North Carolina needs to overhaul math instruction, superintendent tells lawmakers
North Carolina Superintendent Catherine Truitt told state lawmakers Monday she wants to make big changes to how students are taught math.
Truitt told the House Select Committee on Education Reform that she needs their help doing it.
While the Department of Public Instruction can review math standards and make recommendations to schools, legislation can more formally dictate — and fund — certain efforts.
Testing data shows that students perform worse in math as they get older. By the time they get to ninth grade, less than half of students are proficient in math.
North Carolina students can and should do better in math, Truitt said. Her department is using the phrase “all kids are math kids” to guide them as they review standards.
Truitt cited the work she, lawmakers and other educators have done to overhaul reading instruction to use more science-based methods of instruction and to teach those methods to current and prospective teachers. The efforts are seeing early gains in kindergarten through third grade reading that are also coinciding with increased tutoring and intervention in reading.
“We need to do the same thing with math,” Truitt said.
Truitt’s plan would include more intervention for students outside of their regular math class. Parents would also be kept in the loop more often on their children’s struggles in math, using written communication.
Teachers and teaching coaches would receive more training.
All kindergarten through eighth grade students would receive at least 60 minutes of math at their grade level everyday, if they aren’t already. That would mean they can’t receive just 60 minutes of partial or only remedial math. Any remedial work would have to be on top of the 60 minutes of grade-level math instruction.
A few lawmakers commended the plan, presented by Truitt and Michael Maher, deputy state superintendent at the Department of Public Instruction. They especially emphasized increasing parental involvement, which Maher said was key for more than just math but also for helping parents keep their children engaged in school and attending it regularly.
They also said some changes in math instruction in recent years can make it harder for some parents to help their children, if they don’t understand the changes.
Rep. Brian Biggs, R-Randolph, said training is a critical component of improving instruction, based on feedback he’s received from principals.
“It is so important,” Biggs said. “We’ve got to keep embracing, fostering it.”
Maher noted ongoing math teacher shortages statewide and said that, especially in rural areas, many math teachers aren’t trained educators. They are people who have shifted into the profession from other careers.
“It’s one thing to know a subject. It’s another thing to teach it,” Maher said.
