Subject: Standards in Math

Posted by Richard Turnock on 12/4/2010

Message:

Executive Summary of Standards for Pre-K-12 Mathematics published in 2000 by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Math_Standards/12752_exec_pssm.pdf
The five Content Standards explicitly describe the five strands of content that students should learn, whereas the five Process Standards highlight ways of acquiring and applying content knowledge.

There is overlap between what Prof. Richardson wrote and the standards in the attached.

The Teachers of Mathematics have a whole curriculum designed and published in 2000.
Then The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was signed into law on January 8, 2002. Now, teachers are forced to teach in a way so that students can pass the standardized test.

This is not an academic exercise for me. My granddaughters are 9 and 11. My son-in-law is a middle school science teacher. I see the kids and talk to him several times a week. I pick them up after school and last year helped with homework. Now they are learning to get it done themselves. I see the math they are doing. It is all about learning to calculate Repetition, memorization, no connection to the real world. Just like when I was taking four years of math and physics in college from 1967-1971. Up through 5th grade the public schools do OK. But after that it is all downhill. You can see it in the standardized test scores that trend down from 5th grade through 10th grade.

I am tested daily in my quest to not express negative emotions. I’m searching for something actionable, reasonable and aligned with the list the Prof. Richardson put together, with system dynamics, within the budget for schools but I can’t seem to get my hands on the right lever to set in motion the dynamic system to change education. Where is the most leverage?

I have a draft power point presentation based on my version of the same talk that Conrad Wolfram gave on TED.com. I have some SD things to add and I need to shorten it to get it down to 20 slides in 20 minutes.

OK, I’ve said too much. I’m listening (reading) but not talking (writing) through the end of the year. See you in January.

Richard

Follow Ups:

Standards in Math - Lees N. Stuntz 12/4/2010 
Standards in Math - Warren Farr 12/4/2010 
Standards in Math - Alex Leus 12/4/2010
Standards in Math - Pedro D. Almaguer Prado 12/4/2010