Pure Math vs Applied Math? Int’l study finds significant rich-poor divide on math instruction

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The organization that often delivers the dispiriting news about our nation’s lagging performance on international exams now reveals another concern: Rich kids and poor kids are taught math in different ways—and that difference is driving down proficiency among low-income students.

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development finds that applied-math instruction, or the way it is actually taught in classrooms, may not be serving students well. It also found that teachers were often using a watered-down, applied-math approach in classrooms of low-income students, while giving higher income students much more exposure to pure math.

In an OECD study of 64 countries and regions, researchers looked at math instruction in 64 countries and regions around the world, and found that the difference between the math scores of 15-year-old students who were the most exposed to pure math tasks and those who were least exposed was the equivalent of almost two years of education. The research was based on how students answered survey questions that accompanied an international test, called the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA.

The report, “Equations and Inequalities: Making Mathematics Accessible to All,” also found that many teachers who take a more applied approach aren’t giving their students complex, multi-step problems that require problem-solving and deep thinking. Students still need to learn the broad concepts and the mathematical notation. In South Korea, for example, students get a big dose of both applied and pure math instruction and they score among the top 10 in the world.

This OECD report builds upon earlier research that found that schools are exacerbating socioeconomic differences by giving rich kids different instruction than poor kids. In that study, the research focused on math content, and found that wealthier students were studying more topics, such as quadratic equations, than poor students. Now this OECD study argues that it’s not just the topics, but also the way they’re being taught.

Read more in this Hechinger Report story in U.S. News and World Report

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