Reply to Jeb Bush's org behind the new MSDE MS math minutes increase (which will likely cut MS electives)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The ExcelinEd assertion that countries with better math results like Finland, Japan, and Singapore are places with 300+ minutes of math per week seems like absolute bunk.

Finland in particular is a country notorious for having kids spending *less* time in school yet having great results.  And sure enough, I looked it up and it appears that the math instructional time requirements for grades 3-9 in Finland get an average of about 170 minutes per week of math, nowhere near the 300 minutes ExcelinEd claims.  (Their system is a little weird because schools have some flexibility to choose to do more in one year and less in another, but if they choose to split it evenly amongst the grade levels they'd have those amounts, and if not it still averages out to those amounts.)

Also apparently in Japan kids get about 131 hours a year (about 225 minutes a week) of math in 6th grade (which is still elementary school-- 2nd through 5th graders get the same amount as well), 105 hours in 7th grade (about 180 minutes a week), and 79 hours in 8th grade (about 135 minutes a week), according to this page on the same darn TIMSS website ExcelInEd links: https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/timss2015/encyclopedia/countries/japan/instruction-for-mathematics-and-science-in-primary-and-lower-secondary-grades/ (Class periods are 45 minutes and they say most schools are 35 weeks a year, so multiply the class periods per year per grade by 45 minutes and then divide by 30 weeks.)

(I couldn't find much on Singapore. Maybe they do spend a ton of time on math.  But even so, one country does not make a trend, especially when other high-scoring countries make a trend.)[/quote]

Finfland is trending down.  Bad example.  https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/Finland/pisa_math_scores/?utm_source=chatgpt.com[/quote]

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