Stanford Professor Milgram on Investigations: Dangerous

Stanford professor Jim Milgram, in response to a parent in the Orchard, NJ, area says, “...don’t make the mistake of thinking that curricula like Investigations are harmless. They are extremely dangerous.” He continues to add that “What we’ve seen is that sometimes, though it is very rare, parental pressure has resulted in change. But what we’ve never seen is instant change. Usually, change takes so long that the original students are through the system by the time the curriculum is gone.”

Here’s the full response:

In the case of the direct question in the letter – yes, Investigations is generally thought to be the #2 curriculum in the country. The last data I saw reported was that Everyday Math is being used by 19% of the students in the country and Investigations (TERC) was used by 6%.

However, this is no argument. International TIMSS and PISA data has shown no improvement in the dismal showing of U.S. students over the last 15 years. In fact, it appears that U.S. achievement in mathematics is continuing to decline relative to international expectations.

A common educationist response to this decline is to say “These programs are new. Give us time.” This is nonsense. Both of these programs are about 20 years old. Both were heavily in California in the early 1990’s and both were key contributors to the remarkable decline in outcomes in California that led directly to the math wars.

Investigations thought very hard about applying for approval in California in 1999, 2000, and 2007, but I think after an initial rejection in 1999, they realized that this program was simply not rigorous enough and didn’t apply again.

Everyday Math did apply all three years, and was entirely rejected in 1999, initially approved in K-3, but not 4-6 in 2000, but then rejected, and initially approved for most grades in 2007, but with reservations in all grades.

I would suggest that if California, the state with the largest high tech economy in the country, does not allow state money to be used by schools to buy Investigations, this should be a clear message to other states.

As to the implied question – “What do parents do in this situation?” – that’s trickier. What we’ve seen is that sometimes, though it is very rare, parental pressure has resulted in change. But what we’ve never seen is instant change. Usually, change takes so long that the original students are through the system by the time the curriculum is gone.

And don’t make the mistake of thinking that curricula like Investigations are harmless. They are extremely dangerous.

Students virtually never come out of these programs with any interest in or capacity for math or math related areas.

I believe it is students from these curricula and curricula like them, that make up the bulk of the huge number of college students who have to take remedial mathematics in college. (Once this happens, college students have virtually no chance of ever majoring in any of the technical areas such as the hard sciences, economics, mathematics, or engineering. )

I would suggest that the best way to think of these programs is as training for jobs at Target or MacDonald’s. For example, we simply do not see students coming from this background in any advanced mathematics classes at Stanford.

What can parents do in this situation?

The first and most crucial thing is to make sure your kids are not in these classes even if it means taking them out of the school. Sometimes, schools will let you make special arrangements to just take them out of the math classes, but sometimes you may have to consider moving them into private schools, or home schooling.

Many parents have had LIMITED positive results with after school programs like Kumon and private tutoring. However, unless the kids are strongly urged not to participate at all in their Investigations math classes, there will be residual damage. These curricula are that bad.

So my advice, these days, is take care of your own children first and foremost. After that, if you still have energy, by all means try to get the district to see reason. But don’t let it consume you.

Jim Milgram
Feel free to quote from this message or send it on in its entirety.

Shared with permission of the Professor James Milgram, Stanford University. Originally posted on NYCMATHFORUM, a national discussion list sponsored by NYC HOLD : Honest Open Logical Decisions on Mathematics Education Reform – a national coalition of parents, educators, mathematicians and scientists, and concerned citizens working to improve mathematics education in our nation’s schools.