90% of 200 CUNY Students Can't Do Basic Algebra Problems 20
vvaduva writes "Basic algebra involving fractions and decimals stumped a group of City University of New York freshmen — suggesting city schools aren't preparing them, a CUNY report shows. During their first math class at one of CUNY's four-year colleges, 90% of 200 students tested couldn't solve a simple algebra problem, the report by the CUNY Council of Math Chairs found. Only a third could convert a fraction into a decimal."
Zeroth Post! (Score:3, Insightful)
Are Slashdotters already so cynical about our ongoing demographic catastrophe that they no longer have the energy to wring their hands and pull their hair at the thought of our nation's looming innumeracy?
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You mean illiteracy. But I thought that applied only to reading. I wonder if there's another word that applies to an inability to do math.
The above is intended as sarcasm, but may have come across as stupidity instead.
Cuny students (Score:1)
Who needs math... (Score:1)
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GPA inflation? (Score:2)
From TFA:
Maybe what US high schools need is a difficulty multiplier for GPAs. Of course, that would require some sort of national standard that would have somebody crying foul.
Not just an American problem (Score:2, Interesting)
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<sarcasm> Since, as everyone knows 3.5 GPA might as well be an 'F' the whole GPA thing is meaningless.</sarcasm>
Even in university, GPA is far more
Nothing New (Score:2, Interesting)
My public high school was teaching fractions and decimals in the 11th and 12th grade. The majority of kids never saw algebra in high school.
Those in the "college track" saw only rudimentary algebra before graduation.
The "advanced track" had algebra in the 8th and 9th grades. Geometry was offered in the 10th grade, and in the 11th grade there was trig. Seniors were offered "pre-caclulus" which I would describe as trig deja vu.
When I was in university, all of the public colleges and universities in the are
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Unfortunately, there is no "sideways" moderation / tagging, or I'd mark this "sad." (Not that I have ever been hot at math; apparently the genes coding for that skill skipped at least my part of the generation. But college courses at the elementary school level, that's nuts.)
timothy
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Wow! I've already introduced my son to fractions and he can compare two fractions reasonably well most times. I hope to get him into basic algebra next year. He is six.
Most of education is about expectations.
Regents Exams? (Score:2)
I went to school in NJ and several teachers had previously taught in NY. They alway spoke (in terror) of these Regents exams, which were tests students had to pass to move up to the next grade.
Quick googling finds this test [nysedregents.org] from last summer, which on first glance looks like fair coverage of basic algebra.
So, have requirements changed or was the CUNY test absurd?
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[quote]So, have requirements changed or was the CUNY test absurd?[/quote]
Possibly both. CUNY requirements are getting stricter again 'cause of the various issues with open admissions-requirements have been sliding for 30 years-and the test could have been strange.
Plus the math regents are all sorts of wonky in their own right. They've changed the math standard twice in the past 9 years, going from the sequential I,II,III sequence (roughly algebra, geometry, trig, one each June) to Math A and B (algebra + 1/
Open Admissions (Score:3, Interesting)
I go to one of the CUNY's, even had one of the paper authors as a professor. Our admissions requirements are downright sad, and the kids who can't even muster those can usually get in as transfers from community schools or by getting into one of the many remedial programs. A lot of these kids end up either flunking out or ending up as liberal arts majors. (Writing skills are just as pathetic, but it's more complicated because of the large ESL population, which the administration doesn't really want to admit we have.)
Though I'm totally curious about the sampling bias here, 'cause a first math class at CUNY could be elementary math, pre-calc or anything in the calc sequence, so lots of freshman don't have the same first math course. The amount of kids who can't do fractions in an elementary math course is much higher then the amount of freshman who can't do fractions in calc II. It's also the daily news, which is about as tabloid as you get. I'm also curious how other schools stack up, and especially how majors/course of study effects the distribution.
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I'll pre-empt the grammar nazis:
CUNYs, not CUNY's
majors affect/course of study affects, not effects