#math

Thinking and Linking

Magical thinking on teaching math

May 24
2 min

Magical thinking on teaching math

We know a lot about how to teach students who have trouble learning math, writes researcher Tom Loveless. Why not use that? Photo: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels California’s new math framework, under attack for slowing down the fast learners, also will fail students who struggle with math, he writes. The What Works Clearinghouse summarizes the research and recommends “systematic instruction” using “clear and concise mathematical language,” “well-chosen representations” and “numbe

‘Financial lit’ vs. ‘don’t buy what you can’t afford’

May 19
2 min

‘Financial lit’ vs. ‘don’t buy what you can’t afford’

Georgia is making “financial literacy” a graduation requirement, reports Carmen Reinecke on CNBC. It’s the 13th state to mandate personal finance education. “In the last 12 months, Florida, Nebraska, Ohio and Rhode Island have passed similar laws.” Concerns about students taking on heavy college debt have prompted the trend. Fordham’s Daniel Buck is a skeptic. The Federal Reserve has a comprehensive analysis of financial literacy interventions. Their top-line conclusion read

Remote learning was a disaster

May 5
2 min

Remote learning was a disaster

Photo: Marta Wave/Pexels Remote learning was an academic disaster, writes David Leonhardt. And it may have been unnecessary. In March 2020, all states closed schools and switched to remote instruction, he writes. But in the fall, some schools resumed in-person instruction, while others relied on online instruction for many months. Some were closed for a year or more. Researchers at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research analyzed the MAP reading and math test, taken by

May 4
2 min

Aviation students solve problems — before the crash

Students are learning math, engineering and problem solving through a curriculum designed by the nonprofit Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Foundation, reports Kevin Bushweller on Education Week. At Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland, freshmen “are gathered at the controls of eight Redbird flight simulators, high-tech machinery with foot pedals and control panels that are used to train private and professional pilots how to take off, land, and maneuver a

Unprepared to learn — or even to try

Aug 30, 2018
1 min

Unprepared to learn — or even to try

Credit: ClipartXtras Having failed their way through middle school, students are passed on to high school, writes Darren Miller on Right on the Left Coast. He’s trying to teach Integrated Math to ninth graders who are not prepared to learn math — or even to go through the motions. In middle school, the bar was “in the vicinity of their ankles,” he writes. In high school, they’re supposed to pass academic classes to earn a diploma. Yes, they’ll be able to jump through so-call

Math licensing test is too hard, say teachers

Aug 29, 2018
1 min

Math licensing test is too hard, say teachers

Does a third-grade teacher need to know high school math? asks Ann Doss Helms in the Charlotte Observer. “Almost 2,400 North Carolina elementary school teachers have failed the math portion of their licensing exams, which puts their careers in jeopardy, since the state hired Pearson publishing company to give the exam in 2013,” Helms writes. In 2016-17, only 54.5 percent of elementary teachers passed the math exam. Some say the tests are too hard because they cover math taugh

Drill and instill math skills

Aug 12, 2018
2 min

Drill and instill math skills

To learn math, drill and instill math skills, writes Barbara Oakley in the New York Times opinion column. If it’s hard, so much the better. An engineering professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., she is the author of Learning How to Learn. Math is the language of science, engineering and technology. And like any language, it is best acquired through lengthy, in-depth practice. . . . When we learn to play an instrument — say, the guitar — it’s obvious that simply u

One track for math: Is equity unfair?

Jun 19, 2018
2 min

One track for math: Is equity unfair?

Nobody takes algebra in eighth grade in San Francisco’s district schools any more, reports Ed Week‘s Stephen Sawchuk. In the name of equity, district leaders decided four years ago to place all students in “math courses of equal rigor through geometry.” That means no “honors” classes. No gifted track. No weighted GPAs until later in high school. No 8th grade Algebra 1. In detracked classes, “groups of students work through a series of ambitious math tasks,” he writes. Achieve

Middle school to manufacturing

Jun 10, 2018
2 min

Middle school to manufacturing

Middle-schoolers in Ohio are learning math, science and programming — and competing in contests such as MakerMinded to expose them to careers in advanced manufacturing reports Ed Week‘s Benjamin Herold. Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, or LIFT, and partners across the Midwest are developing learning activities and competitions. At Woodward Park Middle School in Columbus, eighth-graders build machines, seventh-graders code apps and sixth-graders take part in a “trash slid

What I learned from studying math

May 18, 2018
2 min

What I learned from studying math

On Medium, Alex Korchinski writes about what he learned by majoring in applied math — other than math. He learned to tolerate frustration and pain, build his toolbox of problem-solving tactics and check his work, writes Korchinski. Most all, he learned to “practice persistence.” In a famous study, classrooms of American and Japanese first graders were given an impossible math problem. The American students gave up after less than 30 seconds, while the Japanese students persis

Are test scores irrelevant?

May 16, 2018
1 min

Are test scores irrelevant?

Students defended their Providence, Rhode Island middle school in a panel discussion sponsored by Generation Citizen, reports the Providence Journal. Roger Williams Middle School is better than its reputation, students said. “They described a school where the adults care, where students feel safe and where their passions, whether it’s theater or sports, are allowed to flourish.” “While the students rightly made the claim that test scores shouldn’t define a school, they seemed

2 + 2 = 4, intolerant teacher tells kids

May 10, 2018
1 min

2 + 2 = 4, intolerant teacher tells kids

A Muncie, Indiana teacher told her kindergarten class that “two plus two equals four . . . no matter how anyone feels about it,” reports the Babylon Bee, an Onion-like Christian satire site. . . the intolerant zealot systematically denied the possibility that the answer could be anything but “four,” going so far as to single out the specific integers three and seven as “wrong” when mentioned by students as possible answers. The “close-minded bigot” has been suspended without

How Asian kids ace exams for elite schools

May 9, 2018
2 min

How Asian kids ace exams for elite schools

At a highly selective public magnet school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology near Washington D.C., 65 percent of incoming students are Asian-American, 23 percent are white, 5 percent Latino and 2 percent black. Last year, 75 percent were Asian-American. Few come from low-income families. If applicants do well on the entrance exam, they’re judged by grades, an essay, teacher recommendations and a resume. There’s pressure to increase racial, ethnic and so

Let teachers teach

May 4, 2018
1 min

Let teachers teach

Teachers teach better than students, writes Alex Tabarrok on Marginal Revolution. “A slew of research shows that direct instruction produces superior results compared to other instructional methods,” he writes. Researcher Eric Taylor ran a controlled study comparing direct with student-led instruction. Direct instruction produced higher test scores. The study also analyzed data on teachers’ understanding of math of how to teach it, writes Tabarrok. That was linked to student

Rethinking high school math

Apr 29, 2018
2 min

Rethinking high school math

Math literacy — using numbers to understand real-world problems — should be the goal of high school math classes, concludes a report from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. NCTM critiques the “algebra-geometry-algebra 2 trifecta,” writes Ed Week‘s Stephen Sawchuk. In addition to preparing students for college and careers, math coursework should help students “identify, interpret, and critique math in social, scientific, and political systems; to understand math

Nation’s report card shows ‘lost decade’

Apr 10, 2018
2 min

Nation’s report card shows ‘lost decade’

Reading and math proficiency isn’t improving for fourth- and eighth-graders, according to the 2017 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), known as the “nation’s report card.” The best students did better and the worst students did worse, widening achievement gaps. Except for a slight uptick in eighth-grade reading since 2015, scores remained about the same. It’s been a “lost decade” for educational progress, writes Mike Petrilli. Hechinger’s Jill Barshay calls it a

Even confident, capable girls don’t study STEM

Feb 22, 2018
1 min

Even confident, capable girls don’t study STEM

Girls who are high achievers in math, and confident about their ability, are less likely to major in math, engineering and science than high-achieving, confident boys, conclude Gema Zamarro & Lina M. Anayas, who tracked students through college. High achievement raised the odds of a “hard sciences” major by 7 percentage points for boys but only 2 percentage points for girls. However, having a parent who works in a STEM occupation has a much stronger effect on girls (14 percen

Equality widens STEM’s gender gap

Feb 21, 2018
1 min

Equality widens STEM’s gender gap

In gender-equal Norway and Finland, 20 percent of college graduates in science, engineering and math are women, compared to 41 percent in Algeria, which is not known for gender equality, reports Olga Khazan in The Atlantic. In countries where women have a free range of choices, fewer women choose math and science careers. Women who face greater gender inequality may value STEM careers as a path to financial freedom, concludes a new paper published in Psychological Science by

Teacher coaches boost math learning

Jan 30, 2018
2 min

Teacher coaches boost math learning

“Extending the reach of excellent teachers,” the goal of Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture initiative, improves math achievement, according to an evaluation by Michael Hansen of Brookings and Ben Backes of American Institutes for Research. Opportunity Culture schools pay excellent teachers more to teach more students or to coach teams of teachers in the same subject or grade area. Students made large gains in math when schools used the coaching-focused multi-classroom leade

Remediation called ‘segregation machine’

Dec 28, 2017
2 min

Remediation called ‘segregation machine’

Community college placement tests create a “segregation machine,” pushing Latinos and blacks to dead-end remedial courses, a professor told an inewsource San Diego/Hechinger team of reporters. Wendy Smith, an English professor at San Diego Mesa College, believes most students can start at the college level — and succeed — with extra help, report Meredith Kolodner, Brad Racino and Brandon Quester. Anthony Rodriguez and Juneba Sulaiman failed a college math placement exam, but