Here & Now

Everyday Life Plus Constant Decisions Equals a Need for Math

Frederica Freyberg:
Along with the number of education bills that stalled in the Legislature, one authored by State Representative Karen Hurd, would have provided year-round testing and tutoring for students falling behind in math. Despite not gaining enough support this past legislative session, the push will continue to help K-8 grade students in Wisconsin struggling with math. Tonight, “Here & Now” reporter Murv Seymour takes us to the classroom and the big screen to learn more about statewide struggles and success with math.

Stephanie Bradley:
This evening, we’re going to do the film screening of “Counted Out.”

Murv Seymour:
Tonight is movie night at the Urban League of Madison’s Black Business Hub.

Stephanie Bradley:
We brought this film to Madison, to the community so that we can be a contributor with changing the dialog.

Murv Seymour:
It’s a packed house for the first ever public showing in Wisconsin of “Counted Out,” a documentary about the importance of math.

Stephanie Bradley:
Because math is all around us. It is something that maybe many of us might have had a negative experience with when we were in school, but we want to change that narrative.

Murv Seymour:
The film features two University of Wisconsin-Madison professors. Erika Bullock is one of them.

Erika Bullock:
I love teaching, period. Math, for sure.

Murv Seymour:
By her estimate, this is about her 15th time participating in a “Counted Out” screening.

Erika Bullock:
When people are thinking about screening it, they think about, okay, this is going to help parents to understand how they can help their child with mathematics. It’s really difficult to convince people that there’s value in math, even though we use it all the time.

Angie From:
Math is everywhere.

Colleston Morgan:
Understanding math is foundational just under, you know, being able to function in the world.

Murv Seymour:
Based on the numbers, educators everywhere agree Wisconsin students need to do better in math. According to Wisconsin’s Forward Exam, the test used to assess how well students are doing in the classroom, just over half in grades three through eight are proficient in math. In Milwaukee schools, the number is just over 20%.

Colleston Morgan:
I would say this question of math and numeracy is every bit as important as a conversation we’ve had around literacy.

Murv Seymour:
Welcome to the Milwaukee offices of City Forward Collective, a nonprofit team of educators and advocates led by Colleston Morgan.

Colleston Morgan:
We’re using numbers to understand and analyze so many different aspects of our world.

Murv Seymour:
Collectively, their mission is to eliminate educational inequity while providing students access to quality schools. City Forward also tracks state and national test scores of students at public and private schools statewide. A father of two, Colleston Morgan, tells me he tracks his own kids in their journeys with math.

Colleston Morgan:
My fourth grader probably just got through her times table. She’s working on advanced multiplication, division. My sixth grader is doing her math skills as well, right? What keeps me up at night is thinking about the tens of thousands of students across our state who maybe aren’t getting that same level of instruction. Who maybe aren’t getting that same level of attention at home. We get to the point where we don’t even think about the ways in which we’re adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Erika Bullock:
And we say, “Okay, it’s three hours away. If I go about 60, I’ll get there.” Those kinds of calculations, we don’t see those as mathematical really. Calculating a discount in a store or, you know, kind of visually eyeing something to see, okay, does this look about the same size?

Murv Seymour:
In politics, strategizing winning campaigns and mapping voting districts involves math.

Erika Bullock:
This is a battleground state. I need to invest my resources because there is something here that the data has shown that says this is a possibility for me. We’re using algorithms in order to determine if somebody will recommit a crime and return back to prison. And maybe for every disciplinary infraction, I’m going to subtract ten points.

Murv Seymour:
Math is at the center of managing COVID and other diseases.

Erika Bullock:
You have one person who is infected, and then that person sits in a room with 30 people and now 30 people are infected.

Voice from light pole:
Walk sign is on to cross Park.

Murv Seymour:
Even something as mundane as crossing a busy street involves mathematics.

Erika Bullock:
I’m thinking about…

Colleston Morgan:
You have 30 seconds to get across the street.

Erika Bullock:
So I’m looking at the distance…

Colleston Morgan:
To go before the light turns red?

Erika Bullock:
Do I need to run? Do I need to walk fast?

Colleston Morgan:
On the street, you’re driving 35 miles an hour.

Erika Bullock:
Suitcase in my hand, can I make it?

Colleston Morgan:
These foundational skills are going to remain the basis for your ability to access and enter and if anything, they’ll only become more important.

Patrick Landry:
People need to hear that there are places in education that are working.

Murv Seymour:
The Notre Dame Academy on Milwaukee’s south side is one of those places.

Patrick Landry:
There’s a special math culture here, and it’s evident in the numbers.

Murv Seymour:
That’s the school’s president, Patrick Landry, speaking about the culture of learning at Notre Dame.

Patrick Landry:
Math is cool here. Math is fun. When you ask the kids their favorite subjects, I’d say 70% of them are saying math.

Angie From:
You each have a problem. It’s up front here.

Murv Seymour:
Welcome to Mrs. From’s eighth grade all boys algebra class.

Angie From:
To make sure that whatever you input for X, whatever the outcome is for Y, then okay.

Murv Seymour:
Where the proof is all in the numbers. Student Johnathan Todd will tell you, in this classroom, the passion for math adds up to positive perfection.

Johnathan Todd:
The teachers here are just amazing. I think that like the best teachers in the world.

Murv Seymour:
Sixth through eighth grade boys at Notre Dame scored a perfect 100% in math on the state’s Forward Exam; its girls, 70%. Students at other Milwaukee schools in the same grades scoring at 20%.

Angie From:
So is your X and Y going to be the same as Jonathan’s. Yes or no?

Murv Seymour:
Johnathan wants to be a math teacher someday.

Johnathan Todd:
The reason why people struggle with math is because you haven’t learned it yet.

Murv Seymour:
He believes the derivative of school-wide success in math at Notre Dame is a combination of strict teaching, disciplined students supporting each support, plus parental support. And it’s okay to make mistakes. He and his classmates say they learn from them.

Angie From:
There’s a coefficient in front of the variable y.

Murv Seymour:
Outside the classroom, Johnathan says he uses math all the time, even when he plays basketball.

Johnathan Todd:
If I’m at, like, the three point line and my brain is, like, how much force I need to put in the ball, how what angle I need to go upwards like this into the net.

Angie From:
If I could have someone come up and give me an example.

Murv Seymour:
After more than 30 years in the classroom, Angie From says teaching how students learn has changed a lot. Today, it involves more problem solving, more critical thinking.

Angie From:
Maybe you and I were kids where we just like, okay, what is two times five is ten? What is — it’s more than computation. It’s more conceptual, you know. You have to really think about and use it for everyday situation, everyday life.

Patrick Landry:
I have numbers in front of me all day: financial data, fundraising, trends, enrollment and demographic data, test scores.

Angie From:
You each have a problem. It’s up front here.

Murv Seymour:
At Notre Dame School of Milwaukee, the formula for its students scoring more than their peers at other schools involves a simple equation centered around the basics.

Patrick Landry:
Fluency in subtraction, addition and multiplication, and percents, decimals and fractions. And if students don’t have those in second, third, fourth grade, it makes any type of more complicated or more advanced math in middle school or high school really hard.

Colleston Morgan:
We’ve got to make sure that teachers are getting the right training. We’ve got to make sure that students are showing up.

Patrick Landry:
I think it’s a partnership between the home and school.

Angie From:
As long as it looks nice and neat and organized in your notebook. Capeesh?

Class members:
Capaash.

Angie From:
All right.

Patrick Landry:
And when that’s rolling as you can see in some of our data, I think really remarkable things can happen.

Murv Seymour:
Reporting from Milwaukee, I’m Murv Seymour for “Here & Now.”