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by Phyllis Schlafly
Hits Overreliance on Calculators
States earned an average grade of a "high D" for their mathematics
content standards in a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
published in January. While California, Indiana and Massachusetts earned
As, the study concluded that "the overwhelming majority of states today
have sorely inadequate math standards."
Most states' math content standards show the following problems,
according to the study:
• "excessive emphasis" on calculator use
• failure to make students memorize basic number facts
• absence of standard algorithms of arithmetic
• inadequate standards for student understanding of fractions by late elementary and early middle school
• "obsessive" focus on requiring students to identify "patterns"
• overemphasis on estimation at the expense of exact arithmetic calculations
• overemphasis on statistics and probability at the expense of algebra and geometry
The study recommends using true math experts to develop revised
standards, rather than relying on "math educators" or "curriculum experts."
'Forth grade' math guide
Such "curriculum experts" were likely used for the math test preparation
materials recalled by New York City officials in March because the
guides were riddled with math and spelling mistakes. The word "fourth"
was even misspelled on the cover of the 4th-grade manual.
(yahoo.com/news, 3-25-05)
Disputes over the best way to teach math continue to roil school
districts and state boards across the country. Despite Massachusetts's A
grade in the Fordham report, parents there have complained that there
are insufficient math drills in elementary schools. The focus on"picturing" a problem, talking about it and coming up with several
different approaches to solving it frustrates parents who believe that
calculating the answer is given short shrift. (Boston Globe, 3-13-05)
New York State's Board of Regents recently threw in the towel on the
controversial "integrated math" approach it adopted in the 1980s,
deciding to reorganize the subject into the traditional three one-year
courses, each with a single focus. (New York Times, 3-15-05) (See
Education Reporter, Feb. 2005 and Dec.
2004 for
background on math teaching controversies.)
As President Bush and the governors focus on improving the nation's high
schools (see Education Reporter, Feb. 2005, math is
emerging as a big hurdle. A majority of 62 high school dropouts in the
federal Job Corps program surveyed by the United Negro College Fund gave "math" as the reason they quit school.
On the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress test in math,
only 17% of high school seniors scored at the "proficient" level - less
than half the percentage scoring proficient on the reading test.
Moreover, 22% of college freshmen are identified as needing remedial
math, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
(Education Week, 3-23-05)
Science/engineering decline
The dropoff of Americans studying math-related subjects in college and
graduate school has alarmed observers. "By 2010, 90% of all Ph.D.
physical scientists and engineers in the world will be Asian living in
Asia," says Nobel laureate R.E. Smalley of Rice University.
The U.S. now ranks 17th worldwide in the number of undergraduate
engineers and natural scientists it produces. In 1975, it was No. 3.
Many successful engineers in Silicon Valley cannot persuade their own
children to enter engineering fields, in part because their children are
concerned that those jobs will be outsourced overseas. (Wall Street
Journal, 3-29-05)
Gates 'terrified' for U.S. workers
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates issued a dire warning to a governors'
conference in a February 26 speech: "When I compare our high schools to
what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our work force
of tomorrow. In math and science, our 4th-graders are among the top
students in the world. By 8th grade, they're in the middle of the pack.
By 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring near the bottom of all
industrialized nations."
"The percentage of a population with a college degree is important, but
so are sheer numbers," he continued. "In 2001, India graduated almost a
million more students from college than the United States did. China
graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S.,
and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering. In
the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of
knowledge workers, America is falling behind." (New York Times Magazine,
3-3-05)
Indeed, even within the U.S., Asian immigrant families dominate the high
levels of math and science. A 2004 study by the National Foundation for
American Policy found that 65% of the top math students and 60% of the
top science students in the U.S. are children of immigrants mainly from
India and China. Foreign-born high school students are
disproportionately represented among the high scorers on national math
and science contest.
More than 50% of the engineers with Ph.D.s in the U.S. are foreign-born,
as are 45% of math and computer scientists with Ph.D.s as well as life
scientists and physicists, according to the National Science Foundation.
Lousy texts, unqualified teachers
Robert J. Herbold, a retired senior executive of Microsoft and a member
of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, blames
unqualified teachers and weak curricula in math and science. "In 2003,
the American Association for the Advancement of Science rated less than
10% of middle school math books to be acceptable, and no science books,"
he said in a speech at Hillsdale College (5-25-04) "The National
Commission on Math and Science Teaching for the 21st Century noted that
56% of high school students taking physical cience were being taught by
'out of field' teachers" in 2000.
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