Buy "Steve's Algebra Pill"

Faster, Cheaper, More Effective!

If I were to start over in business in 2008, I would announce and sell “Steve’s Algebra Pill”—a simple remedy that, if taken daily, would ensure success on a standardized test and miraculously move a child from below basic to proficient on anyone’s assessment—guaranteed.  After all, that’s what our country wants.  And, amazingly, it seems many inside and outside the education community are ready to buy—if only we can deliver the exact formula combining standards, assessments, and curriculum. States refer to the magic mix as “alignment,” (as in “the planets are perfectly aligned”) and sincerely believe that it alone will magically trigger student success.  I think I’ll target governors as my first customers.
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Elsewhere in this blog (see my Taxi Diaries), I discuss my observations over 25 years working in Asia on mathematics education.  I’ve visited many countries that we, in the United States, perceive to have already discovered the magical cure. I’ve talked to and worked with colleagues at all levels in those countries—from teachers to ministers of education.  I’ve looked at standards (uninspiring for the most part), curriculum (ranges from very good to boring and archaic), and assessments (dominated by the all-important college entrance exam that mediates the scarce resource of a college education).  I’ve visited classrooms and talked with students.  I’ve visited universities.  All the while looking for the magic formula that I could import and sell here in the U.S.

To my dismay, I’ve come to a simple conclusion about legendary mathematical miracle cures thought to exist Asia.  There is no magic formula there.  1.  Most Asian countries invest vastly more resources in education (relative to their economies) than we do in the U.S.  They support and fund education at levels that allow student and teacher success.  And guess what—it pays off. 2. When faced with the enormous pressure to accomplish in order to get into the university, kids will work hard—and families will support and urge their kids to work hard, sacrificing a lot, to help them succeed.

Unfortunately, this simple truth won’t help me make money.  Adequate funding of education is too tough a proposition to sell.  And I don't think we're going to accept a driving principle that only 5, 10, or 20 percent of our children are going to go to college.  Better to keep my mouth shut and go with the Algebra Pill.

If selling my Algebra Pill doesn’t work, I think I’ll try: “Tax Shelters for the Rich: Invest in the Booming Mathematics Failure Industry, Make Millions, and Help the U.S. Economy Out of Recession.”

Want to invest?

Comments

[David Kapolka]

OK, I'm convinced! Where do I invest?

So I'm the first person to post a comment to this blog. I hope a few more folks do the same.
I appreciate your frankness, honesty, wry humor, and "spot on" opinion in your writing and presentations.
Is it time yet to write that book I know you have rattling around in your head? I know a good publisher.

[MariaD]

Is it a lei on your picture? Nice to see your blog, Steve!

There ARE some shortcuts out there that people discovered. Occasionally, I find it amusing to put them together in collections, such as "Multiplication Tables in Three Days" going around the Russian nets. The tricky part is to find those that work.

As for algebra, a few working "magic pills" do come to mind.
- Start at toddlerhood in qualitative, metaphoric, image-based ways (everybody knows "function machines" - there are more metaphors like that)
- Stress multiplicative reasoning early on, preferably as the kid's learning the idea of quantity at 2-5, and at least as early as additive reasoning
- Use multiple models for every notion, for example, splitting, fractals, number lines, grids and so on for multiplicative reasoning
- Don't spend much time on computational fluency till cognitive readiness (10-13yo typically, but it varies too wildly to give numbers), and then do obtain that fluency
- Study algebra in the larger math contexts of calculus, geometry and beyond
- ...
- Profit

Thank you for an interesting article, and looking forward to more!