U.S. Students Behind in Math, Tests Show

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Fifteen-year-olds in the United States don't have the math skills to match up to peers in many other industrialized nations, test scores released Monday show.

The latest international comparison also underscores an achievement gap in America: White U.S. students scored above average, while blacks and Hispanics scored below it.
..........
Among 29 industrialized countries, the United States scored below 20 nations and above five in math. The U.S. performance was about the same as Poland, Hungary and Spain.

When compared with all 39 nations that produced scores, the United States was below 23 countries, above 11 and about the same as four others, with Latvia joining the middle group.
.........
The test is run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based intergovernmental group of industrialized countries. The top math performers included Finland, Korea, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland and New Zealand.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-math-skills,0,4221237.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[LisaM]

1. Gee, cut out music and art and the math scores go down.

Shocker.

[alexisfree]

2. my girl got a B+!!!

7 grade

[lovuian]

3. America should have a better Math Program

We need to teach the way the teach in Canada

[noshenanigans]

57. What's the difference?

Being a post-collegiate single non-procreator, I don't know much about what the kids these days are learning. How is it different in Canada? Well, besides the fact that they actually teach the kids the metric system.

[JohnyCanuck]

59. Here's one innovative approach that seems to produce results

JUMP Stands for "Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies."

JUMP is an education program founded in 1998 by mathematician and writer John Mighton. We are a volunteer-based, registered charity committed to the advancement of education.

JUMP believes that all children can be led to think mathematically, and that with even a modest amount of attention every child will flourish. By demonstrating that even children who are failing math or are labeled as slow learners can excel at math, we hope to dispel the myths that have caused us to neglect our children. And by offering inner-city children effective and consistent help in mathematics (and eventually reading and other subjects), we hope to break the cycle of ignorance that lies at the root of all poverty.

About
JUMP Philosophy

At JUMP, we believe that children - especially young children - are much more alike in potential than we're currently led to believe, that special abilities can be fostered in most children and that intelligence is much more plastic than psychologists generally allow. We have found this to be true also of young adults.

We have already begun to demonstrate that we can raise the level of the weakest students to the point where they can all be good scientists or mathematicians. At this point, sheer intelligence is almost secondary. In the sciences, factors such as passion, confidence, creativity, diligence, luck and artistic flair are as important as the speed and sharpness of one's mind. Einstein was not a great mathematician technically, but he had a deep sense of beauty and a willingness to question conventional wisdom.

Since the JUMP program was developed to help children who have fallen behind to catch up quickly, we would never claim that it is the only way to teach mathematics, or the best: programs based on manipulatives, or which introduce concepts in an order different from the order in the manual, might work as well, or better. We would claim, however, that whatever method is used, the teacher should never assume that a student who fails to understand an explanation is incapable of progressing

We believe that one day people will find methods to overcome even the most severe learning disabilities, methods that go far beyond the few simple principles we have observed to be effective at JUMP.

http://www.jumptutoring.org/index.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Gee am I suposed to be surprsied?

I have seen this decline in the flesh

wanna bet this also applies to.... reading comprehension

[BattyDem]

5. I bet they're behind in Science, too ...

If not now, they will be soon. Teaching kids that evolution is a myth and touching genitals will get you pregnant is no way to keep up in the modern world. :eyes:

[depakid]

35. Since math (along with logic) is the language of science

then it's inevitable that science will suffer from the lack of basic literacy.

The fact that certain test scores may not show that, has more to do with the validity of the tests than the kids competency in the sciences.

[Angry Girl]

65. They ARE behind in science....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/10/MNG9O6IK6G1.DTL

"The study followed headlines last week in the New York Times and other papers warning that the United States risks losing its dominance in the sciences. Science policy-makers cited a number of statistics they said bodes ill for the future of U.S. science:

-- The percentage of scientific papers written by Americans has fallen 10 percent since 1992, according to the National Science Foundation.

-- The percentage of American papers published in the top physics journal Physical Review has fallen from 61 percent to 29 percent since 1983.

-- There has been a surge in patents awarded to Asian countries. From 1980 to 2003, Japan's share of world industrial patents rose from 12 percent to 21 percent, and Taiwan's from zero to 3 percent. By contrast, the U.S. share of patents has fallen from 60 percent to 52 percent since 1980."


http://nightweed.com/angrygirlcartoons.html

[Deja Q]

6. That's why somebody in China slaved away to make a machine that

automatically gives out change because calculators for people aren't good enough anymore.

[Just Me]

7. Well, if being smart instead of being competitive was important,...

,...then, we'd prolly do better.

However, I simply cannot believe that our educational system is that poor,...or that our kids are that far behind.

We've got a lot of really brilliant kids who get no nurturing, whatsoever. It's all about "winning" and "money". That's where we are really screwing up. No one is valuable unless they have lots of stuff and lots of notariety,...and, according to TV,...everyone has it,...except the 95% of us.

[Rose Siding]

11. The bureaucratic overreaction to studies like this prolong the problem

Years back some studies showed that schools in Japan were kicking butt with their scores. That was an initial advent of nat'l and statewide testing and it took over a decade to implement them.

Free public schooling is one of the things that drove the US to be such a strong achiever over the last couple of centuries. Standardized testing is relatively new.

With the financial incentives involved, the schools place such priority on bringing up the bottom scores to raise their averages that the top of the class is neglected. The whole concept of pursuing excellence is diminished.

As society grows to recognize and respect that each child deserves education, more resources must be made available to teach the top as well as the bottom of the class.

[Just Me]

19. Standardized testing is so incredibly overrated and "prophesizing".

When I took a masters course in behavioral statistics,...I was so pissed at how those "standardized" tests MISSED brilliance,...and demonstrated an utter failure to reliably measure "success" (which the damned things project on kids,...success or middle-of-the-road or failure).

Hell, Einstein and Ghandi and Jesus and the Dalai Lama and Rev. King would have ALL FAILED these ridiculous tests,...tests for profiteering.

What the hell do we value,...people or money (which is apparently THE definition of success)?

[PROGRESSIVE1]

8. Well, the majority of Americans have contempt for the educated....

and intellectualism at any level so the majority of Americans have NO REASON to complain.

[American Renaissance]

9. y'all ain't need nu'h maf

we got jesus y'all mudduh-fuckas!

[TahitiNut]

10. Math: THE subject that requires logical thinking.

As a former math teacher in the 60's, color me unsurprised. It's also the single subject where knowing how to find an answer is more important than the answer itself: not easy for the regurgitating mental bulemics we're training these days.

[Just Me]

20. Sadly,...in my day,...I was suppose to be bad at math.

In high school calculas, I was one of only three females in an 18 member class. I was supposed to be either "dingy" or "quiet".

Moving on,...students' biggest complaint about math courses (including my son) is,...how it applies to life.

It's not merely about "how" to find an answer,...but also "WHY".

Give kids a reason WHY math and reading and history are so important,...and they have more incentive to learn.

[barb162]

25. I think I grew up in a similar day, but I also think there was more of a

desire to pick up a book on one's own. I would go to the library on my own without prompting because there was a desire to learn as much as I could. Something is different now

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

62. I like to say it's like workout.

Grabbing an iron bar and moving it up and down seems to serve no purpose either, but it keeps your muscles working well. Same for the brain.

I have no idea how the average teenager would react to that line of reasoning, though.

[barb162]

22. please see post 21, do you agree that our education system is

and has been basically uncompetitive with other developed countries for decades.

I had a teacher in high school freshman English in the early 60s. On our first term paper, if we made any mistake, a misplaced comma or a word spelled incorrectly, she took us one grade down. Four mistakes, you flunked on the term paper and that was before she even started on the content. The highest grade she gave was a "C" and two people got that out of 30 kids as a final grade. But you know what? We learned.

A friend of mine who is still a teacher (burned out) and who was in that class commented to me a few years ago that there was no learning going on in the same school district anymore. He took karate to defend himself and just babysits the kids basically. He said when he gets them (high school) most can't even read; he is a physics teacher. That teacher who gave the high "C" grade was his aunt.

[Just Me]

24. "Learning" and "knowledge" isn't rewarded like "competition",...

,...which is evidenced by the obscene salaries of professional sports players.

We are a culture "consumed" by "entertainment" and STUFF/ITEMS/MATERIALS.

While "learning" and "knowledge" is being rejected,...wisdom and the human spirit is being sold off to the weakest bidder.

Being human is being rejected.

The unattainable "perfection" is being imposed upon the perpetual imperfect,...human beings,...who can only perfect being human.

Why are we so determined to be so destructive against ourselves?

Why can't we embrace the most basic, the most fundamental precepts of survival: that being, protect one another?

Why are we so destructive of not only the earth,...but also ourselves?

I just don't get it.

I think we, humans, are quite sick, as a whole.

I really do.

How to cure or heal our sickness,...will take all of us, at some point, to redress.

[barb162]

26. " I think we, humans, are quite sick, as a whole." Oh yes, and as to

your last line...I don't think that will happen; we will war ourselves to extinction first.

[Just Me]

30. No. We cannot war ourselves to extinction because we cannot rid,...

,...ourselves of the WILL to survive.

Some of us do WILL ourselves to get away from this hellish existence,...but,...physical survival is obsessively alive,...

,...believe me on that one,...

[barb162]

27. I want to correct something here on my physics teacher friend

He's a good guy. Most of his kids are cocaine babies with an attention span of about 4 seconds and they really can't read either.

[bhikkhu]

41. My disimilar experience in college...

most courses are "stacked" so that an A is fairly easy to get. At our local technical college my neighbor graduated with 4.0 gpa without a great deal of effort. Another neighbor repeatedly dropped classes in which she felt she wouldn't get an A, and either retook them with a different instructor or "CLEP'd out".

I am in a distance program, and one of its features is a "virtual classroom", more or less a discussion board. A part of the grade is participation, measured by the number of posts. You would be amazed at the number of senior degree candidates who cannot spell, punctuate, or even assemble a decent sentence.

[barb162]

45. back in the "old days" like the 60s, it was hard to get an "A"

and if a teacher gave 3 of them in a class it was special. It almost means nothing to be an A student anymore; I wonder how they get valedictorians...or do they have 30 valedictorians now per graduating class now.

Thanks for the input.

[TahitiNut]

44. It wasn't bad in the 50's and 60's ...

... but seemed to go downhill when guys (like me) 'chose' teaching partly because of the convenience of not going to Vietnam. (I taught for a year, was good at it and loved it, but just couldn't afford to continue.) Salaries stagnated and dropped even lower than before. (The ol' supply/demand thing, I guess.) I recall the few forays I made into the classroom in the 70s and 80s and how disappointed I was. When I was doing extracurricular volunteer work in the 90s, I saw some good stuff going on (in Eastern Washington), but the general deterioration of courses matched the infrastructure - and the supplies and 'extras' were appalling.

I think much of what made my grade school experience rich was the diversity of classes (home econ, wood shop, metal shop, auto shop, speech, typing, etc.), the tone of respect for good students (in about half the schools), and the budgeting flexibility that accommodated field trips, extracurricular academic 'clubs,' and the cleanliness of both the schools and grounds. Graduating classes actually bought things (benches and stuff) for the schools.

[barb162]

46. Do you have an idea of how the standards dropped ? I was

never a teacher so I don't know why such huge numbers of students who can't think, reason, spell, etc, are B or A students. When did the grade inflation start happening?

[TahitiNut]

47. I personally saw that as "misguided liberalism".

I saw it start in the latter 70s ... when it was argued that failing the student socially stigmatized him. I personally thought it should have been done more commonly. That would've made it less stigmatizing. :evilgrin:

I think what concerns me the most is the idea that it's the school's job to teach - as though kids can be force-fed. I personally think teaching is a matter of offering the content and coaching. Motivation is the parent's job. When I was in high school, I tutored other kids in lower grades. (Come to think of it, that was probably good preparation for teaching.) That was organized by the school and offered to the parents. The teachers of the kids I tutored coached me in what needed emphasis. I've never seen that in recent decades.

I guess I'm a bit handicapped. I don't have kids of my own. (I 'borrow' them from others.) While I've kept active in helping out, I don't get to see what parents see. My friends who're parents aren't always shy about asking me to help out, though, and I've always gotten a kick out of helping kids with their course work. I can spend hours and it goes by in a flash.

[alcuno]

12. I HATE reform math.

We have students in 7th and 8th grade who don't even know their multiplication tables. Why? They don't force them to learn them.

Also, parents throw up their hands and confess that they weren't any good at math; like there is some genetic reason impeding on learning elementary mathematics.

[barb162]

34. back in my day (c. 100 BC) we were not let out of the third

grade unless we knew the tables and they made us stand up in front of the class and recite them. Do they do this now? We learned them if for no other reason we didn't want to be embarrassed in front of the other kids or repeat third grade.

PS: I bet the 7th and 8th graders who don't know this basic stuff are B students re my grade inflation rant elsewhere on this thread

[alcuno]

36. Nope. Reform math promotes the use of CALCULATORS!

I actually sat in a meeting with a curriculum director chortling over the fact that the elementary teachers no longer had to "bother" teaching long division; it was boring for them anyways.

Forget the fact that long division is a mathematical algorithm, now we have "guess and check" so kids don't have to learn how to do long division. Trust me, they are not B students.

[barb162]

38. this is worse that I thought, really

The teachers aren't telling the kids how to think it through, the logic involved? Oh geez, this is bad.

[TahitiNut]

49. I was NEVER able to memorize the 12x12 "times tables".

(I got my undergraduate degree in math, too.)

When I was in third grade, I 'cheated.' I figured out that I could figure out most of the table by just memorizing a little bit of it. (I detested memorization.) I saw anything times 9 was two digits that summed to 9. Even to this day, for example, I calculate "8 times 7" by caculating "2 times 7" and doubling it twice. (14 ... 28 ... 56) For some reason, that was easier for me.

It wasn't until many years later that I realized I 'discovered' prime numbers. It turned out that I only memorized the prime number pairs (combinations of 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11 - only 15 pairs instead of 78). Just because I was lazy. :shrug:

[barb162]

50. Funny, I did tricks like that too but more with 11. So I would

multiply by 10 and then add 11. So for 11x11 (or 11x12), I'd do 11x10 and then add 11 (or 22). It works.

[Benhurst]

13. No problem. All math problems can be outsourced to India. nt

[scrantonlib17]

14. I Got a 92!

In AP Calculus.

[milkyway]

17. Congratulations! And you're cool enough to have Dylan as your avatar.

Most high school seniors have no idea who Bob Dylan was. Math is also very cool. It's the universal language of the universe (and it's very useful in proving election fraud).

[scrantonlib17]

18. Yeah Dylan's Awesome

Most other seniors have no idea in hell who Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, The Kinks, or Donovan are. The of course by name recognition know the Stones and Beatles. (Both of which I love except Stones, I'll put a limit at around 1970, after that they started to suck.)

As far as math, its awesome. It makes so much sense to me. Sometimes I am convinced my left brain and right brain are battling it out. As far as finding the number of votes Bush stole in Ohio with respect to time, I can do it. (Even w/o Calculus)

[The Zanti Regent]

15. Christian Math Testing

Q) how do you divide 10 apples between 12 apostles?

A) First you bless the apples, then...

[GraphicQueen]

16. Hell, they are even very low...

when it comes to history. Basically, our educational system downright sucks the big one and needs a huge overhaul. Putting more money into isn't going to help it at all. I believe it will make it nothing but worse. I don't believe in public money going for private schools at all. But we must get back to teaching the three Rs instead of worrying about teaching about dumb things.

[alcuno]

23. Anti-intellectualism at work.

Intellectuals in our society are ridiculed and treated with open hostility. Meanwhile, the Leno's in America glorify the idiots. The Limbaugh's claim that they will think so that we don't have to.

[barb162]

21. 30 years ago it was the same story; it has always been the same

story in my lifetime. I remember in high school a girl came in as a sophomore from Poland and she could speak English fairly well. She became that class valedictorian in 3 yrs. When she came in as a soph. she already had about 6 years of English, French, etc. Also she was way ahead of everyone else on science, especially physics, biology, etc., having already taken a few years of each and very in-depth too. She thought all of our classes were super easy and she hardly had to study as she had that stuff in grade school in Poland. I think there are fewer colleges there per capita so if you want to get into college you have to be great. Kids really work hard in school in other countries.

Here people can breeze through school (and check in at the local jr. college), there is enormous grade inflation the last 30 plus years in my estimation, etc. They dumbed down the SAT twice (I believe). AT my local high school in what is considered an ecellent school district I believe half the kids or more are B students as who the hell grades on a curve anymore. Then the kids walk out of school and they can't locate Brazil on a globe.

[fshrink]

28. Here's a large part of the answer.

http://www.thebentinel.com/041201-alternative-value-for-pi.html

Sky's the limit! And welcome to bushage (Japanese speakers here?)

[barb162]

31. that story is really impressive, another sign of how we are

going backward...not having math dept. teachers discussing the topic, but a bunch of non-math types deciding and basing their decision on scripture

[Jackpine Radical]

29. So if we were to make a country out of MN, WI & IA

it would rank first in the world in student academic ratings.

[Endangered Specie]

32. What do you expect from a population which many believe that pi=3.0000 ?

[TX-RAT]

67. Never heard of that before.

[Endangered Specie]

70. I believe the bible states that pi should be taken as 3.00:

1 Kings 7:23 He (Solomon) made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim (diameter = 10) and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it. (circumfrence = 30)

its a joke ok ;)

[TX-RAT]

71. thanks, a little slow here.

[Gregorian]

33. But Fibonacci RULED

And Newton rocked! No wait, Leibniz rocked. Yeah, he had cool hair. Not to mention one of the two, if not both, invented calculus. Oh, there's nothing quite as sexy as infinite series.

[Ellen Forradalom]

37. I see you've been watching the Bikini Calculus video again

http://www.howtodogirls.com/

[Gregorian]

43. Wow! Twelve episodes.

I'm so ashamed- I don't remember the Chain Rule. Shame on me. Well, it's only been 18 years. It's because I didn't learn from the How-to-Do Girls. No, I had some eccentric old unmarried woman who overused the word "slick". Man, what I didn't know.
Gee, I wonder if they have partial differential equation striptease...


Edit- I hope they do one for poor spellers.

[IHeart1993]

39. Ditto

[hatrack]

40. I've seen this headline before . . . somewhere . . . sometime . . .

Has anyone else? :evilgrin:

[Tight_rope]

42. Who cares if US kids can't add.....It's more important to quote scriptures

"Moral Values" are more important to 51% of American's. They don't care that their kids can't add, read or write. As long as those kids know that being a homosexual is bad and that they go to church on Sunday's, why worry.

[daleo]

48. When close to half the population thinks two of every species of animal

Can fit on an medium sized ark, along with the food and other supplies for them for 200 days, and be tended by about 10 people, is it a surprise to find out they don't have very good mathematical skills or mathematical reasoning? I would think that most such people would positively shrink from math - it is the devil's work that leads people astray. Besides, isn't that the sort of stuff Godless pagans like Plato and Socrates were into? Plus, weren't they gay?

[I_Make_Mistakes]

51. It is sad, the math problem

I happened to excel in math, in the early 70's. I have to say, that being lower middle class, I attended an excellent school district.

I took advanced algebra in 8th grade. I figured out interest/payment info., in the mid 80's by hand, using algebra. Math is the most important educational subject in our day to day lives.

When did the new math come into play? I don't remember, but that was our downfall. I believe it was centered around, estimates and guesses. I have a hard time helping my friends kids with math today.
They use calculators in elementary school, so, they can't count, add, multiply, divide, etc. without aid. It is the saddest thing, that we allowed to happen! (not withstanding, the change generating calculator register).

Please don't flame me, I am to blame also. We, my generation, were working so hard to obtain the American dream, that we let the educational system fall into teaching for a job, not an education. (I know now, this started with Reagan).

I was a sub math teacher for 1 day. It was probably, the most stressed day of my life. I thought having to solve billions of dollars problems was stressful, Hello!!

The kids today are street smart and willing to take anyone on. The problem is, they really do have it figured out. It doesn't matter how hard you work (hours), or how hard you try to be a good person, you'll still get crapped on!!

Why bother?

[depakid]

52. Counting ribs is another inexplicable anomaly

-there's a story I could relate about the an anatomy professor in a midwest college and his usual first day of class, where he points to a male and a female skeleton and asks whether any of the students can tell him the difference between the two...

But, then- you get the picture...

[Nile]

53. The social promotion experiment does not work.

I you are not competent at your grade level you should not move on to the next. Keep them back.

[Bono71]

74. Agree

[Forkboy]

54. I dont care and neither do the other 42 states!

[jmatthan]

55. Invalid assessment

See my blog for conditions in Finland rated No: 1

http://jmatthan.blogspot.com/

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

[Martti]

56. Proof?

quote from your site :

"My analysis and experience is that Finland is one of the the MOST CORRUPT COUNTRIES on this globe!! And, that corruption starts at the top of the political system, and runs through the judiciary and the entire legal system, the police, the bureaucrats, and right across the corporate system."

You might want to clarify that one, since as a native I have yet to experience such things.

Martti

[jmatthan]

58. Personal experiences

but also several cases relating to how the judiciary makes decisions, how police act in cases, how the labour office handles unemployment issues, how the local magistrate's office handles problems related to guardianship matters, how the public guardian handles issues of fraud of their customers money, etc. etc.

Bureaucratic cimes are particularly rampant!!

I talk with over 20 years experience in these issues, but they can be discussed off this board. My web site used to house many live matters revealing this where a former Finnish politician used to write a column for me called Finland - Oligarchy ?? = Democracy ??. I used to have another web site written by Finnish student, a column called "Going Sohlo" which exposed several issues.

Or take the case of Liisa Maripori and where her book and even the court papers from the lower court in Raahe have been sealed for 15 years as she exposed the fraudulent behaviour of tax officers. Just enter her name in Google and you will land up on one of my old pages which popularised her now banned book!! The vcase is now going to the Vaasa High Court and will finally go to Europe.

Kerstin Campoy and Outi Koski are two other issues where I have been active behind the scenes!!

I was also the Vice Chairman of the Oulu Area Same Law For All Association and also represented the Pohjois-Pohjanmaa Region on the Finnish Sports Federation Tolerance Board chaired by Tapio Korjus. Further I represented all the English speaking minorities in Finland on the Ethnic Minorities Advissory Board (ETNO) chaired then by Pertti Sorsa. So I have seen literally thousands of case files as my experience.

Finns do not want to believe that their system is corrupt - but I can assure you that it is and there are hundreds of cases that I have personally handled through my extremely popular web sites - even the case of Juhani Niinivaara (the famous Finnish inventor) and SYP!!! Having also been an Advisor to NEON, many cases were handled by us in that organsation also.

When findians.com is back on line I will point you to the issues as they were documented over the period 1996 to 2001. Since then I have stopped being active on that front as others have taken over this mantle.

Ask my wife - who is a native, if you want to hear the cases she has handled.

What I failed to add in my list was the corrupt media as well, which is why you do not hear of these cases.

Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland

[ElsewheresDaughter]

60. Canada has 50% as passing grade C...what do other countries consider

a passing grade?....50% is a failing grade in any school in the US that i know

[SidDithers]

81. Huh?...

50% is not a C in Canada.

Sid

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. My experiences with math instruction over the decades

I went through most of grade school during the 1950s, when we still had to memorize the multiplication tables and do long division. The teachers made games out of learning the multiplication tables. We'd have flashcard competitions, which worked sort of like spelling bees: the teacher would hold up a flashcard, and the first of two students to answer it correctly got to face another challenger. We also had timed tests with different random multiplication problems (2 x 3, 9 x 7, 8 x 5... ), and on each occasion, we were supposed to try to come in under our previous completion time.

At that time, I found math tedious, especially long division, and the "story problems" always struck me as stupid. However, I did all right, and in sixth grade, I was even admitted to a special math group of students who were allowed to move ahead at their own speed. Some of my classmates even finished the sixth grade book and got a good start on seventh grade math.

However, I moved to a new school system and was placed in the so-called "enriched track" for all subjects. We used a series called Modern Math for Junior High Schools, which I liked pretty well as we learned things like percentages and a bit of probability and set theory. Ninth grade was a different matter, though. The Modern Math series approach to algebra just didn't work for me for reasons I no longer remember clearly, and I was placed in non-enriched math for tenth grade geometry.

I liked geometry a lot, since it seemed more like art than like math.

Algebra II was a shock. Again, I was in the regular program along with students who had not taken the Modern Math Algebra I. However, they seemed to have received much more explicit instruction in how to solve problems than I had. For one thing, they all knew how to do this mysterious operation known as "factoring." (If we had ever been explicitly taught how to factor in Modern Math, I missed it.) Anyway, the review period for Algebra II was where I finally learned Algebra I. I struggled through Algebra II, and what saved me was meeting with a Japanese exchange student every morning to compare answers and to rework any problems where our answers differed. (I later learned that she would have had all this material in ninth grade, so it was a sluff course for her.)

That was it for high school math, and it got me through my Physics for Non-Majors course in college.

After coming out of graduate school with no job, I considered for the first time the idea of becoming a translator. People told me that all the best jobs were in technical areas, so I decided to take a bit of math at the University of Minnesota. (At the time, the early 1980s, taking even one extension course at the U made me eligible for student health insurance, so there was an added bonus.)

Based on the results of the placement test, I was sent back to Algebra II, which came back to me quickly, and I received my first A in math since sixth grade. A further factor in my new-found success was that studying linguistic theory in grad school had taught me that you can't study technical stuff as if it were a humanities subject. The techniques I had learned for passing courses in linguistic theory helped me re-master algebra.

Feeling confident, I went on to College Algebra and received another A. Woohoo! I was feeling primed for Trig and Solid. Here I fell down a bit because in preparing for the first midterm, I didn't really believe the instructor when he said that we would have to memorize the basic ratios. I quickly remedied that after getting a D on the test, and with the ratios firmly implanted in my mind, I easily managed the rest of the course.

But Calculus turned into a brick wall. The instructor was incoherent, possibly because he was teaching full-time at a local private college AND moonlighting at the U four nights a week. He didn't collect homework, because the department didn't give him a T.A. I ended up back in C- land and bailed out after one term. From then on, I took language courses to maintain my health insurance.

Ten years after that, ready to work as a translator for real, I started math again at Portland State University. They had a self-placement policy, and because I didn't want to take Algebra 2 a third time, I signed up for Trigonometry. The instructor was a grad student who looked as if he had walked out of a heavy metal band, but he was one of the best math instructors I've ever had. He explained every new concept from at least two, sometimes three approaches, and if you didn't get the explanation the first time, you sure did the second or third time. Later, when I met the math department chair socially, I made a point of praising that young man's teaching ability.

Next on the schedule was another try at College Algebra, and while I zoomed through that, the instructor, another grad student, was abysmal. He was obviously unprepared, and he never monitored the class to see whether anyone understood. He did not even realize that some of the self-placed students were struggling with basic arithmetic. ("How do you divide fractions?" one fellow student asked me.) Of the students who were taking College Algebra for the first time, the only ones who did well were the ones who hired private tutors.

I started Calculus again the following term. The instructor was coherent, and I kept up the first three weeks of the class just fine. However, as sometimes happens in the life of a free-lancer, I landed a huge job with a short deadline and was unable to keep up with the homework, so I reluctantly dropped the class. I have not taken math since.

My next encounter with math instruction, however, came when I was tutoring street kids in a Salvation Army program that included help with G.E.D. preparation. I found that their average level of math competence was what I thought of as fourth or fifth grade. I asked them why this was so, and the most common answer was that this was where math became "hard" and that class sizes were so large that teachers couldn't deal with all the students who had problems. (Most of them had parents who were alcoholic, drug-addicted, mentally ill, abusive, incarcerated or any combination of the above, so there was nothing like the support I received at home when I had problems with long division.)

Some of the kids just needed a little coaching to work through the self-instruction books, but some of them didn't want to work that hard. "Why should I learn this stuff when I have a calculator?" one boy asked me. "What if you don't have your calculator with you?" I asked back. "I just always carry it," he replied smugly.

Lack of parental support and society's anti-intellectualism are closely linked to another factor in poor school performance, namely, local control. If a child lives in a school district where the parents are concerned and involved and insist on good schools (consider the typical college town), the child will get good math instruction. If the parents are anti-intellectual or overwhelmed with their own problems or unaware of their own power to influence local governments, then the child will get poor math instruction.

So that's one person's long-term view of math instruction in the U.S.

[seasat]

63. Shrub Inc has to keep the kids bad in math...

otherwise they'd figure out his social security plans, tax proposals, budget policies, and trade policies. If you keep them ignorant, they'll stay happy and still support the Shrub.

[Gregorian]

64. It's the teachers and the process.

First, I want to say that I hate the so-called Socratic method. It's nothing but a tool for weeding people out in the process of getting students ready for the work force. There is nothing wrong with "spoon feeding". I made it through five years of calculus, and even though I am good at math, I hated every second of it, except the lectures. I loved learning.
What I mean is that school is not a place for learning as much as a place for weeding out. That is just plain wrong.

I forgot to add one very important thing- something crititcally missing from not only math, but from most other subjects (technical subjects) is application. I spent years studying mathematical techniques without ever knowing what they were used for. For me, it is absolutely critical that I know what something does. As a result, I will never use calculus. I wasted valuable years of my life, and the university's by not knowing what I was studying for. Sure a restoring force is used to model the way a boat slows down in water. That was about as close as any example to learning what my studies were used for. But that doesn't cut it. In order to really learn, it would take twice as long for students to go through college. But time is money. Ultimately it boils down to population. With this many people trying to get degrees, we cannot take the time to personally make sure they all learn. I'm affraid most of my anwers to problems boil down to that one denominator. Population. We could do a better job, but we don't have the time to teach them all.

I just finished a book where the author told of his experience in a math class. Half the class was failing. Then one day a substitute teacher showed up to teach the remainder of the course. The teacher took it upon himself to make sure that every student learned the subject, even if it meant Saturday classes on the side. And he played volleyball with them after class. He said that if a student failed, then he had failed. The entire class passed, and not only with good grades, but with an enjoyment for math. In fact, the author went on to major in the subject, after nearly failing.

THE BOTTOM LINE- as money becomes more important, so does time. And then we all suffer. Teachers don't have time to teach; Parents don't have time to parent. Society becomes more like a bank, than a place of enjoyment.

[Igel]

73. I'll partly agree. (But only partly.)

My favorite class K-12 was college algebra, half-year of analysis and half-year linear algebra. The teacher enjoyed it, immensely. Treated us like college students. He lectured, we asked; the problems were all abstract, nothing at all was applied, but most of us didn't mind. He challenged our behavior, and we accepted the challenge.

The result: we finished the fall coursework a month early, and started doing groups and rings and other things I never ran into in college. Then we finished the spring coursework early, and kept on going. His was the only class where we not only completed the curriculum, but exceeded it.

On the other hand, for 200+ students in my class, I was the only one taking the course as a junior, and there were all of 10 or 11 seniors in the class.

[Igel]

66. Ever see Czech schools?

They're in the top 10%, for math.

They're clean; bright; and hopelessly run down and out of date. Don't need computers and fancy textbooks to teach algebra and calculus if you've been taught that school's important; now they buy their own textbooks, but it used to be they'd have old ones (again, algebra and calculus hasn't changed in 100 years). Graffitti, broken windows and fixtures, and chipped plaster don't spontaneously happen.

The system is set up wisely: they don't force kids to all be college-track. At least in the early 90s they had salesclerk- and waiter-tracks: you have to test high to place into academic curricula; otherwise, it's to vocational programs with you.

Parents sit on their kids: they learn, or they're in trouble. Even kids that hate school can do well. Teachers work hard, but they're not boxing referees: the kids are trained by their parents to behave, and society expects well-behaved students, not teenage rebels without a cause; first get into college, *then* you can stage a Velvet Revolution.

It's not the per student expenditures; it's not teacher education. It's the culture in the schools and among the parents.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

68. I have to agree

Japanese parents go to the opposite extreme from American parents and push their kids too hard, but they make it clear that learning things is GOOD.

I grew up in a family with a house full of books of all types. Wherever we traveled, we always saw the historic sites along the way. Furthermore, my parents made it clear that if we ever got into trouble at school, there would be double trouble at home.

When I was teaching on the college level, I found students who knew nothing, had never been anywhere, and could be assured that their parents would defend their behavior even when they were clearly in the wrong.

[Igel]

72. My high school was

working class all the way. Only 4 kids from my graduating class were college-bound (and this included 2 who announced they were going to community college). More than that had died from drug overdoses and drunk driving.

Jock? Popular. Metal-shop whiz? Popular. Taking pre-calc? Nerd.

I'm still ABD; my father required I finish my homework the day it was assigned before going out of the house or eating dinner, if possible. I miss school or skip class, I'm grounded. One lone "B" one quarter triggered a serious father-son talk.

I know parents that still are still that way. But not many.

[genieroze]

69. Well let's just throw more money at testing rather than teaching...eom

[VegasWolf]

75. US students lead the World in study of Creationism! n/t

[okawari22]

76. Indian schoolchildren learn

multiplication tables to one-hundred times one-hundred.

[mtnester]

77. I am shocked...

shocked I tell you



Not

[SemperEadem]

78. you don't need math skills to work as a CommieMart greeter

all the big paying jobs will be done by the emerging youth of other countries who will not be jumping onto the 'education=satan' bandwagon of the fund-demented, neocon xtians in this country. When school districts can be infiltrated and hijacked away from teaching scientific fact by a repackaged religious theory, stuck down by the supreme court in its first incarnation, then it's only a matter of time before they begin the assault on anything/everything which begins to explain in layman's terms things which they used to learn in a bible-class lessons on Sundays.

We are allowing fundamental xtians to destroy our competitiveness in the global marketplace by dumbing down our youth to the point where they will be outflanked by the youth of other countries and forced to work at CommieMart.

[0007]

79. Leave no child behind. Fuck junior leaves all behind.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

80. These findings are a recipe for more of the same...

1) Discover that kids in other countries are more proficient in (fill in subject here).

2) Freak out. Blame teachers, administrators, parents, TV, and stir well.

3) Blame anybody else you can without actually accepting responsibility yourself, and toss gently with words like "accountability" and "Christian values".

4) Hire some moron to create a new test that will prove the United States has the bestestest students in the world.

5) Cut more music and art budgets...from non-school related community programs if necessary.

6) Ask God to bless America. Wait five years.

7) Wonder why it's not working yet, and hire an image consultant to convince US citizens that everything's much better than it used to be.