We’ll continue to examine the expectations outlined in the “Action Plan” that was introduced last spring as part of SCASD’s “Complete Elementary Math Program” that includes TERC’s Investigations. In this post, we’ll consider how operations with fractions are expected to be mastered. As with our previous comparison of fact fluency expectations and the expectations for use of standard algorithms, we’ll present SCASD’s expectations along with what is expected in California and Massachusetts (MA is two documents here and here). California’s and Massachusetts’s are consistently rated as the best sets of math standards in the nation and the Action Plan was supposedly modeled on these standards.
By 5th grade, students in SCASD are expected to be able to perform:
Addition/Subtraction of Fractions (through sixteenths; like or unlike denominators, LCD is one denominator)
By 5th grade, students in California are expected to:
Solve simple problems, including ones arising in concrete situations, involving the addition and subtraction of fractions and mixed numbers (like and unlike denominators of 20 or less), and express answers in the simplest form.
Understand the concept of multiplication and division of fractions.
Compute and perform simple multiplication and division of fractions and apply these procedures to solving problems.
By 5th grade, students in Massachusetts are expected to:
Accurately and efficiently add and subtract positive fractions and mixed numbers with like denominators and with unlike denominators (2, 4, 5, 10 only); multiply positive fractions with whole numbers. Simplify fractions in cases when both the numerator and the denominator have 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 as a common factor.
To sum up, SCASD’s Action Plan again is substantially less challenging than the standards in CA and MA that the Action Plan standards are supposed to be modeled on. By 5th grade students in SCASD won’t know how to add or subtract fractions with unlike denominators unless one of those denominators is the least common denominator (“LCD”) (that is, unless part of the problem is first done for them). Students in SCASD will not see multiplication and division of fractions until 6th grade at the earliest.
Some may argue that SCASD does not need to have standards on par with the best in the U.S. and that is a fair argument that we ought to consider carefully. What we cannot do, however, is continue to claim that our standards are “world class” when it is plain to see that that is not the case.
