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??? What's so important about math scores? How often do you actually USE your high school math in your daily life? It's important for engineers but not for most of us.
Another reason for the dumbing down of America.
"Nah, we don't need no stinking math!"
If you break it down by State, Massachusetts is second in the World for science (after Singapore), perhaps a model?
And specifically China, Russia don't educate everyone, only the best, imagine taking out the bottom ~20% of US test scores, so it's not a measure of the countries intelligence but rather the educational system.
And being a strong personality and "special" a good idea. Let's see, it isn't doing much for the millennials because many are unemployed if not underemployed after graduating college. Perhaps military school is what we need, so long as helicopter parents don't get involved. Worked for many years...
It is not graduates' fault if the US economy is a mess. One doesn't have anything to do with the other. You can also see it in Spain, Portugal etc. Lots of highly educated graduates who have to emigrate as there are no jobs for them at home, not money to start their own businesses.
If you break it down by State, Massachusetts is second in the World for science (after Singapore), perhaps a model?
And specifically China, Russia don't educate everyone, only the best, imagine taking out the bottom ~20% of US test scores, so it's not a measure of the countries intelligence but rather the educational system.
MA HAD an excellent system.
They applied for and received RTT money which meant they had to switch to Common Core.
They did but just recently voiced concerns and put a 2 year halt on it.
The disastrous results from NY may have swayed them.
Taking RTT money meant that states had to switch over to the CC curriculum.
Next year they have to start using the CC tests. NY moved quicker though and used the CC tests and the results were horrible.
More states are now voicing concerns and backing off full implementation.
I don't know how that will turn out since they took RTT money which came with strings attached.
So far the Dept of Education has stayed mum on this.
Only 5 states have said no to Common Core. The others are in varying stages of implementation.
I think NY was the first to jump on board and into the deep end of the pool.
??? What's so important about math scores? How often do you actually USE your high school math in your daily life? It's important for engineers but not for most of us.
If you are good at math your odds of ending up in a job with decent pay goes way up IMO.
Given all the threads complaining about good paying jobs, I would think that's a pretty decent impetus.
??? What's so important about math scores? How often do you actually USE your high school math in your daily life? It's important for engineers but not for most of us.
You use algebraic concepts every single day.
Any problem involving a variable that you solve for is algebra.
Balancing your checkbook is arithmetic but figuring out how long it will take you to drive somewhere is algebra.
You've just singlehandedly explained the bad mortgage-led financial crisis. Too many people taking out loans they had NO hope of being able to repay.
That was a much greed as anything. Also, a whole bunch of the defaults they were able to repay but chose bankruptcy rather than keep paying on a house they were vastly upside down.
But hey, that's crazy talk....it's all the banks fault....because no one gets elected by telling the people they were at least partially to blame.
Most of what we learn at school, not just math, will be forgotten within maybe a decade after graduation. Except for the most basic formulas and ideas I have forgotten everything I used to know in physics, maths, chemistry, etc. The same goes for history, Latin, and other subjects.
I don't think the purpose of learning all those detailed things is to remember them for live, but to simply enable pupils to know a lot about everything so that they can choose from all kinds of college courses and jobs later on. So, in hindsight, yes, most of the studying at school is probably in vain, but we can't do without it. If I knew at age 10 that I would become a singer or a butcher, I might as well abandon school completely. Although a certain basic education can't hurt in order to be able to socialize without being considered a Neanderthal
Most of what we learn at school, not just math, will be forgotten within maybe a decade after graduation. Except for the most basic formulas and ideas I have forgotten everything I used to know in physics, maths, chemistry, etc. The same goes for history, Latin, and other subjects.
I don't think the purpose of learning all those detailed things is to remember them for live, but to simply enable pupils to know a lot about everything so that they can choose from all kinds of college courses and jobs later on. So, in hindsight, yes, most of the studying at school is probably in vain, but we can't do without it. If I knew at age 10 that I would become a singer or a butcher, I might as well abandon school completely. Although a certain basic education can't hurt in order to be able to socialize without being considered a Neanderthal
K-12 is basic.
College is where you specialize.
We've collapsed education into only academic and it's all for college preparedness.
That was our reform. We got rid of the the vocational/academic tracks the last 2-3 years of high school.
So yes..all kids must now take Algebra II or Trig because we changed the rules.
I'd have to counter that a LOT of people were deliberately misled by the federal government telling them that they "deserve" to own a home even though they were high-risk borrowers. Just look at Fannie/Freddie/FHA/HUD's arrangement with Countrywide to accept "unconventional credit" to qualify for mortgages prior to 2000:
"Underwriting Standards
Countrywide tends to follow the most flexible underwriting criteria permitted under GSE and FHA guidelines. Because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tend to give their best lenders access to the most flexible underwriting criteria, Countrywide benefits from its status as one of the largest originators of mortgage loans and one of the largest participants in the GSE programs.
When necessary—in cases where applicants have no established credit history, for example—Countrywide uses nontraditional credit, a practice accepted by the GSEs."
The government's practice of underwriting highly risky loans, telling people they "deserve" to own a home regardless of their financial situations, and the general population's total lack of mathematical reasoning which would have proven to them they had no hope of repaying their loans ALL contributed to the financial crisis.
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