http://pqme.org/uncategorized/curriculum-is-on-the-table/ Parents seeking math curriculum changes in the State College (PA) Area School District Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:47:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://pqme.org/uncategorized/curriculum-is-on-the-table/comment-page-1/#comment-312 Math Mom Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:07:01 +0000 http://pqme.org/?p=402#comment-312 Oh my. My son was judged to be "proficient" in 2nd grade math, but his pre-test that the teacher showed me told a different story. Out of 5 math problems he scored "advanced" on two, "basic" on two, and "proficient" on one, therefore, averaging out to "proficient" overall. The killer for me was that his two "basic" scores were more to do with his inability to use language, rather than to use math. On one problem in particular, he was not able to use enough "math words" do describe a geo-block. Proponents say that Investigations teach language skills, but THERE IS NO DIRECT INSTRUCTION of language skills. It makes kids weak in written language skills appear worse in math. ARGH. Don't talk to me about tweaking. Oh my. My son was judged to be “proficient” in 2nd grade math, but his pre-test that the teacher showed me told a different story. Out of 5 math problems he scored “advanced” on two, “basic” on two, and “proficient” on one, therefore, averaging out to “proficient” overall. The killer for me was that his two “basic” scores were more to do with his inability to use language, rather than to use math. On one problem in particular, he was not able to use enough “math words” do describe a geo-block. Proponents say that Investigations teach language skills, but THERE IS NO DIRECT INSTRUCTION of language skills. It makes kids weak in written language skills appear worse in math. ARGH. Don’t talk to me about tweaking.

]]> http://pqme.org/uncategorized/curriculum-is-on-the-table/comment-page-1/#comment-307 Susan Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:04:30 +0000 http://pqme.org/?p=402#comment-307 The Band-Aid approach to math is just not good enough. Thanks for being there, Steve, and raising the question of why not change the core curriculum in the face of declining test score rankings. As it is, classroom teachers are scrambling to fill in the holes of Investigations. The Band-Aid approach to math is just not good enough. Thanks for being there, Steve, and raising the question of why not change the core curriculum in the face of declining test score rankings. As it is, classroom teachers are scrambling to fill in the holes of Investigations.

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