Anyway GNXP ( http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2006/02/face-of-discrimination.php ) has a link to this
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=4477572

A U.S. Justice Department investigation into hiring practices at the Virginia Beach Police Department has concluded that a math exam given to recruits discriminates against blacks and Hispanics.

The math test is one of a handful of separately times and scored components of the National Police Officer Selection Test used to screen and select entry-level officers. The investigation found that between 2002 and 2005, about 85 percent of white applicants passed the math test, while 66 percent of Hispanic applicants and 59 percent of blacks passed.

Question: I don’t doubt this but how can students in the TERC math programs better in standardized tests if it isn’t teaching them real math? Or do we just not really know yet?

I ask because I did some research and found out TERC was implemented in my burg, starting at the high schools and then at poorest neighborhood school with the most “at-risk” students. How do I find out how they’re doing? How do you wrest control of these things? Does getting on school board help? I’m thinking of taking a run at it.

Then, the schools mandate it for all their teachers.

And then all hell breaks loose, as poorly trained teachers attempt to teach what they really don’t understand.

Particularly in elementary school, you could probably improve math education the most by simply requiring working teachers, not just pre-service teachers, to take college-level courses in math until they hit a base level of competency.

Put a motivated student at home with motivated parents, and it doesn’t much matter how well educated the parent is – that student will be educated.

Put an unmotivated student in a lackluster school supported by lackluster parents – and you’ll have a generation of marching morons.

Homeschooling seems to work so well, I think, because it links motivated parent to motivatable student – and avoids the middle man. It’s generally cheaper than public schooling. And it’s generally a lot more efficient.

I know there are other avenues for education besides public schools. I’m amazed that more parents *who claim to love their children* don’t explore these avenues. If I saw that kids who were educated in system A were always higher performers than those educated in system B, *and* my kids were in system B, I’d be motivated to check system A.

I’ll bet you could accomplish the same in educating kids in about an hour at home with what they accomplish in 6 hours at school in the primary grades.

So, it is not too much to ask a child to memorize multiplication tables or other ‘drudges’ of arithmetic. Provided, that is, that they regularly get the right kinds and amounts of food, sleep, and discipline. (aye, there’s the rub)

When one moves beyond mere arithmetic and one is talking about algebra or calculus, the situation changes. Different approaches to learning are needed.

Allowing the children to find the answers on their own, or at least with lighter guidance, is a good idea. The problem is that the guide has to be familiar with the territory and the destination. And the guide has to care that you arrive.
Also, finding your own way means that some people will sprint in a straight line from problem to answer while others will meander in the wilderness before arriving at the answer. This model does not jibe well with moving a class of 30 (or 20 or 10) kids to the next chapter in the book so that they can finish the requirements by summer break.

Homeschool is not a panacea but it does have the advantages that kids can work at their own pace, that their forward progress is individually and constantly monitored, and that the teacher has a strongly vested interest in the child’s success.

You are hopelessly retrograde in your thinking. The goal of the new math is to get kids to think in new ways.

The correct answer is not the goal, because – THERE ARE NO CORRECT ANSWERS!

It’s all about the process and not about the project.

(end sarcasm)

Now, of course, the resulting educational accomplishments of these student might mean that they cannot perform simple tasks and will become the french fry cooks of the future – but the teachers can say, “At least they know the process.”

And this makes it all the better for the few parents who yank their kids out of public schools and teach them the basics at home – and whose kids thereby have an even greater chance of succeeding.

Just ask yourself – these Ph.D.’s from India and Pakistan that are coming to America in droves – are THEY learning their maths this way, or do they learn maths the old-fashioned way? Do all the Chinese research labs’ employees use these new methods, or the old methods?

Seems like the goal is create a class of American students who can’t pour water from a boot if the instructions are printed on the heel – because these student will consider that all possible angles have an equal chance of being right.

I know I’ve mentioned this before in e-mails to you, but I think your readers might like to know about the fastest-growing trend in solid education today, and it’s based on ideas that are literally hundreds of years old: Classical Christian Schooling. This method is an attempt to recover the staggeringly successful educational methods that were used in medieval schools, when solidly educated students would routinely enter college fully prepared (in both their native language and Latin) at age 16.

These methods work just as well today as they did back then, and they are uniquely attuned to the developmental progression of the child in a way that none of the trendy educrat methods can match.

There are two things that anyone even remotely interested in this proven method should read: First, Dorothy Sayers (yes, the Oxford professor and author of the Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novels) classic 1947 essay, The Lost Tools of Learning. Second, as a follow-up and to put more flesh on the bones, Douglas Wilson’s book series on Classical Christian Education, beginning with “Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning.”

This method works – even when the schools implementing it (such as the one my children have attended here in Austin) do an incredibly poor job of putting it into actual practice, it still produces dramatically superior knowledge and understanding in the children than traditional methods. (It’s not that unusual for children from Classical Christian private shcools or homeschools to score 1100-1200 on the SAT in *7th* grade – My daughter did, and my son is likely to, and it’s not all the superior genetics , undoubtedly from my wife…)

This method is worth a look for anyone that wants to see how education can really deliver what it should, rather than the pale but still unmet promises we settle for in today’s world.