from the editor's desk : education

news flash: girls are as good as boys when it comes to math

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:03:00 GMT

If women aren't going into technology and science career fields, it is not because they lack math apptitude. New research finds no difference between the average math scores of boys and girls in the grades 2 through 11. You can find a link to the study here, along with some interesting commentary on it at the Chronicle of Higher Education:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3191/girls-as-good-as-boys-at-math-study-finds?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Did you have instructors who were dolts?

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 23 May 2008 12:14:00 GMT

Here's a situation a lot of us have experienced: You take a class that gives you headaches. After a lot of soul searching, you start to wonder if the problem is not you and not the material, but the instructor.

Well, the problem might well have been a poor hiring choice on the part of school administrators. This short article from the Chronicle of Higher Education gives some interesting insights into some not-so-good educators who were considered for college teaching jobs.

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/05/2008052301c/careers.html?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

It takes 11 years to break even after college

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:16:00 GMT

It takes the average college student at a public university about 11 years to break even after paying for school and missing about four years worth of earning power. For those attending more pricey private schools, the breakeven point comes after about 18 years. This statistic comes from the College Board responding to criticism from Charles Miller, the former chairman of the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Miller essentially said the Board was overstating the monetary pay back from higher education. You can read some of the details and the comments they elicited in the Chronicle of Higher Education news blog:

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4258/college-board-responds-to-charles-miller

math panel says: emphasize fractions

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:10:00 GMT

Readers of my editorials may recall one piece wherein I mentioned the story of a 1980s presidential candidate who reportedly had to ask his press entourage how to calculate the decimal equivalent of 3/7, to help his son with a home work problem. With that tale in mind, perhaps the recommendations of a presidential panel on math education should come as no surprise:

"Difficulty with fractions (including decimals and percents) is pervasive and is a major obstacle to further progress in mathematics, including algebra," the panel, appointed by President Bush two years ago, said in a report.

Another main point to come out of the panel's work is that we really don't know all that much about the best way to teach mathematical concepts. You can read a good commentary on the report findings here, as well as find a link to the report itself:

http://mathpanelwatch.blogspot.com/

MIT eliminates tuition for families earning below $75,000

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:26:00 GMT

Not only that, they will not figure in the value of your home when calculating net worth. An item from the Chronicle of Higher Education on this development is interesting for the commentary it got from posters reacting to the news.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4107/mit-eliminates-tuition-for-students-whose-families-earn-less-than-75000?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

More on remedial college math: Are college students confounded by simple algebra?

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:18:00 GMT

Here is another interesting item from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Sixty professors at the University of Washington have signed an open letter to the Legislature complaining that college freshmen are “confounded by simple algebra. Interestingly, nobody from the school's college of education would sign the thing.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4083/washington-legislature-gets-an-earful-about-freshmens-woeful-math?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

headline:A Third of Public-School Students in Mass. Need Remediation at College

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:12:00 GMT

The headline from the news blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education screams that a third of public school students need remediation at college. Read the item, though, and it is clear that the there is less to the headline than meets the eye, and the news may be less alarming than it first appears.

First, they are only referring to public school students who continued on to college. So it is obvious that the proportion of public school graduates who needed remediation is less than one third. It is actually one third of those who continued on to college, not one third of the total population of public school graduates.

And the report is not clear on whether the figure only references those who went on to four-year schools, or those who also went on to community college. It would seem to include both groups. If that's the case, therein may lie an explanation for the large amount of remediation. Most people continue on to four year schools to pursue a profession. Some continue on to community college to pursue a profession, but many more go there to get a vocation. There is a difference in preparation between the two groups.

Finally, it turns out that what they mean by "needing remediation" is that the student took at least one remedial course. It would be interesting to see how many took one and only one remedial course.

It would also be interesting to find you what passes for a remedial course these days. I know what it was like back in my day. If the college admitted you with math SATs that weren't quite up to snuff, you might have wound up in a remedial calculus course. They covered the same material as the regular freshman calculus course and took the same exams. But they met more frequently to give more classroom time, and they were run by the same teaching fellows running the regular classes. Their "remedial" nature was minimal.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4057/a-third-of-public-school-students-in-mass-need-remediation-at-college-report-says?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en