Posted on 11/18/2004 9:08:21 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thursday, November 18, 2004 Is U.S. math test a no-brainer?
National measure is too easy and casts doubt on achievement gains, study concludes. Others disagree.
WASHINGTON – The national test of student math skills is filled with easy questions, raising doubts about recent gains in achievement tests, a study contends.
On the eighth-grade version of the test, almost 40 percent of the questions address skills taught in first or second grade, according to the report by Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
The test for fourth-graders also has "false rigor," Loveless says: More than 40 percent of questions gauge first- and second-grade skills, two levels below the students tested.
The central fault, he contends, is that too many problem-solving questions rely on whole numbers, with too few challenges involving fractions, decimals and percentages. Such instruction sets students up for trouble in more-advanced high school classes and in daily life, where tasks such as shopping and measuring rarely involve neat round numbers, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
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An example of an eighth-grade math question on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress. A new study says this question is "absurdly easy" for eighth grade, but an official for the board that oversees the test says the question is a fair measure of algebraic concepts.
(2,5) (4,9) (6,13) Which of the following describes what to do to the first number in each ordered pair shown above to obtain the corresponding second number? A) Add 3 B) Subtract 3 C) Multiply by 2 D) Multiply by 2 and subtract 1 E) Multiply by 2 and add 1 (The correct answer is E) |
On purpose.
That's the best way to get kids to "feel good" about themselves.
And THAT is the whole point, right?
My response is that this question is more a test of reading comprehension than of math. I'm a former math teacher and I had to read the question twice. It introduces the higher level concept of the ordered pair to test a lower level concept. Perhaps that's what Loveless meant by "false rigor."
Only in the Red States.
ROFL!
I am a Math person, too. Ordered pairs is likely a foreign concept to many. At least it seemed that way to the entry level students I was teaching at a local CC.
Yes! I tutor math to high school students who have coasted through classes and suddenly crash and burn on the SAT.
99 times out of 100, the kid NEVER understood fractions. If you don't get fraction and decimals, algebra will be a mystery to you. If you don't understand algebra, kiss good bye to a career in medicine, engineering, research, etc.
Instead of wasting time having kids "discover" calculus, they should spend 1 solid YEAR on fractions and related concepts. They should also force the little animals to memorize the multiplication table. (No, Jenni, you don't NEED a calculator for that!) Okay - rant off now.
Eighth grade math test circa 1920:
How many gallons per minute are discharged by 2 pipes of one discharges 25 3/4 gallons per minute and the other 6 3/8 gallons less?
After traveling 34.875 miles, how far must a man go to travel 40 miles?
A dealer buys 2 1/2 bushels of chestnuts for $1.80 per bushel and sells them for 8 cents per quart. What is his profit?
The schoolhouse door is 4 feet wide and 7 feet 6 inches high. What is the perimeter? What is the area of one side? Draw a plan to represent this door using the scale of 4/16 inch to a foot.
A lady buys 5 lbs of tea and 48 lbs. of sugar. She pays 60 cents per pound for the tea and her bill is $5.40; what is the price per pound of the sugar?
I loaned $750 at 6% interest. After 1 yr. 8 mo. I received principal and interest. How much did I receive?
A famer bought a field of 16 1/2 acre at $37 1/3 per acre and sold it for $45 1/4 per acre. How much did he gain?
A man bought 60 cords of wood for $200. He sold them at a loss of 10%. At what price did he sell per cord of wood?
Harry is making boxes. It takes 2 oz. of nails to make each box. How many boxes can he make with 1 lb. of nails? How many lbs. of nails will be needed to make 52 boxes?
Two persons start from the same point. One walks 12 miles due west and the other walks 9 miles due north. How far apart are they?
ROFL!
They don't like to be without their calculators.....
They thought that I, a computer guy, would deny them the use of a calculator.....was just plain wierd.
My Dad and Mom studied latin in High School too.......
What's heavier, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?
We never have been, and we never will be.
It is very upsetting to have everything about school ruled by deceit and lies, but consider the alternative.
African or European feathers?
In the blue states, or the red ones?
:D
Fun over here!
Wonder if I could find the Math questions California has for Teacher's.......
It is actually a decent test.
No one ever asks about the Mobius Strip and the Klein bottle though.
And Cantors levels of infinity.
And space filling lines/...
What percentage passed?
Come on however, we all know full well that education these days is like playing musical chairs with 10 people and 15 chairs.
ping
Those are really from 1920?
I like them.
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