Unfortunately, parts of the US, and especially Los Angeles Unified School District (California) are more interested in screwing things up via the "Math Wars" than in increasing test scores:
http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/krantz.html "The extent to which the California math standards will be taken seriously by school districts is difficult to predict. The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the U.S., admonished LAUSD personnel to take no action to implement the new standards, arguing instead that the already existing LAUSD standards were superior. " http://www.csun.edu/~vcmth00m/krantz.html "Other Reformers with national stature echoed the outrage. Luther Williams, the National Science Foundation's Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources, wrote a retaliatory letter to the California Board of Education widely interpreted as threatening to cut off funding of NSF projects in California. The lead story in the February 1998 News Bulletin of the NCTM, ``New California Standards Disappoint Many,'' ... http://mathematicallycorrect.com/riley.htm I just did a little contract research work on this and was disheartened by what I found. Think in terms of Tom Lehrer's "New Math": http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/SongUnid/EE27EF26A4F581BE48256A7D002575E1 Judy On Sun, 13 Aug 2006, Richmond Mathewson wrote: > Re a recent posting by Dar Scott: <snip> > So, as school systems everywhere (well at least in the US, the UK and > Bulgaria) are a bit slack with the maths, has anybody any idea about > what Basic Maths is needed to guarantee a bright child (and most of > them are bright, given the right sort of encouragement and stimulus) is > not going to come a cropper just when they are getting all excited > when they find they can do real things with RR (watching a 6 year-old > produce a simple program is sheer joy). > > Plainly: A MATHS CORE for PROGRAMMING SKILLS. _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
