Changes to Eighth-Grade Math: What Parents Need to Know
One of the hallmarks of states’ implementation of high, comparable education standards are changes to math instruction – which we have written about a lot. Starting in early grades, teachers are encouraging students to explore multiple problem-solving strategies, which help build conceptual understanding with numbers and functions, and also help students complete math problems quickly...
New York Is Beginning to Improve Student Outcomes. To Turn Back Would Be a Mistake
Writing in the Westchester Journal News, Nicholas Tampio, an associate professor at Fordham University, argues that New York’s commitment to high, comparable education standards and the “enforcement mechanism of high-stakes testing” is a “scandalous misuse of time, money and energy.” “The state is at a critical juncture when we could leave the Common Core behind,...
Changes to Eighth-Grade Math Don’t Mean Students Are Learning Less
Many schools are making changes to eighth-grade math, forcing families to “restrain their ambitions and delay algebra until high school,” which Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews calls “inscrutable.” “Parents who need a clear reason for restraining math acceleration in middle school are not getting it,” he adds, suggesting the progression of learning under Common Core...
Fox News Host Contradicts Himself, Says Common Core Sets Students Up to Fail and Lowers the Bar. Both Are Wrong
Discussing whether students would be better off if schools eliminated algebra as a graduation requirement, as suggested by author Andrew Hacker, Fox News host Pete Hegseth attributed students’ frustrations in math to the “mumbo jumbo” of Common Core State Standards. “They are setting [students] up to fail. And then we’re lowering the standards and we’re...
Eighth Grade Math IS Changing – But Students Won’t Learn Any Less
Math is changing, but now how you might think. In the Los Angeles Times, Sonali Kohli makes note of the changes coming to eighth grade math classrooms. She writes, “instead of emphasizing Algebra I where only some students thrive, many schools are placing all students in the same general class that covers several concepts.” However,...
The Importance of Algebra: How Common Core Helps Students Build a Strong Understanding of Math
Author and Queens College professor Andrew Hacker suggests college- and career-readiness benchmarks are too high and high schools should remove Algebra as a graduation requirement, Breitbart News reports. “At the very time we should be honing and sharpening quantitative reasoning skills we punch students into algebra, geometry, calculus,” Hacker says. “The Math People take over...