Our school is looking into changing its math curriculum. We are hoping to boost our test scores. Can anyone provide data that shows that right start does increase performance on standardized tests?

RightStart Mathematics has been shown to significantly improve math scores on standardized tests. [Research Summary] We currently have scores from public schools in Utah where students using RightStart Mathematics scored in the 80th percentile compared to the statewide scores of 50 percentile or lower. In the school where I taught RightStart for seven years we saw marked results to the point that our middle school students who came through the program were so proficient in mathematics reasoning that we had to move high school Algebra and Geometry into the middle school to challenge them, since they had mastered the key concepts and abstract thinking prerequisite to taking those courses.

Testing has become such a driving force in decision making that it behooves us to ask some basic questions. What is the purpose of the testing? How does it reflect best practices in the teaching learning process? Does the test really measure authentic learning? Is it measuring what you are teaching?

However, when you analyze the questions on the standardized test the majority are basic computation problems which don’t represent mathematical reasoning. RightStart students are three to five years ahead in their mathematical thinking and reasoning. If a child makes a simple computational error his overall score may be significantly affected, perhaps as much as ten to twenty percent depending on the number of problems. This hardly seems like an accurate reflection of a child’s mathematical reasoning ability. Educators are always looking for new ways to justify their teaching pedagogy yet standardized testing puts an undo weight on a child’s test taking skill. There are many factors that enter into the testing paradigm and caution should be used in interpreting standardized test results.