I personally loved having calculators in math. I took up to Pre-Calc, and I also took Chemistry and Physics in high school. I have always been told that math is to teach problem solving skills. There is no reason why using a calculator and knowing how to use it is not problem solving. I believe the same goal can come from using them then not using them. I am not going to use parabolas or matrices in real life.
I find the statistics for both math and reading in the past 20 years sad. I am wondering why it took this long to realize the strategies that have been used have not been working. They should have been trying other methods. There is still a rather large gap between ethnic groups--and this needs addressed as well. Math is supposedly a "universal language", so I would not think there would be a large gap in the scores.
Math is a little frustrating to me, especially as I plan to take the Praxis I test sometime this year. I will have to recall information that I have not touched in four or more years. I do not believe that this is an adequate assessment to see if I am prepared for teaching or not. With this said, I really hope my math teacher in high school was able to give me what I need to pass this test many years later.
Koebler, Jason. (2011). National Math Assessment Scores Creep Up But Stagnate in Reading. U.S. News. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/11/01/national-math-assessment-scores-creep-up-but-stagnate-in-reading
Phillips, Anna M. (2012). For Math, Click Calculate. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/for-math-click-calculate.html
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