Currently browsing Science, Math (STEM)
Math framework for Common Core ready for your critique
A draft of the California math curriculum framework went online Wednesday for public comments and suggestions. While weighing in at 1,200 pages, the document is actually a readable grade-by-grade manual that puts meat on the bare-bones Common Core standards that the state adopted in 2010. It explains the rationale for key standards and puts them in context of what students will learn, while providing guidance on how they should be taught. Interspersed are numerous sample … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, Standards
State Board eliminates incentives to offer Algebra in 8th grade
The State Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to remove state incentives encouraging schools to offer Algebra I in 8th grade. The move was both a vote of confidence in the new Common Core standards for 8th grade, which districts are now beginning to implement, and a retreat from a decade-old policy of pushing universal algebra in 8th grade. Proponents of the state’s current policy are predicting that enrollment in Algebra by 8th grade, which has … Read entire article »
Filed under: A to G Curriculum, Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), UC and CSU
NIH study shows early math matters
Another in a series of peer reviewed studies demonstrating the importance of early math was released Wednesday. A study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, one of the National Institutes of Health, found that children’s 1st grade math skills predicted their math abilities in 7th grade. The study followed nearly 200 children of varying socioeconomic backgrounds from several elementary schools in Columbia, MO. Researchers tested students on math tasks that measured students’ basic understanding of how numbers work, known in the fielld as “numeracy skills.” Specifically, researchers tested children’s competence with addition strategies, number line estimates and number set manipulation. In plain English, researchers asked children how they arrived at the answer to simple addition problems, had them place a number in the correct spot on a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Early Childhood, Quick Hits, Science, Math (STEM)
API penalties for not offering 8th grade Algebra to be dropped
An education committee recommended Tuesday that the state stop docking the test scores of districts that don’t offer Algebra I in 8th grade. The recommendation by the Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee would reverse a decade-old practice and could go to the State Board of Education as early as next month. The Advisory Committee is charged with suggesting changes to the state’s school accountability system, the Academic Performance Index or API. It will soon be … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, Tests & Assessments
It’s final: State Board shifts policy on eighth grade Algebra
The State Board of Education ended a decade-long controversial policy of pushing eighth graders to take Algebra I when members voted unanimously Wednesday to strip California’s Algebra I standards from the state’s eighth grade math standards. Those standards will now mirror the national Common Core standards, which do not include Algebra I for eighth graders. The State Board will create curriculum options to accelerate math-taking in middle school and high school and to leave it up … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, STEM
Latest draft of science standards ready for review
The latest draft of new national science standards being developed by 25 states is now available for review here. This is the last draft that will be open to public comment – until January 29 – before the final standards are released in March. California is on track to adopt the standards in the fall. After that, the state, either on its own or in collaboration with other states, must create new tests to go with the standards. No timetable has been set yet or money set aside for that purpose. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Quick Hits, Science, Math (STEM), Standards
Many math students are flailing, repeating courses without success
A big reason California students are pushed to take higher math in high school is to see that they satisfy the admission requirements to a state four-year university. And yet 68 percent of students who haven’t passed one of the required courses, Algebra II, by the end of 11th grade don’t even enroll in math as seniors, giving up on the possibility of applying to a UC or CSU school. That puzzling statistic is among the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Common Core standards, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Research, Science, Math (STEM), Standardized tests, Tests & Assessments
State Board gets authority to pare back 8th grade math standards
Gov. Jerry Brown evidently agrees that California’s math standards should align more closely with the national Common Core standards. On Thursday, he signed SB 1200, which will allow the State Board to weed out the dozens of California state Algebra standards that were inserted two years ago with the adoption of Common Core as part of an ongoing, unresolved debate over what students should learn in eighth grade. Advocates of SB 1200, which the Department of Education drafted, argue that the amalgamation of eighth grade standards created confusion for teachers and for publishers, who would have to design unique materials for California for an unwieldy course combining pre-Algebra and Algebra I. Critics, who include former State Board of Education Executive Director John Mockler, charged that SB 1200 will result in discouraging most … Read entire article »
Filed under: Common Core standards, Featured, Quick Hits, Science, Math (STEM)
Brown signs bill moving API away from standardized tests
Senate Bill 1458, which will shift California’s chief measure of a high school’s performance, from a near exclusive reliance on state test scores to a broader gauge of student accomplishment and preparation for college and the world of work, is now law. After Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill Wednesday, its sponsor, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, predicted in a press release that the bill “will prove to be one of the most significant education … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arts, Common Core standards, Featured, History, Civics, Reporting & Analysis, Science, Math (STEM), Tests & Assessments
California should not adopt Next Generation Science Standards
April 25th, 2013 | 27 Comments | By Paul Bruno / commentary
With the release of the final draft of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), states must begin in earnest to consider replacing their own existing standards. California should be especially cautious in this deliberation because, by some measures, the Golden State already has some of the strongest science standards in the country. In fact, while the NGSS may have much to recommend them to other states, it is unlikely that they represent an improvement over … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Science, Math (STEM), Standards, Twenty-first Century Learning