If you go to a public high school in Washington State, or any state for that matter, and you wanted to go to a college or university that is also run by said state’s public education department, you’d probably guess that the folks running that department would work at making the transition very smooth and easy, right?
Ah-Ha! You’d be wrong if you you’re a Washington State resident.
An argument for increasing rigor in Washington state’s public-education system comes from this factoid: High-school students can graduate with straight A’s but still fall short of college requirements.
The culprit is low academic standards, especially in math. State high-school graduation requirements include a math requirement that doesn’t meet the level required by the University of Washington and other state institutions. Credit the state Board of Education for seeking to inject rigor and accountability in the public system. If the board has its way — and it should — high-school graduation requirements will change for the better. Students will be required to pass Algebra II to graduate, a critical baseline since students unprepared for college-level math must take a remedial course, Algebra II.
9th Grade math is now “College level”?
We live in a world of fools (and people who are worse at math than I am).
Don’t get me started. Ok never mind here I go.
‘Where’s the Math’ has been a large problem for Washington for quite some time now. Only very recently has the realization come about that when you teach math to children, you cannot skip the basic parts and go directly to abstract word-math questions requiring an essay answer that includes social engineering.
I’m not kidding either.
Despite the fact that for decades Washington industry and high-tech leaders have been trying to rally the educators around not just higher math standards but incorporating teaching methodologies that work, Washington continues to slide into the Pit Of sub-par basic skills Doom.
My wife, holding a degree in math (and apart from her general physical hotness, a trait that tickles me), recently tutored some 3rd Graders in Lake Washington School District. This is supposed to be a progressive school district of higher standards. These kids do not get the insipid curriculum steeped in pseudo- cognitive science. The general reply to “this child isn’t getting it†was “kids learn at different speedsâ€. She came home livid. She wanted to know how we got here. I said “This is what you get when you and your Democrat girlfriends get together and vote for holier-than-thou liberal feel-good elected officials, instead of voting for people wanting to do work.â€
Yes, I got the glare of doom. Totally worth it.
Me? I am homeschooling our oldest over the summer. I am going to teach him the entire 4th grade math curriculum as defined by homeschoolers in the know. That way when he gets to school in September, he can look at the teacher with a look of boredom while she struggles with all the other students in her too-full class of blank looks.
Eventually my wife will probably go back to work part time so we can afford private schooling. Then we’ll become the clichéd voting bloc that votes no on all property tax increases and school bonds, and yes on all the voucher initiatives that periodically come up. And some people wonder how the class war is fueled.
http://www.wheresthemath.com/blog/
C’mon Tony, tell us how you really feel.
Just kidding. Sorry to hear about what you’re going through, though I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who doesn’t feel they’re getting ripped off (and I don’t even have kids).
I don’t remember what the PRK required for HS graduation back in the early 90s, but I believe it was 2 years of algebra and a year of geometry.
Admission to the UC system required adding a semester each of trig and analytic geometry.
Anyone who can’t do basic algebra is ignorant. Let’s hope the Board gets its way.
Even my very liberal daughter has seen the light and plans to homeschool the grandkids. Public “education” has become a national tragedy.