The Sad State of Math in Washington State

Photo credit: Washington Learns Final Report: World-Class, Learner Focused, Seamless Education

The Sad State of Math in Washington State
Washington state is featured in a November article in New York Times as a state where school students fail math. While math has become an increasingly important skill for jobs in Washington, some of the statistics cited in the article or from other state resources are quite distressing.

• 40 percent of community and technical college students need remedial math classes.
• Only 51 percent of 10th graders passed the math part of WASL, the state assessment tests.
• The achievement gap between minority and low-income students and their white and/or more affluent peers remains wide in math.
• Parents are losing faith in school math programs. For example, an estimated 10 percent of the 1,400 students at the Mercer Island School District, an affluent suburb of Seattle, are getting outside private math tutoring.

Politicians, educators and business leaders in the state are convening and making proposals, trying to confront the “math problem.” The solutions need to work for ALL students. Below are some of the proposed ideas:

• Better teacher training and recruitment
• Extra support for students
• A math curriculum that better matches up with state math standards and international standards
• A statewide math curriculum (no more than three math curriculum options)
• More years of math required for high school graduation (increase the current two years minimum to three or four years)
• More rigorous math courses
• A “back to basics” math curriculum with a focus on procedural skills vs. “reform” math with a focus on conceptual understanding
• A balance of both basics and reform math
• More funding for math programs

What will work? Share your thought.

Jennifer Wu
North Seattle Community College

Learn More:

• Washington Learns is created and led by Governor Gregoire to review Washington state's entire education system from early learning to higher education and seek bold, innovative ways to improve it. The Washington Learns committee has released its final report on Nov. 16. One of the five major initiatives is “improving math and science teaching so that our citizens have a competitive edge.”
• The Transition Mathematics Project (TMP) is a collaborative statewide venture involving educators from K-12 schools, community and technical colleges, and baccalaureate institutions to help students successfully progress from high school math to college-level math and avoid remediation upon enrolling in college. The project has received funding from the Gates Foundation and the State Legislature.
• Blankinship, Donna Gordon. "Board of Education Votes for WASL Math Alternative." Seattle Times. Online edition. Nov. 28, 2006. Governor Gregoire and the state Board of Education want to give schools three more years to learn to teach math before making the math WASL as a graduation requirement.
• Lewin, Tamar. “As Math Scores Lag, a New Push for the Basics.” New York Times, Late Edition. November 14, 2006. pg. A.1