Tag: Ridgewood Moms and dads

>Problems Adding Up At Bayport Schools?
By:Robert Wargas

When it comes to the basics of elementary education, many may recall the three “R’s” – reading, writing and arithmetic. But some residents of the Bayport-Blue Point School District believe their kids aren’t quite getting the last one.
Advertisement

The problem, they say, lies with so-called “Everyday Mathematics,” a new-age math teaching system that has worked its way into the curriculum of Bayport’s three elementary schools, much to the dismay of many parents, who want it cut out immediately.
Stressing a logic-driven approach to computation, Everyday Math – also known as “fuzzy math” – urges students to estimate and to arrive at answers using different, if unconventional, approaches. This deviates from the more traditional strategy, in which students are instilled with the mathematical principles in a learn-by-rote method that leaves no room for guessing – and little “fuzziness,” according to several district residents.
Everyday Math is currently in place in more than 175,000 classrooms and is quickly spreading across the country, according to the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, which designed the system.
The university stresses that Everyday Math was designed to help students apply math to “real world” situations instead of learning concepts in isolation. Rather than spend a block of time on one topic and then move on, the teaching method is circular, with students integrating lessons and revisiting topics as they progress quickly – since the university believes “children learn best when new topics are presented at a brisk pace.” The program also encourages calculator use where appropriate.
But for the parents of Bayport children, guessing, estimating and using a calculator are bad habits that bypass real math skills and may even hold the students back from getting to the head of the class.
For Caroline Naluai, a high school family and consumer science teacher in another district, her third-grade son is an otherwise strong student who recently has fallen behind in math. She has had to hire a tutor for him, and she blames Everyday Math for what she believes is its slipshod learning approach.
“I don’t see the benefit,” she said. “Nobody can master anything.”
Another parent, Rita Palma, said her fifth-grader doesn’t know the multiplication tables because Everyday Math “doesn’t stick to the skill-and-drill method. I think they need traditional math as their primary teaching method,” she said.
The “fuzzy” math method has been in place at Bayport schools for five years. It is taught from kindergarten through third grade, and a trial now is in place for fourth and fifth grades.
School officials did not return numerous calls for comment, as of press time.
“Parents have been irate about this for a long time,” said Diane D’Angelo, another concerned district resident.
As of now, a petition calling for the end of Everyday Math bears more than 300 names – the tip of the iceberg for a community bent on getting rid of the program, D’Angelo said.
Several parents also commented that they were tired of spending their own money on tutors to make up for the education their kids should be getting in school.
“When my son entered third grade and couldn’t add, I was alarmed,” said D’Angelo.
But the University of Chicago says Everyday Math students should have a strong hold of multiplication by second grade.
A letter to concerned parents from Bayport-Blue Point School District Superintendent Anthony Annunziato said: “In the last year and a half, the district has been evaluating the program and its implementation over the last five years. On February 12, 2008, the board of education established an ad hoc committee to assess the current K-5 math curriculum.”
The letter also stated that school officials will conduct meetings with teachers “to identify weaknesses in the K-5 math program and to begin establishing [the] best practices used by our teachers.”
Annunziato failed to return repeated phone calls seeking further comment, as did Glen Eschbach, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

>

>Pay-to-Play and the Rubberstamp BCDO
by: Juan Hussein Melli
Sun Mar 09, 2008 at 12:30:54 PM EDT

Mike Kelly brings us this gem from Bergen County Democratic chair Joe Ferriero:
“I pride myself on the fact that during my tenure as county chairman, I don’t think there has been, maybe, one or two contested primaries at the county level,” Ferriero said. “Why? Because I believe my job as the leader of this party is to build coalitions, to build consensus. You may say, well, the county committee rubber stamps whatever you want. Well, maybe that’s because I go out and recruit good candidates.”
That’s the more egotistical rationalization, but it ignores the fact that the county committee is largely made up of people who have traded their political loyalty to Ferriero for patronage jobs.
Ferriero may be corrupt, but people often overlook the fact that he’s a always stood up for the little guy – those without a voice in our political system. Until now. The former champion for the rights of the wealthy, political elite has abandoned their cause.

Now, a footnote to Joe Ferriero’s (long-forgotten) threat to challenge New Jersey’s landmark pay-to-play fund-raising restrictions in federal court. Last week, he formally abandoned any plans to file a lawsuit.
In a recent interview with The Record’s Mike Kelly, the Bergen County Democratic Organization chairman repeated his belief that pay-to-play restrictions are an intrusion on a donor’s First Amendment rights. But he has no intention of battling it out in court or recruiting a private citizen to do it.

“I’m not looking to have a [divided] political party” over the issue, he said.

Tragic.

>
The Fly would like to hear from anyone whose neighborhood was adversely affected by the high winds and rain this past weekend. Did anyone in those areas see our Village Manager, Mayor, or any member of the Village Council touring the impacted areas?

The voice of Police Sergeant David McDermott was heard repeatedly on 1010 WINS Radio and Police Captain Keith Killion was quoted in The Record. Did the Village Manager, Mayor, and Village Council leave the job of getting everything back up on line to Dave & Keith?

Please let us know if you saw any of the Village Council out and about.

Thanks.

>



Sorry folks we were out of commission for a couple of days

>
Despite her recently announced “lame duck” status, Councilwoman Kim Ringler-Shagin is still actively seeking sensible ways to address the Village’s downtown parking shortage. To that end, Ms. Shagin offered up an economical solution during Wednesday evening’s Village Council Work Session. Not a new solution, but a good one nonetheless.

Citing a proposal contained within a 2001-2002 parking study commissioned by Village officials, and one she’d observed during a recent visit to Summit, the two-term Councilwoman suggested the erection of signage directing visitors to municipal parking lots. Currently, no such signs exist anywhere in the Village.
The Fly wonders why Village officials never erected “Municipal Parking This Way” signs. Village Council members don’t seem the least bit hesitant to construct at 60 foot tall, $7 million plus parking facility, but won’t spend the money for a few signs?

What’s the story here Mayor Pfund?

>Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced today an aggressive campaign to combat drunk driving. Effective immediately, Molinelli will urge local police chiefs to conduct DWI checkpoints beginning this Spring. To assist them in these endeavors, Molinelli has committed as much as $200,000 of forfeited funds to pay police officer overtime incurred as a result of conducting these checkpoints. Forfeited funds are monies that are the proceeds of criminal activities that have been seized by law enforcement.

Historically, DWI checkpoints have proven to be an effective tool in combating the crisis that is drunk driving. DWI checkpoints serve two purposes. First, the unannounced and unexpected checkpoint conducted in an area where drunk drivers are believed to be, takes them off the road, punishes them and as such, saves lives. Secondly, the existence of these DWI checkpoints raises the community’s awareness of the perils of drunk driving and of law enforcement efforts to prevent terrible tragedies.

According to the statistics published by the Bergen County Office of Highway Safety, there has been a steady increase in DWI fatalities since 2005. In 2005, DWI fatalities accounted for 16% of the total fatalities within the county. In 2006, 17% of all fatalities were alcohol related and in 2007 that number skyrocketed to 24%.

>Police Captain Keith Killion and Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser last night revealed their jointly devised plan to control speeding automobile traffic on South Broad Street.

The duo recommended that a double yellow line be painted from the Glen Rock border north to East Ridgewood Avenue. The double yellow line strategy has been used successfully before in the Village, most notably along Overbrook Road.

Rutishauser advised Village Council members that since South Broad Street continued into another municipality (Glen Rock), NJDOT regulations would prohibit the construction of speed humps in the affected area. A speed hump is currently deployed in front of the Somerville School.

Citing concerns over possible noise issues in a residential neighborhood, Mayor David Pfund flatly rejected a proposal made by Councilman Jacques Harlow to install “rumble strips” along the route.

Killion, who owns residential property on South Broad Street, and Rutishauser expect that the double yellow line will be in place within 5-6 weeks.

>It is rumored that Councilman Jacques Harlow has been distributing his election nomination petitions to Village employees, at Village Hall, and during normal working hours.

The Fly received telephoned reports from several Village employees who indicated that they felt “intimidated” by Harlow, and signed the petitions fearing reprisal if they didn’t. Most told The Fly that Harlow is “our boss’ boss; what was I going to do?”

The Fly suggests that Harlow now be banned from Village Hall until the election is over. What do you think?

>
During last night’s Village Council Work Session, Mayor David Pfund, Councilman Jacques Harlow, and Councilwoman Kim Ringler-Shagin each expressed their personal dissatisfaction with a request by Ridgewood Parks and Recreation Director Timothy Cronin to allocate $129K in capital funds for a “Habernickel Park Development Plan.”

Deputy Mayor Betty G. Wiest was the only member of Council to defend Cronin’s request. Councilman Patrick Mancuso offered no opinion on the issue.

Pfund, Ringler-Shagin, and Harlow all publicly chastised Cronin each saying that “enough was enough” with respect to the continued engagement of expensive consultants in connection with developing plans to transform Habernickel into multi-use recreational facility.

Further discussion of Cronin’s request is scheduled to take place at a future Council Work Session.

>Education Panel
Lays Out Truce
In Math Wars
Effort to Fix ‘Broken’ System
Sets Targets for Each Grade,
Avoids Taking Sides on Method

By JOHN HECHINGER
March 5, 2008; Page D1

A presidential panel, warning that a “broken” system of mathematics education threatens U.S. pre-eminence, says it has found the fix: A laserlike focus on the essentials.

The National Mathematics Advisory Panel, appointed by President Bush in 2006, is expected to urge the nation’s teachers to promote “quick and effortless” recall of arithmetic facts in early grades, mastery of fractions in middle school, and rigorous algebra courses in high school or even earlier. Targeting such key elements of math would mark a sharp departure from the diverse priorities that now govern teaching of the subject in U.S. public schools.

FORUM

1

How does the quality of math education in schools today compare to when you were in school? Discuss2

The panel took up its work amid widespread alarm at the sorry state of math achievement in America. In the most recent testing by the Program for International Student Assessment, released late last year, U.S. 15-year-olds achieved sub-par results among developed nations in math literacy and problem-solving, behind such countries as Finland, South Korea and the Netherlands.

“Without substantial and sustained changes to the educational system, the United States will relinquish its leadership in the twenty-first century,” reads a draft of the final report, due to be released next week by the Department of Education.

MATH ESSENTIALS

The National Mathematics Advisory Panel is expected to call for the following “critical foundations” or benchmarks for U.S. school children.

Fluency with whole numbers:

1. By the end of grade three, students should be proficient with the addition and subtraction of whole numbers.

2. By the end of grade five, students should be proficient with multiplication and division of whole numbers.

Fluency with fractions:

1. By the end of grade four, students should be able to identify and represent fractions and decimals, and compare them on a number line or with other common representations of fractions and decimals.

2. By the end of grade five, students should be proficient with comparing fractions and decimals and common percents, and with the addition and subtraction of fractions and decimals.

3. By the end of grade six, students should be proficient with multiplication and division of fractions and decimals.

4. By the end of grade six, students should be proficient with all operations involving positive and negative integers.

5. By the end of grade seven, students should be proficient with all operations involving positive and negative fractions.

6. By the end of grade seven, students should be able to solve problems involving percent, ratio and rate and extend this work to proportionality.

Geometry and measurement:

1. By the end of grade five, students should be able to solve problems involving perimeter and area of triangles and all quadrilaterals having at least one pair of parallel sides (i.e. trapezoids).

2. By the end of grade six, students should be able to analyze the properties of two dimensional shapes and solve problems involving perimeter and area, and analyze the properties of three-dimensional shapes and solve problems involving surface area and volume.

3. By the end of grade seven, students should be familiar with the relationship between similar triangles and the concept of the slope of a line.

Source: Draft of National Mathematics Advisory Panel final report

Unlike most countries that outperform the U.S., America leaves education decisions largely to state and local governments and has no national curriculum. School boards and state education departments across the country are likely to pore over the math panel’s findings and adjust their teaching to make sure it aligns with the nation’s best thinking on math instruction. The federal government could also use the report to launch a national program in math instruction, as the government did for literacy after findings from a similar advisory panel on reading in 2000.

The math panel’s draft report comes amid the so-called math wars raging in the nation’s public classrooms. For two decades, advocates of what has come to be known as “reform math” have promoted conceptual understanding over drilling in, say, multiplication and division. For example, to solve a basic division problem, 150 divided by 50, students might cross off groups of circles to “discover” that the answer was three. Some parents and mathematicians have complained about “fuzzy math,” and public school systems have encountered a growing backlash.

The advisory panel’s 19 members include eminent mathematicians and educators representing both sides of the math wars. The draft of the final report declines to take sides, saying the group agreed only on the content that students must master, not the best way to teach it.

The group said it could find no “high-quality” research backing either traditional or reform math instruction. The draft report calls a rigid adherence to either method “misguided” and says understanding, which is the priority of reform teachers, and computation skills, emphasized by traditionalists, are “mutually supported.”

Larry Faulkner, the panel’s chairman and president of the Houston Endowment, a philanthropic foundation, said in an interview that the group had “internal battles” but decided “it’s time to cool the passions along that divide.” The panel held 12 meetings around the country, reviewed 16,000 research publications and public-policy reports and heard testimony from 110 individuals.

The advisory group also doesn’t take a position on calculator use in early grades, a contentious issue among educators and parents. The draft says the panel reviewed 11 studies that found “limited to no impact of calculators on calculation skills, problem-solving or conceptual development.” But the panel, noting that almost all the studies were more than 20 years old and otherwise limited, recommended more research on whether calculators undermine “fluency in computation.”

Still, the draft report says calculators shouldn’t be used on tests used to assess computation skills. Some states allow disabled children to use calculators on tests of arithmetic.

The draft report urges educators to focus on “critical” topics, as is common in higher-performing countries. The panel’s draft report says students should be proficient with the addition and subtraction of whole numbers by the end of third grade and with multiplication and division by the end of fifth. In terms of geometry, children by the end of sixth grade should be able to solve problems involving perimeter, area and volume.

Students should begin working with fractions in fourth grade and, by the end of seventh, be able to solve problems involving percent, ratio and rate. “Difficulty with fractions [including decimals and percents] is pervasive and is a major obstacle to further progress in mathematics, including algebra,” the draft report says.

These benchmarks mirror closely a September 2006 report by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which many viewed as a turning point in the math wars because it recognized the importance of teaching the basics after the group for years had placed more emphasis on conceptual understanding.

Francis Fennell, president of the math teachers group and a panel member, said the group’s specific recommendations could help parents determine whether their kids are on the right track.

The draft report recommends a revamp of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a widely followed test administered by the Education Department, to emphasize material needed for the mastery of algebra, especially fractions. The draft calls for similar changes to the state tests children must take under the federal No Child Left Behind Law.

The document urges publishers to shorten elementary and middle-school math textbooks that currently can run on for 700 to 1,000 pages and cover a dizzying array of topics. Publishers say textbooks often must cover a patchwork of state standards.

Write to John Hechinger at [email protected]