When math students are taught only to memorize rules, they often don't retain what they learn, she adds. If you have the basic conceptual understanding, you can always reconstruct the rule. If you only learn the rule and you forget it, you can't reconstruct the meaning. Spurred by standards adopted in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, many states now require algebraic and geometric concepts to be taught in elementary school. The ITBS has reduced the number of basic computation problems in favor of those that require more analysis, such as equations.
Teachers are ill-prepared to teach the more demanding content, experts say.
They don't want to touch it. In Chicago, only 448 elementary teachers have an endorsement in math, fewer than one per school. The lack of expertise has an impact on student achievement, many principals believe. At Tilton Elementary on the West Side, for example, only 14 percent of students scored at grade level on the ITBS in 1998. The school does not have a single teacher endorsed in mathematics.