Math in the News
Math Scores Rise When Teachers Get Wise
December 18, 2008
Curriculum be damned! A comprehensive research review suggests that when teachers' capabilities increase, students' math scores improve. Instruction—not textbooks or technology—contribute most to raising test scores.
"The debate about mathematics reform has focused primarily on curriculum, not on professional development or instruction," observed Robert Slavin, from the Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University. "Yet the research review suggests that in terms of outcomes on math assessments, curriculum differences are less consequential than instructional differences."
Slavin and Cynthia Lake scrutinized dozens of experimental studies that had evaluated, compared, and contrasted the effectiveness of textbooks, computer-assisted instruction, and teachers' professional development in improving mathematics skills at the grade-school level. Top-notch human instruction, backed by continual professional improvement, they found, was the key ingredient to raising math scores. The varying elements could, moreover, be combined to raise scores even further.
The results appeared in the article "Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Best-Evidence Synthesis" in the September issue of the quarterly journal Review of Educational Research, published by the American Educational Research Association.
Source: Johns Hopkins University, Dec. 4, 2008.