KUMON Math vs. School Grade Level-Mastery vs. "A Mile Wide and An Inch Deep"

American students' math achievement is at a mediocre level compared with their peers worldwide.  A 2009 assessment found that 15-year-olds in the United States ranked 25th out of 30 in developed nations in math numeracy and problem solving.  Americans fell short, especially, in handling fractions.  Half of the eighth graders tested could not solve a word problem that required dividing fractions.

The sharp fall-off in mathematics achievement in the U.S. begins as students reach late middle school, where algebra course work begins.  Students who complete Algebra II are more than twice as likely to graduate from college, compared to students with less mathematical preparation.

Many studies, including the proposal by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, advise the streamlining of United States math curriculums from preschool to eighth grade to focus on key skills that will help prepare students to learn algebra.

This is exactly what the KUMON math program does.

It has been said that the math curriculum in the United States is "a mile wide and an inch deep".  Students in an average 4th grade math classroom in Washington are exposed to over 30 different concepts, some of them not even math, during the school year, so that they are familiar with them when they take the math portion of the WASL.

If we look at this in relation to the KUMON math curriculum, in school 4th graders are being exposed to concepts included in Levels 3A through G, in a more or less random fashion, with mastery of nothing.

The KUMON curriculum, on the other hand, has children work on one concept and one concept only until the point of mastery.  This slow and steady building of crucial skills and brain power allows students to achieve automaticity of basic skills-the fast, accurate and effortless processing of content information which frees up working memory to be predominately dedicated to new material and the task at hand.

The "long answer" is that there is no correlation between the KUMON curriculum and school grade level.  However, even the skills students are building in the beginning, early levels, transfers over to stronger brain power, school math feeling easier, and the development of self-confidence.

KUMON parents know that KUMON is an effective, crucial complement to the school math curriculum.