Comments on: Report Suggests Improvements to ASD Math Program – ALARMING

By: killcommoncore

killcommoncore — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 15:34:42 +0000

If Common Core Lives, Freedom Dies.
When you come across a Common Core video, or any video on YouTube, you can create a copy of it on your hard drive.

If you want to copy a video, do this…

I want to copy a video called Some Random Video
the URL will look like this:
http://www.youtube.com/somerandomvideo

Just put ss in front of the YouTube word like this:
http://www.ssyoutube.com/somerandomvideo
and your computer will ask what resolution and format you prefer, then it will ask for a storage target, like your desktop or hard-drive, then when you select the proper avenue, you can download the video. This way, they cannot totally eliminate any video you want to re-post.

Keep up the good fight.

By: Pat in Maine

Pat in Maine — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:50:31 +0000

To Niki Hayes,
Stick to it Niki. I know the feeling as a school board member who fought for 4 years to get rid of Investigations and Connected Math.
Don’t waver on CCSS either. Texas got it right. It goes way beyond methods, it is an agenda that gives all control of K-12 education to a handful of elitists.

By: Niki Hayes

Niki Hayes — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 00:51:04 +0000

I was appointed, much to my great surprise, to the Texas Education Agency’s state math review committee. (As author of John Saxon’s biography, I am not on a “wanted” list by TEA folks. Nonetheless, some strings were pulled to get me on the committee, I’m told.)

We had our first meeting in May. Our responsibility is to rewrite the K-12 state math standards. We were told to refer to Massachusetts, Minnesota, Singapore Math, and the Common Core Standards (even though TX did not get on board with CCSSI) for background preparation. Both Massachusetts and Minnesota specifically require the use of “standard” algorithms. Our document refers only to the use of “arrays” in learning multiplication and division.

Since Jim Milgram was one of the national experts who worked on the initial document, I checked with him about this omission. He was stunned to learn standard algorithms, which he and other mathematicians had specifically required, had been removed from the document, evidently by TEA staffers.

I get to go to our second meeting in July and the last one is in October. You want to know what it’s like to be the only outspoken traditional math person in a room of 80 people, most of whom are “curriculum directors, math coaches, and other district office” individuals who are whining because we are supposed to eliminate a lof of fluff from the document? (Teachers comprise only one-fourth of the committee.) I volunteered to work with grades 3-5 because I’ve been tutoring those grades the past year at the local Catholic School that uses Saxon, so I KNOW what should be in those grade levels. It also helps (me, at least) that I was a principal in Seattle and don’t get cowed by the “administrators” in the room.

And the beat goes on…and on…and on.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 06:46:59 +0000

Thanks for posting Oak. Good to nail down the motivational issue so we know more about where and what to fight.

By: Larry Ballard

Larry Ballard — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:15:13 +0000

One item that stuck out for me was her focus on the issue that the students struggled to work alone. Certainly we are part of society. However, although we have a lot of intelligent people and students, if one is trained only to group think across the academic board, the God given and intended function of the brain to engage in critical thinking is absorbed in to the group problem solving process exclusively. When this group problem solving methodology is not structured or where it can have many solutions or outcomes, none of which might be considered correct; the individual will is suppressed, apprehension and uneasy conclusions are reached, and the concept of absolute truth is swallowed by relativity. If I wanted to control the mass mind, this is how I would want to mold the brains of the children. Obviously the new math is about a lot more than math.

By: EducationViews.org » Report Suggests Improvements to ASD Math Program – ALARMING

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:57:07 +0000

[…] via Report Suggests Improvements to ASD Math Program – ALARMING. […]

By: Jim Rawson

Jim Rawson — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:12:33 +0000

An excellent read and interesting explanations from the videos. It is beyond my imagination why any district would want to use Constructivist Math. It does not work as I have experienced with students who have graduated from ASD. Even asking simple Mathematical questions; “How many is one dozen?” Students could not give me an answer. And this was at a check out counter at the Orem Target. I’ve had the same problem with students working at a number of fast food restaurants along the Wasatch front who hadn’t a clue how to make change when the cash register wouldn’t work. I’m completing 44 years in education and am appalled at the obvious effort to dumb down our students whilst driving a wedge between parent and child as you’ve explained and proven.

By: kristie

kristie — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:35:01 +0000

Thanks for sending this along, Oak.

There is good reason that Mathnasiums have sprung up all over these school districts in Utah. They would not be here were it not a great need. It says a lot about the math education in Utah.