Why Are We All So Bad at Math?
- Heidi Cephus
- Mar 13, 2024
- 4 min read
When I ask students how their classes are going, I often get the response that things are going well or at least “okay” except for math. Research suggests this experience isn’t unique to the high school where I work in Colorado Springs or even a new phenomenon.
In a 1990 study out of Marquette University, Gretchen Schult found that “overall [Milwaukee public high school] students received Fs in about 43% of their math courses, 36% of their science courses, 35% of their social studies courses and 31% of their English courses.” While the full article focused on the impact of attendance (“for those who missed more than one out of every five days of class, the failure percentages were 75% for math, 70% for science, 65% for social studies, and 60% for English), performance in math remained the lowest regardless of attendance status. Even those students “who attended classes at least 80% of the time,” had a 20% failure rate for math compared “12% for science, 11% for social studies, and a 9% for English.” While attendance certainly impacts performance, it cannot account for the discrepancy between the classes.
Twenty-four years later, in a 2014 Forbes article, Stuart Anderson asked, “What does it say about our public school system when 82% of the high school students in a suburban county fail their Algebra I final exams?” His study of 28 schools in Montgomery County, Maryland found that the “failure rate for the June final exam in Algebra I was so steep […] that district officials […] decided to add 15 percentage points to all test grades.” While the district attempted to explain away the poor performance on “lost instruction […] due to bad weather,” Anderson points out “that does not explain why nearly 70% also failed the Algebra I final the year before.”
Just last year, in EdSource, Ji Son and James Stigler explored a trend towards replacing some algebra classes with “statistics and data science.” As Son and Stigler explain, “Algebra I is the single most failed course in American high schools. Thirty-three percent of students in California, for example, took Algebra I at least twice during their high school careers.”
Educators have blamed high school math grades on weather issues, Covid, and I’m sure a plethora of other circumstances. They’ve tried to solve the problem with new curriculum, with attendance incentives, or simply with grade inflation.
But I wonder if the problem has more to do with perspective than anything else.
Have you ever noticed how many posts on social media are from parents who struggle to help their kids with math homework? How many people embrace the “I’m bad at math” trope?
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard an educator in a different subject say something to the effect of “I could never teach math” or “I’m so glad I never have to take a math class again.” Even as I typed out this blog post, I glanced on social media and found a friend from graduate school had reposted the following:
This “better you than me” attitude infects schools and households, leaving students with the assumption that they are going to fail unless some miracle happens – a school district swoops in and adds 15% to everyone’s scores, for instance. If Mom is bad at math and Ms. Smith the English teacher is bad at math, then why would a kid assume that they are going to be any different?
If a student goes into a subject with the belief that failure is inevitable, they are going to give up more easily. When they encounter a blip in a class, they are going to fall back on the assumption that they “just aren’t good at math,” instead of seeking out the resources that might help them be successful.
What if instead of telling students that we aren’t good at math, we instead talk about our success stories? About the way that we came to understand algebra after we went to tutoring. About the ways that we continue to use math everyday both in and out of the workplace.
If we start focusing on how math is both useful and possible, students can start Algebra I with a blank slate instead of assuming they will fail.
A side effect of this transformation may be an elevation of the rest of the curriculum as well. When parents and teachers focus on the fact that “they just don’t get math,” it makes it seem like the other subjects are by comparison less difficult, requiring both less hard work and intelligence. By underselling their ability to understand math, teachers are underselling themselves.
I know that changing our perspective isn’t going to immediately make students better at a subject. I know that each and every classroom is more complicated than anything I can capture in a blog post. But maybe shifting our attitudes can transform the way that students think about themselves, about their abilities, and about those around them.
So, the next time, you think about telling a kid how much you hate math or how bad you are at the subject, stop and think about the effect you may be having on their future success. We can all be a part of the solution.
Thank you for this post, Heidi. An Italian female physicist once told me that American students give up too easily when it comes to math. In Italy, and in other places (I would say, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia), the expectation is that you can sit with the uncomfortableness of not knowing how to solve the problem. And the practice of feeling uncomfortable and struggling to get to an answer produces satisfaction and then more willingness to try something hard.
My husband, who is a Spanish physicist, has gotten frustrated with me when I have over helped our children with a math problem. At first, I thought he was being unreasonable, but now I see his perspective in that…