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Math Standards Review, Part II

By maureen on 08 Feb | 2 comments

MathAs you may know, the latest draft of the state’s revised math standards was posted and presented to the legislature on Jan. 31. In their quest to make sure the new standards fit the needs of Washington students, however, the State Board of Education asked Strategic Teaching—the organization that originally offered recommendations on the state’s old standards—to see how well the new standards align with their recommended changes.

 

Long story short, Linda Plattner's group Strategic Teaching noted that the new K-8 standards were aligned with their recommendations and much clearer and easier to use than previous standards. The high school standards, unfortunately, need more work to more clearly communicate what “college-readiness” really means. This feedback was reflective of the comments we heard when several hundred Washington educators gathered at the recent OSPI conference in Spokane to review the latest drafts of the math standards.

 

The word on the street is that Supt. Bergeson has asked legislators for more time to bring folks to consensus on the high school standards. So stay tuned.

 

Read Strategic Teaching’s complete follow-up review for more information.

Topics: Legislature | Math | Math Curriculum | OSPI |

Comments

Posted: Fri, 02/15/2008 - 2:56pm — allisonm

armed with Alg 2 skills

Hi John -- thanks so much for your comment. It's great to hear from a teachers! While the traditional Algebra 2 course is a precursor to the higher level mathematics needed for the careers you note, our belief is that all kids in today's technology-driven workforce should be armed with Algebra 2 skills. To earn a family-wage job in today's economy, some postsecondary education will be needed -- whether it be vocational/tech, two-year community college or four-year baccalaureate -- a high school diploma is no longer sufficient for most jobs.

The best data we have today says this:

  • Four-year institutions require applicants to have passed Algebra 2 in high school.
  • Two-year colleges require the skills of Algebra 2 in order to take credit-bearing math courses. That means, yes, you can get into a two-year college without Algebra 2, but you will most likely have to take and pay for remedial courses to get you up to an Alg 2 level. And kids do not receive college credit for these classes.
  • Employers say that they want employees with Algebra 2 skills.


Right now in Washington state, 52 percent of students who go to community college take remedial math classes. Knowing this, setting the bar any lower than Algebra 2 would be a disservice to our students.

 

I also address in further detail your point about whether or not all kids need to take Algebra 2 in this recap of a recent State Board of Education meeting. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts after you read that blog (and I hope you do!)

 

Posted: Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:11pm — john wilson (not verified)

Alg2 requirements

I question the wisdom of making Alg 2 a requirement. How much of the math that we teach in these courses is really relevant to what students will be doing as adults. I can totally agree that for individuals going into engineering, science related fields, it is necessary. But for so many other fields, one can learn the required math later in their studies. They can learn the math necessary to their field in a more applicable and appropriate way. It seems we are forcing more math on more students than is necessary. Consider how many people really use exponents and logs, factoring, conic sections, etc. Research has been misused by some to say that taking higher level math courses leads to higher success later. Some people DO need and use higher level math as in Alg 2.It seems that these new requirements are some sort of bandaid for our society,to allleviate the concern that the elite in other countries can outperform our general population on math tests. I enjoy teaching math, but I feel the math I teach for these required Alg 2 courses is unrelated to the real world except for those students desiring to go into engineering or related fields. I like to think of math as an art, but it seems it is being used as a sieve for determing which students and schools are successful at meeting mandated math skills.