC has many positive features (I like its stress on developing number sense, and its heavy use of math games to introduce new concepts), it is weak in two major areas. Unfortunately, these are the two areas which standardized tests, like the GRE, focus on: facility with conventional algorithms (which are generally faster than the newer methods used by most TERC students), and memorization of basic facts.

Test makers are more traditional in their pedagogical theories than curriculum developers. This, I would suggest, disproportionately hurts minorities since they know math only through the curriculum-based instruction they have received at school. If they have learned the "tree algorithm" for multiplication in class, there is likely not a parent or grandparent at home who can show them the traditional algorithm. If they have become so used to manipulatives and calculators that they don't know their times tables, or even addition and subtraction facts, then they don't have access to private tutors or test-prep courses to help them bone up on these things prior to test day. Thus, they are less likely to enter college or grad school - not because they are less intelligent, but because they have received a different kind of education, and most have not been warned by the public schools of possible gaps in their learning.

We must make sure that our schools' math curricula are interesting and engaging - which TERC is - but that they also encourage students to learn the fundamentals which they will need if they wish to pursue academics after high school. A high school is not enough for a good income, in most cases. We must expect that our inner-city and minority children will go to college, and to grad school, just as we expect that of suburban youth.