Posted on 12/01/2012 2:31:36 PM PST by thecodont
California students who fail algebra and repeat the course are pretty much doomed to fail again, a vicious cycle that wastes limited resources and precious learning time, according to a report released Friday.
Just over a third of students in the 24 school districts studied had to repeat Algebra I either in ninth or 10th grade, yet even after a second year of study, relatively few were proficient in the subject.
Of those who took the class in eighth grade and repeated it as freshmen, just 1 in 5 scored at a proficient level on standardized tests. And of those who repeated as sophomores, 9 percent were proficient.
"These results provide powerful evidence that school systems are struggling to successfully teach, or reteach, mathematics to students who are not already performing well in math by the time they reach middle school," said Neal Finkelstein, the lead researcher on the study, which was commissioned by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning at WestEd. ...
All told, half of all students in the study repeated algebra, geometry or Algebra II.
Yet many students retake the same course taught the same way, sometimes by the same teacher, according to the authors.
[...]
Researchers found that the majority of students who were proficient in Algebra I at the end of eighth grade followed an accelerated math track of geometry in ninth grade and Algebra II in 10th grade.
And those students made up the vast majority - 75 percent - of all those in their class who would ever become proficient in algebra by high school graduation.
Not a single student who earned below a grade of D in seventh-grade math went on to take calculus in high school, according to researchers.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Maybe they reached the limit of their ability to handle the subject matter and should be tracked into practical application of basic math to prepare them for the future to the best of their ability?
Nah. That’s discriminatory. Got to clog up the college preparatory track with students who cannot grasp the subject matter, in the interest of “fairness.”
bookmark
Seriously ?
Here is the deal with this. If these kids actually did their homework they would pass it just fine. Now by homework I don’t mean just the assigned problems at the end of the chapter. You do ALL OF THEM.
Most math textbooks have the answers in the back to either the odd or even problems. The instructor book has the answers to all the even numbered problems worked out. So when quiz/test time comes...where does the instructor go to get the problems for that exam? Could it be the instuctor’s book? The exam is the even problems or some set of problems similar?
This was my experience in every mathematics class I took in high school through partial differential equations and numerical analysis in college.
You don’t do the assigned....you do them all, and you will get an easy “A” because you have seen the problem before. Problem #7 on the exam was # 22 on page whatever from the relevant chapter.
My cousin is a 9th grade math teacher...having been an engineer most of his life, he transitioned to being a public school teacher two years ago.
The stories he tells about the utter lack of mathematical ability on the part of at least 70% of his kids is just mind boggling. And through it all, the idea that any kid would have to damage him or herself so viciously by having to, say, memorize a multiplication table is just appalling. The assumption is made that a calculator will always be present, and they are supplied...but he has kids who cannot translate the symbols on paper into button pushes. He has kids who have no idea how to use a ruler to measure the width of a piece of paper. And give them a word problem and they are absolutely lost.
In my conversations with him he describes kids who have no inherent interest nor curiosity in being able to see if they can solve a problem. Their approach is simply to do the minimum work required to achieve a passing grade. But they have zero interest in doing any better than a “C”. It’s almost like his kids are in a union....where doing better is tacitly (but de facto) discouraged because it would make the others look bad. He has an emphasis on checking your work...not just to see if the process and answer are valid, but to see if the result is reasonable. IOW, if it takes 4 hours to drive from X to Y, the answer to a “mph” question ought not be 3,000 mph if the the two towns in the problem are nearby towns that everyone has heard of. And they never, ever check their work...they get an answer and that’s the end of it. They don’t really seem to care whether they are right or wrong. They don’t care whether or not they understood the question or were able to formulate the solution process.
I’d go stark raving mad under the conditions he describes.
If the student was motivated.
That's the key. I'm not here to defend the public schools, but, once upon a time, it was the responsibility of the child to get an education.
Algebra is challenging -- but not that tough if the prerequisites have been learned. A majority of the students in this school system probably passed Algebra. I don't lose sleep and I hate to lose more tax dollars fretting over the others.
Our entire country, including the education system, is being geared toward the failures. I mean, just look at the last election results.
At least 3/4 of the failures occur because for one reason or another, the student does not try and does not care.
The reasons for that are many and varied. But it’s not that hard to learn if you want to learn it.
Since you asked, IMO it’s a lethal combination causing such self destructive behavior; 1) lack of parenting and 2) culture of shunning responsibility.
Kids do not think there is any consequence for failing to give effort.
as a homwschooler, i made the decision that my son should repeat Algebra 1 (so he covered it in 8th and 9th grade)... he didn’t fail it the first year, but he didn’t ace it either... i know that math is “developmental...” he understood it at a greater level the second time... i was much more comfortable moving him on after his second time completing it... now he actually has been able to tutor college students in Algebra...
Let's go check out Facefarque instead..........maybe have a couple joints while we are at it.
I took the required Algebra courses in high school and made As. In college I took the course on sets and math theory that was referred to as “Math for Poets.”
After 50 successful years in business and education I can truthfully say I was never once confronted with a problem that needed algebra.
We don’t require folks who are interested in physics, math or engineering to learn how to do legal briefs. I’ve never understood why requiring algebra is somehow a ‘given’ in the education system.
I don't even recall the guy's name any more but he made a difference in my situation simply because he GAF.
God bless this man.
But fools multiply rapidly.
It is unrealistic to expect all students to take and pass advanced math. That’s life and we spend a lot of time and money in a failed effort to prove the lie.
It’s also a lie that all teachers are able and prepared to teach advanced acadmeic level courses. A lot of teachers are unable to accomplish the advanced math understanding and knowledge they are expected to teach. It’s over their heads.
Algebra is racist (and islamist to boot!).
I thought Algebra was invented by the Egyptians before they became Islamic.
Boolean Logic seems fairly Algebraic to me.
One thing I think should be taught, as early as grade school, is what taxes are and what they’re used for.
A child should know her local sales tax rate and know how to calculate it and apply it to a purchase. She should also know about local postal rates and how much it costs to send a package somewhere.
A parent could set up a child with a simple savings account and teach them about interest rates and how they cause savings to grow (yeah, I know interest rates on savings are almost nonexistent these days, far behind the rate of inflation).
While we’re at it: teach them about inflation, and the present value of money.
I think these things would be a good start.
Or: building a playhouse. Even if the kids are using scrap cardboard, take a ruler or tape measure and help them figure out dimensions and square footage.
If you don’t work the problems and don’t go to class chances are you will fail. If you didn’t learn your arithmetic tables in the first and second grade it is GUARANTEED you will fail. This is not a new story. we have dumbed down arithmetic and math courses over the years. It is a disgusting and pointless exercise at this point
It makes a good NASA outreach story. The name is Arabic.
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