Archive for January, 2011
Making It Happen
Making It Happen: Common Core Standards is a new publication from NCTM that connects the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) with the NCTM’s 30-year track record in standards for school mathematics. The report shows that many of the aims and goals of the Common Core State Standards Initiative are consistent with those of [...]
TED Talks: Teaching Kids Real Math with Computers
Interesting talk by Conrad Wolfram (strategic director of Wolfram Research, which produces mathematical software): “From rockets to stock markets, many of humanity’s most thrilling creations are powered by math. So why do kids lose interest in it? Conrad Wolfram says the part of math we teach — calculation by hand — isn’t just tedious, it’s [...]
Review of U.S. Math Performance in Global Perspective
The report U.S. Math Performance in Global Perspective: How Well Does Each State Do at Producing High-Achieving Students? suggests that the United States ranks behind most of its industrialized competitors in the mathematics performance of high achievers. Moreover, most states performed closer to developing countries than developed countries. However, in a review of the report, Dr. [...]
TED Talks: Math Class Needs a Makeover
Intriguing talk by Dan Meyer: “Today’s math curriculum is teaching students to expect — and excel at — paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them.”
PISA: It’s Poverty Not Stupid
From The Principal Difference (publication of the National Association of Secondary School Principals) “There are three kinds of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics.”-Mark Twain The release of the 2009 PISA results this past week has created quite a stir and has provided ample fodder for public school bashers and doomsayers who further their own [...]