School officials urge patience in regards to new curriculum
When Telesia Batte’s middle child was diagnosed with a learning disability, she chose to move her from the parochial school she loved to a St. Charles Parish public school where greater resources were available to help her. What she did not expect was for her daughter to suffer a sharp drop in math grades.
“She did great on the other system before,” Batte said. “It was like night and day.”
Implemented this year, the curriculum that’s causing consternation within St. Charles Parish schools is called Eureka, and it was selected by a committee of teachers, parents and administrators as a way of meeting the stringent standards set for St. Charles Parish by the state.
The St. Tammany Parish School Board recently voted to seek an alternative to the Eureka curriculum because parents and students had issues with the many steps that had to be taken under the new system to solve a simple math problem.
St. Charles Parish Public Schools Superintendent Felecia Gomez-Walker emphasized that the district has a long history of working with parents, and that every school has set up multiple informational sessions in the evenings to help parents better understand the new math.
“Whenever we hear concerns from parents, we work with those parents to resolve those concerns.” Gomez-Walker said.
Gomez-Walker worries that some of the backlash to Eureka might be fueled by outside groups broadly attached to those that are against Common Core as a whole.
Common Core was recently adopted by schools in Louisiana and encompasses math, English and writing curriculum. Many people see it as a federal intrusion into local education.Most of the comments received in response to a Herald-Guide Facebook posting about Eureka were against using the curriculum in St. Charles Parish Public Schools.
“I see so many kids struggling and losing self esteem because they went from making good grades to now being in tutoring at school and private tutoring after school just to barely make it by,” Betty Morales, of Destrehan, said.
Jacque DeLoach, of Luling, agreed, saying that Eureka Math has lowered her daughter’s self confidence.
“She is completely burned out, giving up and doesn’t think she would be college material so isn’t even trying to work towards that,” she said. “What a shame, she’s only in eighth grade.”
Many other parents felt helpless because they have difficulty showing their children how to complete Eureka Math homework.
“When you have to watch a video of how to help your second grader with homework, it’s clear the methods being taught are far-fetched,” Megan Werve said.
Cathy Torres agreed.
“There seems to be no help for kids who are struggling, and parents are left to try explain things – and without even a textbook for guidance,” she said. “How ridiculous is it that we have to look for YouTube videos to figure out how to work a problem?”
One commenter, Holly Cheramie, an instructor at Fletcher Community College, referred to the standards as “garbage.”
“This is not the way to make lifelong learners,” Cheramie wrote.
However, Rachel Allemand, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment, said that much of understanding Eureka Math homework comes down to terminology.
“Often, once parents hear an explanation they go ‘oh, is that all that it was?’” she said.
Melinda Bernard, St. Charles Parish School Board member and chairperson of the curriculum, assessment and instruction committee, said she hopes parents can at least allow the school to see the curriculum through the year.
“I know for a lot of parents that has caused some consternation, because it doesn’t seem to make sense that you have to go through six different steps to be able to add a double-digit number,” Bernard said.
Bernard, who retired as an educator in 2005, said the early challenges with this curriculum related to teachers’ familiarity with the new process. Bernard, who said she visits different schools periodically throughout the year, said teachers had become more comfortable with Eureka by the middle of the second quarter.
“They’re finding out that the children are understanding the basic components of math a little better,” Bernard said. “It’s caused them to re-think what they know about math instruction.”
Rebecca Case said the new math curriculum is working for her son.
“The first nine weeks he got a 95 and currently has a 92,” she said. “Eureka Math is teaching kids to apply their own way of thinking to solve problems.”
Crystal Cantrelle has also noticed that Eureka Math has improved her son’s fluency in the subject.
“He has numerous ways to use to figure out simple math,” she said.
According to Bernard, part of the push for Eureka came from teachers who had too few tools to teach Common Core math. Eureka, developed by Common Core Inc., comes pre-loaded with the materials needed to teach math up to the Common Core standards.
According to Gomez-Walker, it is one of the few curricula certified at the highest level through an independent evaluation by the Louisiana Department of Education.
“In addition to teaching and their own assessments, [teachers] were having to go find the materials to teach,” Bernard said. “We sought out a series that had a large number of resources.”
Allemand urged parents to have patience with Eureka.
“Change is never easy,” Allemand said. “What we’re asking is that people are patient and that they make a real effort to understand what Eureka Math is trying to achieve.”
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