It’s time to demystify math and help parents understand what their children are learning, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson said Friday during the Northwest Math Conference.

Bergeson spoke to more than 300 teachers and educators at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue for the annual conference that rotates among Oregon, British Columbia and Washington…

That buzz comes, in part, on the heels of a review of Washington’s standards for mathematics that found them sorely lacking, especially when it comes to the basics. The report echoed concerns expressed by parent groups such as “Where’s the Math?” which have criticized math curricula taught in local school districts, including Bellevue and Lake Washington…

“Math is the main thing on our radar screen,” Bergeson said. “We have to make a course correction.” And that means including more math basics, and making sure students know how to conceptualize math problems, as well as the basic algorithms and math facts to solve the equations.

The state and school districts also have to help parents understand what their children are learning in math, Bergeson said. Too often, children come home with math homework that parents don’t recognize because it doesn’t include standard algorithms for solving the problems.

“If parents can’t help their kids with their homework, we’re cooked,” Bergeson said. “We have to build bridges to parents. We use all of our education babble, we use words that … have deep meaning to us, but if a person doesn’t understand the context, they won’t have a clue what we are talking about.”

On Thursday evening, the conference invited a panel of executives from Microsoft, Intel and Boeing to discuss what kind of math qualifications job candidates need to be competitive in the workplace…

Source: Seattle Times, United States
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