College students are struggling with basic math,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A quote

"I teach math, not time management. I see to it that my students learn the material. Those other life skills will have to be picked up elsewhere."

I hate employees who sit on their hands and ignore major impediments in reaching project goals because "that's not in my job description."

Message relayed. Response:

I'm busy keeping your boat afloat. You want me to navigate also?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in Information Technology, get paid 250K per year for the past ten years, and I have never used math beyond Algebra.  

yikes.. it's not about using the math. It's about higher level thinking. I'm sure you've read books in school by a bunch of old white dead men. Have you ever had reason to quote Shakespeare at work? No, because that's not what reading those books is about.

It's amazing to me that people don't understand the purpose of higher level math. I guess it's because a lot of people just really hate math.

-another IT person

The 250k/year poster’s contribution to this thread demonstrates the problem - The lack of any sort of critical thinking ability.

(Also I know this is screaming into the void stuff, but when did we collectively decide that education across the board is really just job training?$

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two causes. first and predominant cause is that schools are passing everyone and doing so with As and A-s. Secondary is learning loss from COVID. A lot of kids missed out on the opportunity to learn fundamental math concepts. US math education is far behind the rest of the world.

This is such BS. In the rest of the world, by the time you get to a school like Mason, those kids would be in trade school not college. People bash the US because we don't pressure kids to leave the college track early or just drop out and our over all scores reflect it. Meanwhile kids from countries that people love to praise fall over themselves to attend US universities

People "fall all over themselves to attend US universities" for two reasons:

1. they want to go to elite colleges like Harvard, not GMU
2. they want the job opportunities the US, which is easier to get with an education visa, so they are willing to go to a lesser university to get that visa.

Those two may be partial reasons, but #1 should be “couldn’t get into university in their home country.”

And yet 7.5% of GMU’s student body is international

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When did we collectively decide that education across the board is really just job training?

When we started letting peasants into college. It's all well and good for gentlemen to contemplate the world and think deep thoughts. But it's just wasteful for a bunch of proles to do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When did we collectively decide that education across the board is really just job training?

When we started letting peasants into college. It's all well and good for gentlemen to contemplate the world and think deep thoughts. But it's just wasteful for a bunch of proles to do so.

Ah a fellow Brit. Nice to spot you around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in Information Technology, get paid 250K per year for the past ten years, and I have never used math beyond Algebra.  

yikes.. it's not about using the math. It's about higher level thinking. I'm sure you've read books in school by a bunch of old white dead men. Have you ever had reason to quote Shakespeare at work? No, because that's not what reading those books is about.

It's amazing to me that people don't understand the purpose of higher level math. I guess it's because a lot of people just really hate math.

-another IT person

The 250k/year poster’s contribution to this thread demonstrates the problem - The lack of any sort of critical thinking ability.

(Also I know this is screaming into the void stuff, but when did we collectively decide that education across the board is really just job training?$

Education is for life. Productivity is a major part of life. Someone has to kill what you eat before you spend your years pondering metaphysics.
We also need education to be civilized so we don't kill each other in crowded cities.

It not clear why essential non-vocational education needs to be full time for over 16 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is starting college in pre-calc that he took in 12th grade. He’s always been a terrible math student but his grades reflected that (mostly low Cs). But at least his private school was completely honest with us. His public MS gave him straight As in math including algebra 1 in 8th grade. When he took the algebra 1 placement test at his private HS, he failed miserably. There’s a lot of grade fraud going on in public education.

I don’t doubt you but how can you fake or inflate an algebra grade? I get it for other subjects. But isn’t Algebra a standard course? If you can’t solve X problems, you don’t get an A. I’m not being funny. I’m not American so maybe I’m confused.

How? When students can retake assessments, they can get higher grades. Many students use the first assessment as a feeler for the retake. Add in that students are trained to not expect just one assessment and watch out when they get to college when that’s all they get.

No good student is doing that. Retake grades top out at a 90%/A-, and that's for a 100%. The good students get As the first time around

A 90% is still an A. And MCPS doesn't do plus or minuses, so the 90% grade looks the same as the kid who got 98%.

My kids' FCPS school allows one retake with the maximum being a 90%. FCPS uses a 100 point scale, but translates a 90 into an A-. That all assumes the kid will get a 100% on the retake. If they miss a single question, then it's a B+.

Part of me is pissed that my DC’s FCPS School caps re-take grades at 80% while other FCPS schools allow up to 90% on re-takes. Totally unfair when some schools like UVA look more at GPA. One bad test hurts my kid more than others.

Part of me feels glad knowing that my DC’s grade more accurately reflects their understanding.

Your DC's grade is less accurate. Learning it by an arbitrary deadline is not the important part of learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is starting college in pre-calc that he took in 12th grade. He’s always been a terrible math student but his grades reflected that (mostly low Cs). But at least his private school was completely honest with us. His public MS gave him straight As in math including algebra 1 in 8th grade. When he took the algebra 1 placement test at his private HS, he failed miserably. There’s a lot of grade fraud going on in public education.

I don’t doubt you but how can you fake or inflate an algebra grade? I get it for other subjects. But isn’t Algebra a standard course? If you can’t solve X problems, you don’t get an A. I’m not being funny. I’m not American so maybe I’m confused.

How? When students can retake assessments, they can get higher grades. Many students use the first assessment as a feeler for the retake. Add in that students are trained to not expect just one assessment and watch out when they get to college when that’s all they get.

No good student is doing that. Retake grades top out at a 90%/A-, and that's for a 100%. The good students get As the first time around

Yes, wasn't that the pp's point? Students who aren't actually good at a subject can take retakes galore and pad their grade with other easy, nonsense assignments so that their final grade looks good, the same as the kids that actually "get it" and get As the first time around, but that's not really reflective of their actual math knowledge.

Why should a kid get a low grade in algebra because they finished learning it a week late, while other kids get a whole extra YEAR?

[Anonymous]

He didn’t learn it. He used the first test to learn what to study for the retake. Learning occurred but not necessary algebra.