I am a professor at Utah Valley State College and believe it is critical for math standards and instruction in Utah be upgraded so our children can be competitive with the rest of the industrialized world. Right now our kindergarten through 12-grade students are not competitive nationally or internationally in math. At UVSC, 67 percent of all incoming freshmen do not have the math skills necessary to take and pass college algebra. It is costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for us to teach them junior high and high school level math over again. Singapore Math would solve this problem.
Singapore Math is already being successfully implemented in many schools in Utah. Many students in these schools are taking prealgebra in the sixth grade. By the time these students are seniors in high school, they are prepared for calculus. When they get to college, there is no need for remedial math.
I urge parents in Utah to write the Utah Office of Eduction, the Utah School Board and the state legislators. Urge them to support Singapore Math as the model to bring our Utah children up to speed in math.
Dennis Lisonbee
Salem