In 2002, Schmidt, et al. pusblished an analysis of the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) that showed that by teaching a small, carefully chosen set of topics in K-8, math learning outcomes for children could be substantially improved. Schmidt, et al. termed this list of topics an A+ curriculum and noted that more than 75% of students learning from an A+ curriculum perform at levels achieved by only 25% of students in the US and Canada. The ideas in the Schmidt analysis are identified as the essence of the underlying philosophy for the Common Core State Standards in Math (CCSS-M) . However, the CCSS-M appears to have been only partly successful in conforming to an A+ curriculum, particularly in K-6. Why Less is More begins by explaining what an A+ curriculum is for K-6 and why we would expect children to learn more effectively from such a curriculum. The rest of the book is designed with two objectives: 1) to provide parents with a guide for teaching children the limited set of topics from an A+ curriculum and, 2) to provide teachers with a list of topics and objectives for fleshing out a grade-by-grade curriculum guide that would carefully implement an A+ curriculum. For parents, the ideas in K-6 are presented in terms of procedures each of which can ultimately be traced back to counting. Because of the hierarchical nature of arithmetic, each computation is broken down into a list of simpler procedures that have previously been mastered by the child, the first of these being counting. For this reason, a child is never put in a position of having to guess what to do. In respect to why these procedures work, careful explanations are given that address the three types of understanding identified by educational researchers as being relevant to K-6. Grade-by-grade goals are given in respect to each topic with mastery of a specific topic as the expected learning outcome. These goals permit a parent to assess their child's progress. For teachers, an A+ curriculum table together with the grade-by-grade goals would serve as a foundation on which to develop a complete set of lesson plans for a K-6 math program. The rationale underlying the book can be traced to my post-secondary teaching experience at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Beginning in the 1980's, I noticed decreasing basic skills in students taking entry-level math. Early on it became clear that the primary source of the problem was an inability to correctly perform the computations of arithmetic that should have been mastered by the end of Grade 6. Over the years I have tried a variety of different methods for helping students overcome these problems so that they could proceed through the program of their choice. These experiments have had limited success and led me to conclude that the problem could only be successfully addressed by an improved curriculum. Fortunately, I came across the research by Schmidt which can be used as a guide for what to do and I have carefully followed their recommendations in writing this book. That said, changing curricula takes time and parents need to act now which is why this book has been written to help parents who want to help their chidren.
About the Author: Herbert Gaskill received a PhD in 1972 from Simon Fraser University. He is the author of numeroust papers in pure and applied mathematics and five books. He taught post-secondary mathematics for more than 35 years in the US and Canada. He joined the faculty of Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1973 and spent six years as Head beginning in 1997.