Please Write to Your Delgates and School Board Members
by pwceducationreform
Tell them that students should be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide without calculators BEFORE they’re forced into Algebra or higher level courses. Heck, tell them to order the VA DOE to stop pushing calculators in our elementary school children. Tell your Delegates that you support HB 469. Tell your school board members not to oppose it.
Delegate Dave Albo proposed HB 469 last year. The bill would prohibit students from using calculators on Algebra readiness and end of course exams. Albo was quoted in the Washington Examiner as stating, “It’s making sure teachers are teaching basic math skills without calculators, like we used to do in the ’70s before we had calculators.” He said he was inspired to propose the bill when he was told by a Fairfax County teacher that many of his Algebra I students were unable to multiply and divide fractions, a skill which is necessary for Algebra and higher level courses.
The Va Dept of Ed, through the VA SOLs, has advocated that students be taught to use calculators starting in kindergarten for years . The VA Dept of Ed allows students to use calculators on Math SOL exams starting in 5th grade.
Long time followers of this page know our origins spring from the math wars here in Prince William County, wars which
