People Wait For Tomorrow's UWS Apple Store Opening
Giuliani Livid Over Bringing 9/11 Trials to NYC
FIT Students Busted For Drug Dealing Get Probation
Oreo The Dog Is Dead, Blame Game Is Not
Pregnant Woman And Two Men Shot In Clinton Hill Drive-By
In anticipation of the state mathematics test that is being given this week and next, the NY Times has published the kinds of questions eighth-graders will face next week. The test is used to see "whether students have sufficiently mastered the material to move on to more advanced work in high school." In other words, it's a big deal.
The Times has all eight questions and answers and the questions seem manageable - but we say that having graduated high school. According to the Times, 53.9% of NY State students score at or above grade level; only 38.9% of NYC students score at or above grade level, while 82% of wealthier schools students' score at or above grade level.
If you're really ambitious, here's the whole test. And last fall, some parents started a website to complain about the inane fourth grade English test.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
uhh...i don't know the answer to #1...please help
C, C, D, and C
for wayne:
24x^2 * 2 = 48x^2
24x^2 * 3x = 72x^3
The Times has a point here. In high school, they need to teach things that everyone needs to know. Not everyone should go to college, and not everyone who doesn't go to college should just be dumped on the social landfill.
Well, I have a graduate degree, have been gainfully employed for 25 years, and only see relevance to #2 and, if you are a carpenter, #6. When is the last time any of you solved a quadratic equation?
I can only hope that all the exponential algebra is the "reach" questions intended to identify a few super geniuses, and is not typical of the entire test.
thanks Dan...i realized the answer after i thought about it a little more...
Question to WT Economist...isn't it more about the student's "ability" to learn this material and develop analytical skills they're trying to test? Granted it's not perfect, and may not be "applicable to life", but I think it does measure to a certain extent one's ability to think quantitatively/analytically that could used for other purposes.
Wayne, I agree, but the problem is that we rarely teach how to use this thinking for other purposes. Also, much of our education is still based on the Space Race and the Cold War; perhaps it's time to reevaluate where we are in the world.
I believe 8th graders should be able to answer these questions. There aren't even quadratic equations!! (At least not at first inspection). Besides, I don't think they're supposed to get every question right. I suspect the want it to be somewhat challenging so they can bracket students into not just proficient and non-proficient.
WT Economist:
I'm in graduate school for science-y stuff and on the same token, I feel like a lot of the things I learned in HS are somewhat useless aside from being generally cultured/educated. Sure, not everyone grows up to be a scientist, but not everyone grows up to be a historian or journalist or etc.. etc.. High school should prepare people for the POSSIBILITY of being all professions.
I think WTE's comment was less about what the test measures, and more about the belief that they shouldn't even teach exponential algebra in high school, which I strongly disagree with. Even if it's not applicable to his or her daily life, learning -- or attempting to learn -- this kind of math can help the student tap into a part of their abilities they may not have known they possessed. While I don't think it's necessary to take trig or advanced math to graduate high school, what's wrong with challenging students? If you don't want to just churn out college- and standardized-test ready students, you shouldn't dumb down the material to fit the average mold.
What we should do is be able to accept that a C-average in a challenging program is better than an A-average in what we have now. So what if you can't do algebra? You should at least have the chance to find out.
FYI, tests aren't made to be aced by the average student. What would be the point?
Well, I have a graduate degree, have been gainfully employed for 25 years, and only see relevance to #2 and, if you are a carpenter, #6. When is the last time any of you solved a quadratic equation?
Just to note, kids: if WT Economist doesn't need it, it's not important.
Math classes are more about developing problem solving skills than memorizing sine and cosine. However, if you decided to go to school to be a physicist or a chemist, it might be handy to know how to, like, multiply and stuff.
Kids now NEED to be told that they suck at certain things. They're being protected from that fact and that's why we have American Idol audition shows where people who wouldn't know an A if it stabbed them are honestly baffled when they're told they can't sing.
I'll just settle with them not stabbing each other to death. If they pass that, then quadratic equations be damned!
One thing high schools should be teaching is probability. I've noticed that most people have a poor grasp of the subject, but need to use it quite often in their day to day lives. If students had to graduate with some knowledge of probability, we would see very few people buy lottery tickets.
On the other hand, I had to take precalculus in high school and have had no need of that, despite later getting a MBA and working in a quantitative heavy profession. I've had little use for geometry. Algebra, probability, and accounting, yes. So I agree that the mathematics curriculm could use an overhaul.
I got 24/26. I couldn't answer #14 because I didn't have a ruler.