I know this'll be buried beneath most of the other comments, but as someone who recently went through the public school system and now am going to college, I have some input I'd like to add.

Here's what happened to me: I was absolutely fantastic in elementary school at math. Loved the subject, got put in an advanced class for it, and just was a passionate little bugger for it.

I don't remember having any problems with it until middle school. This was when variables started being introduced into our algebra class. I got it, and I have basic algebra down pat to this day, but there were a few subjects I slipped up on where we didn't spend enough time on it, I was too stubborn to ask for more help (or got told by the teacher that "we already went over that a week ago!" a few times instead of receiving said help), etc...

Basically, I fucked up learning a few of the basics of algebra in middle school and forever afterwards I was always dragging behind. I lost my love of math and I began to absolutely detest it. Hate, hate, HATED it, so much so that the only class I ever failed was 9th grade algebra.

Here's the funny thing: I had to go to a summer school class to make up for that F. The summer class was taught a completely different way. We had an online program that let us go at our own pace and we basically could learn without time pressure, repeat lessons, and repeat questions until we got a passing grade.

4 days. It only took me 4 freaking days to finish the class and get the credit. The reason? I was able to refresh on those few basic things I missed and all of the sudden... the rest clicked.

I did somewhat okay throughout the rest of high school, although I had a really terrible time in algebra 2 my junior year. I had this teacher that was an absolutely brilliant guy/knew what he was talking about, but he wasn't able to explain the concepts to us in terms high schoolers like me could understand.

Plus, he refused to help us when we asked for time outside of class. That may have also been an issue. And he would go on extra rants all the time and never finished the lesson for the day, expected us to do 40+ problems every night on said unfinished lesson, and have the homework done the next day. About 65-70% of my class consistently got D's and F's on his tests, so I don't think it was just me that was the problem.

I got to Pre-Calculus in high school, did rather cruddy at it and didn't have to take it, but I thought I might as well because I needed all the extra math learning I could get. I finished the trimester with a D+, which is something usually to be ashamed of, but for me and my math skills? It felt like an A. Still hated math's guts, though.

Fast forward to college. I've taken two gen eds for math, one intermediate level algebra class and a stats/probability class for my major. I got a freaking fantastic professor, passed stats with an A, and guess what? I actually somewhat enjoy math now. Even better? I'm going into Computer Science, a math-heavy major.

The key differences between my middle/high school and my college classes are:

-college had online homework with extra problems to learn at my own pace; high/middle school didn't.

-all professors at my university HAVE to have a master's degree in their specific subject (or have to be working on getting one) to teach.

-we don't have to worry about standardized tests, so no time pressure.

-my professors will linger on certain subjects with extra days and are willing to push tests back if the class is struggling; high school never allowed this.

-the emphasis is less about tests than it is on homework and real world application.

-my college professors actually get to know me and every single one says hi to me, by name, whenever we pass in the halls; granted, my school is small, but it's nice to know that they remember me and cared.

-just a general more relaxed environment; no stressful tests every freaking two weeks and no rush to learn everything right away.

-college homework includes problems from past units, as do the tests.

I don't know why college level math has been so much better for me than public school classes, but it has. I'm actually learning and retaining the info, not just struggling to keep up and crying with frustration when I don't get it like in high school. I mean, I even had teachers in high school tell me that I was failing because "I just didn't try". Trust me, I tried - I'd often devote 2+ hours to math homework every night, pouring over textbooks and re-doing problems. We got graded on whether or not we got the right answers, rather than if we put effort into it, thus my homework grades were always crummy.

One time my math teacher in my junior year even told me I was "never going to go anywhere in life" with my terrible math skills after I'd failed two tests in a row (he didn't offer retakes). Guess what, Mr. H? I've gotten on the Dean's List every single semester I've attended, I got an A in Stats AND in Algebra in college, and I'm already halfway done with my bachelor's in Computer Science.

The difference is in the way it has been taught to me. By professors that care and aren't jaded by a terrible public school system. Trust me, I know that being a teacher isn't easy. It's often a thankless job, with little to no benefit, and you have to deal with crabby kids/parents/bosses and a government that barely knows what the fuck it's doing when it tells you what to do with your classroom.

But as someone who was one of these troubled math students - a part of the sad statistic in the article above - who eventually learned to love math and excel at it...

PLEASE change the way our schools teach it. It will help so many students like me who got left behind in favor of funding/better test scores.

Also: stop cutting out arts/music programs in favor of sports teams. Sincerely, an artsy/musical student whose high school choir got cut out because we "needed" more funding for our stupid football team that sucked balls anyways. :D