ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 15, 1996 TAG: 9607150005
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT A. SADLER
ELECTRICAL engineering is a mathematics-intensive discipline, and one that's integral to the future of the United States as it competes with the rest of the world in high technology.
The April issue of The Institute, a monthly newspaper published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., asked its 315,000 readers to respond to the question: "How's your child doing in math?" Some of the responses were published in the June issue in the regular monthly feature called "Marketplace of Ideas."
In their preface to the published responses, the editors noted that the question was ``inspired by IEEE member Richard Innes, who expressed concern about trends in secondary-school education resulting from Outcome-Based Education, a nationwide program to improve U.S. students' performance in core subjects such as math and English. OBE stems from Goals 2000, a Bush administration initiative to channel massive federal aid through the states to local schools. Apparently, Innes was not the only IEEE member concerned about the effects of OBE.''
The responses from electrical engineers and electrical-engineering professors across the country expressed unanimous concern over the mathematics education resulting from Goals 2000.
Guenter Steinbach of Palo Alto, Calif., wrote: "The current math reform, which is part of the OBE movement linked to Goals 2000, has already stirred controversy here in Silicon Valley ... I think the writing is on the wall: OBE dismantles the college preparatory program in a misguided attempt to make all students equal. Parents who recognize the problem and who have the means to do so will tutor their children. But the majority of children who will be schooled under the OBE philosophy may find that when they get to college they are not prepared."
Don Peter, an engineering professor in Seattle, Wash., confirmed this. He told of a recent freshman engineering advisee of his who flunked the college's math-competency exam and had to take a remedial math course (no college credit) before she could take ``college algebra,'' a course equivalent to the one he had as a freshman in high school.
She had always been told she was good at math in high school, though she rarely did more than run the calculator on students' team projects. She had not learned how to solve problems herself. Professor Peter talked to her mother, who was angry that the schools had shortchanged her daughter with their OBE curriculum. He asked: "When are parents going to rise up and sue some school for malpractice?"
W. Frank Caston wrote that the school district in Berkeley County, S.C., where he resides, hasn't yet officially adopted Goals 2000. But "it's main influence results from a block grant of $130,000 per year for 'strategic planning,' a process from which many Goals 2000 ideas have entered our district's classrooms." He then related the effects he has seen on his daughter's fourth-grade math education, concluding: "I am very concerned that math as it is being taught in the elementary levels will not prepare capable students for the algebra and calculus that will be required of future engineers and scientists."
Steve McMahon of Eugene, Ore., related that he went to the local engineering college seeking candidates for summer internships and was sorely disappointed. Although all the students he interviewed had grade-point averages well over 3.0 out of 4.0, all but one failed his questions involving basic problem-solving skills. The one student who was the most successful had some years of home schooling as well as public school. He concluded: "What does that say for OBE? Not very much. If OBE is not stopped, including all extensions and offshoots from Goals 2000, engineering will cease to exist."
If the quality of mathematics education in the United States deteriorates, it won't take long for our technological superiority to vanish also, as electrical engineers well know.
Virginians are fortunate to have Gov. George Allen, a leader who stands steadfast in opposing the Goals 2000 program and the political interference in our schools that it represents.
Robert A. Sadler of Roanoke is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
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