NEW YORK, NY September 29, 2003 — This year, most New York City students are learning from a new curriculum. In our ongoing series Reading, Writing and Reform, WNYC's Beth Fertig looks at the Math Curriculum by visiting PS 298 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

TEACHER: OK what did you do? Did you count?

The first graders in Rosalee Bernard's class are using a calendar to figure out the number of days in a week.

TEACHER: From where, from what number? KID From, from 15. TEACHER: From 15 until you got to? KID: until I got to 22. Very good, boys and girls give him a big clap!

The curriculum is called Everyday Math. It relies on kid friendly objects like rice and beans for measuring weights, and calendars for teaching basic addition and subtraction. Math coach Marc Mardy says it also demands a higher level of thinking.

MARDY: Like before, you know, the student would say the right answers, say oh great Johnny, and move on. We wouldn't say well "how did you come up with that answer? Show us."

KYTE: The new trend of teaching math is not talk and chalk as in the past.

Walter Kyte is the principal of PS 298, which is also called the Betty Shabazz School.

KYTE: It's hands on, we want to see the teacher facilitating.

But that type of teaching requires a lot of training. The Education Department added an extra period each week for professional development. And every school hired a math coach.

MARDY: So tell me what you're doing? KID: Trying to make a circle by rotating the compass around.

As math coach, Mardy spends her days visiting math classes and working with teachers. The curriculum requires that desks be clustered to encourage more interaction. And she's pleased to see these fourth graders working together in groups.

TEACHER: Remember how to use a compass?

But after watching the instruction, Mardy offers a slight critique.

MARDY: I thought there should have been more facilitation of the learning. For example some of the kids even though the teacher did say use your compass, some of the kids forgot what the compass was. They were calling it that thing, put your finger on that thing.

Some teachers enjoy the program, but they also say they weren't given enough professional development: just four days in early September, before the start of school. Many went to extra sessions over the summer. Mike McKenna, whose fourth grade class was being observed, believes Everyday Math also jumps around too much.

McKENNA: When we were in grade school we learned things 1 plus 1 equals 2, two plus 2 equals four and we learned it until we mastered it. We might do multiplication for 2 days and we won't touch it for another month.

But Mardy says those topics are all intertwined in the new curriculum.

MARDY: They don't teach one thing in isolation, just in every day life we don't do things in isolation. I don't do addition today only, you know, I do a lot of different computation. When you go to the supermarket you're doing a lot of different computation, everyday math teaches it. It's not in isolation.

The old curriculum used by PS 298 and many other schools used one big textbook with basic problems. Now, students are taking home four or five books. And some math problems have big words like tessellation (it's a fancy term for a mosaic). These problems are intended to prepare students better for the state exams. But some parents complain they're too confusing. And teachers say they require too much prior knowledge about shapes and measurements.

TEACHER: If 12 inches make 1 foot and 3 of these feet make one yard how many of these small tiles would make a yard? KIDS: 36.

These sixth graders are using colored tiles to figure out how many inches are in a foot. Their teacher decided they needed a little extra work on the basics. Alexis Rice likes using the tiles.

RICE: When you use math you have to hold the numbers in your head. So it'll be easier to represent each number with the tiles.

Math scores at PS 298 are quite high. More than 75 percent of fourth graders met the state standard this year, so changing gears might seem like a risk. But principal Kyte says his staff and students are up to the challenge.

KYTE: I think that they're going to do even better. But it's a learning experience, you know. We're not going to learn this program by tomorrow. It's going to take some time.

Time, and more training for everyone. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.