Carolyn M---thank you!

I'm going there now----

-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Jun 2005

Another site with an interesting bit of information is the Hoover Institution's Education Next. Go to www.educationnext.org/20053/52.html I know your own weblog is primarily about Math, but this site titled "Johnny Can't Read . . . in Some States" includes information about state math tests.

-- CarolynMorgan - 07 Jun 2005

Excellent post today. Thank you.

-- CarolynMorgan - 07 Jun 2005

DontRelyOnStateTests

A quick note on state tests.

I'm sure both Carolyn and I will have more to say about this, but since Instructivist has raised the question of 'what's on the tests?' I wanted to post these links.

I read fairly often that 'math scores have risen over the past decade, but reading scores have remained flat.'

Assuming I understand Tom Loveless's research correctly, we should probably all drop what we're doing right this minute and send a letter to our respective newspapers urging the staff to delete the 'math scores have risen' macro from their word processors:

Despite sharply rising test scores on both the NAEP Math and most state math tests, the Brown Center's analysis of the difficulty of the math items at fourth and eighth grade demonstrates that the NAEP test fails to assess essential arithmetic skills that are required for success in algebra and higher mathematics.

"The good news is that NAEP scores have risen dramatically in mathematics over the past decade," noted Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy and author of the 2004 Brown Center Report on American Education. "But, given our findings, it is unclear whether this is a significant accomplishment in terms of substantial gains in mathematics skills and knowledge."

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP as it is commonly known, assesses fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students in math and reading. Scores on the math assessments have risen dramatically over the last 10 years, indicating that U.S. students are becoming more adept at mathematics.

But the Brown Center analysis shows that the NAEP math assessments rely on arithmetic skills that are far below the grade levels of the students being assessed. The analysis finds that almost all problem solving items use whole numbers and avoid fractions, decimals, and percentages – forms of numbers that students must know how to use to tackle higher order mathematics like algebra.

The full study is here. (pdf file)

David Klein's California standards assessment problems are an excellent way to assess your children yourself. I used them with Christopher this year.

Carolyn says they're 'golden' and I agree.

There are other good sources for assessment problems parents can use. We'll get to those as soon as we can.

Another thought: you might want to give your child the very short Singapore Math 'placement exam'.

The Singapore tests are an eye-opener, because you see exactly how far behind our kids really are.

If we had moved to Singapore at the end of 4th grade, Christopher would have been placed in second semester 3rd grade. That's a gap of 18 months by the age of 10.

Having seen the kinds of questions kids in Singapore are answering in 8th grade (we'll post those, too) I can tell you that the 'Singapore gap' gets bigger, not smaller.


+ + +


quick note:

The Singapore tests aren't upsetting; at least they weren't for Christopher. He'd never even seen some of the material, so he certainly didn't feel bad about not being able to do it.



BonusOnlineAssessmentQuestions



See also:
NewYorkStateMathCurricula
PenfieldParents
CompareAndContrastPart3
FriendlyFractions
PaperFractions
ADifficultChild
ADifficultChildPart2
WorksheetsForSummer
AssessYourChildForFree
AssessYourChildForFreePart2
BonusOnlineAssessmentQuestions
sample NAEP questions

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• Posted by: CatherineJohnson
• LogDate: Jun 06, 2005 @ 18:30