CRITIQUE OF AN EXISTING ASSESSMENT TASK

Critique of an Existing Assessment Task



Critique of an Existing Assessment

Part A

Investigations in Number, Data, and Space are a K-5 mathematics curriculum, developed at TERC in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The curriculum is often referred to as Investigations or simply TERC (Hudson, 2001). Patterned after the NCTM standards for mathematics, it is among the most widely used of the new reform mathematics curricula. As opposed to referring to textbooks and having teachers impose methods for solving arithmetic problems, the TERC program uses a constructivist approach that encourages students to develop their own understanding of mathematics. The curriculum underwent a major revision in 2005 - 2007.

Investigations were developed between 1990 to 1998. It was just one of a number of reform mathematics curricula initially funded by a National Science Foundation grant. The goals of the project raised opposition to the curriculum from critics (both parents and mathematics teachers) who objected to the emphasis on conceptual learning instead of instruction in more recognized specific methods for basic arithmetic.

The goal of the Investigations curriculum is to help all children understand the fundamental ideas of number and arithmetic, geometry, data, measurement and early algebra. Unlike traditional methods, the original edition did not provide student textbooks to describe standard methods or provide solved examples. Instead, students were guided to develop their own invented algorithms through working with concrete representations of number such as manipulatives and drawings as well as more traditional number sentences. Additional activities include journaling, cutting and pasting, interviewing (for data collection) and playing conceptual games (Houston, 1995).

Reliability and Validity of the Task

TERC: Investigations in Number, Data, and Space is marketed (in 2002) as whole classroom units. The curriculum does not come with traditional student textbooks and workbooks. Instead, each year of the curriculum is sold as a box full of material: teacher guides for the year and for individual units, posters, overhead transparencies, manipulatives, work sheets, and assorted gadgets.

As an example of the composition of TERC Investigations, here is the list of student materials included in the Grade 5 package (valid in 2002). 4 rolls of adding machine tape; 36 blank 5/8" cubes; 1,000 stickers for blank cubes; 200 1-cm cubes; 16 transparent blank spinners; 4 450-piece sets of power polygons; 4 buckets of square color tiles (400 per bucket); 1,000 Snap(TM) cubes; 1 set of elementary bar mass set-Ohaus; 4 graduated measuring prisms (2-cm x 5-cm x 21-cm); 4-liter measuring pitcher (calibrated 100 ml - 1,000 ml); 4 spectrum school balance (includes 7-piece mass set); 4 sets standard measuring pitchers (3 pitchers: quart, pint, cup per set); 10 measuring tapes; 12 meter/yard sticks. The total package for Grade 5 is listed at $1,388.42, and within that total the cost of the just mentioned student materials, for a class of 32, is $817.00.

Some school districts and states stopped using Investigations and adopted more traditional mathematics texts such as Saxon Math in response to very low test scores, which many have blamed on adoptions of texts such as Investigations. Other schools, frustrated with traditional texts, have adopted Investigations in an effort to reach more students and solidify mathematical knowledge as it is ...