Category Archives: K-12

Common Sense Approach to Common Core Math

I’m writing a series of articles for Heartlander on a Common Sense Approach to Common Core. In these articles, I show that there are interpretations of CC that can be made that aren’t as ridiculous as the ones we’re seeing … Continue reading

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Undoing the “Rote Understanding” Approach to the Common Core Math Standards

What has been used as a help in older textbooks and in Singapore, is turning out to be a hindrance in the U.S. under the current interpretations of Common Core. Insisting on calculations based on the “making tens” and other … Continue reading

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Press Release: Study Finds Common Core Math Standards Will Reduce Enrollment in High-Level High School Math Courses, Dumb Down College STEM Curriculum Lower standards, alignment of SAT to Common Core likely to hurt low-income students the most

https://pioneerinstitute.org/download/study-finds-common-core-math-standards-will-reduce-enrollment-in-high-level-high-school-math-courses-dumb-down-college-stem-curriculum/ BOSTON – Common Core math standards (CCMS) end after just a partial Algebra II course. This weak Algebra II course will result in fewer high school students able to study higher-level math and science courses and an increase in … Continue reading

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Wayne Bishop’s Response to Ratner and Wu (Wall Street Journal)

Making Math Education Even Worse, by Marina Ratner, https://online.wsj.com/articles/marina-ratner-making-math-education-even-worse-1407283282 ———————————————— Dear Hung-Hsi, It pains me to write but in spite of all of your precollegiate mathematics education knowledge and contributions, Prof. Ratner got it right and you “missed the boat” … Continue reading

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PEER PRESSURE: Academic Incentives & Rewards for Secondary Students

  PEER PRESSURE Academic Incentives & Rewards for Secondary Students Heartland Institute Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 2 July 2014     In their new book, Rewards: How to use rewards to help children learn—and why teachers don’t use them … Continue reading

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Why do Americans stink at math?

New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: “Why do Americans stink at math. Some of the answer”, by Wayne Bishop. https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Essays/v10n2.htm

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The Gauntlet: How think tanks and federally-funded centers misrepresent and suppress other education research

New in the Nonpartisan Education Review: https://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Essays/v10n1.htm The aggressive, career-strategic behavior of researchers in federally funded centers and think tanks creates many problems, including a loss of useful information and bad public policies based on skewed information. But, two adverse … Continue reading

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First episode in what will be sequel to Dewey/Finn

The first chapter of “Conversations on the Rifle Range” which will be the sequel to “Letters from John Dewey/Letters from Huck Finn” is now up at Out in Left Field.  

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Letters from John Dewey/Letters from Huck Finn: A Look at Math Education from the Inside

Being a sometimes useful and always irreverent compendium of letters that examine math education in our public schools, addressed to anyone with the requisite curiosity to read them. “Few refuges exist from the multicolored tomes posing as math textbooks. No one … Continue reading

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MEDIA BLACKOUT

Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 8 February 2014     In the United States, our media are not allowed to report on or discuss exemplary student academic achievement at the high school level. For example, in the “Athens of America,” … Continue reading

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Brief sketch of the problem…

In the United States, we pay attention to and celebrate the work of HS athletes. We carefully ignore the exemplary academic work of diligent HS scholars–the results follow as you might expect—we get what we want. Will Fitzhugh ——————————— HIGH … Continue reading

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On Writing

“First, we stopped demanding that students read anything very challenging in school, and then we stopped holding our teachers or students accountable for the quality of student writing.” On Writing National Center on Education and the Economy By Marc Tucker … Continue reading

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WHEELBARROW

“Wheelbarrow” 13 December 2013 There is an old story about a worker, at one of the South African diamond mines, who would leave work once a week or so pushing a wheelbarrow full of sand. The guard would stop him … Continue reading

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Driven to Distraction

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION   Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 7 February 2013   “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”—George Orwell      While we spend … Continue reading

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Major Players

Will Fitzhugh The Concord Review 3 September 2013     Who are the Most Important Players in U.S. education debates, and in our schools? Well, let’s see—there are EduPundits, legislators, governors, consultants, professional developers, publishers, the Department of Education, foundations, … Continue reading

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The College Puzzle

Stanford University The College Puzzle A College Success Blog by Dr. Michael E. Kirst Homework Insufficient In USA Secondary schools April 17th, 2013 Guest Blogger: Will Fitzhugh The most important variable in student academic achievement is, of course, student academic … Continue reading

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Try Trying

Educator testing scandals have lit up the news wires recently and some call the cheating unprecedented. It is not unprecedented; journalists simply paid little attention to the issue before now. To my mind, the most profound factoid revealed by the … Continue reading

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