Thursday, April 22, 2010

Common Core Final not ready to late May/early June

While at NCTM this week in chilly San Diego, the common core authors have let it be known that the final draft will not be ready to late May or early June.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Education Week: Will We Ever Learn?

Education Week: Will We Ever Learn?

Excellent article.
Why do all students need to learn the quadratic formula???

Although many states want to make the course a requirement for graduating from high school, there appears to be no need to do so. Northeastern University sociologist Michael Handel has found that only 9 percent of people in the workforce ever use this knowledge, and that fewer than 20 percent of managerial, professional, or technical workers report using any Algebra 2 material. In fact, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy shows that more than 20 percent of adults (and about 50 percent of minority adults) never learn fractions well enough to apply them to common tasks. When we fixate on Algebra 2’s polynomial functions, command and depth of knowledge are sacrificed for ill-learned, and quickly forgotten, breadth.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Singapore's City Upon a Hill

Singapore's City Upon a Hill

I bet you won't find this information about Singapore at those websites and anti-reformists who love Singapore and hate NSF programs.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

How Much Do Career- and College-Readiness Overlap?

How Much Do Career- and College-Readiness Overlap?

There is certainly an overlap, says ACTE Executive Director Jan Bray, but the skills sets are not identical.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education (University of Chicago) Response to the Common Core Standards Initiative


Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education (University of Chicago) Response to the Common Core Standards Initiative.

On March 10, 2010 the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, Achieve, and other organizations issued draft Common Core Standards (CCS) for K-12 mathematics and reading. We at CEMSE have examined the mathematics standards for Grades K-6 and have found them to be seriously flawed.  If we are to have national standards, then those standards should be designed to prepare students for life in the 21st century. We believe that the proposed CCS standards for mathematics in Grades K-6 would promote a back-to-basics curriculum that ignores the profound changes that have taken place in the last 50 years. CCS’s largely paper-and-pencil approach to mathematics in K-6 is obsolete.  See the full report here.
We believe CCS’s K-6 mathematics standards have seven serious shortcomings:
  1. An overemphasis on paper-and-pencil arithmetic.
  2. Inadequate exposure to concepts of data and probability.
  3. A disregard of existing and emerging technology.
  4. An outmoded approach to geometry.
  5. A neglect of applications of mathematics.
  6. An interpretation of “focus” that ignores how people learn.
  7. An overemphasis on teaching by telling.