Riverview, MI (MMD Newswire) October 13, 2009 -- What prompts a senior engineer with a bright future in a thriving engineering company to quit his job and begin writing math books? The answer is simple. . . a burning passion to help his own children and other children around the world learn and understand mathematics.
Nicholas Aggor's mission began when he became increasingly frustrated and concerned about the difficulty his elementary-aged sons were having with math. Mr. Aggor recalled, "my boys were bringing home bad grades and their performance was so poor that they were sent to a special resource room at school for kids who are functioning below grade level; they were beginning to develop a negative attitude toward school. I was very concerned." However, Nicholas Aggor, math dad, did something amazing, something selfless, something that most people would never dream of doing . . . he quit his job as a senior engineer and began to write a series of math books that transformed his underperforming children into students who receive top marks in math and who have since won numerous awards for their excellent achievement in math
Mr. Aggor's journey with his sons, Samuel and Joshua began at Memorial Elementary School in the Riverview School District in Riverview, Michigan. Principal, Mrs. Nancy Holloway offered her professional opinion for the rapid improvement in math when Mr. Aggor's sons used his book as an in-home tutor. "Through all the years, they (Samuel and Joshua) have had the advantage of working with their dad, who used his textbook to support the boys in their mastery of problem solving and critical thinking skills. Mr. Aggor has had great success using his tutorial style textbook that he authored in supporting his sons in the very demanding curriculum used by Riverview Community School District."
From resource room, to advanced math, to scholarships and Northwestern University Talent Identification
Overall, the boys' math skills improved significantly over time. Mr. Aggor's two sons are one year offset in their grade level placement in school, but when each entered the fifth grade they were selected to receive math instruction in a resource room because they were struggling in math and functioning below grade level. After using the materials their dad wrote, they improved enough to participate in regular classes in grade six, and as their confidence level and skills in math increased their rate of improvement seemed to accelerate as the boys were placed in advanced classes in grade 7, and were able to easily maintain excellent performance in the advanced math class in grade 8 where both boys earned the highest proficiency rating on the state math assessment, MEAP. Mrs. Holloway, recalls, "When Samuel was in fifth grade, and ready to move on to the Seitz Middle School, he was selected to receive the Principal's Award as the "Most Improved Student at the Memorial School. This honor is reserved for just one student ". In recognition of his achievement in math, Samuel later received a scholarship from Memorial Elementary School, to be used toward his future education. Mr. Aggor believes that his sons' significant progress in math during their elementary and middle school years was remarkable and ultimately led to his son, Joshua receiving the Northwestern University Talent Identification Program award for outstanding academic achievement in math.
After reflecting over these past years, Mr. Aggor said, "Helping students move from low performance levels to the highest in order to reach their maximum potential is at the heart of my passion and the reason that I built tools in the form of books called the Math Teaching Series (MTS) for Students, Teachers and Parents!" When reflecting on the rapid improvement that his sons achieved, he commented, "The success stories of the MTS books affirm that when students are given effective math textbooks they can excel, no student is unsalvageable, and that there are gifted learners even among the poorest performing students.
Parents and advocates see the results fast with a book they can use with ease
Parents and grandparents have experienced similar successes with their children that Mr. Aggor had with his boys. They rave about how the MTS makes a great family reference, instrumental in learning the math that they need to effectively help their children with their homework while simultaneously providing an easy to understand guide that they can use with their children to complete homework in a hassle-free way. Youth Advocate administrator and educator Chris Lewchanin, in Oswego County, New York acquired the series to support after school study halls for a variety of students in the advocacy program. She commented recently, "MTS books can help all families especially parents that either haven't done math in a long time, never took advanced math classes or performed poorly in math. In other cases, the books can help students whose parents may work afternoons and evenings when there may not be any adult at home to help the student with homework. They are a great resource in our home; I use them often to assist my own student who too often gets stuck while using his school math book. You can quickly find the area of difficulty in the table of contents, and then flip right to the page that provides step-by-step directions that breakdown complicated problems so that they are easy to solve and understand." John Bruwer, a parent in Wisconsin that has used the book with his son Darron with great success said, "The best part of the series is it shows you what to do next with logic so that you cannot get stuck. It certainly takes away the fear, struggle, and frustration from learning math."
Educators take steps to improve achievement
Mr. Aggor's math books have provided the necessary support to teachers to improve their understanding of math which helps them provide more targeted instruction to students with clear lesson focus that increases learning and optimizes instructional time. Mr. Dennis Desmarais, the superintendent of the Riverview Community School District in Michigan, a high performing school district, said, "Our teachers feel good about using the book to prepare and supplement their lessons. Children have had great success and are now performing well on all standardized tests."
School officials in Florida, for the Duval County Schools District purchased the books to coach and train their math teachers. A math specialist in the district recently wrote a simple evaluative statement, "I love Mr. Aggor's books!"
Dr. Paula Daniels, while serving as Director of Curriculum for the School District of the City of River Rouge, purchased the MTS books for her school's summer program. She commented, "Our students can often show that they understand a concept when the information is presented one specific way, but are then unable to transfer knowledge when the information is presented another way. Your (Mr. Aggor's) materials present the information and provide examples requiring multiple ways to show that they know the skills."
Mr. Courtney Lots, Vice President of the Federation of Teachers in Michigan, has been teaching math for ten years and has served as a tutor for over fifteen years, stated, "I have seen more than 20 different math books during this time period. The Math Teaching Series are the best math books that I have ever seen. The practice problems correlate to the examples, and these examples serve as roadmaps with benchmarks that lead to mastery and retention of mathematical concepts. This enables students to do their homework. Parents become empowered with these books because they can finally read and understand a math book" said Mr. Lots. The parent/student daily report card at the front of each book can be duplicated and used at home to promote effective parent involvement. Almost as soon as students begin to use the book, parents report that their children begin to develop positive feelings about math that builds the confidence their children need to tackle higher-level concepts.
Recently Mr. Aggor spoke to a group of parents and educators and said, "It concerns me that millions of students struggle with their homework and math study each and every evening, I wrote these books to help students all over the world." He went on to describe the strength of his books, "I used a step-by-step, tutoring-style format with a detailed table of contents, a variety and quantity of examples and real world applications throughout-this improves conceptual understanding and the generous supply of examples and problems help students improve their computational fluency." Dr. G. Nasari, the chairman of the mathematics department at Oakland Community College in Michigan, reviewed various sections of the Math Teaching Series and provided some of the graphs on coordinate geometry.
Parental involvement is recognized and the MTS is a part of the solution
Letters of support and recognition of the passion behind the development of the series to improve math achievement while promoting parent involvement on a state and national level have been received from Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan http://www.mathteachingseries.com/michigan_governor_letter.pdf and Luisa Atkinson, Management and Program Analyst for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education who responded at the request of Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education. These leader's letters focus on the family needs and recognize Mr. Aggor's efforts to involve the family in improving their children's achievement. Mr. Aggor, who is pleased to be seen as an advocate with solutions to help the nation's students, said "These books serve as equalizers so that all students, regardless of their economic status, can learn and understand math. . . I am so confident major change will come!"
Any of the MTS books can be used as a primary, basal text in schools or as a supplement to an existing math curriculum using state or federal funds http://www.mathteachingseries.com/math-teaching-series-for-institutions.html. They can also be used for tutoring professionals, at home with students of all ages or for providing whole or small group instruction for students, parents and teachers. Books that have been published include: Grade 5, 6, 7, 8 and Algebra I and are sold on a new website that was launched earlier this year. Other titles scheduled to be published in 2010 are Adult Education Basic Math and Algebra and Adult Education Basic Math and Geometry. The Bilingual Spanish/English Middle School Fractions book was test marketed this summer and is currently in the translation process. "We feel we have a solution for teaching fractions which will change national performance!" said Mr. Aggor.
The Math Teaching Series for Students, Teachers and Parents is currently being reviewed and/or used in homes, schools, libraries, colleges, universities and other educational service agencies. Some include: Seitz Middle School, School District of the City of River Rouge, Memorial Elementary School, Duval County School District, and Youth Advocate Program in Oswego, New York. Mr. Aggor has made donations of his book series to churches, and other social agencies that work to make a difference in the lives of children, some include: Greater Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church and the Detroit Parent Network.
Nicholas Aggor Publisher, LLC, established in 2009, strives to make math easy to understand so people throughout the world experience math success in their everyday life. Mr. Aggor emigrated from Ghana and is the author of ten innovative math books. He earned a Master of Science Degree in Engineering and has been fully trained in the Six Sigma Blackbelt in problem solving. Consulting companies, Triangles Consulting & Publishing, LLC in Tennessee and TramS Investment and Consulting, LLC in Florida conducted several independent reviews of the book with results that prompted them to support the vision of Mr. Aggor to improve student's math achievement and have since put forth significant contributions toward financing and publishing the books. To order or learn more about the Math Teaching Series and access chapter previews as well as detailed table of contents for each book available, visit the website at www.mathteachingseries.com.
Media Contact for Nicholas Aggor Publisher, LLC:
Name: Jim Pfeiffer
Phone: 1.877.867.8988 ext. #1
Web Address: www.mathteachingseries.com