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It will take teamwork to reverse the trend of dismal high school math test scores.

And that is precisely what’s happening at Perham High School, where math teacher Jeff Morris and agri-science-FFA instructor Carl Aakre are team-teaching applied and technical math.

“What we’re doing here in Perham appears to be unique...we don’t know of any schools that are doing it this way,” said Morris at the Dec. 13.

Grumpy Perham-Dent school board members, still grumbling about poor high school showing in recent statewide test scores, were uplifted by the Morris-Aakre presentation.

“Your enthusiasm is awesome,” said Board member Bridgit Pankonin, thrilled that Perham High School may be well positioned to turn around the slumping math scores.

Only 32 percent of high school students statewide scored “proficient” in math. That means 68 percent were deficient. Perham followed the state trend identically--with 32 percent of its 11th graders testing proficient in math. It should be noted that the 2005 test was substantially more challenging than the previous year--which drove down scores across the state.

“The biggest problem is reaching the 30 to 40 percent of students who just don’t get excited about math,” said Morris.

These teachers must be on the right track, because they are not only starting to draw in “non-math geeks,” but Morris and Aakre managed to get a grim-faced school board enthused and smiling about math.

“Technical math is really a needed skill...the more our students are able to apply math in a practical way, the more it will help them succeed,” said board member Dave Schornack.

Math Concepts are being applied and integrated into Aakre’s ag science classes--including math applications to nutrition, wildlife populations, statistics and demographics.

“For kids to understand, it helps to place math in a real world ...career context,” said Aakre.

Math is being incorporated across disciplines, and in many fields--such as reading topographical maps; understanding the physics as it relates to vehicles and gas mileage; and solving math problems in the building trades.

The block schedule, with its longer class periods, has been an asset to the technical math instruction.

School board members have been, ingeneral, “impatient” with the progress on the math front. Perham-Dent students have tested well above average on the statewide reading tests. But with math, Perham and 300 or more other schools across the state have been slow to improve.

It’s important to remember that reading comprehension will be an important component in reversing the slide in math scores, noted High School Principal John Rutten.

“Forty percent of the problems students have with math is that they don’t understand the question that is being asked,” added Rutten.

To improve math skills long range, “We’re eventually going to need required algebra in 8th grade,” said Morris.

In discussing strategy for the “math war,” Rutten took it even another step--suggesting that there needs to be a “year-round emphasis on math” starting in kindergarten. Further, high schools may need to consider four years of math, said Rutten, rather than just one or two.

Meanwhile, at the middle school level, Principal Kitty Krueger was proud to report that scores at the Prairie Wind middle school were 79 percent proficient--well above the state average. She also noted that every teacher in the building is teaching accelerated math to the 6-8 grade students.

“The world is getting more complicated,” said board member Schornack.

It looks like the American high school student’s world is about to get more complicated, too, as public education raises expectations in math performance.

http://www.perhameb.com/articles/index.cfm?id=6382&section=News