College professors start with the basics in remedial math classes. Add, subtract. Multiply, divide. Later they get into pre-Algebra.
Students end up in remedial classes, like the one at Miami Dade College when they fail the college placement test. It's required for students who enroll in state or community colleges - not state universities.
In 2011, nearly 50% of the high school graduates who took the math test failed. Compare that to less than 33% who failed reading and writing. And failing the math test doesn't just mean you're not ready for college-level math.
Professor Isis Casanova de Franco says many of her students who come straight from a Florida high school can't do elementary math.
“I don't know what happened with these people that come from high school. I don't know what happens”, said Casanova de Franco. “But it's very difficult to understand that they don't even know how to add or subtract whole numbers.”
In high school, Shakira Lockett got Cs and Ds in math. Not Fs. And she passed the math FCAT -- Florida's high school exit exam. So she thought she was ready for college. But she failed the placement test and had to start at the lowest level.
“Yes it makes me feel really bad”, Lockett said. “It makes you feel low because here on the test it's telling you that it’s elementary math, and you're a college student. That really makes you feel like, ‘really?’ Like, ‘I can't pass elementary math?’ Like something's wrong with me.”
There are a couple of things wrong.
The Florida Department of Education admits the FCAT only tests 10th grade level math. They say a new test, which starts in a couple years will be more aligned to college standards.
And up until now, students have been allowed to graduate high school without taking a math class higher than Algebra 1. The state thinks requiring more advanced math classes will mean more students are prepared for college.
But high school teacher Katerine Santana says that alone won't solve the problem. She teaches Algebra 2 at Miami Northwestern Senior High. Like professor Casanova, she says many of her students can't add or subtract. She blames calculators, which students are allowed to use on the FCAT.
“I mean, if you're being trained to pass a test and your teacher is telling you, ‘okay use a calculator because you're allowed to use it on the test’, then you don't need to develop those skills”, asked Santana.
Santana doesn't allow calculators in her class, and that creates another struggle. She has to teach students material they should have mastered in previous grades.
“We're not supposed to be teaching adding and subtracting”, said Santana. “Our curriculum tells us we're supposed to be teaching how to solve an equation. Given that they're so behind in basic skills and yet you're teaching them Algebra, they have more difficulty with the subject and that turns off students. I mean, if you're not being successful in a subject, you don't want to do it.”
Hating math is another part of the problem, says David Rock from the University of Mississippi. He's a professor of math education and the Dean of the School of Education. He says people are too comfortable being terrible at math.
“People even laugh about it. They will raise their hands admittedly, and that just cannot continue”, said Rock. “Nobody, nobody admits out loud, publicly that they cannot read or write.”
It's a national problem. Across the country only 33% of the 2011 high school graduates were proficient in math, according to a Harvard University study.
Florida hopes raising standards will make students better at math. But David Rock says the first step is to change people's attitudes about math.