Every school year around this time, we receive calls for help from parents with a very familiar story. It goes something like this: I’m hoping your program can help my child to do better on tests. She does fine on homework and understands the concepts, but she just doesn’t test well. While this can sometimes refer to a high school student, we most often hear this from parents of middle schoolers, especially kids in 5th and 6th grade. And much more often than not, the child’s difficulties are not actually about their testing abilities, per se. Instead, the tests they are taking are revealing – often for the first time – what the student actually knows and understands about the math they are encountering. We know this from our extensive work with hundreds of such students in the subsequent months and even years following the initial parent contact. Why do we observe this so often for students in these particular grade levels? It’s the result of one or more of the following factors:
1. Almost all grades or reports given in elementary school are based on student effort, participation, and assignment completion. While these are all worthy of recognition, they do not convey anything about what a child actually understands about the math they are encountering. Unfortunately, this often does no favors for parents, leading them in many cases to falsely assume all is well with their child’s math development.
2. There can be a significant discontinuity in math curriculum and focus as a student moves from elementary to middle school. This is most often seen when a child is moved to a school or school district with a more rigorous math program, but it can even occur within the same school. For example, the early grades may have emphasized learning/memorizing math facts and computation, while now suddenly the child is expected to use higher order thinking skills, applied to problem solving and analytical reasoning.
3. Math can sometimes be de-emphasized in elementary grades. While many primary grade teachers do an excellent job teaching kids math fundamentals, the truth is that elementary teachers have a great deal of control over what they allocate time to each day. They also will naturally exhibit enthusiasm for subjects they are truly passionate about. In my eperience, most teachers who have a love of math do not typically choose to teach in lower grade levels, instead targeting the middle or high school grades where they can focus on math. (This “selecting out” process of math teachers from elementary grades is one of the biggest reasons for Mathnasium’s existence.)
4. The effects of COVID persist. Sadly, no discussion of students’ difficulties in math can ignore the pandemic, even almost 5 years after it started. After all, the students we are talking about here were in kindergarten and first grade at that time, and the disruptive effects were keenly felt for at least the following two years. As research has clearly demonstrated, this had ripple effects on all academic development, but no subject more than math.
Of course there is legitimacy to the idea that some students struggle with test anxiety, or that students need to learn test-taking strategies. But odds are if you have a child in a similar situation, it’s something more fundamental: They simply have gaps in their math foundation, and their poor quiz and test performance is revealing this truth. The good news is, these assessments are doing what they are supposed to do – give you critical feedback that something is not as it should be. The sooner this is acknowledged and understood, the better the prognosis for your child!
As you probably already know, math is sequential and cumulative. Each new topic, skill, or concept builds on previous learning, and for a child to have real future success in math, no steps can be skipped. Thankfully, if we are able to identify important missing steps or building blocks around 5th or 6th grade, there is still time for a student to backtrack and truly learn these critical elements before they encounter the most critical subject of their math “careers”: algebra. Algebra 1, in particular, is the keystone course to success in future math courses as well as science courses such as chemistry, physics, and of course, computer and data science. Today it is most often taken in or around 8th grade.
Whether you choose to address your child’s foundational math deficits personally, through a private tutor, or with a proven supplemental education program like Mathnasium, don’t wait. In most cases, efforts to fill in these critical gaps are not “quick fixes”, since they have accumulated over several years or more. It will require a systematic and proactive approach over time to put the missing pieces back in place and help build your child’s confidence in their ability to understand and master math at higher levels. But the effort will be well worth it, and the tests will show it!
For more information about Mathnasium’s programs, contact the location in Rosemont or the location in Blue Bell.
Photos courtesy of Mathnasium. 