Math tests may get harder
Quest asked me to post the story, that ran inside today's paper about the state looking at making it harder to pass tests.
State officials are considering raising the bar for math in the end-of-grade tests for grades 3-8.
Under the standards now, eighth graders only need to answer correctly 33 percent to 35 percent of questions to pass math. The hurdle is so low you could almost fall over it, critics have said.
Last month I posted a strand (scroll down to "State looks at making math tests harder") about these very concerns.
Comments (10)
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Thanks Jennifer,
Thanks for the laugh that is. The sentence about falling over the hurdle actually made me laugh out loud!
But I know, it's not really funny. It's sad. We should be crying out for higher expectations of our students, yet it looks as if they are catering to our lowest performers again. Sad indeed.
But thanks for the laugh in spite of the saddness.
Posted on October 6, 2006 2:03 PM
Thanks, Jennifer, for posting this article.
Posted on October 6, 2006 2:11 PM
Quest,
You're welcome.
Posted on October 6, 2006 2:36 PM
Great strand Jennifer! Thank you for finding this.
Posted on October 6, 2006 5:09 PM
Is Raleigh crazy??? I'm teaching math concepts to my 5th graders that I learned in 8th grade. What they need to do is adjust the math curriculum so that it's more developmentally appropriate and raise the score needed to pass, maybe to 80% correct. We're teaching students about supplementary and adjacent angles before they've mastered long division.
Posted on October 6, 2006 10:16 PM
From what I have observed and heard from many teachers, long division is taught in 3rd grade. That's it. After that, children forget it.
They also have a hard time with "thinking skills" and two step problems, multiplications facts, anything that might require some memorization.
Children are being taught extensively how to use a calculator. For example: turning an improper fraction to a mixed number to a decimal. Do they know how to actually do this or what it mean? Most don't.
Posted on October 7, 2006 11:13 AM
Long division is not a part of the NC curriculum for third grade. I think long division is a fifth grade skill.
Posted on October 7, 2006 12:28 PM
You can go to NC's DPI site to find the mathematics course of study for each grade (or the SCOS for any area for that matter).
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/mathematics/scos/2003/k-8/index
Posted on October 7, 2006 1:59 PM
Addend
It did used to be part of the 3rd grade curriculum. That is what I have been told by the teachers. I haven't checked recently. Regardless, not much time is spent at all on long division. Too much time is spent with students using a calculator over their brains for SIMPLE math functions.
On another subject children learn cursive in 3rd grade. Many quit writing in cursive after that. There are many high school students who take all their notes by printing. With computers, many never master this "skill".
Posted on October 8, 2006 9:42 AM
By looking up the Math curriculum for per Andi's link, it appears long division is now taught in 4th grade.
Posted on October 8, 2006 9:47 AM