If the district concludes that teachers have a difficult time delivering high level rigorous mathematical content, we advise the district to investigate the use of “math specialist”/compartmentalized mathematics teachers, such as what is done in middle and high school (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). The district may need to investigate the feasibility of such compartmentalization across all grade levels.We haven't moved to a math specialist model everywhere, but for various reasons more and more teachers are finding that they aren't "the math teacher" for their students. It is a valid and natural question to ask why those teachers still need to attend "math PD."
To address this question, let's begin by considering how we think about the responsibility for literacy. Following numerous studies that demonstrated the positive effect that literacy training for all teachers had on overall student literacy across the disciplines, we have understood for quite a while that we have a shared responsibility for developing literacy in children. The Common Core's focus on reading, writing, listening and speaking across the curriculum emphasizes this point.
About 5 years, ago we had a literacy across the curriculum initiative at U-32. Initially, we may have been a bit skeptical about how worthwhile it would be for math teachers. However, the literacy gurus looked at all of the reading our middle school students did and found that our math program texts were by far the most complex reading that our students encountered. And none of the math teachers had any experience teaching literacy!
Similarly, numeracy is a shared responsibility. Just as texts are everywhere, numbers and problems are everywhere, and we need to take every opportunity to expose our students to quantitative problem solving and number sense. Being a math teacher who knows how to read did not prepare me with the skills I needed to help my math students develop their literacy. Likewise, being able to "do math" doesn't prepare music, reading or French teachers how to teach for numeracy.
We have embraced our shared responsibility for literacy, and we are incredibly effective at helping our struggling students become proficient. In math, we see that fewer students are attaining proficiency as students get older. We have a significant percent of our population who are effectively shut out of higher education opportunities because of their lack of skills in mathematics.
If we are going to address this issue, we need to develop an "all hands on deck" mindset around math, just as we have around literacy.
Here are a few resources you might like:
- Numeracy: the New Literacy for a Data-Drenched Society
- You're Not in Math Class Anymore
- Math Across the Curriculum
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