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Trouble with Fractions

In Texas, the class of 2012 (this year's sophomores) are now required to take 4 years of Math and 4 years of science along with the 4 years of English and 4 years of Social Studies previously required.    This is being referred to here in Texas education as the 4x4 plan.   All students are now expected to be on the College-bound plan.  Expectations are high.   Yay Texas!

 

At first the plan was going to require every student to take Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and one more class above Algebra II.   Wisely that seems to have been scaled back a bit.   Students who are weak in Math will be allowed to take Algebra I, Geometry, then a course called Math Models (where a lot of TAKS prep is possibly included), followed by Algebra II as their 4th Math.    Even with this scaled back plan, I can foresee that some students will have great difficulty finishing High School in 4 years time.   Summer school is going to become filled with students retaking Algebra I or Geometry.  Credit Recovery classes will see more and more students during the school year.    Students will be doubling up Algebra I and Geometry or Geometry and Math Models .... weak Math studens might have to take two Math courses the same year in order to try to Graduate on Time!   It is going to be interesting.

 

When I left the Math classroom in 2005 to become a Private Math Tutor, I had no idea these changes were coming .... but now I find myself in the perfect business at the perfect time.    I will happily do everything I can to help your student pass whatever Math course they find themselves in.   

 

I also find myself in the perfect position to see what is going on in the broad picture of Math Education in Texas .... from Middle School to High School to College.    And in the Testing programs from TAKS to SAT/ACT to Accuplacer/THEA to the GED and the GRE and the ASVAB.  

 

Several Texas high schools are working on creating a variety of 4th year Math classes for the student who isn't quite up to taking Pre-Calculus or wants something different.  Statistics, Intro. to College Algebra, College Algebra Dual Credit, etc.  I would like to offer a suggestion for at least a portion of a 4th year Math class.   I will probably be laughed at and shouted down ... but there is a method behind my madness.  

 

 

Yikes!!  Ducking and running for cover!!  Texas Instruments won't like high schools offering such a class.  Texas High School students are groaning and throwing things at me!  Even I am wondering what I just said because I am a huge proponent of calculator use!!  But hear me out!

 

Students are allowed to use a calculator all four years of high school and on the TAKS, the SAT, and the ACT.   However, if they do not perform well on these tests they will have to take a College Placement Test in order for the college to best determine what Math class their students should start out in.   The Accuplacer and the THEA are examples of College Placement Tests and are the main tests used by Texas Colleges and Universities.   Here is the kicker ...  Neither of these tests allows the use of a TI-Graphing Calculator.  If they allow a calculator  at all, it is the tiny calculator that does the 4 main operations plus % and square roots.  Most don't even allow that. 

 

Guess what?  The Accuplacer and the THEA are heavy on Fraction and Decimal operations.  Guess what?  Lots of students who graduate from high school cannot do Fraction and Decimal operations without a calculator.  Oh, they could do them fine in Middle School ... but after 3-4 years of using a TI-83 calculator which can add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions AND give you an answer in fractional form ... they totally lose the ability.   It is quite possible that they never truly understood the concepts in the first place.  This is not a condemnation of the students, the schools, or the calculators .... it is simply a fact.

 

How many of you, as adults, when asked to multiply 35.687 x .0649 would reach for a calculator?   And I'll bet you know where the nearest calculator is .... probably in your cell phone.    How many of you can correctly subtract 3 and 5/7 from 7 and 2/5??   By hand?  ((The answer is 3 and 24/35.))   Be honest. 

 

Our students, fresh out of Algebra II, have forgotten the rules for finding a common denominator, for borrowing to subract, for lining up decimals or not when adding or multiplying.   They knew these rules in 6th grade and in 7th and 8th grades.   But the focus in High School turns to X's and Y's ... Sines and Cosines .... Logs and Lns ... and the use of a calculator which does fractions and decimals and lots of other things for them.     And the test for students to get placed into Math classes in college has quite a bit of middle school math on it!

 

Keep in mind that Texas is expecting 100% of it's students to pass 4 years of Math .... 100% of it's students to go to College .... these are very high expectations.   Not everyone is good at Math.   I think one of the best things we can do for our weakest students is help them to truly understand the basics of mathematics.  Reteach them middle school math and our students will perform better on the college placement tests.  Fewer students will need remedial math at the college level.   Classes they pay for, but don't get college credit for.  

 

Calculator use is drilled into our high school students ... but it seems to be frowned upon once they leave high school and move towards college.    I'd like to see that change ... I think calculators are valuable and I use one all the time.  But the Accuplacer/THEA ... the GED and even the GRE (an entrance test for Graduate School) allow them to be used minimally, if at all.   I think these tests are behind the times ... but this is how it is ... and we owe it to our students to prepare them better for these tests and for College.

 

If the High Schools don't .... I can!!  And will!! Math-Matters.org

 

Can you do these problems without a calculator?

 

A.  13.45 - 8.656

B.  35.687 x .0649

C.  10 ft 3 inches - 5 ft 7 inches

D.  1 Ton - 25 lbs 4 oz

E.   5 and 1/8  X   6 and 3/7    

 

I'll post the correct answers tomorrow .... if you can't wait .... email me at Mathmatters@verizon.net