Students NEED More Math!

 Math is hard! Even when you're good at it, if you keep learning more math, there comes a point when it's not easy. It takes work and effort and (gasp!!!) thinking. Because it's hard, a lot of kids give up. A lot of parents don't fight too hard when their kids give up because it was hard for them too. Eventually, most students reach a point where taking more math classes is no longer required. Many schools require every student to take an English class every year, but once a student earns four math credits, they don't have to take any more. At that point, why should students take more math? That's the question I want to answer here today.

Some do go on and earn five or more math credits. Most of these know their desired career field will require it. Some are pushed by their parents because their parents recognize the benefits of taking more math. A few, very few, have that exceedingly rare quality of enjoying a challenge. Sadly though, most who reach that qualifying state, choose not to take more math once they've met the minimum requirement.

I say sadly because the students who qualify to not take math every year are usually those most capable of taking more math. They're the kids who had the ability to take more than one math per year or started their math credits early, in the 8th grade. If it was just the kids who reached that point where math got really hard, that would be one thing. But it's not. More and more kids who could are opting out of math classes. Worse yet, many choose to take the easiest math course they can for that 4th credit so they won't have to take math their last year. This means they're getting nowhere near the exposure to advanced math they could get, even though they're more than capable. 

So, why do kids choose not to take more math.

I had a student tell me last week, "I don't need this!" She told me her parents never did this in high school so she didn't need it. I don't know if her parents ever studied what we were working on, but I do know I studied it in high school, and way beyond what we're working on too. The truth is a lot of parents weren't strong in math and might not remember exactly what they did and didn't study in school. They might not have learned it, but it was definitely in the curriculum. Maybe they weren't very strong in math and they didn't do well. Maybe they really disliked math and put it out of their minds once they got through it. Whatever happened, I can promise you I was learning this and more 40 years ago when I was in school, and I was teaching this and more 18 years ago when I started teaching. 

Some say this "new math" is stupid, pointless, [insert your choice of derogatory adjective here], etc. The math we're teaching today isn't new. Some of the teaching methods are new. Some of the new methods I like and use. Some I don't. But the reality is I was probably taught differently than my parents were taught too. Research in education has been conducted for a long time, and education reform efforts are not new. Most of those efforts involved changing tactics. By the time these kids have kids in school, they will likely be taught differently as well. 

Still others take the easy way out to boost their grade point average (GPA). Like I said earlier, math is hard. A lot of kids will make their first grade below an A in a math class. I used to argue with kids that colleges and employers would look past their GPA to see what courses they took, giving more weight to rigorous, challenging courses than to GPA. That may not be as true as it used to be. Since Covid, many universities have dropped minimum scores on college entrance exams for admission. 

So why should students take more math courses, even when it's not required?

First and foremost, teenage kids have no idea what they're going to need to know in the future. We all thought we knew everything when we were teenagers. I remember thinking my parents' ideas were archaic and ridiculous. Most of us look back as adults and wish we'd have given more weight to those same ideas. If we're truthful with ourselves, we will admit that we were way off on what we thought we needed to know and what we didn't. The kids today who think they know all they need to know will one day look back and say the same things. I still have kids tell me often they wish they'd have tried harder and taken more math courses in high school.

Again, we are not teaching "new math." We are teaching old math, sometimes in new ways. A lot of adults claim they never use what they learned in math classes. Believe me, I see the memes often that say, "Another day and I didn't use algebra again!" But if you ever had a problem of any kind you had to think through and solve, you're using what a math teacher was trying to teach you. We don't teach you so solve quadratic equations so you can plug numbers into the quadratic formula at your desk job when you're 40 years old. We teach you to solve quadratic euations  to teach you how to logically reason you're way through a problem. Any problem. All problems. Everyone needs to be a problem solver because everyone will face problems in life.

How about that GPA? Unless you're going to a college that's tough to get into, your GPA may not be as important as you think. It's important, but the difference in a 4.0 and 3.7 is likely not as significant as some claim. In fact, I'd argue that being academically prepared for college is a lot more important than a high GPA. According to the Arkansas School Report Cards from the 2021-2022 school year, of the 41.3% of Arkansas high school students who enrolled in college, 70.1% of them had to enroll in remedial courses. These are courses students must pay for that don't count towards a degree program. Remedial courses prepare them for courses that do count. This means that approximately 28% of Arkansas high school students are prepared for entry-level-for-credit college courses. LESS THAN A THIRD!

While I don't have data to show most of those are math classes, it's not a big leap to infer. The Arkansas School Report Cards from 2021-2022 showed only 26% of Arkansas students "ready or exceeding" in math according to state assessments, while almost 38% met the benchmarks in English-language arts. Even without explicit data showing most remedial courses required of entering college students are math courses, it should be obvious that more kids doing better in math would reduce the remediation rate. 

Graduation rates at Arkansas colleges are by and large abysmal. It would be difficult for anyone to claim more students taking more rigorous math classes in high school could help that. But math classes that teach kids to be good problem solvers aren't just for the college-bound. Plumbers, welders, truck drivers, secretaries, everyone--blue collar, white collar, no collar--needs to be a good problem solver. Everyone could benefit from taking more rigorous math courses.