= JOHN SAXON The voeons 1 farted sil and Axcan be seugh just a efecsve ly as any other learned sil Teaching 2 stl reuies patience and the rea tion that understanding of concepts 8 naa prerequisite ofthe initial develop tment of silly understanding ofen fol tows the ability to-do rather than pre oe Speaking « mother tongue is learned suit that ts mastered by the quick and the slow, by the ged and the nom fied, and by both local an og thinkers. People in any of thee cate pores can alo become blingsal Inthe froper environment, Ask ah elghtyear reakthrough In Algebra old child of a Vietnamese refugs question in cither Vietnamese or E lish, whichever you prefer wish, he will reply in Vietnamese to questions in English and in English to questions in Vietnamese. He has learned the skill of expressi facility in both languages. One never at- tempts to relate the fact of mastery of these languages to the intelligence of the child, or to confuse this mastery with a presumed mastery of logic by an cight-year-old. The child simply speaks two languages. Algebra is the basic language of all mathematics beyond arithmetic. Unless I it is your his thoughts with TEST NUMBER FIVE WORD PROBLEMS ABOUT NUMBERS If the sum of a number and -5 is multiplied by 2, the result is 13 less than the number. number? 24 of what number is What is the 3 Twice the opposite of a number is ‘increased by 16. greater than the number. ‘the number? 3 of 6} fs what umber? The result is 22 What is 1208 If the sum of a number and -2 is multiplied by 5, the result is 28 less than the opposite of the number. What is the number? ‘ re” What fraction of 2 z is3 t National Review / October 16, 1981 f student can speak the language of al- gebra fluently, he is denied understand- ing of further mathematics and is denied the capacity to acquire knowledge in mathematically based fields such as engineering oF physics. We have let the control of mathemat- ies education in the United States fall into the hands of people who confuse skills with “smarts” and demand that understanding must always precede the ability to do. These teachers do not un- derstand that mathematics uses logic as 4 tool and believe instead that mathe: matics teaches logical thought. process- cs. (They forget that some of the most illogical people they know are to be found in the ranks of their mathemati cal peers.) The falsity of their premises is manifested by the mass exodus from mathematics and things mathematical by American schoolchildren and by the precipitous decline in scores on stand: ‘ardized mathematics tests. Mathematics for the non-brilliant has almost been destroyed, The books these people have written and condoned have few verbal explanations, emphasize trivial concepts, and do not provide the repetition neces- sary for comprehension, retention, and eventual mastery of the skills ‘A good algebra book should have clear explanations, present the topics im increments rather than in hunks, em- phasize fundamental concepts, and pro- vide that daily repetition that is neces- sary for mastering the subject. Any student can learn algebra from such a book We demonstrated the accuracy of this statement during the 1980-81 schoolyear in a project in twenty central Okla~ homa high schools.* The project was monitored by, and the results will be certified by, the Oklahoma Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO). We began, in ‘August 1980, by giving over 1,300 Al- gebra I students the California Achieve- ‘ment Test in mathematics (level 18C) to determine individual preparedness ‘The control-group students were then taught out of the Algebra I book normal- ly used by their school. The test group used my Prentice-Hall college-level be- ginning algebra book. My book, which attempts to fulfll the description of a good algebra book given above, was augmented with 130 extra problem sets to make it suitable for a full year's use bby high-school students. The same teach- ers taught both groups. Last. spring all the students were given 16 short tests on 16 fundamental skills of beginning algebra, The test questions were selected from questions submitted by the teachers, and the tests were given after the topics had been covered in both books. ~*Gaurnea. Cushing, Del City, Nolen, Lind- sy, Madi. Marlow, Moore, Okemah, Oklahoma (Cay (2), Okmulgee, Poncn City @), Pure Sem role, Stillwater, Tecumseh, Wetumka, and Yuhon TEST FIVE TEST SIX The first four tests were given in Feb- ruary 1981. (A sampling of these tests and the analysis of the results were printed in the May 29 issue of NaTION- ‘AL xeviEW.) The average gains by stu- dents using the Saxon book were 64 per cent on evaluation of expressions, 108 per cent on adding like terms, 109 per cent on simplifying expressions con- taining signed numbers, and 141 per cent on solving simple equations in one unknown. The skills tested in the later tests are based in part on the skills tested and greater gains later on by the Saxon students should not be 100 surprising, ‘The next four tests were given in March 1981; samples are scattered throughout this article. Please note that ‘each test is a test of a fundamental alge- braic skill, Intelligence and test-taking ability will not determine a student's score on any of these tests. He has learned the skill being tested, or he has not. The results of these four tests are shown in the accompanying table. Since the disparities between levels are so ex- treme, the gain of the Saxon students is given in percentage terms at each lev- el for each test in these tests, thus even TEST SEVEN EXPONENTS 6 Problems TEST EIGHT FACTORING 6 Problems Average Number Correct and Percentage Gains [ee [oi axon 035 229 554% gain low (CAT below 44%) 038 Low-Medium (CAT 44% to 63%) 043313 626% gain 068 High-Medium! 095 4.18 in (CAT 64% | 340% gain to 78%) High (CAT above 78%) 192 503 162% gain 2.08 092 358 289% gain 124 368% gain 341% gain 283% gain 1736 gain 190% gain 17 | 01s 156 940% gain 079 236 199% gain 300 | 037 214 478% gain 172 281 63% gain 425 | 062 306 394% gain 236 405 12% gain 562 | 148 426 188% gain 370 474 28% gain 360 | 078 270 246% gain 229 348 525 gain October 16, 1981 | NavioNAL Review These figures show that the Saxon students have learned just about what ‘one would expect. In each test, the low- ‘estscoring students got on average about ‘4 quarter to a third of the problems cor- rect, while the highest-scoring got two- thirds and up. Not outstanding scores by any means, but these are just aver age 15-year-old ninth-graders in public schools The shock comes when these scores are compared to the scores of the stu- dents who had the same teachers but were taught out of one of the three text books that dominate the market. Their scores look like scores from students taking other courses from other teach- ers on other planets. The disparity is al- most beyond belief. The scores reveal that the brightest control students have bbeen severely damaged and that the less pifted have been devastated. They seem to have some ability to factor but know almost nothing about the other three skills tested. Look at the scores on Tests Five and Seven. On these tests the low Saxons (CAT below 44 per cent) out- scored the brilliant controls (CAT above 78 per cent) by 19 and 5 per cent respec tively. When the slowest outscore the brilliant on a well-supervised test with this many students in this many schools, something is terribly wrong. A critic might point out that the Sax- fon students have been drilled on prob- Jems like these for a long time and argue that for this reason the tests are unfair, You had better believe the Saxon stu dents have been practicing problems like these. They also have been practi ing problems on every other fundamen- tal skill they know in every homework problem set every night. That is the way skills are learned. That is the way skills are mastered. That is the way skills are retained. Ask Van Cliburn why he pra tices so much. Ask Pete Rose and Reg- aie Jackson why they take batting prac- tice. And then ask the victims of the prevalent methods of teaching algebra What they think, Ask a student who has flunked out of engineering school be- cause his foundation in mathematics Mir, Saxona Jormer Air Force tent pilot, teaches at Oscar Rose Junior College in Midwest City, Oklahoma. His earlier article, “Algebra Made Un- derstandable,” appeared in the May 29 Issue of NATIONAL REVIEW 1205TEST NUMBER SIX ADDITION OF RATIONAL EXPRESSIONS Find the common denominator and add the following algebraic expressions. 4 6 a8 was a profanation, Ask a student who lieved the assumption that smart chil dren have not been damaged, A close look at the scores above shows this is not true, ‘When I began this enterprise six years ago, I strongly believed that 1 could find a better way to teach algebra, but the results have outpaced even my expectations. ‘The hardback high-school version of ‘my book was published in late August by Grassdale Publishers, 1002 Lincoln Green, Norman, Oklahoma 73069, and will be available to Oklahoma schools and possibly to a few others. Time has not permitted nationwide distribution for the 1981-82 school year, but inspec- tion copies may now be ordered, for $12.60 pre-paid, from Thompson Book Depository, 39 Northeast 24th Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73152 T have done my job: I have developed TEST NUMBER SEVEN WHOLE NUMBER EXPONENTS thas been denied entrance to medical school or dental school because his test ee ee ae ate Simplify the following expressions. In fact, our tests were made easier by on x2yp)3x3 2, bye) 202 comiing both zero exponents and nega- Z10,2 2, tive exponents s0 that Ho claim of un- fairness could be leveled. ‘The Saxon Eo, fea students have fully mastered both of : xzy)2(x2)25y2 ag. 2}() _ aes 5 cats these concepts. while the control group (xy students have almost no skill in these Multiply by using-the distributive property areas. We are culpable for letting the and then simplify the result. pseudo-experts destroy mathematics for the non-brilliant student, We have let them convince us that only students with the ability to intuit answers should be permitted to survive and that the rest should be weeded out. And we have be- the concept, wien and tefioed the TEST NUMBER EIGHT book, tested it with the help of GREATEST COMMON FACTOR the Educational Reviewer and twenty (Oklahoma schoolteachers. I have been Factor out the greatest common factor. termed down by the. major publishing 2 Bousee focnié Veal nol» compe Of experts and sil the book ll be printed and tw be avalale for ci en to use inthe fll of 1982. Your hid need not ue standard Book and her eppled in algebra. YoU can. 0 your art by eeening Tia your bool Boeke at Wid epont d cn, Ae paedstonatoy ape to otal 6,64 - 3x2a5y3 ‘ther year of ther student ine a ef Gefen Tor by failing to adopt the book. Your _ : job isto sce that tis does not happen Saree oe Pick up the phone and call yout Bice a 1. ax2y2e + 2xy® 2. xeym? - ax2yn? + 2x2y2m Z, 3. axty - 2xdy + ax’y anxy? ~ amx2y? - 12mxy? axtaty? + 6x 1206 Narionat, Review / Ociober 16, 1981