Singapore Math Multiplies in U.S. Schools as More Educators Add Up Its Advantages

NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Education is the key to the future. Yet in too many cases, American students have been falling behind their global peers, particularly in the critical field of mathematics where the instructional approach has tended to be broad and shallow, with little focus on concept mastery. That challenge has led a growing number of U.S. educators to take a serious look at Singapore – that is, at Singapore Math, an innovative curriculum whose effectiveness has been taking the academic world by storm.

First introduced in the early 1980s as an initiative to improve math performance among Singaporean students, Singapore Math has captured the attention of educators worldwide for both its rigor and its unique ability to make math easy to teach and fun to learn. The official textbooks published by Marshall Cavendish, which developed the curriculum in cooperation with Singapore's Ministry of Education, are now in use in more than 50 countries as well as in individual schools or districts in all 50 states.

What all those educators are hoping to recreate with their own students is the dramatic improvement documented in Singaporean students' math scores since the program was instituted there – and particularly after Marshall Cavendish launched a revised version emphasizing problem solving skills in 1992. Just three years later, Singapore students jumped to first place in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a survey conducted every four years to compare math and science achievement among different countries. They remained in first place in 1999 and 2003, and were in the top three in 2007. By comparison, U.S. students were at 19th place in 1999, 15th in 2003, and 9th place in 2007, a year when five higher-scoring countries did not participate.

"One major difference between Singapore Math and the majority of current U.S. approaches to math instruction is its focus on concept mastery," explains Ms Joy Tan, General Manager of Marshall Cavendish Education. "In Singapore Math, a limited number of topics are covered each year, allowing each to be covered in great detail and then reinforced even as a new concept is introduced. American curricula tend to introduce dozens of topics each year, resulting in instruction that has been described as 'a mile wide and an inch deep.'"

That issue is one that was identified by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Working in collaboration with teachers, school administrators, and experts, the group last year created a set of standards that would provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare American children for college and the workforce, noting that: "For over a decade, research studies of mathematics education in high-performing countries have pointed to the conclusion that the mathematics curriculum in the United States must become substantially more focused and coherent in order to improve mathematics achievement in this country."

Singapore Math clearly fits the bill, agree a growing number of educators. More than 2500 schools are now using one of the two different series of textbooks available in the U.S. from Marshall Cavendish – Primary Mathematics and Math in Focus: The Singapore Approach – and seeing students benefit from the unique pictorial approach that allows them to look at problems in a visual way before they move on to the abstract. Also distinctive to Singapore Math is its consistent focus on problem solving, with specific problem-solving strategies taught in a carefully sequenced manner, and extensive use of word problems as a way to train students to connect different mathematical ideas.

According to Nancy Pavia, Math Helping Teacher at Scarsdale (NY) Public Schools, "Scarsdale Elementary Schools have had a very positive experience using Primary Mathematics for the past 3-1/2 years. Primary Mathematics is an extremely coherent program that is not only obvious from grade to grade but from unit to unit and lesson to lesson. It is this coherency that allows our students to gradually build their understanding of numbers and apply this knowledge in more sophisticated and complex situations. Over the past 3 years our students have become more facile with numbers. Their numeracy skills have improved, partly due to the concept of part/whole, which begins as early as kindergarten and first grade when students are taught number bonds to decompose (break apart) numbers into their parts. This powerful idea allows students the chance to realize that numbers are not static and can be represented in multiple ways. This idea extends to the upper elementary level where the idea of part/whole assists students in solving complex problems by examining the known and unknowns in problem-solving situations."

Enhancing the curriculum even further is this year's introduction of Math Buddies, a flexible, online learning platform developed by Marshall Cavendish specifically to support the teaching of Singapore Math in the United States. Math Buddies follows the same pedagogical principles of the textbooks, combining multimedia technologies with instructional strategies to offer an engaging, interactive teaching and learning experience. Included are ready-made multimedia lessons to explain each math concept; step-by-step practice problems for independent and group learning; differentiated practices to support different ability groups; question analysis capability to identify common mistakes; and comprehensive assessments to track student progress.

Aligned to the Common Core State Standards for grades 1 through 5, Math Buddies was demonstrated at the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) annual conference in Indianapolis last April, and pilot programs are underway in 11 schools across the country. The digital curriculum is available at a cost of $99 per subscription for home and school adoption with less than 400 accounts; and $65 per subscription for school adoption with 400 or more accounts.

Marshall Cavendish Education is the leading educational publisher in Singapore, with more than 40 years of experience in educational publishing. Its materials are now used by educators and students in more than 50 countries, and its math programs have contributed to Singapore's consistent top performance in international studies since 1995. The publisher's Primary Mathematics textbooks in partnership with Singaporemath.com and Math in Focus textbooks were developed for the U.S. market in partnership with Great Source, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is the books' exclusive U.S. distributor. More information is available at www.marshallcavendish.com/education or www.mymathbuddies.com.

SOURCE Marshall Cavendish