Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

It's not just that they didn't understand it; they also didn't actually know the math for the how to calculate area.

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?

You all assume that these kids give a crap. Many do not.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

It's not just that they didn't understand it; they also didn't actually know the math for the how to calculate area.

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?

You all assume that these kids give a crap. Many do not.

Anonymous wrote:
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?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

It's not just that they didn't understand it; they also didn't actually know the math for the how to calculate area.

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?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

It's not just that they didn't understand it; they also didn't actually know the math for the how to calculate area.

Anonymous wrote:
I asked my third grader. She had no problem with that question.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

I asked my third grader. She had no problem with that question.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

Math results from each of Maryland’s 24 school districts vary from a low of 7 percent of Baltimore City schools students to a high of 38 percent of Carroll County schools students scoring proficient. Right outside of D.C., Montgomery County schools had 31 percent of students who scored proficient, and Prince George’s County schools had 10 percent.

Overall, 22 percent of third-to-eighth-grade Maryland students scored on a proficient level in mathematics for the 2021-2022 school year, which was 11 percentage points lower than during the 2018-19 school year, before the pandemic, when 33 percent of students scored proficient. Ten percent of Black students and 11 percent of Hispanic/Latino students were proficient in math — which were both declines compared with the 2018-2019 school year. Meanwhile, 36 percent of White students scored proficient in math, and 53 percent of Asian students scored proficient.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.

Just think of all these questions--if you have to process them in another language than your own, remember what things like "garage floors" are if you've never had one, connect that the word "space" should connect to a formula for calculating area, and then calculate it. And then do question after question on that? For over an hour at a time. The tests are often not written the best because it's hard to design tests that serve different age groups/cultural backgrounds, have decent psychometric properties etc. The level that is considered "proficient" is often arbitrary and has been frequently changed (in VA for instance, the SOL bar was considerably raised in the past decade making people think scores have gone down when actually the measure went up in difficulty). Students may not be motivated to perform on a test that has absolutely zero impact on them individually--they don't receive a grade for it or any kind of credit--schools are not allowed to do that. A fundamental analysis of motivation would say--a ton of kids might rather not try at all so then they can say if they got a low score that they just wrote in whatever. Better than working hard on something that has no credit and then doing poorly on it. Basic work-saving and face-saving 101.

Yet people blithely assume that the tests are telling something "true" about proficiency. I'd rather look at their ongoing classwork and trust teachers' judgment. But people think somehow they are going to get "objective" data by these testing means.

The majority of the students are not foreign. They were born here to parents born here.

And even for those that are, you’re not making a case for easier exams. You’re actually making a case for separating out the immigrant kids until they have adequate language skills, the same as they do in places like Germany.

I'm not making the case for anything except for the claim that I don't trust these tests as a measure of proficiency.

How many people who were born here have garage floors? I was born here, but I never had one and I wouldn't think you would be painting one if I did. If I were in 3rd grade, half my brain would be wondering why someone would be painting the floor their car drives on and then forget the question. And I have a math degree!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MD overall isn't great. Isn't Moco at 31%, PG 10%?? Math proficiency

The Montgomery County public schools are terrible.

Some of the worst. It’s the school board’s fault.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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:



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.

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

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.

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. These students are pretty good students, academically, IMO.

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.