Professors Blame Pandemic for College Students' Math Troubles

2023-09-17

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1
  • "This is a huge issue," said one college math professor.
  • 2
  • "This is significant and deep," said another.
  • 3
  • They were talking about their students who are still struggling with basic math skills three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • 4
  • Most of the students are in their first or second year in college.
  • 5
  • But when the pandemic started in 2020, they were still in high school, learning algebra or early calculus.
  • 6
  • During the pandemic, many U.S. schools closed to in-person classes and started teaching by video call.
  • 7
  • Education experts said they believed students would catch up.
  • 8
  • College professors said they hoped for a "rebound" by now. But it has not happened in most places.
  • 9
  • As a result, universities in the U.S. are trying to find ways to fix the problem. Some offer summer math camps.
  • 10
  • Others called on students to learn from each other, a process known as "peer tutoring."
  • 11
  • Still others offer basic math classes students can take while also attending classes such as calculus.
  • 12
  • Brian Rider is the head of the math program at Temple University near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
  • 13
  • "It's not that they're unprepared," he said.
  • 14
  • "They're almost damaged."
  • 15
  • Rider said he hated to say that, but "they're so behind."
  • 16
  • Erin Vorke is a math instructor at Eastern Florida State College.
  • 17
  • Many of her students must take a math class to get a two-year associate degree and move on to a four-year college.
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  • Some are high school students who are getting college credit.
  • 19
  • She told VOA about her experience.
  • 20
  • She said some of her students did not get a good foundation in math even before the pandemic started. Once they missed time in class, their troubles increased.
  • 21
  • "It's definitely become a lot worse since the pandemic. And what I've been told is that everyone was just being passed through while they were in high school...I have a lot of students who can't work with negative numbers, I have students who don't know what an even number is."
  • 22
  • Vorke said she cannot stop her class to teach students something they should have learned when they were in middle school.
  • 23
  • "I slow down as much as I can, but I have to cover my curriculum," she said.
  • 24
  • Diego Fonseca is a student in northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. Nineteen-year-old Fonseca recently finished high school.
  • 25
  • This summer, he took a math "boot camp" at George Mason University so he could "brush-up" on math learning.
  • 26
  • He was one of about 100 students trying to improve their math skills.
  • 27
  • He said he did well in physics and computer science while in high school, but he did not get good scores on a math placement test for college.
  • 28
  • He wanted to take calculus, but in three tries on the test, he did not get a good enough score.
  • 29
  • He was permitted to take the test four times and wanted to do better on his final attempt.
  • 30
  • He was not having trouble with the math he learned recently, but he did not learn algebra well early in high school when schools closed in 2020.
  • 31
  • "I didn't have a hands-on, in-person class," Fonseca said.
  • 32
  • He later said he had trouble with more difficult algebra.
  • 33
  • The math troubles are a problem for students at universities across the U.S. who want to study engineering and science.
  • 34
  • Many are being placed into low math classes, which means they are falling behind in their study programs.
  • 35
  • Colleges say the pandemic learning problems affected both reading and math, but math skills suffered more, and recovery has been slow.
  • 36
  • Maria Emelianenko is one of the math professors at George Mason.
  • 37
  • She said students are in difficult pre-calculus and calculus classes and they cannot add simple fractions.
  • 38
  • Jessica Babcock is a math professor at Temple. She said she realized how big of a problem she had while grading a test last year.
  • 39
  • Nearly all her students missed what she thought was a simple question.
  • 40
  • "It was a striking moment," she said.
  • 41
  • Babcock teaches a basic math class that includes material students should have learned in their first year of high school.
  • 42
  • Before the pandemic, it had about 800 students.
  • 43
  • But by 2021 there were almost 1,400.
  • 44
  • Education researchers say math is a "hands-on" subject and it was hard to teach with students learning from home.
  • 45
  • If students moved on to subjects like geometry or trigonometry without learning algebra, learning gaps could go unnoticed for years.
  • 46
  • In addition, they say parents have an easier time helping their children with reading than math at home.
  • 47
  • Katherine Strunk is an education expert who now heads the graduate school of education at the University of Pennsylvania.
  • 48
  • She led a study that looked at learning problems in Michigan.
  • 49
  • She said minority students and low-income students had the most problems during the pandemic.
  • 50
  • "They're the ones who are going to suffer the longer-term consequences," she said.
  • 51
  • Babcock, the Temple professor, said many students gave up on math.
  • 52
  • They did not come for help and continued getting poor grades on tests.
  • 53
  • The problems made Babcock change her class this year.
  • 54
  • The class has discussions, making students more involved in the learning process.
  • 55
  • "We really want students to feel like they're part of their learning," Babcock said.
  • 56
  • That kind of class, said Vorke, may be more helpful for students who wonder when they will use algebra or other math in the future.
  • 57
  • She is part of a group of educators at her college who teach what she called "real-world problems (students) can actually relate to," each summer.
  • 58
  • "If you go shopping, and there's a sale, and you want to figure out how much you'll be paying for an item that's 10 percent off. That's algebra," Vorke said.
  • 59
  • After the summer boot camp, Fonseca said he chose to start his college studies at Northern Virginia Community College.
  • 60
  • In two years, he can move on to George Mason.
  • 61
  • He recently took the placement test again.
  • 62
  • On his final attempt, he qualified for calculus.
  • 63
  • "I didn't have any expectation I'd do that," he said.
  • 64
  • I'm Dan Friedell. And I'm Jill Robbins.