Johnny has to take seven major exams (not including hundreds of classroom tests and pop quizzes) during his K-12 education before he can graduate in 2008. If Johnny has to pass three of the major exams (in grades four, seven and ten) in order to graduate, but fails the math section of the final exam given in 10th grade — even after the state spent $100,000 to study that portion of the test and make the appropriate changes — how much will Johnny’s parents have to pay in legal fees to sue the state for making the test too hard? Round your answer to the nearest ten.
If any student can work out that impossible story problem, he shouldn’t have to take the WASL tests. Until then, it’s a good thing Washington state is trying to figure out why our students, especially middle school age, are scoring so poorly on the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
The independent study is supposed to tell our state’s highest educators what is wrong with the tests. Officials want to work out the bugs now because 2008 is rapidly approaching. But educators shouldn’t stop there, and we don’t think they will.
Students need to be held to high standards throughout their education, especially in math and reading. There is good reason to study the very tests students study so hard to pass. Similar research in 2000 revealed that 10 of the 120 math questions on the fourth-grade WASL exams were too difficult or exceeded the state’s learning standards at that level. We need to test students on what they’re being taught, not on something beyond their capabilities.
We also need to make sure students don’t get left behind in mathematics. There is lots of talk about making sure students don’t graduate without learning how to read. But how many students graduate without really learning math? Granted, reading is the building block for all other education, but math certainly ranks right up there as a necessity and students need to know that before they leave high school.
So, listen up students: Yes, you will use math in your every day lives once you graduate from high school.
You’ll use math to balance your checkbook after you find out what it’s like to bounce that first check. You’ll use math to decide how much of your paycheck you want to sock away into your new 401(k) plan. You’ll use math to figure out whether you can afford new car payments or used car payments in your monthly budget. In a hundred other ways, you’ll use math every single day for the rest of your life.
And if you don’t learn it now, you’ll end up writing stupid story problems like the one above.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
