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"Scores on the 2015 reading test have dropped five points since 1992, the earliest year with comparable scores, and are unchanged in math during the past decade."
It is obvious we have long passed the point of diminishing returns in education. The next additional $ we spend on will not produce any better outcomes than the last $200 billion or whatever. That dollar could be better spent on road and bridges, on new cell phones, on ice cream.
Paying more for something that could be had for less never increases social welfare. It only reduces it. Although it might increase someones private welfare.
If we want to improve education, reduce taxes so people have to work less. Let them get on with their family lives, which we are always told when kids fail is more important than teaching inputs anyway.
We should recognize that preparing 60% or so of the kid for college is all that can be achieved no matter what we do. We've about run out of potions, spells and incantations. "College material" is just not what most kids are, never were, and never will be.
This can't possibly be true. We've spent trillions on the Dept. of Education.
This can't possibly be true. We've spent trillions on the Dept. of Education.
What happened?
Somehow we've managed to spend trillions on the Dept. of Education, yet teachers are still paid the same now as they were then, less kids have access to a math book as they did then, and kids get less instruction time than they did then.
We are obviously spending our money in all the wrong places. iPads in the classroom, fancy gyms, layers of administrators, and days and days of nothing but testing; these things do not teach math.
In the homeschooling forum that I frequent, the consensus is that the kids who used Singapore levels 1-6 had a very easy time transitioning to algebra and beyond. Foundations for algebraic concepts are laid early and often in the curriculum. We're still in level 2 (equivalent to 3rd grade math in the US) so we'll see. But I do see a lot of basic algebra in my daughter's word problems, even this early, so I'm pretty confident. For example, in the section where we learned about coins, they had several of the classic "I have 4 coins that add up to 50 cents, what coins are they?" type of questions, which is very basic algebra.
This is algebra? I'm afraid to ask. Can't they get that by guessing?
Quote:
Originally Posted by pkbab5;
Also when they first learn multiplication and division, they have questions like "Susie has 18 books, she gave some to Jon, and now she has twice as many books as Jon. How many books did she give him?" It teaches the kids how to draw the bar diagram picture to show "18 - blank" is the same as "2 * blank", and how to use the bar diagram picture to figure out you need to divide 18 by 3 to get the answer. Then when you get to algebra, all you have to do is explain that you can do the same thing you did in your picture with the numbers by turning the blank into an "x", writing "18 - x = 2 * x", adding "x" to both sides of the equation, so you now have 18 = 3 * x, and then divide both sides by 3, and voila you have x = 18/3. And they understand this because they can see the picture of it in their heads.
o.0 (eyes glaze over)
Can I join your daughter in your math home-schooling sessions?
This is algebra? I'm afraid to ask. Can't they get that by guessing?
Yes! You can get it by guessing, which is a very good way to begin understanding how algebra works.
x amount of nickels + y amount of dimes + z amount of quarters = 50 cents
You begin by guessing the amounts, but it solidifies in your head what an "unknown" is, what a "variable" is. If you never do the guessing type problems like this, it's very hard to understand what a "variable" is. An unknown number that can "vary".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
o.0 (eyes glaze over)
Can I join your daughter in your math home-schooling sessions?
Lol sure. Or you can watch videos on you tube. Here's some Singapore math on youtube:
Yes! You can get it by guessing, which is a very good way to begin understanding how algebra works.
x amount of nickels + y amount of dimes + z amount of quarters = 50 cents
You begin by guessing the amounts, but it solidifies in your head what an "unknown" is, what a "variable" is. If you never do the guessing type problems like this, it's very hard to understand what a "variable" is. An unknown number that can "vary".
Lol sure. Or you can watch videos on you tube. Here's some Singapore math on youtube:
If these kids slip any further in math, they're gonna need a post hole digger to retrieve their scores.
As to the calculator.....about 30 years ago, I was trying to figure out how to get the square root of a number without using a calculator (I'd never been taught that and there were no computers then to look it up). I even went to the local community college and was finally referred to someone who actually knew how to do it. But that was after I'd talked to about 6 teachers in the Math and Sciences building.
But what if you use a different way, which is to write out all the addition facts on flash cards and then memorize them? Then the student learns that 2 + 2 = 4 because they just memorized that when they see the symbols "2 + 2" then they are supposed to answer "4". But then if you showed them 2 fingers on one hand and two fingers on the other hand and asked them what does it make altogether, they are baffled. Because they were taught "2 + 2 = 4" but they were not taught to understand what it meant.
Yes, but that is not learning math concepts. That's just memorizing and parroting information.
Quote:
This is why you have kids who can recite their times tables flawlessly, but if you tell them there are 7 days in a week and ask them how many days are there in 3 weeks, they have no idea. They can do multiplication, but have no idea what it means. They were taught the wrong way.
This is why it is important to work out and test word problems. "Days" and "weeks" are abstract concepts in themselves. So, initially it may be difficult for some students to understand that you can do math with them.
However, once a student is taught that days or weeks can be thought of as concrete objects like abacus beads, it will become clear to them that you can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division with them just like you can do with beads.
By the way, this a good example of an abacus that is very easy to learn math on:
I've been out of high school for several years and still can't pass a remedial math class even with tri-weekly tutoring... None of my public schools teachers cared when it came to math, and if you needed help than good luck. I had several great since and english teachers, but most of the history and math teachers were district coaches who didn't want to teach and didn't care about the students who weren't on their team.
Do those national assessments include private school test results? I wonder if the private schools are doing a better job at teaching math. I doubt it. There's a problem with how the US teaches math, and I don't know what it is, but throwing money at it isn't going to solve it.
The problem is that we don't expect our kids to remember what they learned. Our idea of teaching in depth is spiraling back to the same topic over and over and over but what that teaches our kids is that they don't need to remember what they learn because we'll come back to it over and over. They are shocked when they reach high school and we expect them to be able to use what they learned before. They forgot it after the test.
Asian countries teach fewer math topics per year but teach them more in depth and spend less time reviewing previously learned material. If you compare our kids to theirs in 4th grade ours have learned a lot more topics but don't really know them. While theirs have learned fewer topics they are mastering the topics they learn. By 8th grade their kids have seen all the topics ours have seen but theirs have mastered them while our kids are still expecting reviews every time an old topic comes back. This results in us spending more time reviewing than we do teaching new topics and allows their kids to race right past us. The issue with education in the US is a complete failure to hold students accountable for remembering what they are taught. We coddle them. We spoon feed them. We spiral back to topics over and over and over thinking that if we repeat it enough in different ways something magical will happen.
When our local school implemented Everyday Math my daughter fell off the table math wise. I moved her to a school that used Singapore math. After one year she had jumped two years in math ability and was moved to the G&T track for math. I returned my dd's to the public school for high school. My youngest who knew nothing but Singapore math tested out of algebra in the 7th grade. We made her take it anyway as I didn't want her having to go to the high school for math. Unfortunately, she was no longer being challenged in high school and ended up stagnating. FTR the charter school used US books for high school so it wouldn't have mattered if they'd stayed in the charter high school.
When you spend as much time reviewing previously learned material as you do teaching new material you send the message that kids don't need to actually remember and use what you teach. You get what you expect.
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