Frame around article about federal funding for MOVE IT Math

international marketplace and must be able to compete effectively. Now U.S. students can’t. Today, 50 percent of the Japanese children compare favorably with our top 5 percent.”

Shoecraft believes the Modality Math concept is the answer to the U.S. problem.

Shoecraft believes there is too much repetition in the education system today and that U.S. students are not being given the opportunity to learn more math. He said 70 percent of the Grade 2 textbooks are devoted to what was already covered in Grade 1.

Port O’Connor students were tested last year with a Woodcock Johnson Norm Test to discover the impact of the Modality Math program. In first grade the average grade was 3.3 (B) and the lowest score 2.1 (C). In kindergarten the average grade was 3.0 and the lowest grade 2.2

Sixth grade students were tested through the California Achievement Test and the average sixth grade student was on 8.4 grade level in math knowledge. The highest level was 11.4....

The Wave, Port Lavaca, Texas, April 11, 1993

POC Demonstrates Math Program

Charlyn Finn

Wave Staff Writer

Some Port O’Connor Elementary School students demonstrated Tuesday night the Modality Math [MOVE IT Math] Program piloted by the school last year before members of the Calhoun County Independent School District board of trustees.

The same program on Oct. 25 will be inspected by the National Science Foundation and the program may be set up as a national training program to educate other teachers.

The first and second graders assisted by their sixth grade buddies demonstrated how very young students are capable of learning algebra. Plus, the students obviously loved learning the math that usually is withheld from students until high school.

The students demonstrated the balance beam: The learner solves an unknown number in an algebraic equation using a math balance beam. ...

Apparently, the Port O’Connor students think Monster Math is fun math. The first and second graders actually added seven 8-digit numbers using the Hutching’s Algorithm and checked their answers in the millions with calculators.

Finally, the students Robbed The Bank. They drew cards and made numbers on the cards with Base-10 blocks. A second card was drawn and that number was subtracted from the first, again with Base-10 blocks.

Paul Shoecraft, Ph.D., of the University of Houston, introduced the program to Port O’Connor at the invitation of Principal Marilyn Bratcher. Shoecraft told the CCISD board members Tuesday night that in 1986 United States eighth graders compared last in math to students around the world. “This is truly a nation at risk,” he stated. “Children today will live in an xxx

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