High School Graduates Can do Math

     As an educator I said it myself and now as an administrator I have heard it weekly from instructors who report to me, graduates of grade twelve simply can not preform math. The number one complaint from instructors in any area of post secondary education is the lack of basic math skills. On this issue we have heard many weigh in expressing their concern. In fact to help improve this situation, many jurisdictions have shifted back to what they consider a more traditional math for grade school. Some have standardized testing to measure numeracy (as well as academic performance in other areas) to ensure that graduates of the school system can in fact perform basic math at the required level. The results indicate that the graduates can do math yet the problems still remain and educators in the post secondary system remain stead fast that grade twelve graduates can not perform math at a basic level. The education system indicates that the graduates can while the higher education institutes claim that they can not. I think they are both correct.
      Recently I was made part of a working group on retention and completion rates for apprentices. We brought together a cross section of individuals that had ties to the apprenticeship system in Ontario to explore the issues and come up with some concrete resolutions to solve this huge problem. We spoke of many different issues but kept coming back to the same concept, apprentices failed trade school because they could not do basic math. The decision was made to run a "pre-week" of training that would be used to bring the basic level of apprentices up to a required standard of math that would help them be successful in trade school. The week also included other information and instruction on proper study habits as well as introducing the apprentices to the number of different services available. This additional week of trade school was given to a select number of apprentices in a particular trade so we would have a large enough sample size to prove our theory and have significant data for the results.We decided in order to get the best data possible we would give every apprentice the Essential Skills for Ontario Tradespeople (ESOT) test at the beginning and end of the training. While the week of additional training did make a difference and it will be expanded to other trades in the next year, that is not why I am writing this Blog.
       When we received the results of the first ESOT test the results showed that both the mean and average scores indicated that the group did actually have numeracy skills that were well into the range required to be successful as a trades person in Ontario. We assumed these results must be a fluke but when the results for the fallowing groups came in showing the exact same results, it must be true. The apprentices can actually do the math and at the level required to be successful in a trade. So the K-12 education system is correct, they do graduate with the required math. How can the educators in post secondary all be wrong and why do we have such a high failure rate in courses in which they are required to perform math?
        On critically reflecting on this I came to realize that I know and have known for sometime, what is actually wrong. They can all do the math, they simply can not apply the math, and I am sure that many high school math teachers would be shocked at just how bad it is. For example, if I ask my electrical students to simply multiply 24 by 5, they quickly tell me that the answer is 120, and most do it without a calculator. If I tell them that I have a 24 ohm resistor that has an ampmeter in series with reading 5 amps, what is the voltage drop across the resistor. The result of course is exactly the same, 24 times 5 equals 120 volts but they are unable to do this easily and that is after having been shown ohms law and all of the related formulas. They can do the simple math when presented as simple math, they can not apply that math with additional concepts.
        I wish I had a solution to the problem. My gut tells me that the education system has actually done many things to improve. For some reason we have gone away from the ability to take that math and apply it. Some might think that the use of the calculator is the issue and want to transition back to a time when it was not used so heavily but I do not think that will help. In today's society, a calculator is at everyone's finger tips so why not in grade school? It could be the result of less play or the type. This might be the place in which math teachers of grade school could have a huge impact on their students by creating math that is play. I know that we speak about gamification but I do not think that it will work using a device. They need to take basic math skills and apply them away from the device to get the fulsome understanding of the concepts.  What ever the solution, I do know that we need to focus on applying math, they already can do it.

Jeff