Playing with the data!
For all the fuss about multiplication tables , algebra and calculus what’s more alarming is the depth of our layman understanding of statistics–including students with high test scores and elite educational backgrounds. Including, of course, journalists and politicians and newspaper editors.
Once again Richard Rothstein of EPI comes to the rescue. Along with Martin Canoy of Stamford they undertook a close examination of the numbers around international test score comparisons. Unsurprisingly they found that the differences were (1) usually a reflection of the percentage of low-income children in the sampled population, 2) the choice of what kind of information to cover (number theory vs algebra–where we do better on the latter and the Finns on the former, but we just happened to be on the unlucky draw of the dice).
It makes for good reading. For more go to Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
I think I turned off of math in elementary and high school (although I did fairy well because I was dutiful). I thought
Once again Richard Rothstein of EPI comes to the rescue. Along with Martin Canoy of Stamford they undertook a close examination of the numbers around international test score comparisons. Unsurprisingly they found that the differences were (1) usually a reflection of the percentage of low-income children in the sampled population, 2) the choice of what kind of information to cover (number theory vs algebra–where we do better on the latter and the Finns on the former, but we just happened to be on the unlucky draw of the dice).
It makes for good reading. For more go to Economic Policy Institute (EPI)
I think I turned off of math in elementary and high school (although I did fairy well because I was dutiful). I thought
