John Saxon Says Achievement Gap Can Close

By Nakonia (Niki) Hayes

17 May 2011

One immediate and positive move that would help close the mathematics “achievement gap” between minorities and white students—AND American students with those of other countries—is a school’s use of proven, traditional, and internationally-based curricula. The history of one man who fought for parents and schools to understand this is

found in an original biography titled John Saxon’s Story, a genius of common sense in math education.

Saxon was a math teacher, author, and publisher who had no patience with those who blamed teachers or students for poor math performances. He put the blame directly on the national math education leaders who began promoting unproven “reform” methods in the 1980s with weak and incoherent curricula materials. Teachers were trained in them; then they used those with children. Both were victims of incompetent leadership, he said.

A West Point graduate with three engineering degrees, Saxon retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1970 and began teaching algebra in a small Oklahoma junior college. He was stunned by his students’ weak math skills. He said the pattern of devastation on children due to the 1960’s theory-oriented “new math” was unforgivable.

He ended up writing and publishing a textbook in 1981 with traditionally-based lessons for his students. “Results matter!” he declared. And those are set up with good lessons that offer lots of review and mastery of basic content. He said students would work hard when taught with clarity and given honest grades for real achievement. There were evidently thousands nationwide who agreed with him since, at the time of his death in 1996, sales for his K-12 materials equaled $27 million that year. When his company was sold in 2004, the price was reportedly more than $100 million.

Saxon waged blistering battles over the leadership’s 1980’s claim that girls and minorities couldn’t learn like white males, for whom traditional books, they said, had been written. By 1989, the reform leaders had codified a new set of national math “standards” that they said would bring equity to girls and minorities in mathematics. Their hastily designed and unproven curricula materials were eagerly adopted by federal agencies, teacher-training programs, state offices, and school districts. (This eager adoption of unproven materials had also happened in the 1960’s.)

Their new lessons focused on personal “discovery” through “creative and critical thinking,” verbalization, group activities, and cooperative learning. Calculators were promoted, starting in kindergarten, so students would spend less time on boring drills.

“Process” would be their final product. Test results were seen as cold and mechanical measurements that didn’t reflect “real” learning.

This theory was to be contrasted to the “white male learning style” of “drill and kill” in mathematics: Linear and analytical thinking, mental computation, individual work, memorization, and paper-and-pencil exercises with accurate results as the goal.

Saxon slammed their ideas as racist and sexist. He challenged the premise that traditional math concepts and principles, which had been developed for 2,000 years by diverse cultures around the world and which formed one of only two internationally recognized languages (the other being music), could be written only for white males. He railed against the concept that “color pigment” of children’s skin affected their brains and academic performances and that soft grading was required to move them forward.

He further maintained that creativity could be encouraged but not taught. “Creativity springs unsolicited from a well-prepared mind,” he insisted. He fought bitterly against the use of calculators with students who hadn’t first mastered the basic facts of mathematics.

Today, with an average of 70 percent community college and up to 40 percent of four-year college students enrolling in remedial math courses, the “reformist” leaders still won’t take responsibility for the outcome of their decisions. Many of them, in fact, continue to be authors or consultants in their reform curriculum business, with million- dollar grants often at stake.

Teachers, their unions, and the need for federal “standards” and better assessments are pointed to as the problems. Rarely does anyone point to the math education leaders’ role and their sponsored curricula as major causes for America’s miserable math situation, including the continuing problem of “the achievement gap.”

More can be learned about John Saxon’s passionate war on how to turn around American math education athttp://saxonmathwarrior.com. The book, available also at Amazon.com, was written by Nakonia (Niki) Hayes, a retired math teacher and principal who lives in Waco. She is available as a guest speaker.

• < Prev
• Next >