Coaching + Math = Success

THE MASSACHUSETTS Board of Education wants to get more students to score at the proficient and advanced levels on the MCAS tests. To do that, the Legislature and the board need to deal with the alarming weakness in mathematics scores in the later elementary grades. Math teaching needs improvement, and that effort requires special expertise not now widely available in the classroom.

Forty-eight superintendents are calling for cash incentives to attract math and science teachers, both of which are in short supply. According to researchers at the Great Schools Campaign, the problem begins at the elementary level, where teachers do not usually specialize in subjects. In the latest MCAS tests, 52 percent of third grade students scored at the proficient and advanced levels in math, compared with 58 percent on the reading and writing portion of the tests. By fifth grade, the math percentage dropped to 43 percent, compared with 59 percent on reading and writing. It seems many elementary teachers are more comfortable teaching verbal skills than math .

That comes as no surprise to the Great Schools Campaign, an affiliate of the Mass Insight public-policy corporation. College students preparing to teach in elementary schools often take just one math course, and with a small part of the licensure exam devoted to mathematics, prospective teachers can do badly there and still pass. If the state wants better MCAS results, it needs to insist on better math teaching in the early grades.

In a telephone interview, Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, mentioned the effectiveness of specialist reading teachers, and suggested math specialists might be similarly used in lower grades. And while the MTA union firmly upholds the principle of pay parity for teachers, regardless of subject, Wass suggested a possible compromise. "We do support extra pay for extra work," she said. Perhaps the union would favor an arrangement in which a math specialist worked after school to prepare fellow teachers and was rewarded with more money.

This is not very different from a proposal by the Great Schools Campaign for math coaches in elementary and middle schools. They would be certified teachers, but would earn extra pay for their expertise in math. These coaches would be assigned to individual schools not to instruct students, but to help regular classroom teachers.

Several communities already have adopted the coaching system. Revere, for instance, has employed it for three years in six schools. "It's been wonderful," said Dianne Kelly, head of math instruction, in a telephone interview this week. These coaches, recruited from Revere classroom teachers, are paid at the regular teacher rate. Revere and other communities are to be commended for acting on their own, but to spread the program across the state, it makes sense to offer incentives to individual districts and consider higher pay for the coaches. If state aid were available, Kelly says she would hire four more coaches.

The Great Schools Campaign wants the Legislature to appropriate $24 million next year, growing to $50 million in each of the next five years, for specialized math instruction. The Board of Education is thinking of toughening the math requirements for licensure. This would be an excellent long-term improvement, but any changes would take years to have an impact. Hiring math coaches to improve the existing corps of teachers -- especially in the elementary grades -- is a quicker, more cost-effective solution, deserving of special state support now.