Comments on: PROOF POINTS: Professors say high school math doesn’t prepare most students for their college majors

By: Alex Bisnath

Alex Bisnath — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 18:04:20 +0000

The conversation about whether or not we should focus more on statistics instead of calculus misses the elephant in the room, which is that we’re not very successful at teaching students math in general. The people (like me) who defend calculus, do so because if algebra-through-calculus were taught successfully—if people actually understood that mathematical statements are trying to convey meaning and aren’t just symbols to push around—then it would be really easy for them to learn data science. But the problem is that we’re failing at that. I’d also like to add that I learned a lot of data science skills in science class when I was in school: making charts and tables, analyzing datasets to draw conclusions, etc. So stronger science education would also help with the skills deficit in question. We shouldn’t remove half the math curriculum just because we’re failing to teach it. We should encourage people to take statistics, just as a complement to the other math classes and not as a replacement.

By: Monique Smith

Monique Smith — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:11:40 +0000

I am a junior high and high school math teacher her, and overall I agree. The problem I face is that far too many7th graders come to me not knowing how to add or subtract with decimals. They also don’t know their multiplication tables. This makes it very difficult to make sure they can master integers, ratios, proportions, and percent before they finish 8th grade. If my students came to me with a solid foundation from elementary school instead of being passed because they attended school, I could teach them I troductory calculus and statistics by graduation. But all too often I’m teaching students how to borrow across a zero and do long division rather than explaining the difference between mean, median, and mode or how to solve an equation.

By: Susan Archer

Susan Archer — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 17:14:38 +0000

I worked with a very wise high school math department chair years ago who explained why the algebra through precal/calc track was important. It isn’t that we expect every student to use differential equations and integrals in their adult life, but we do expect them to be able to follow a logical set of steps to get from a problem to a conclusion. Reinforcing problem solving strategies through math classes taught across a student’s high school career helps them internalize the process. I have taught statistics at the high school and college level for almost 25 years. They need to become good/discerning consumers of information – especially sources that involve data description and analysis. Focusing a stats course on how the content is used in the real world engages students at all levels.

By: David Smith

David Smith — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 18:24:43 +0000

PROOF POINTS by Jill Barshay makes several points about data and interpretation. These skills are not math skills at all and are not an appropriate alternative to math. The skills of reading information, summarizing data, interpreting published information, and summarizing and reporting quantitative information in numbers, graphs, and figures, in oral or written form generally requires arithmetic skills that are taught by fifth grade. These skills are part of reading and writing, usually included in language arts. Many school math teachers could teach this; math teachers have no special training or skill in this knowledge. These skills are taught in college in numerous disciplines to students who usually have standard high school preparation. The teaching of these skills belongs across the curriculum, not as an alternative to high school math.

By: Wayne Bishop

Wayne Bishop — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 12:51:19 +0000

Less math is not good math and the standard high school statistics course avoids the mathematics almost completely. Real statistics courses are based on calculus and require calculus as a prerequisite for any statistics that is anything but “baby stat”. Don’t buy it. Some will argue that they never used calculus or, on occasion, ever used algebra, as an excuse to avoid requiring it. Avoiding it limits students’ opportunities and, furthermore, the argument is spurious. When was the last time you used ancient history or most of the stuff you learned in college or even just in high school?

By: Alex Mata-B

Alex Mata-B — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:34:31 +0000

I will also say that Teachers in high school would expect students coming from middle school to have a solid foundation in essential mathematical skills. Proficiency in the times tables, basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as understanding fractions, long division, negative numbers, and other fundamental math concepts are indeed crucial for success in higher-level math courses.

By: Meijun Zhu

Meijun Zhu — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 05:09:22 +0000

Learning correlation without understanding inner product? Without knowing cosine function?

The real problem is that we teach kids Algebra too late, thus we can only give them all these fancy formulas for the “application” of mathematics. But now, we have ChatGPT, do we still need to teach our students these formulas for data analysis?

By: Howard Dolgin

Howard Dolgin — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 18:05:58 +0000

Excellent article. You present the arguments for including more statistical knowledge and the obstacles against instituting more statistics.

Please ask your readers to respond to these questions,
“When was the last time you used calculus at your job or daily life?”
“Worked with any differential equations lately?”

By: DuWayne Krause

DuWayne Krause — Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:55:56 +0000

This article is “right on.” There are far more jobs that use statistics, than use calculus. The number of people who have told me that they took calculus and never use it is pretty considerable. Whenever I hear another math teacher say that they covered all the standards (as opposed to taught them), I know the kids didn’t learn it. Jobs analysis says that the math, of the workplace for 80% of Americans is arithmetic, ration, proportion, percent, and beginning statistics. Forcing most kids onto the calculus track may make math teachers feel good/importrant, but it does not meet the needs of students.