WEBVTT 00:00:11.056 --> 00:00:15.486 I am Bonnie Grossen, Executive Director for the Center for Applied Research in Education, 00:00:15.796 --> 00:00:20.196 also known as CARE, and CARE is affiliated with the University of Oregon. 00:00:20.556 --> 00:00:23.956 One of the most serious problems that teachers of algebra have is 00:00:23.956 --> 00:00:26.256 that students come to them so ill-prepared. 00:00:26.686 --> 00:00:29.926 I have here a stack of papers from a small high school. 00:00:29.966 --> 00:00:32.926 All the tenth graders in the high school took this little test. 00:00:33.076 --> 00:00:39.416 Particularly on one question where they're asked to show the equivalence between a decimal, 00:00:39.416 --> 00:00:44.676 a fraction, and a percent, 90 percent of them are unable to do that task. 00:00:46.056 --> 00:00:51.936 For example 3.15, written as a decimal, this student writes as the equivalent 00:00:51.936 --> 00:00:55.646 of 3/15 as a fraction and equals 15 percent. 00:00:56.816 --> 00:01:04.906 And 7/100, written as a fraction, equals 7.100 as a decimal and equals 700 percent. 00:01:05.016 --> 00:01:10.456 So, total lack of understanding in the relationship between decimals, percents, 00:01:10.456 --> 00:01:14.976 and fractions for 90 percent of the students in this tenth grade class. 00:01:15.816 --> 00:01:21.946 The big question is how are we going to teach these students algebra and higher math 00:01:21.946 --> 00:01:25.226 and prepare them for the big wide world they are going into? 00:01:25.226 --> 00:01:30.736 I have observed a collision between what students come in prepared to be able to do 00:01:30.736 --> 00:01:34.716 and how high schools typically try to deal with the problem. 00:01:34.716 --> 00:01:42.776 For example, in California, the state requires that students leaving high school should have 00:01:42.886 --> 00:01:47.526 at least one year of algebra but most high schools have their students 00:01:47.526 --> 00:01:53.476 on a college preparatory track, which requires more higher math-algebra and geometry, 00:01:53.476 --> 00:01:59.166 I believe-and three years of passing those courses so that they are ready for college. 00:01:59.166 --> 00:02:03.286 And the high schools want to say that they are preparing their kids for college 00:02:03.286 --> 00:02:05.766 and that they have a curriculum that requires students 00:02:06.986 --> 00:02:10.776 to meet the requirements for the California colleges. 00:02:11.496 --> 00:02:16.476 But many of the students they get are not ready to take those courses. 00:02:17.556 --> 00:02:23.316 And so what I find often is that students will be carrying 20 pound books and going to courses 00:02:23.316 --> 00:02:29.226 that have fancy titles, and sometimes they will even be passing-getting a pass in those courses, 00:02:29.566 --> 00:02:31.356 and yet when they take a high school exit exam 00:02:31.356 --> 00:02:34.956 like California's High School Exit Exam, they can't pass that exam. 00:02:35.036 --> 00:02:40.276 We can't say well we need students to come into our school well prepared for algebra. 00:02:40.966 --> 00:02:44.176 If they come and they are not prepared, especially in huge numbers, we have to deal with that. 00:02:44.176 --> 00:02:49.376 And that's what many of these high schools are facing, especially in high-need communities. 00:02:50.056 --> 00:02:55.836 And so it's important to have that college track available for the students who are ready 00:02:55.836 --> 00:03:02.616 and able to work in those courses, but there also needs to be a program in place 00:03:02.616 --> 00:03:06.496 that will accommodate the needs of those math students 00:03:06.496 --> 00:03:08.976 who haven't mastered some of the basic fundamentals. 00:03:09.486 --> 00:03:13.036 And it is possible for them to learn an amazing amount in a year 00:03:13.036 --> 00:03:15.486 but there are certain requirements that have to be in place. 00:03:15.926 --> 00:03:20.326 Well over the last five years we have been looking at how to work with students 00:03:20.326 --> 00:03:25.036 that are missing some of these critical skills for algebra and how to catch them up, 00:03:25.036 --> 00:03:29.936 teach them the missing pre-skills, and begin them into algebra, 00:03:30.846 --> 00:03:33.736 work them toward being prepared for an authentic algebra course. 00:03:33.736 --> 00:03:38.186 When kids are so desperate, we can't just do it overnight. 00:03:38.186 --> 00:03:39.576 We do need time. 00:03:39.746 --> 00:03:44.766 But then the curriculum and the instruction has to be so well organized 00:03:44.766 --> 00:03:51.986 and efficient that we can teach them things like the relationship between fractions, decimals, 00:03:51.986 --> 00:03:57.876 and percents and, as we are working in those types of problems, 00:03:57.876 --> 00:04:03.036 have the unknown appear in different places-not always at the end after the equals sign-so 00:04:03.036 --> 00:04:08.466 that they are beginning to work with unknowns and getting some of the algebraic concepts.