Automation Workz 4 U to Speed up Economic Growth

DETROIT - March 4, 2016 - PRLog -- Automotive companies have made record profits in 2015. Construction jobs abound due to major projects like The District Detroit. Even with the economy rebounding people of color  are still unemployed.  Employers are looking for people with Math proficiency. Sadly, people of color have been unable to prove they have proficiency on standardized math exams. They are afraid of MATH exams. Psychologists have named this debilitating emotional reaction to mathematics - MATH ANXIETY.  They are not alone.

50% of Americans suffer from MATH ANXIETY?¹

53% of People ages 18-34 years old state “They Can’t do math.” ²

62% of the women were anxious compared to 47 % of the men.³

56% of students would rather eat broccoli than do math homework ⁴

Female Teachers can Transfer Fear of Math and Undermine Girls’ Math Performance. ⁵

Parents’ Math Anxiety Undermines Children’s Math Achievement. ⁶

Many Detroiters have a working knowledge of mathematical problem solving but have difficulty passing a standardized math exam. Uplift, Inc. created Automation Workz 4 U. Our GOAL is to deliver more Math proficient participants able to secure skilled trade apprenticeships/ jobs.

Having spent the past 12 years assisting k-12 schools achieve 70 – 300% on standardized exams,  I have watched Math Anxiety transfer from Teachers and Parents to students. Schools have self-contained elementary classes where the teacher is not ‘good at math.’ By the time, those students arrive in middle school, they are not ‘good at math’. Those students grow up to become parents who are not ‘good at math.’ Those parents often select jobs that do not require heavy math involvement. Their avoidance is a symptom of math anxiety they unconsciously pass along to their students. They can no longer avoid jobs that require math as most high paying jobs require math proficiency.

Furthermore, there has been stereotyping of women and people of color not being not ‘good at math’ that interferes with the instruction they receive in math. In fact, researchers show these populations have received inferior instruction for decades, creating a never ending cycle of math failure from math avoidance to poor test preparation to poor math performance to more math anxiety.⁸

Researchers prescribe 4 simple steps to OVERCOMING MATH ANXIETY

•       Role models especially for Women and people of color

•       Group talk about a math problem

•       Visualize a math problem in more concrete terms

•       Discuss the problem in ordinary words

Automation Workz 4 U breaks the Math Anxiety problem cycle by presenting hands-on concrete iSTEAM (invention, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) activities in a fun competitive scavenger hunt, facilitating group talk about the math problem.The entire family is able to experience the fun of completing iSTEAM task with everyday household or toy items. We, then provide parents 4 Math Anxiety workshops, where they can learn without the stigma of their children knowing their problem,  that translates everyday math talk and hands-on activities into math lingo . We then transfer math lingo into math problems to prepare participants to master math word problems on standardized exams.

The Detroit Metropolitan community can no longer afford to dismiss Math Anxiety and its effects as it is causing a severe talent shortage that can cripple our economic rebound long term. We can no longer ignore the importance of the lowest performers in our community. As manufacturers, we have leaned up Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints that states the pace of any institution is set by the slowest and not the fastest. If you want to change the institution’s pace then the slowest must be sped up.

If we want to speed up Detroit’s economic rebound, we must discuss the impact of math anxiety and how it stymies math proficiency. We must implement programs that deal with ADULT Math anxiety in every community, especially those where our lowest performers live. Join me in supporting Automation Workz 4 U.  Don’t believe me. Review the research for yourself.

RESEARCH

¹Ashcraft, Mark, Math Anxiety: Personal, Educational, and Cognitive Consequences, Current Directions in Psychological Science October 2002 vol. 11 no. 5181-185
^2,3Ogilvy PR, Change the Equation Survey, 2010
⁴Raytheon Company, Math Alive: Math Relevance to U.S. Middle School Students, 2012
⁵Beilock, S, Levine, S Malone, E. Ramirez, G and Gunderson E; Female Teachers' Math Anxiety Affects Girls' Math Achievement, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010.
⁶Beilock, S, Levine, S Malone, E. Ramirez, G and Gunderson E; Intergenerational Effects of Parents’ Math Anxiety on Children’s Math Achievement and  Anxiety, Psychological Science, 2015.
⁷Harackiewicz JM¹, Rozek CS, Hulleman CS, Hyde JS, Helping parents to motivate adolescents in mathematics and science: an experimental test of a utility-value intervention, Psychological Science. 2012 Aug
⁸Osborne, J., Testing Stereotype Threat: Does Anxiety Explain Race and Sex Differences in Achievement?,Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2002
⁹ Ruffins, P., A Real Fear, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 2007

The research makes a compelling argument to support Automation Workz 4 U (http://www.upliftinc.org/donations.aspx). Do so Now