national standards

Jay Greene:

But perhaps the strongest objection to national standards that we have repeated at JPGB (here, here, and here) is that even if the current set of proposed national standards is an improvement for some states (and less good than others), there is strong reason to fear that people opposed to sensible, rigorous standards will gain control over the newly created national standards infrastructure and be in a position to impose their nonsense on everyone. Remember that teacher unions, ed schools, and other opponents of tough standards that might expose the shortcomings of schools and teachers are much better organized and politically powerful than anyone else in education politics. Over time they will gain control of the machinery of national standards even if they do not control it now.

National Standards Nonsense Redux

And Neal McCluskey:

....Which brings us to a whole different layer of policy making, one major media wade into even less often than legislating: writing regulations. How many stories have you read, or watched on TV news, about the writing of regulations for implementing anything, education or otherwise? I’d imagine precious few, yet this is where often vaguely written statutes are transformed into on-the-ground operations. It’s also where the special interests are almost always represented — after all, they’re the ones who will be regulated — but average taxpayers and citizens? Don’t go looking for them.

Plowing Through the Defenses of National Education Standards

Until parents have a union - an organized presence, inside the political arena, as parents - national standards are going to be controlled by the organized entities that control things now: ed schools and teacher unions.

I'm pretty sure.

college grads & jobs

at the Wall Street Journal

reading comprehension at OILF

pill bugs vs. beavers

SAT prep

I'm going to take the SAT, and I want to score a 700 on math, minimum.

Any suggestions?

I love anti Nerd's advice re: Math Workbook for the New SAT (Barron's Math Workbook for the Sat I) 3rd Edition.

I've taken my SATs May of 2003, and October 2003. I scored 740 for May SAT and achieved 780 for October SAT. This book is one of the best books for mathematics. It depends on how well you use this book. Anyways, I'll tell how i used this book.

First week: I bought the book, went over the concepts, structures, tricks, strategies, one of 10 REAL SATs practice exam to know what score i would rank, read through beginning stuff.

Second week: Starting this week, I work on chapter 3, which deals with arithmetic skills and concepts. There are 8 lessons in chapter 3. I did 2 lessons a day starting Monday, and then Friday, I relax and review the lessons I've practiced. When you study, you must MASTER the concepts. Knowing the concept does not help.

Third week: There are 7 lessons in Chapter 4 which deals with Algebra. I do two lessons a day, for 4th day, when I only do 1 lesson, I work on my weaknesses in Chapter 4. Then 5th day, I review and study. When review, review lessons from previous chapters so that you won't forget.

Fourth week: There are 5 lessons in Chapter 5. I work 2 lessons a day, and then I review and study as usual.

Fifth week: Chapter 6 deals with Geometry, which was one of my weaknesses. So I decided to learn 1 lesson a day since there are 8 lessons and SAT strongly emphasizes a lot on geometry. So fifth week, I've done 4 lessons, one lesson each day. 5th day, I reviewed.

Sixth week: I've continued and finish last 4 lessons and reviewed as well

Seventh week: I went back to my routine plan and studied two lessons a day, and then reviewed.

Eighth week: I worked on Chapter 8, last chapter before practice exams. 5 lessons, study.

9th week: Then after I've studied these chapters, I go over and review all the problems, questions, concepts from previous chapters. I review chapters 3-5.

10th week: Same as 9th week but I reviewed chapters 6-8.

11th and 12th week. I took practice exams to familiar myself with the exams. After you see the score you've got, go to problems and check to see if you made a mistake because you weren't careful enough. Then assume that it's correct and check your score again. For instance, You got 630 on practice exam but if you didn't make stupid mistakes, what could you have gotten?, 650? 700?

From this point, you're pretty much set for SAT Math. Note that I'm one of the biggest slacker with horrible English skills who's from Korea and still get high score. I am NOT a genius or some nerd. I received grades of Bs and Cs in mathematic courses in past and if I can pull this off, you can. This is a 3 month plan I've made beginning of junior year.

My parents told me that cramming does not work and that I should space out studying to learn more effectively. I am a fan of Bruce Lee and he has stated long time ago that "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." This means that you shouldn't assume you know the concept just because you've solved few easy problems. You should apply the concept as many times as you can and do them properly.

People say "practice makes perfect". It does not. PERFECT practice ALMOST makes perfect. You'll never get your goals to be perfect if you don't practice it properly and people make mistakes once in a while, so nobody is perfect.

In Psychology, It shows that spaced practice and overlearning helps for studies because overlearning and spaced practice puts your learning to long-term memory where it wont' decay for a long time.

When I say review and stdy everytime, it means, know the concept really well and master them by applying them as much as possible to every problems. When i say two lessons, it means, solve every problems in those lessons. I've also used Kaplan Math Workbook for practice problems to strengthen my concepts. I've studied previous chapters When I was studying chapters 4/5/6/7/8 to prevent my brain from forgetting.

I used this method to tutor students also as well. It worked for my studnets. I've raised most students' scores. My best student raised his score from 580 to 720, then he quit learning from me after 3 months, learned on his own from knowing this method for 2 months, and achieved 800. Student getting higher than a teacher? If I can do this, anyone can.

left-brained children in a right-brained world

Ed and I and our new school board member went to the Yale Club last night to hear Katharine talk about her book: Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World. A wonderful night, but the children's stories were sad -- which we hadn't expected. We expected to feel our customary exasperation; we hadn't expected to feel sad.

Here is Josh:

"I hate school," Josh announces. It's a Monday night in late September, the beginning of Josh's fourth week at one of the best middle schools the city has to offer, a math and science magnet that attracts the strongest teachers in the district, a school that his parents had set their sights on for years.

Ben, Josh's dad, looks up from the computer. "What do you mean?" They're both at the dining room table, which doubles as an after-dinner work space.

"I hate school," Josh repeats, raising his voice and thwacking a yellow foler against the table.

If Josh has said this before, it's never been with such vehemence.

"Please explain," Ben says.

"Take a look at the projects they just assigned us." Josh scoots the folder across the table.

Ben takes it and peers inside.

"There's a sheet for each subject," Josh says. "Take a look."

Ben pulls out several sheets and pages through: "Design a Playground," "Decorate a Tissue Box," Construct a Diorama."

"That's a lot of art homework," remarks Ben. "What about your other subjects."

"Dad, that's the point," yells Josh. "These are for my other subjects."

"Which ones?" Ben pages back through. Everywhere the same phrases keep popping up: "Be colorful." "Be creative."

"All of them. "Math, English, German . . . The tissue box is for German."

Ben looks again: "Decorate a box of tissues with German words, drawings, etc. Pick the vocabulary from chapters 1 or 2, and use those words to decorate your box of tissues. Put the number of the chapter you've chosen on your box also."

"You've got to be kidding."

Ben turns to the next page: "Construct a diorama illustrating the climactic scene of your novel."

"That's for English," Josh says. "The playground's for math. That last sheet is for science." He reaches for the folder, pulls out one more page, and hands it to Ben: "Write a three-page paper tha includes a description of a movie, television show, or a book that involves a scientific conept, a summary of the scientific concept, and an explanation of the relationship between the actual concept and how it is used in the movie, television show, or book."

Ben and his wife enrolled Josh at the math and science magnet not only because their son excels in math and science but because he's never been that motivated about writing, and is even less inspired by the arts-and-crafts activities that dominated his elementary school classes. This school, they thought, would finally give him a break. Instead, it turns out, Josh now gets to take this nonsense home as homework. Assaulted by a mental image of him bent over a shoebox, scowling and clenching his jaw as he glues in a carboard cutout of a Billy Pilgrim stick figure, Ben wonders how they could have been so wrong about the schoo. And how could the faculty of this math and science magnet be so wrongheaded?

pp. 86-87

The German tissue box assignment is real.

"practice each skill in isolation"

How to Survive Your College Math Class:

There is an overall pattern to learning mathematics. It applies to the structure of entire courses and it applies as well to your mastery of each of the skills you learn. You will recognize it as well if you have ever learned to play a sport or a musical instrument.

1. Practice each individual skill in isolation, under controlled circumstances, until you can do it easily and with con fidence.

2. Integrate the individual skills into sequences. Practice until you can chain skills together with di fferent variations, easily and with con fidence.

3. Practice in a realistic context, until you can deal with complete real world problems easily and with confi dence.

4. Go forth and solve real problems.

If you apply the suggestions here and make e ective use of the resources available to you (books, instructor, classmates), you are likely to suddenly find yourself doing mathematics, and maybe even liking it.

How to Survive Your College Math Class
(and Take Home Something of Value)
Matthew Saltzman and Marie Coffin
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Clemson University
Draft: August 25, 1998

There are few practices more frowned upon in public schools these days than teaching skills "in isolation." Hence: project based learning. Ed says if it were up to the schools, we wouldn't have subjects. We'd just have Subject.

Don't laugh.

They already tried it in Holland.

completing the square

off-topic:

What is the speaker's accent? (video)

what is logarithm, mommy?

This site looks like it might be good....

Mathematics and Statistics Help (MASH)
University of Sheffield

Professor of Economics Asks...

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics. Wall Street Journal Opinion

Daniel Klein is a professor of economics at George Mason University. This op-ed is based on an article published in the May 2010 issue of the journal he edits, Econ Journal Watch, a project sponsored by the American Institute for Economic Research.

The article is available HERE

Playland

Yesterday C. and I went to Playland for their annual developmental disabilities day, also known as our annual Playland fudge day. Just inside the entrance, there's a fudge stand that sells the best fudge I've ever consumed, and C. and I binge on the stuff once a year.^*

The price is $3 per piece, or buy 4 pieces & get one free.

I told the young person behind the counter that I wanted 15 pieces, and she began methodically filling up the boxes. Methodically .... and .... slowly. At some point in this process, possibly thinking I could speed things along, I said, "So that's $36, right?"

And she said "No." She didn't seem to be exactly sure how much 15 pieces would be, but she didn't think it was going to be $36.

I said, "You get 1 free with each 4, right?"

"Yes."

"So I'm paying for 12 pieces and getting 3 pieces free."

She looked confused. I went over it again, but she still didn't think $36 sounded right.

Finally I said, "I want to buy 3 boxes of fudge, with 4 pieces in each box and 1 extra free piece," and that did the trick. Twelve dollars a box.

I don't think she knew how to work backwards from "15 pieces of fudge" to 12 pieces of fudge at $3/each + 3 extra free pieces.

Meanwhile, here are the "mathematical practices" required by the new Common Core standards (pdf file) for Kindergarten:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.

^* Have I mentioned the fact that I've de-veganed myself? Well, I have.

exercise & better grades

Vigorous Exercise Linked With Better Grades

Just staring at this headline is making me feel guilty.

Time to corral the dogs & go for a run.

the most fun part

I love the Corner Office series.

Here is Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive of Nvidia, on the origins of his ability to 'fail forward':

When I was in high school, nothing gave me greater joy than computer games. It was part of how I grew up. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the video game era, but I’ve never beaten myself up about mistakes. When I try something and it doesn’t turn out, I go back and try it again.

Most of the time when you’re playing a game, you’re losing. You lose and lose and lose until you beat it. That’s kind of how the game works, right? It’s feedback. And then eventually you beat it.

As it turns out, the most fun parts of a game are when you’re losing. When you finally beat it there’s a moment of euphoria but then it’s over. Maybe it’s because I grew up in that generation, I have the ability to take chances, which leads to the ability to innovate and try new things. Those are important life lessons that came along.

I’m Prepared for Adversity. I Waited Tables.
Published: June 4, 2010
interview by Adam Bryant

children's savings accounts & math scores

more from the National Affairs blog:

Math Achievement and Children's Savings: Implications for Child Development Accounts

William Elliott, Hyunzee Jung & Terri Friedline
Journal of Family and Economic Issues, June 2010, Pages 171-184

Abstract:
In this study, we propose that children who have a savings account may be more likely to have higher math scores than children without a savings account. We find that children's savings accounts are positively associated with math scores. Children with savings accounts on average score almost nine percent higher in math than children without a savings account. Further, results suggest that children's savings accounts fully mediate the relationship between household wealth and children's math scores. However, household wealth moderates the mediating relationship. We find math scores of low-wealth children increase by 2.13, middle-wealth children's increase by 4.36, while high-wealth children's increase by 6.59 points. Policy implications are discussed.

IQ & family background

This is interesting....

Abstract:

For the purpose of understanding the underlying mechanisms behind intergenerational associations in income and education, recent studies have explored the intergenerational transmission of abilities. We use a large representative sample of Swedish men to examine both intergenerational and sibling correlations in IQ. Since siblings share both parental factors and neighbourhood influences, the sibling correlation is a broader measure of the importance of family background than the intergenerational correlation. We use IQ data from the Swedish military enlistment tests. The correlation in IQ between fathers (born 1951-1956) and sons (born 1966-1980) is estimated to 0.347. The corresponding estimate for brothers (born 1951-1968) is 0.473, suggesting that family background explains approximately 50% of a person's IQ. Estimating sibling correlations in IQ, we thus find that family background has a substantially larger impact on IQ than has been indicated by previous studies examining only intergenerational correlations in IQ.

Anders Björklund, Karin Hederos Eriksson & Markus Jäntti
B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2010

IQ and Family Background: Are Associations Strong or Weak?
National Affairs
Friday, June 4, 2010

Karen Pryor on 'changemakers'

So you've become a clicker trainer! Naturally you are very excited. You want other people around you to stop using punishment-based methods and start clicking. So you introduce the clicker at your dog club or high school or wherever you are using it. And guess what: people not only don't change, they get mad at you.

Build a better mousetrap and, in chronological order, the world will:

1. Ignore you
2. Pretend to agree, but actually do nothing
3. Resist, delay, obstruct
4. Openly attack you (the dangerous phase, but also a sign that change is starting)
5. Absorb
6. Utilize
7. Take credit
8. Proselytize

On Being a Changemaker

In my school district, we've reached number 4.

Harvard Writing Program

Responding to Student Writing (pdf file)

Have just come across this paper from the Harvard Writing Program - no idea whether it's useful.

We'll see.

Brief Guides

off-task

Chesterfield County middle schools this year are assessing all eighth-graders' knowledge of 21st-century skills, which include communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, innovation and use of technology.

"We obviously want our kids to have those 21st-century skills," said director of technology Lynda Gillespie. "The only way to make sure that you have those skills is through assessment."

Area schools assess students’ 21st-century skills
JUAN ANTONIO LIZAMA TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: May 24, 2010

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, life goes on:

Statistically speaking, however, having an expertise in statistics may help in getting a job: according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, graduates with math skills are more likely than their peers in other majors to find themselves promptly and gainfully employed.

The safest of all degrees to be acquiring this year is in accounting: forty-six per cent of graduates in that discipline have already been offered jobs. Business majors are similarly placed: forty-four per cent will have barely a moment to breathe before undergoing the transformation from student to suit. Engineers of all stripes—chemical, computer, electrical, mechanical, industrial, environmental—have also fared relatively well since the onset of the recession: they dominate a ranking, issued by Payscale.com, of the disciplines that produce the best-earning graduates. Particular congratulations are due to aerospace engineers, who top the list, with a starting salary of just under sixty thousand dollars—a figure that, if it is not exactly stratospheric, is twenty-five thousand dollars higher than the average starting salary of a graduate in that other science of the heavens, theology.

Economics majors aren’t doing badly, either: their starting salary averages about fifty thousand a year, rising to a mid-career median of a hundred and one thousand.

Learning by Degrees
by Rebecca Mead
The New Yorker
June 7, 2010

New York state PTA opposes charter schools

At a time when state aid funds are not only in short supply but aid payments are being delayed due to insufficient funds in the state till, arbitrarily raising the charter school cap and diverting even more funds from compromised public schools adds insult to injury. Additionally, NYS has created a parallel public school system, largely without public accountability for financial or academic performance.

etc.

CALL TO ACTION: Charter School Cap

and see: Taking the Parent out of the national PTA: an interview with Charlene K. Harr

Theater-of-the-Absurd

From Checker's Desk [Fordam Institute]
Rushing to Judgment?

Indeed, we'd probably be better off in the long run if the federal Race to the Top program were not crowding states to make this decision within sixty days. Worse, they're expected to commit to such a decision (to qualify for RTT funding) by June 1, even though the standards themselves don't appear until June 2! This has the makings of theater-of-the-absurd. It also raises anxiety levels about this worthy state-initiated, state-led venture turning into yet another federal mandate that will get caught in the wringer of Washington politics.

[snip]

At day's end, it's still states that are responsible for public education in the U.S.—and states that must determine whether and how to change it. To be sure, the "common core" carries with it significant implications for the federal government, too, most obviously in the revision of NCLB/ESEA, as well as any later iterations of Race to the Top (and, of course, the grant competition now underway for new assessments).

The Emperor’s New Clothes:
National Assessments Based on Weak “College and Career Readiness Standards”
Recommendations to a range of entities before states adopt Common Core’s standards. They include:

· State boards of education and state legislatures
· Local school boards and district superintendents
· USDOE
· Congress
· CCSSI/The Common Core consortium

“These proposed national standards are vague and lack the academic rigor of the standards in Massachusetts and a number of other states,” said Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios. “The new report shows that these weak standards will result in weak assessments. After so much progress and the investment of billions of tax dollars, it amounts to snatching mediocrity from the jaws of excellence.”

-------------
Brookings Institute
Did Congress Authorize Race to the Top?

Martin Gardner, RIP

from City Journal:

The first time I encountered a column in Scientific American entitled “Mathematical Games,” I thought it was a contradiction in terms. Along with most English majors, I equated math with drudgery, not diversion. Then I read the piece. Its author, Martin Gardner, showed me how wrong I was. Over the years, he also showed me (and a few million others) how to understand topics that ranged from the left-handedness of molecules to the devious origins of Scientology to the secrets of sleight-of-hand artists to the in-jokes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. So it came as no surprise that when Gardner died last week at 95, he was mourned not only by mathematicians and physicists but by magicians, literary scholars, theologians, crossword-puzzle fans, writers, and editors. Indeed, the author of some 80 books was a classic example of the polymath (according to Webster’s: “From the Greek polymathēs, ‘having learned much’; a person, with superior intelligence, whose expertise spans a significant number of subject areas”).
The son of an Oklahoma-based oil prospector, Gardner gave no hint of what was to come when he attended local schools in Tulsa. He went on to the University of Chicago, majoring in philosophy and attending a wide variety of courses—but not a single one in math. “Beyond calculus,” he was to confess, “I am lost. The only way I could comprehend higher mathematics was to make a game of it.” Gamesmanship became an integral part of his long life—and perhaps the most important part.
“Sometimes I think it would be nice to grow up,” he liked to say well into his 90s. “Other times I think, ‘Why bother?’”

The Mathemagician

Martin Gardner, R.I.P.

Stefan Kanfer
City Journal
27 May 2010