Group items tagged

Quantities and their relationships in physical, economic, public policy, social and everyday situations can be modeled using mathematical and statistical methods.

“Model with mathematics. Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace.”

“Attend to precision. Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning.”

“Look for and make use of structure. Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure,” and “Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, and look both for general methods and shortcuts.”

Missing entirely from the practice standards is a discussion of how to pose problems, and, more generally, how to ask powerful questions. This is a telling oversight. Unlike in school, real problems are not served up on a platter, fully formed. The standards-writers overlooked the most basic fact of people with genuine math expertise: They find problems!

Is it too late to change this? I hope not. Solving our problem of poor mathematics education depends upon it.

And six middle schools in four California cities (San Francisco, Long Beach, Fresno and Riverside) are teaching the first iPad-only algebra course, developed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.