US student math and reading scores have dropped so sharply that they’ve erased nearly two decades of progress. In '22/23

Eric

Eric

Mama's lil stinker
Top Poster Of Month
Joined
Aug 10, 2020
Posts
15,686
Solutions
18
Main Camera
Sony
With the answers at your fingertips at all times within seconds the question becomes why bother putting any brain power into it? Not sure where we go from here but as computers get smarter, humans get dumber.

Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administered the NAEP long-term trend (LTT) reading and mathematics assessments to 13-year-old students from October to December of the 2022–23 school year. The average scores for 13-year-olds declined 4 points in reading and 9 points in mathematics compared to the previous assessment administered during the 2019–20 school year. Compared to a decade ago, the average scores declined 7 points in reading and 14 points in mathematics.
The Nation's Report Card
 
I remember taking an exam when I was in engineering. Handheld electronic calculators had just become available, but they were prohibited – we had to use a slide rule, which I still have.
 
Roller said:
I remember taking an exam when I was in engineering. Handheld electronic calculators had just become available, but they were prohibited – we had to use a slide rule, which I still have.
Click to expand...
Same here, we're likely in the same age group. We always had to show our work.
 
My dad bought a 4-function pocket calculator with 8-digit LED display for something like $80 back in I think it was '69. Seems to me it was the only pocket calculator in the house for several years, sitting on the table there right next to the Royal manual typewriter (the one where you had to use lower-case L for 1 and .-<backspace>-' for an exclamation point).
 
I can tell you that, fwiw, my daughter is way ahead in math from where I was when I was her age (junior in high school). The way they teach calculus is much improved from in my day, and I didn’t even take calculus until I was a senior. (I’ve had to learn the way they teach her, since she asks me to check her homework many times, and occasionally to explain some nuance that she missed). She’ll be taking probability/stats as a senior, which I didn’t get until sophomore year of engineering school. Probably helps that she’s attending the same school as Ternus’ son. Now if I can only get her to ditch her boyfriend and upgrade to the Apple version…
 
Cmaier said:
The way they teach calculus is much improved from in my day,
Click to expand...

They would have a hard time making it worse. I think it was Calc 3 (which I ended up dropping because I had decided I was not going to be an engineer) before I figured out what calculus did. I could solve the problems, but was never taught what it did and why it was important.

Not sure how kids are going to learn anything when AI can provide any answer in seconds. Back when I was in college we had to order term papers from the school paper classifieds. LOL.
 
Back
Top