My favorite NAEP question is one for fourth grade math: How many fourths in a whole? About 50 percent got this wrong.

Is that really on the test?

Really?

Fourth grade?

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Jul 2005

I am not a fan of NCTM because it institutionalizes slow progress towards a minimal goal.

Oh boy.

That one's going in the Hall of Fame.

I'll get it pulled up front first thing tomorrow.

Wonderful!

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Jul 2005

The problem with standardized tests is that their minimal expectations becomes the maximal goal.

Thank you!

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Jul 2005

"If everyone is pretty poor at mathematics, then the fact that your child has done well on a standardized test gives you false confidence."

The problem with standardized tests is that their minimal expectations becomes the maximal goal. Our town uses the results on these tests to drive the curriculum. I would expect that schools would look at these tests as no more than a minor irritation. I took the Iowa Basics when I was growing up and I don't remember anyone thinking that those questions defined the curriculum. That is not true nowadays. Our state uses the New Standards Reference Exam (NSRE) (now America's Choice, if you can believe it.) for standardized testing. These questions and content (U. of Pittsburgh - Resnick - LRDC) are used to DEFINE our curriculum. The minimum becomes the maximum.

I am not a fan of NCTM because it institutionalizes slow progress towards a minimal goal. Our schools are rated as "high performing" but you should see all of the students who don't meet even these trivial expectations. My favorite NAEP question is one for fourth grade math: How many fourths in a whole? About 50 percent got this wrong. There is something very wrong going on here.

What do sixth grade teachers think when many of their students don't know their times tables? Do they just do the best they can? Or, do they yell and scream and make a big stink that this is inexcusable? Or, is there a big intimidation factor that prevents teachers from saying anything?

-- SteveH - 09 Jul 2005

My other issue with standardized testing is the one raised by Cathy Carlson.

If everyone is pretty poor at mathematics, then the fact that your child has done well on a standardized test gives you false confidence.

I don't think I've mentioned the fact that back when Christopher was flunking math he got a 4 on his 4th grade state-mandated test.

A 4!

And he'd flunked 1/3 of the course!

Plus NY state tells us nothing, doesn't show us the items, doesn't tell us how the tests are normed, and on and on and on.

Forget it.

I've got to do my own evaluating.

-- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jul 2005

Since I think 'Don't trust the tests' is probably proveable (provable?) I may stick with theorem.

Although I don't want to give the impression that I'm opposed to standardized testing as a general principle; I feel exactly the opposite.

What concerns me is 'who's evaluating the evaluators?' as Ed put it the other day.

-- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jul 2005

What kinds of journals did they try to publish in?

-- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jul 2005

Wow.

I have no memory of you calling Hell Hath No Fury a postulate.

I'm going to re-read that line!

-- CatherineJohnson - 08 Jul 2005

The study, which is an attachment to the Core Plus page, came out in 2003 but is not well publicized. That is so because although Parker and Hill tried to get it into a peer-reviewed journal, it was rejected. Probably due to politics, but I have no proof. Milgram and others had indicated that something was afoot. So Parker has posted it on his website, but it has not been published.

You can call "Don't trust the tests" a postulate if you like. I came up with the "Hell Hath No Fury" postulate in my article, and no one, not even any mathematicians,has called me on it.

-- BarryGarelick - 08 Jul 2005

Core-Plus and declining math skills

I'd read about the disastrous introduction of Core-plus in Michigan, but I don't think I've seen this study (pdf file) that Anne Dwyer has attached to Barry Garelick's BarryOnCorePlus page.

Here's the abstract:

As part of a study involving over 3000 Michigan students, it was found that students arriving at Michigan State University from four high schools which began using the Core- Plus Mathematics program placed into, and enrolled in, increasingly lower level courses as the implementation progressed. This conclusion is statistically very robust | the existence of a downward trend is statistically signi cant with p < :0005. The grades these students earned in the mathematics courses they took are also below average (p < :01). ACT scores suggested the existence but not the severity of these trends.