End 2.0 MCPS math curriculum. List complaints about specific problems.
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Anonymous
| Specific problem: Algebra I STARTS with exponential equations. I have looked in several math textbooks and have yet to see exponential equations at the beginning of the book. I guess MCPS is smarter than all the others. |
Anonymous
The Singapore Math textbooks for grade 8 start with exponents. |
Anonymous
No the PP. I'm not familiar, does SM8 begin with exponential functions of the form y = a(b^x) or with variables raised to an integer power, e.g. x^3 or (x+y)^2? The former is what MCPS does. The latter seems appropriate for an algebra (or pre-alg) course with a symbolic emphasis, and fairly traditional. I'm pretty sure binomial coefficients aren't mentioned in MCPS until the end of pre-calc although being able to expand a binomial raised to a square or cube is taught sooner. PP, I agree starting with ab^x is strange. Stranger still is insisting on teaching the recursive form as well as explicit. Not that this is necessarily a difficult concept, but it is fairly foreign to students (possibly teachers) and is hard to get across. And then it really never goes anywhere, I don't think it's mentioned after Alg. I. |
Anonymous
| *Not the PP. |
Anonymous
|
Chapter 1
Positive exponents and the laws of exponents Zero and negative inter exponents Fractional exponents Comparing exponents Scientific notation Significant figures Estimations and accuracy of calculators Chapter 2 is linear equations in two variables. |
Anonymous
| ^^^However those math books are aligned with the Common Core standards for Grade 8, which is not high school algebra. There are separate Common Core standards for high school algebra. |
Anonymous
Thanks. To some extent, those are topics covered in IM, but they concern a variable raised to an exponent, x^a, where a is known. The PP is pointing out that MCPS Algebra I begins by studying exponential functions, a^x, where the base, a, is known. |
Anonymous
I'm not that bad at logic (which does need to be restored to the curriculum). I am presuming that US college students were prepared for college in the US K-12 system. That is less true now, but the idea that American schools have somehow never successfully taught math before is a joke. We probably lost our way during the "feel good" 1970s. |
Anonymous
American schools have never successfully taught math to most people. There were some people, of course, for whom the American K-12 math education system did work. Here's a good piece to read about the history of US math education: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html The new math of the ‘60s, the new new math of the ‘80s and today’s Common Core math all stem from the idea that the traditional way of teaching math simply does not work. As a nation, we suffer from an ailment that John Allen Paulos, a Temple University math professor and an author, calls innumeracy — the mathematical equivalent of not being able to read. On national tests, nearly two-thirds of fourth graders and eighth graders are not proficient in math. More than half of fourth graders taking the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress could not accurately read the temperature on a neatly drawn thermometer. (They did not understand that each hash mark represented two degrees rather than one, leading many students to mistake 46 degrees for 43 degrees.) On the same multiple-choice test, three-quarters of fourth graders could not translate a simple word problem about a girl who sold 15 cups of lemonade on Saturday and twice as many on Sunday into the expression “15 + (2×15).” Even in Massachusetts, one of the country’s highest-performing states, math students are more than two years behind their counterparts in Shanghai. Adulthood does not alleviate our quantitative deficiency. A 2012 study comparing 16-to-65-year-olds in 20 countries found that Americans rank in the bottom five in numeracy. On a scale of 1 to 5, 29 percent of them scored at Level 1 or below, meaning they could do basic arithmetic but not computations requiring two or more steps. One study that examined medical prescriptions gone awry found that 17 percent of errors were caused by math mistakes on the part of doctors or pharmacists. A survey found that three-quarters of doctors inaccurately estimated the rates of death and major complications associated with common medical procedures, even in their own specialty areas. One of the most vivid arithmetic failings displayed by Americans occurred in the early 1980s, when the A&W restaurant chain released a new hamburger to rival the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. With a third-pound of beef, the A&W burger had more meat than the Quarter Pounder; in taste tests, customers preferred A&W’s burger. And it was less expensive. A lavish A&W television and radio marketing campaign cited these benefits. Yet instead of leaping at the great value, customers snubbed it. Only when the company held customer focus groups did it become clear why. The Third Pounder presented the American public with a test in fractions. And we failed. Misunderstanding the value of one-third, customers believed they were being overcharged. Why, they asked the researchers, should they pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as they did for a quarter-pound of meat at McDonald’s. The “4” in “¼,” larger than the “3” in “?,” led them astray. |
Anonymous
By exponential equations, I was referring to equations where the exponent is the variable. Singapore math does not start like that. |
Anonymous
By exponential equations, I was referring to equations where the exponent is the variable. Singapore math does not start like that. |
Anonymous
It is still a problem. Many math teachers in higher education came from abroad. Many Fields medalists are from the UK and France, disproportionate for the population of those countries. Many American winners were born overseas. Also, the US is great at giving OPPORTUNITY to higher education. The academic platform stinks, but the opportunities are endless here in the US. Many STEM workers in the USA are from overseas. |
Anonymous
But the grade 8 Singapore math book is not Algebra I. It's more like IM. |
Anonymous
No one else starts algebra I with exponential equations. I guess MCPS knows better. |
Anonymous
Please contest these answers with school and head of math curriculum and head of testing. Not because you care about the grade, but because no one will realize and take responsibility for crap test-writing and grading if parents don't start complaining about it, and not many parents have the ability to understand math and argue the point like you do. |