21st century skills

blueprint for success

constructivist catch phrases

21st century skills

blueprint for success

organizations

• Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)
  ITBS for homeschoolers & parents testing their own kids: Piedmont Education Services and BJUP.com

• Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

• AIR American Institutes for Research
  AIR did the Singapore Math study

• NCTM National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
  

• National Science Foundation Education and Human Resources (NSF-EHR) & Elementary, Secondary, & Informal Education (ESIE)
  It's not easy to find the word 'constructivism' on the site, but it's there.
  Here is the bibliography for FOUNDATIONS: A monograph for professionals in science, mathematics, and technology education ("Professional Development That Supports School Mathematics Reform"):
  
  

• PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
  There seems to be controversy over which of the two international assessments -- TIMSS or PISA -- is better. TIMSS seems to be the study mathematicians favor. (That's my impression; don't take my word for it.)
  

• TIMSS Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study
  Go here to find results for the latest comparisons--plus a terrific little 10-question online test you can give your child (or yourself) to see how you measure up to the rest of the world's 4th & 8th graders.
  

Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

we need an index page! just like in a book!

The relationship between knowing the math facts and the use of calculators is an interesting one. Using a multiplication table or a calculator when necessary to find a fact helps promote familiarity and reinforces the math facts. Students soon figure out that it is quicker and more efficient to know the basic facts than to have to use these tools. The use of calculators also requires excellent estimation skills so that one can easily check for errors in calculator computations. Rather than eliminating the need for fluency with the facts, successful calculator use for solving complex problems depends on fact knowledge.

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Suzanne: But the facts with nines are harder. I have to think about them, but I use the tens to make them easier.

Teacher: How, Suzanne?

Suzanne: Well, when I see 15 – 9, I think, “What do I need to get from 9 to 15?” I use counting up: from 9 to 10 is 1 and from 10 to 15 is five more. So, I get 6.

from TIMS Math Facts

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2004, Vol. 14, No. 1, 42-46

Abstract: Out of the 38 nations studied in the 1999 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), children in Singapore scored highest in mathematics (National Center for Education Statistics, NCES, 2003). Why do Singapore’s children do so well in mathematics? The reasons are undoubtedly complex and involve social aspects. However, the mathematics texts used in Singapore present some interesting, accessible problem-solving methods, which help children solve problems in ways that are sensible and intuitive. Could the texts used in Singapore be a significant factor in children’s mathematics achievement? There are some reasons to believe so. In this article, I give reasons for studying the way mathematics is presented in the elementary mathematics texts used in Singapore; show some of the mathematics problems presented in these texts and the simple diagrams that accompany these problems as sense-making aids; and present data from TIMSS indicating that children in Singapore are proficient problem solvers who far outperform U.S. children in problem-solving.

About the Author: Sybilla Beckmann is a mathematician at the University of Georgia who has a strong interest in education. She has developed three mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers and has written a textbook, Mathematics for Elementary Teachers, published by Addison-Wesley, for use in such courses. In the 2004/2005 academic year, she will teach a class of 6th grade mathematics daily at a local public middle school. http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/DEPT/TME/issues/v14n1/v14n1.BeckmannAbs.html

possible posts

posts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/06/AR2005040601587_pf.html

dedicated wiki pages

Dear All,

In the matter of preaching to the choir, C-Span has a video of Alan Greenspan's testimony to the House Joint Economic Committee. There is a fascinating exchange between Greenspan and Senator Reed about the divergence in income between skilled/supervisory workers and unskilled workers. They agree this is a very serious problem. At one point, Reed asks what short term policies can be implemented to "enhance the incomes of most of the workers of America.

I transcribed about two minutes of testimony which you can hear for yourselves, starting around minute 34:00 of the video clip.

Greenspan:

Well, Senator, I don't think there are short term policies, other than the ones we typically use to assuage those who fall into unemployment or policies in the tax area in which we endeavor to redistribute income.

The basic problem, as we have discussed previously, as best I can judge, goes back to the education system. We do not seem to be pushing through our schools our student body at a sufficiently quick rate to create a sufficient supply of skilled workers to meet the ever-rising demand for skilled workers which means that wage rates are accelerating. But the very people who have not been able to move up into the education categories where they become skilled overload the lesser skills market and cause wages to be moving up well below average.

The consequence, of course, is an increased concentration of income. And, as I have often said, this is not the type of thing which a capitalist democratic society can really accept without addressing. And as far as I am concerned, the cause is very largely education.

It is not the children because at the 4th grade they are above the world average. Whatever it is we do between the 4th grade and the 12th grade is obviously not as good as what our competitors abroad do because our children fall below, well below, the median in the world, which suggests that we have to do something to prevent that from happening and I suspect, were we able to do that, we will indeed move children through high school, into college, and beyond in adequate numbers. As indeed we did in the early post WW II period, such that we do not get the divergeance in income which is so pronounced in the data we currently looked at.