"The Obama administration’s push for uniform, common-core standards for math could end up conflicting with the president’s call for more college students majoring in STEM: science, technology, engineering and math.
At least that’s the view of an emeritus professor of math at the University of Maryland and of one of the original creators of California’s math standards. At a panel discussion at a math conference in San Francisco last weekend, both criticized the high school graduation standards for college and career readiness that were published last fall by the national organizations leading the common-core initiative.
Jerome Dancis, the emeritus professor, said that college-ready means that students wouldn’t need remediation for a college math course in arithmetic and Algebra. But that doesn’t make the student prepared for a STEM major, which demands fluency in pre-calculus, he said.� Dancis worries that students will arrive on campus thinking they’re ready for STEM, when, having taken only an anemic Algebra II course in line with the common-core standards, they’re not."
At least that’s the view of an emeritus professor of math at the University of Maryland and of one of the original creators of California’s math standards. At a panel discussion at a math conference in San Francisco last weekend, both criticized the high school graduation standards for college and career readiness that were published last fall by the national organizations leading the common-core initiative.
Jerome Dancis, the emeritus professor, said that college-ready means that students wouldn’t need remediation for a college math course in arithmetic and Algebra. But that doesn’t make the student prepared for a STEM major, which demands fluency in pre-calculus, he said.� Dancis worries that students will arrive on campus thinking they’re ready for STEM, when, having taken only an anemic Algebra II course in line with the common-core standards, they’re not."