Reply to 23 Baltimore City Schools Have Zero Students Proficient in Math

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Last one, now that I have learned to post pictures. These are all from the MD state released items/practice test 3rd grade Math test:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/dlNiVGj.png[/img]

I think it is tricky, for a third grader.  Yes, of course, I think it would be wonderful for all third graders to be able to answer a question like this that shows they are truly able to understand the application of math. Instead of just asking a simple question: "What is the area of this rectangle?"

But - the fact that many students aren't able to answer questions like this doesn't mean they are learning nothing in math. Just that these questions are pretty tricky for them to understand.[/quote]

I think it's important to point out that a lot of these word problems were made because of allegations from marxists that math is somehow racist against black people - that they can't understand abstract concepts (which is in itself an extremely racist viewpoint but one pushed by many black civil rights advocates). But of course they will understand things like "tyrone has five mixtapes and lost two" or "uncle jim is painting a garage." It is, however, ironic that the black kids in baltimore schools cannot even answer the contextualized questions that the education marxists have forced into the curriculum[/quote]

[b]This question is somewhat elitist. How many people have garages or paint the floors? I can see why kids can't relate to these problems. They don't make sense.[/b][/quote]

Noce try -- but no. the problem isn't that some kids don't have garages or paint floors.

I'm the teacher who posted the questions and said that they were too word dependent and convoluted.

I tried the above word problem out on my third grade ESOL students today, individually. [b]These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.[/b]

None of them were able to correctly answer the area of the garage floor question. They didn't understand what was being asked.  When I asked "what does the amount of space" mea?  Point to that part of the picture ... they pointed to the sides of the rectangle.

But unfortunately they also didn't know how to calculate the area of the square, even when I explained - I said "The question is asking you - what's the area of the rectangle? can you tell that from the lenth of the sides?"

No they could not.

They could finally do it, when I drew all the squares in as a grid, and showed them how to count them all.

[/quote]

If they can't equate the area of a shape to the area of a garage floor, it sounds like you're over estimating them. Baltimore City kids failed these tests, but the rest of the state did fine. These aren't hard questions [/quote]
It's not just that they didn't understand it; they also didn't actually know the math for the how to calculate area.
[/quote]

Isn't area supposed to be taught in 3rd grade? Doesn't the fact that they don't understand it despite it presumably having been covered indicate something wrong about the teaching? Haven't you seen them calculate area in class, on tests, and inhomework?[/quote]

You all assume that these kids give a crap. Many do not.  [/quote]

FWIW -- I'm the teacher that question was directed to, the ESOL teacher who gave her third graders the practice Grade 3 Math test  just to see what they thought it was asking. I can tell you in this case, the kids DID give a crap and were giving me their honest best effort. They kinda sorta had an understanding of perimeter. It might be that they had more recently been studying perimeter and had forgotten about area. I *know* that the difference between perimeter and area is a problem MANY students have, even in higher grades.

Many students, even those who DO give a crap, who ARE trying hard, just don't understand how to solve problems.
Have you ever seen this video:

https://www.facebook.com/robertkaplinsky/videos/1185856644799424

[/quote]

I am speechless at that video. Yikes. If that's who they are dealing with, it's no wonder nobody passed the test. They have zero common sense.[/quote]

Welcome to American education, my friend.

The video is 10 years old, I believe.  32 8th graders were asked the question.

https://robertkaplinsky.com/how-old-is-the-shepherd/?fbclid=IwAR0f8VBsW-cK0ip96wL4etpmOPYLL0uuEXwRNogmMqeevsqEtV30aTU2E3Q

It was based on a research from 1986 where similar results were achieved. So this has been a problem for a long time.

[quote]*The “How Old Is the Shepherd?” question was popularized by an essay written by Professor Katherine K. Merseth in 1993 and was based on research by Professor Kurt Reusser in a paper presented at the 1986 American Educational Research Association annual meeting.  It is noteworthy that Professor Merseth wrote that “researchers report that three out of four schoolchildren will produce a numerical answer to this problem.”  Twenty years later that statement still held true.[/quote][/quote]

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