Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday December 01 2015, @03:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the draw-curves-then-plot-points dept.

Kate Taylor over at The New York Times is reporting on the backlash from the recent poor showing of New York students on the Algebra Regents examination. Passing this examination is required for students to graduate from high school in New York.

From the article (semi-paywalled: Search for article title in the your favorite search engine and click on the result to bypass):

In 2013, concerned that high school graduates were not prepared for college, the State Board of Regents revamped the exams students must pass to graduate, starting with the English and Algebra I tests. The board decided that, where previously students needed a score of only 65 on a 100-point scale to pass, in coming years they would have to score at a “college- and career-ready” level, which this year was deemed to be a 79 in English, and a 74 in Algebra.

The result: On the 2015 Algebra I exam, which was supposed to align with the new Common Core curriculum, the percentage of students passing fell to 63 percent, down nine points from the old exam last year. And less than a quarter of students scored at the college-ready level. In New York City, which has a concentration of poor and minority students, only 52 percent of students passed the 2015 exam, down from 65 percent the previous year on the old exam. Just 16 percent reached the “college-ready” level.

[Continued after the break.]

[...] Algebra is a stumbling block not only for high school students, but also for students in community colleges, many of whom founder in algebra-based remedial courses. Public colleges hoping to increase their graduation rates have been asking whether algebra should be the default math course. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, working with Dr. Treisman, has created courses in statistics and quantitative reasoning that are meant to be both more engaging and more practical for many students than college-level algebra. Close to 50 community colleges now offer the courses.

In “The Math Myth: And Other Stem Delusions,” to be published by the New Press in March, Andrew Hacker, an emeritus professor of political science at Queens College, argues that it is wrongheaded to force all students to study algebra.

But Dr. Treisman said that allowing students to graduate from high school without taking algebra “would dramatically reduce their options.” And he said there was value in making students pass an algebra exam to graduate, as well.

Should algebra be required for graduation from high school? Should extra resources be devoted to ensuring that students learn these concepts and methods? What's the value in doing so?

I say that learning algebra provides improved numeracy, enhances abstract thinking and opens the door to critical thinking skills. What say you, Soylentils?

As usual, Heinlein had it right, IMHO:

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Post-Nihilist on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:59AM

    by Post-Nihilist (5672) on Wednesday December 02 2015, @04:59AM (#270502)

    I would not argue with you about that, calculs call for a formal approach else I get the details wrong and my approximation diverge wildly from what I would have calculated....

    --
    Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2