Comments on: Common-core standards under fire

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:16:47 +0000

The first mistake is to let mathematicians write the standards. The ones Ihave had experience with were so far above the average person that they could not teach us basic algebra.
We know there must be standards and I use the national standards now because they are so good.
And remember you have to stop shoving things down our throats we are the professionals. We know the students in the classroom and we know what we can teach and what they can learn based on skill level.
PAt

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By: Oak Norton

Oak Norton — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:20:24 +0000

How hard is it to take a high performing nation’s standards and adopt them? Educrats continue to define the reason for their existence by experimentation on our children they call “research.” CA and MA have pretty darn good standards. Singapore and Japan do too. Why not start with those 4 and mesh them nicely and call it good rather than start from scratch and create a nightmare for teachers and parents. Oh I forgot, “you’re from the government and you’re here to help…”

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By: Pat Murray

Pat Murray — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:15:31 +0000

There are two things I have learned after three years of research.
1. Lots of people have a Phd next to their name and it just means they have an opinion that will be published. AND
2.Follow the money.
This is from William McCallum’s web site:
http://mapps.math.arizona.edu/Order_Form.pdf
You can rush to judgement, second guess, speculate or criticize the K-12 Common Core Standards but how about waiting until they are released to give an opinion?
Look at the effort and cost incured by all the states who have tackled this issue in the last four or five years. Several states have suspended their work pending the outcome of the work of the CCSSI. It is apparent that after 20 years of reform math, it is not the magic bullet everyone had hoped for. The U. S. Coalition for World Class Math thinks there could be a balance that will be acceptable and most of all beneficial to our kids.
Pat Murray
Parent

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By: Chris Stampolis

Chris Stampolis — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:15:22 +0000

The most important words in the above column are: “he said that the overall standards would not be too high, certainly not in comparison other nations, including East Asia, where math education excels.”

During most of the decades when the US dominated the world, East Asian countries and South Asian countries lagged behind the US in democracy and economy. Today, China and India each have four times the US population without counting residents of Korea, Japan and Taiwan – and the students of those five countries are better skilled in mathematics and science than most US students and teachers. If the US wants to lead the world in technology development, our elementary and middle school students need a different educational experience than that of their parents and grandparents. The competition is real.

It doesn’t take much analysis to identify the economic challenges ahead. The US already owes trillions to China, manufacturing has been outsourced to the Asian side of the Pacific rim and East Asian/South Asian students are more mathematically/scientifically skilled than average US students.

Rather than worry that today’s US kids have to work harder, we should be glad that our nation’s kids have the opportunity to work harder. Now we have to convince parents and civic leaders that excellence in math and science really must be a top community priority and implement appropriate support systems.

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