This system of ours has failed the elite kids, too. This is a little known fact because it wasn’t emphasized very much, but in the early TIMSS study there was a high school specialist exam for those kids that were the AP physics kids and those that were the AP calculus kids. Those kids were last among their counterparts in the rest of the world. That is, if you took the elite track in the French system that was leading to math and science, these [American] kids were at the bottom. So we’re failing those kids just as much as we’re failing the kids on the other spectrum.
William Schmidt, Michigan State University
U.S. TIMSS National Research Coordinator
Baltimore Curriculum Project/Leading Minds
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Thank you for taking the time to transcribe this. Prof. Scmidt is a formidable speaker and boy, does he have important things to say. I am in awe.
ReplyDelete"What's Missing from Math Standards?" is an absolutely wonderful article written by Schmidt.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/
issues/spring2008/schmidt.htm
I would definitely support national standards in mathematics with assurance that knowledgeable professionals like Schmidt would be at the healm!
I'm hoping we may see organizations like Achieve set national standards from the outside.
ReplyDeleteRightly or wrongly, I see Achieve as a competitor to NCTM.
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