Hundreds of N.J. students who can't do simple math are credited with passing calculus, report says

NJ.com ^ | 9/1/10 | Staff

[nmh]

Hundreds of N.J. students who can't do simple math were credited with passing calculus, according to a report on APP.com.

According to a Department of Education report, "there were other students, unable ultimately to evidence even simple math skills, who were unimaginably recorded by their schools as succeeding in Algebra II or even Calculus."

A report delivered at today's state Board of Education meeting will recommend four new policies to aid students who weren't proficient enough in reading, writing or math to meet state graduation standards.

[nina0113]

I was just getting used to it when the TI-30 came out (we all thought it was a miracle), and the slide rule got stuffed into a box and the brain cells for using it got reformatted.

[nmh]

Do you really believe LIBERAL A&E?

Really?

Do you really believe that Einstein couldn't do basic math operations?

Really?

Do you really believe that kids today that can't do basic math are closet Einsteins?

Really?

BTW, do you have kids?

[alexander_busek]

At one time it was reported that A.E. really had trouble with the simple concepts. His thought process was so far advanced. I remember a newsreel purporting that he needed help with his taxes. Just saying.

It is a canard that Albert Einstein was a poor math student in school. The grading system was based on a scale of 1 (highest) to 6 (fail), not on 6 (highest) to 1 (fail), as some biographers had falsely believed.

And the fact that he had difficulty understanding his tax forms proves nothing:

In my own case the words of such an act as the Income Tax ... merely dance before my eyes in a meaningless procession; cross-reference to cross-reference, exception upon exception--couched in abstract terms that offer no handle to seize hold of--leave in my mind only a confused sense of some vitally important, but successfully concealed, purport, which it is my duty to extract, but which is within my power, if at all, only after the most inordinate expenditure of time. I know that these monsters are the result of fabulous industry and ingenuity, plugging up this hole and casting out that net, against all possible evasion; yet at times I cannot help recalling a saying of William James about certain passages of Hegel: that they were no doubt written with a passion of rationality; but that one cannot help wondering whether to the reader they have any significance save that the words are strung together with syntactical correctness

--Judge Learned Hand

Regards,

[Article10]

Home School if you can. My wife and I saw a very similar thing here in NH. Unfortunately the staff at local area Christian Academy all came from secular schools so the teaching skills and attitudes were really off in contrast the to mission statement and advertising. Christian schools have a hard time finding high quality staff due to pay issues, then coming from secular colleges it really puts them in a bind. I get it. We brought this up to the Head Master and it was apparent to us, academia was a small “god” on an alter to them. I was all about the standards and being on the up side compared to the local public schools and nothing else. Really sad. Thank God for home schooling!

[Julia H.]

Anything that has a practical application in the real world most certainly does has a place in a teaching environment. Calculators can do things most human brains cannot. Professionals from office assistants to scientists use them on a daily basis, and the average person isn’t going to learn advanced functions by tinkering around with an instrument he or she has never touched before. Imagine an employer asking an interviewee whether he or she has experience performing advanced functions on advanced calculators, and the interviewee replies, “No, but I can read a freakin’ manual.”

Students shouldn’t be encouraged to use calculators as a crutch or as an excuse not to master basic arithmetic, but there’s nothing wrong with using calculators as tools in higher-level math.

[nina0113]

You see, kids learn in “different ways”.

If I had any, they'd learn in a "different way", all right. They'd learn that "bread and water, it's what's for dinner". Or at least I'd withhold dessert.

[drpix]

While Einstein was not a mathematician, the belief that he "was poor at basic math" is a pc myth spread by those who devalue math skills."

Where he had problem, when young, and why he was a slow learner was his language skills: he didn't even begin to speak until almost two years old.

[nmh]

It depends on the public school. Some allow kids to take AP courses in high school WITHOUT testing for it IF they have a 90 average in the hoped AP subject.

Interestingly, most colleges require placement tests without the use of a calculator to see where the student is in math. So if they haven't mastered the basics, they get to start all over again. This doesn't bother the college or university since they make money off of remedial math courses.

Many employers have to TRAIN their new employees how to WRITE. It's no wonder why. They aren't teaching it and are not reinforcing it.

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

My kids attend Catholic school, and no calculators are allowed. My third grader is memorizing his times tables. I noticed when I saw him subtracting two and three-digit numbers he doesn’t mark out the numbers when borrowing. He said he does them in his head.

He has an engineer for a father ;)

[nmh]

Oh my!

We can't have that ! (sarcasm)

We must REACH their “different learning style”.

For some if not all, they need CALCULATORS.

You see, they are too DUMB to memorize anything.

Of course I am being very sarcastic.

It's the LIBERAL elitism that is trickling down. They do NOT want kids to have KOWLEDGE. They really don't. It's easier to CONTROL the IGNORANT and DUMBED DOWN because all they will have left is their EMOTIONS to rule them and they will “listen to those who know more.” It's true and that is why YOU have to take on more of the teaching than the school.

[nmh]

Thank you!

“Contrary to popular myth, Einstein was good at simple math. “

I was hoping he’d get there through other clues ...

[allmendream]

Reminds me of the incredible crop yields reported under Lysenko's ‘winterized wheat’ Communist program.

They used a poor understanding of a biological mechanism and a wishful thinking model of evolution to try to improve their wheat production. Communists sent out questionnaires on just how much Comrade and Patriot and Hero of the People Lysenko's system improved your wheat production. Huge increases were reported! Yet total wheat production went down, and Russia had to import wheat from the USA.

Communism isn't working, but that is OK, because Communists get to fake their own results!

[nmh]

Christian schools don’t pay aquat. That is why they have a hard time getting good teachers. I hate sto say it but the majorty of Christian schools out there are terrible in Math and Science. I like Bible ... but when it comes to Science time needs to be spent on SCIENCE in the science course. True science is in agreement with Biblical principles.

[tnlibertarian]

According to a Department of Education report, "there were other students, unable ultimately to evidence even simple math skills, who were unimaginably recorded by their schools as succeeding in Algebra II or even Calculus."

A report delivered at today's state Board of Education meeting will recommend four new policies to aid students who weren't proficient enough in reading, writing or math to meet state graduation standards.

So, the Board of Education finds that schools were falsifying reports. And their solution is to try to show those school new ways to help the students learn? That, in a nutshell, is the problem with government education today. The idiots running the place have no idea how to think. The bigger problem in "kids that can't do math deemed to have passed calculus by their schools" isn't that the kids can't do math. (Although that is a problem) The bigger concern is that the institutions entrusted with teaching them are committing fraud. How is better instruction material or methods going to help that?

[DJ MacWoW]

Do they still have to memorize the times-tables?

She's out of school now but I taught her the times tables.

[ridesthemiles]

Saw an interview this week with the Chancellor of Education in District of Criminals.

She has already fired a number of teachers & put about 900 more ‘on probation’. Interviewer asked her if that wasn’t a little harsh-—
She told the interviewer that the kids in the District schools had only 8% of proficiency at math. ONLY 8%.!!!

She said there is absolutely no excuse for teachers being that incompetant.

Good for her.
The District of Criminals spends about $25,000 per pupil per year on their ‘education’. They are graduating diplomaed idiots who are unemployable.

[ronnyquest]

"Professionals from office assistants to scientists use them on a daily basis, and the average person isn’t going to learn advanced functions by tinkering around with an instrument he or she has never touched before."

So, how did the average person learn to use "advanced functions" when calculators were new? Presumably, these people are adults who have already mastered basic math. How many "professionals" have gotten into paying positions without first having learned to use calculating devices? I must have dreamed getting through college physics courses without a calculator. I did learn, however, on my own to use all those advanced functions when I could afford to buy a fancy calculator, after college.

Children should not use calculators until they have mastered the basics. Calculators are a crutch. They can do nothing the human brain can't do, given time and expertise. Pencil and paper are the tools they need, and good instruction.

[nmh]

“CALCULATORS would have been banned in school in my day. We had to learn multiplication tables, and that serves me well even today. Another sad omission by the “dumbthemdown” government schools is penmanship. Not only was that subject good for eye-hand coordination, it taught self discipline, neatness and an appreciation of beauty Children have been taught to be government dependent in public schools for the past 50 years. Fortunately many of their parents were better educated. If you think things are bad now, just wait until these kids are the parents!”

Same here so I keep after that.

The “thinking” behind not requiring good penmanship is because they use a PC so handwriting won't matter. No kidding!

Part of the problem is public schooled PARENTS who aren't much better off than their kids! It will be worse if these kids become parents. The level will be lower.

[nmh]

I forgot, many schools REQUIRE any writing be done on MS Word so the teacher has it easier and there is SPELL CHECKER that they can use too! After all, they are kids of the future, right? LOL!!!

[bvw]

Call me anti-calculator. And pro-abacus!

Substituting in math classes in NJ I saw just how mind-numbed most of the kids are, they think the NEED a calculator to do even the simplest of problems, so bad is the dependence.