David Shuck

🔥 There was a time when the criticism & attacks used to bother me. Now they're just fuel for my fire. More examples to drive home my points & more incentive to keep going. Attack all you want: I'm not going anywhere. I'll always call out bad ideas and poor math pedagogy.

In 1968, Washington, D.C. had a problem: one of its elementary schools was good. After diligent work, they solved the problem in award-winning fashion, combining the school with its two neighboring schools, two years per school. And it worked! Soon, they had three bad schools.

We're thrilled to feature your piece! It's so much easier for parents and teachers to catch bad research when they know the tactics and red flags to look for!

We're not going to regulate our way to excellence.

Thanks for the great post Anna!

🎙️New solo episode tomorrow! It's partly personal, but really meant to be practical. How to ask for evidence and how to respond when “research shows” shuts down the conversation. Paired with a guest Substack for the Center for Educational Progress. @EudaimonDave @ThomBriggs

Fantastic episode, Anna! The more parents who can take this advice to heart, the sooner schools can be rid of the poor instructional practices that skate by on weak evidence.

New EEF study finds lower-attaining students are NOT harmed by ability grouping, but higher-attaining students are held back in mixed classes. Advanced students don't get enough attention in my view. What is the goal of public education? Getting all students to a minimum competency level has to be one goal. But is there not an obligation to provide an environment for students who have surpassed minimum competency to keep moving ahead? educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/high-atta…

I compiled some of the points Sideshow mentioned in the latest Vodfather episode about why EWC/ENC is discriminatory, authoritarian, and very harmful to the scene Pros and fans have the power to put a stop to all this sportswashing nonsense and make VCT as welcoming as possible

“If we want to change classrooms, we have to look upstream.” Joanna Barbousas explains why transforming teacher education is key to educational change. 🎧 Full episode here youtu.be/kjkTqqU4xSE

Not ALL education research is terrible (e.g. a lot of ed psych researchers set up good studies w/ statistical analyses). But a lot of education research is terrible and can often be spotted as such just by exercising critical thinking skills. If the education claim being made is counterintuitive, and supposedly backed by research, that research is likely is bad. I've been reading shoddy education research for absurd claims in math education for ~15 years. Here are a few of the things that are supposedly backed by education "research" that I've looked into and found the research to be terribly flawed or non-existent: ❌standard algorithms are harmful ❌timed tests cause math anxiety ❌taking math makes a teacher worse at teaching math ❌learning math in groups on whiteboards (BTC) improves math learning ❌procedural skill harms understanding ❌inquiry is the best way to teach math The field has a problem. I'm glad reporters are writing about it, but the policymakers (e.g., in schools of education, school districts, government level) need to do something about it because it will keep happening and districts and schools will keep buying products based on fake research claims.

Constructivist math class. youtu.be/JXc1pd-eY5Y?si…

The response to my episode with Montserrat Gomendio has been incredible. She’s highly knowledgeable and clearly lays out what actually works, and why education reform is so hard to get right. Montse’s book is open access and free to read: I highly recommend it for anyone interested in education policy. Link to her book 👉openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647…

This is so powerful.

Thanks to @EudaimonDave for posting my piece on conceptual understanding on the Center for Educational Progress site. educationprogress.org/p/the-conceptu… @rastokke @RCsEvilTwin @tombennett71 @greg_ashman @ToddTruitt76508 @mikesully58 @New_Old_Paul @JonMHenderson1 @robrandel

Listen to Alfie

It seems like a good time to repost my episode with Sarah Powell on the Science of Math. Please give it a listen. We debunked most of the arguments in the latest attack on SOM in this episode. open.spotify.com/episode/02Fh6Y…

The YouCubed people seem unhinged. The science of math people have no math expertise? YouCubed just knows that these myths are actually correct? This is from a mass email from YouCubed.

The multiple strategy approach for teaching math should be abandoned. I have been saying this for years. It doesn't align with common sense or effective practice. This is a good article. edweek.org/teaching-learn…

🚨 Maryland has adopted new math standards that REMOVE the requirement that kids know their times tables from memory, contrary to the US government's last major math education report. This is fundamental knowledge for preparation for Algebra. 1/8 marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/Doc…