Re: California high school exit exam

[Erwin Morton <e-morton@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>]

Karen Canty wrote:

> Erwin,
>
> Just to add one thing - if the standards were not political,why did the
> state board hold hearings across the state for people to testify about those
> standards and then ignore the fact that 2/3 of the people who testified
> testified in support of the Commmission's standards and then turn around at
> the Board level and change the standards completely????  So if on their web
> site, they were reporting "support" for the math standards, it certainly
> wasn't for the standards they adopted; if not political, why would they lie?

That's precisely the point.  They *were* reporting
support for the standards they adopted, which
most people did not like.  I've attached the text
of the math file at the end of this posting.  If anyone
wants me to post the science file, let me know.

It's not lies; it's just selective reporting.
Cf. the movie ads in the newspaper.
It looks very impressive--if you don't
actually know many of these people
personally, if you can't see behind the
facade....

Half a truth is better than none.

Most of the people quoted (coincidence?
unlikely!) fall into one of two categories:
either they are associated with Mathematically
Correct, or they are within a few miles of
Palo Alto.  This suggests something about how
the statements might have been recruited.

This is the written equivalent of what you described
below--quite accurately, in an *understated* way--
about their unseemly behavior at public hearings.

They listened for, and counted up, the "ayes", and closed
their ears to the "nays".

> Because of your encouragement, I was one of the people to testify and since
> I sit on a school board, I have learned to read faces, body language, etc of
> the people who are purportedly there to listen to public input.  Only when
> the few people who testified against the commission's adopted standards did
> the board smile, gently thank them for coming, etc.  I was appalled.

You and I and a lot of other people.
It was not a pretty picture.

> If two
> thirds of my community wanted my board to do something and we did not do
> that - whether it was "wrong or right" there would have been a recall
> petition started the next day, I'm sure.  But the state board is protected
> from that lovely little exercise because they are "appointed" by the
> governor - who is certainly VERY political.

Gee, Toto, I guess we're not in Kansas [anymore].

--Erwin

-----


                          STATEMENTS ABOUT
          THE CALIFORNIA MATHEMATICS STANDARDS

        (Standards approved by the State Board of Education,
December 11, 1997)

    Country-to-Country Comparisons of Math Instruction and
Third
          International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS)


                 PROFESSOR HAROLD W. STEVENSON

 Department of Psychology, University of Michigan; Co-author
(with James
Stigler), The Learning Gap: Why
     Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from
Japanese and Chinese
Education (1992); Director,
     Ethnographic Case Studies Project, Third International
Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS)

"[The State Board of Education's Math Standards] are
demanding...and students
who
meet these standards would be well prepared for the
application of mathematics
and
for further study of mathematics.

"The editing and re-writing has resulted in the
near-elimination of jargon and
unclear usage of words....The statements for the most part
are explicit and
would
provide sufficient guidance for the application of the
concepts or operations
being
described. The 8-12 standards rely on accepted mathematical
terminology... For
the
most part,...the standards are pleasantly devoid of jargon
and statements that
are
difficult to interpret. They also appear to cover the
essential concepts and
operations
in mathematics, both at the K-7 and 8-12 levels.

                  High-Technology Business Leadership


                             RICHARD LEVY

   Executive Vice President, Varian Associates, Palo Alto,
California; Chairman,
American Electronics Association

"The California Board of Education made the right move on
math standards.
Teachers and students need to focus on math basics, learned
through
memorization,
drill, and practice. Once students have mastered the basics,
going on to grasp
broader
concepts is not a problem.

"Unless the basics are addressed, the current labor shortage
facing the
electronics
industry will only get worse. Two-thirds of American
Electronics
Association-member companies that bring in less than $20
million a year in
revenue
are dying because they can't find the people to do the
jobs."

                               T. J. ROGERS

    President and Chief Executive Officer, Cypress
Semiconductor Corporation,
San Jose, California

"Californians tolerate terrible inefficiencies in the
management of their
schools--inefficiencies they would never tolerate as
customers of any company. .
.I
am one Californian who fully supports the new math
standards."


                            THOMAS PROULX

   Co-Founder, Intuit, Inc. Mountain View, California; maker
of Quicken and
Turbo Tax software; Author,
                                 Quicken software

"In the next decade, the American businesses will want to
hire over a million
new
computer professionals. But at this point our schools are
not preparing enough
people to fill those jobs.

"The new California Math Standards approved by the State
Board of Education are
solid on the content of mathematics. Students will learn
arithmetic skills;
students
will master algebra and geometry--which are the doors to
good jobs and further
education. The standards are strong on applications,
conceptual understanding
and
mathematical reasoning, which will help students after they
finish school in
performing well on the job, particularly in high-tech
companies. If our schools,

teachers, and students will live up to these new math
standards, the students
educated under them will be ready for the jobs of tomorrow."


                           JOHN T. CHAMBERS

   President and Chief Executive Officer, Cisco Systems,
Inc., San Jose,
California; maker of networking products for the Internet

"It is now more important than ever for California schools
to produce
well-educated
graduates with the skills to meet the job demands of the new
knowledge-based
economy. High standards in math and science are not optional
if we are to fill
the
more than 346,000 high-paying information technology jobs
now vacant across the
U.S.

"The Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS)
showed that American
students do not measure up to the global competition. While
we may not be
feeling
the repercussions yet, today's 'Internet Generation' will
soon. The Internet
will
enable companies to locate employees anywhere in the world.
Jobs will naturally
migrate to those countries and regions that have a
well-educated workforce.

"In business, we apply standards and test for results. The
same must be done in
education. Without a system of standards and testing that
fully discloses both
the
strengths and weaknesses in our education system, we will
not be able to improve

education in California. Because California's new math
standards are high,
uniform,
and achievable, they provide a mechanism for attaining
excellence.

"Cisco is sponsoring a program called Cisco Networking
Academies that is helping
to
prepare today's students for tomorrow's jobs, but its
success in part depends on
our
students' abilities to excel in math and science. I believe
California's new
Math
Standards will help build the skills that students will need
to compete in
today's
global economy."

                           ANDREW LUDWICK


  Founder and former Chief Executive Officer, Bay Networks,
Santa Clara,
California; maker of computer
                               networking products

"Our students need the fundamentals of arithmetic, algebra,
and geometry to form

the necessary foundation for understanding mathematics. And
teaching these
basics
still leaves plenty of room for creative approaches to
understanding abstract
math
concepts. Neither approach precludes the other--we can have
both. The new state
math standards call for teaching both the basics and the
concepts. Locally, we
need
to tell our schools to get on with it! Every week of delay
is another week of
random
experimentation on our children. Mathematics is not a social
science, and
education
should not be a political science."

                              HEIDI ROIZEN


   Former Vice President of Worldwide Developer Relations,
Apple Computer Inc.;
Founder and Chief
  Executive Officer (1983-96), T/Maker (software publishing
company); Director,
Be, Inc.; Director, Great
  Plains Software; Director, Preview Software; Public
Governor, Pacific Exchange
(formerly Pacific Coast
                                 Stock Exchange)

"As a technology company director as well as the mother of
two small children,
I've
become increasingly alarmed at the lack of precision,
inability to perform
fundamental math calculations, and general 'fuzzy'
understanding of mathematics
exhibited by young recruits out of the California school
system.

"We live in a world in which a solid ability to perform
mathematical operations
coupled with a firm conceptual understanding is essential to
most of the
disciplines
and careers our young people will pursue. While I'm a big
believer in case
studies,
visualization, and real-world examples, these must be used
to aid in building a
firm
foundation of mathematical understanding and ability, not
put in place of it.

"The new mathematics standards for California's public
schools adopted by the
State
Board of Education are, in my opinion, fundamental and
essential to the building
of
the skills necessary for our children to compete in and
contribute to the
economy of
the next century."


      American Federation of Teachers--Standards Evaluation
Unit

                             HEIDI GLIDDEN

  Research staff, Educational Issues Department, American
Federation of
Teachers; Research Coordinator,
 Making Standards Matter 1997 (American Federation of
Teachers); Research
Analyst, Making Standards Matter
                        1996 (American Federation of
Teachers)

"[T]he American Federation of Teachers has reviewed the
'new' standards the
[State]
Board approved [on Dec. 11, 1997]. Our judgments are based
on the criteria used
in
our report Making Standards Matter, which looks at the
clarity and specificity
of
academic standards.

"Based on these criteria, we consider the math standards
strong enough to lead
to a
common core of learning. The standards are written clearly,
are quite specific,
and
are firmly grounded in content. This is especially true for
the standards from
grades
5 through high school."

                        University Mathematicians


                     PROFESSOR RICHARD ASKEY


            John Bascom Professor of Mathematics, University
of Wisconsin,
Madison

"....When I read the Board's document, I see a call for both
conceptual
understanding
and fluency in technical skills.

"Some people believe that if students have conceptual
understanding alone, they
can
solve problems they have not seen before. This was the
philosophy of the New
Math
of the 1960s. Unfortunately, this does not work for most
students. In addition
to
understanding--whether 'conceptual' or a more serious kind
of
understanding--students need to learn technical skills and
have to have
considerable
experience doing multi step problems."


                       PROFESSOR HUNG-HSI WU


                Department of Mathematics, University of
California, Berkeley

"....The needed revision has now been supplied by the Board.
It can be argued
that
some other delicate educational issues were raised in the
process, but these
should
have been handled in a scholarly manner without the hue and
cry. On the issues
of
mathematical illiteracy and incoherence, however, there is
no question that the
revision is a success."

                      PROFESSOR RALPH A. RAIMI


   Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, University of
Rochester; Co-author
(w/Larry Branden), State
   Mathematics Standards: An Appraisal (forthcoming from
Thomas B. Fordham
Foundation, March 1998)

"....It is perhaps the Post-7 section [of the Board's
revised draft of the
Standards] that
has generated the most heat among mathematics educators in
California, for
whereas the original draft prescribed an 'integrated
curriculum,' the Board's
present
version offers two options. Its standards describe the high
school material by
subject
matter, 'algebra,' 'geometry,' etc., permitting (and maybe
encouraging) schools
to
offer them as separate courses with these subject

names, but also, if they wish, to repackage the same
material, or major parts of
it, in
'integrated' form, calling the resulting courses Math I,
Math II, and Math
III."...

"It is ludicrous to suppose that the Stanford mathematicians
have the intention
of
reducing mathematics education to the kind of drill in
mindless algorithms their

opponents paint them as advocating. Above all else,
mathematicians want the
schools to teach that which generates understanding and not
memorization of
routines. Above all persons, mathematicians understand the
implications of
lessons
that affect to do the one or the other...

"[I]t is flat-out false that the revision has as its purpose
the 'return to
[rote-learning]
basics.' This is only its characterization by mathematically
illiterate people.
. ."


                    PROFESSOR RICHARD SCHOEN


  Professor of Mathematics and Bass Professor of Humanities
and Sciences,
Stanford University; Member,
   Commission for the Future of the Standards, National
Council of Teachers of
Mathematics (NCTM);
  Member, Mathematical Sciences Education Board, National
Research Council
(NRC); Member, National
                      Academy of Sciences (NAS); MacArthur
Fellow

"The set of standards which has been approved by the School
Board states in
clear
and unambiguous language the mathematics content which
should be mastered by
all students in our schools. They are content standards as
they should be. The
combination of these standards together with the proposed
Framework will provide

for the balance between conceptual understanding and
computational skills which
was called for in the 1996 Program Advisory. The standards
are moving in the
direction of the mathematical level which Japanese students
are expected to
attain
and should help our students' international standing if
properly implemented in
the
classroom. The standards do allow for an integration of
topics, but do not
mandate it.
It is important that an integrated curriculum treat topics
in sufficient depth,
and not
become an unfocused hodgepodge of shallow topics covered
without a clear goal.
Some recent attempts at

integration of topics are of the latter type, and we need to
avoid these in our
classrooms."







                    DEBORAH TEPPER HAIMO, Ph.D.


    Department of Mathematics, University of California at
San Diego; former
President, Mathematical
 Association of America (MAA); former Member, Board of
Overseers, Harvard
University; Chair, California
             State Mathematics Curriculum Framework and
Criteria Committee
(1997)

"The California Board of Education is to be congratulated
for developing a set
of K-12
standards in which expectations are high, yet reasonable.
These standards give
teachers a well-organized summary of the content needed in a
rigorous and solid
mathematics program. It is good to see a document devoid of
jargon. Its clear,
concise, and precise language will enable teachers to know
the goals students
must
attain to advance in their understanding of mathematics."

                 PROFESSOR WILLIAM L. ARMACOST


            Department of Mathematics, California State
University, Dominguez
Hills

"As one who has been a Mathematics Professor for 30 years
and is at present the
parent of two teenage children, I would like to say how
delighted I am by the
standards recently put forth by the State Board of
Education. As a professor, I
have
been appalled by the lack of mathematical preparation
evidenced by my students.
As
a parent, I have been able to understand better how this
wretched state of
affairs has
come about. One of my daughters has been an honors Math
student in the public
schools in Santa Monica. However, I recall with horror how,
in the 7th grade,
she
could not multiply a number by 10 or add 1/2 to 1/4 without
the use of a
calculator.
I also recall my puzzlement at how in the earlier grades
most of her arithmetic
homework consisted of estimating answers and relatively
little work was devoted
to
getting an exact answer.

"....What I find represented in these standards constitutes
what our students
need to
know and understand. To attain this knowledge and
understanding will require
both
effort and imagination on the part of our students. I wish
to reiterate that I
feel
hopeful that the children and young people of California
will have a chance, for
the
first time in years, to perform well in the honest and noble
undertaking that is

Mathematics."


                       PROFESSOR DAVID KLEIN


              Department of Mathematics, California State
University, Northridge

"The Mathematics Standards approved by the State Board of
Education require both

genuine conceptual understanding of mathematics and the
requisite facility with
basic skills... California's newly adopted standards for
mathematics set a high
benchmark and are refreshingly clear and easy to understand.
They leave
pedagogical issues to the classroom teachers..."

                       PROFESSOR KURT KREITH


           Former Chairman, Department of Mathematics,
University of California,
Davis

"Most important about this formulation of the standards is
its specificity.
Rather than
relying on vague phrases and good intentions that have
dominated mathematics
education for the last 10 years, these standards specify the
mathematics that is
to be
covered."

                        PROFESSOR JAMES STEIN


              Department of Mathematics, California State
University, Long Beach

"We who teach mathematics at the college level have noticed
in recent years not
only
a decline in arithmetic and algebraic skills on the part of
our students, but
also a
decline in the ability to analyze simple problems, to say
nothing of complex
ones.

"It is the twin decline in both skills and problem-solving
ability that has
created the
demand for the revision in the standards. Indeed, we who
teach mathematics
believe
that it is impossible to develop good problem-solving
abilities without a solid
foundation in arithmetic and algebra. Once that foundation
is in place, the
revised
standards then build on this foundation to improve the
ability to solve
problems.
Those who claim that the revised standards neglect the
development of
problem-solving skills are misleading the public."

                   PROFESSOR ABIGAIL THOMPSON

    Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Affairs, Department of
Mathematics, University
of California, Davis

"As a mathematician I am delighted by the [Board's] draft of
the standards. The
format is clear, concise, and extremely readable. The level
of expectations is
high, as
is appropriate. The mathematical language is precise and
leaves little room for
doubts about what students will be required to learn. I am
particularly pleased
with
the format of the 8-12 standards. Dividing the subjects by
discipline is by far
the most
sensible approach. It allows us to see clearly what topics
are supposed to be
covered
within each discipline, while allowing individual school
districts the
flexibility to
implement an integrated program should they wish. The
standards commission's
previous draft, mandating an integrated curriculum for
grades 8-12, was highly
experimental. It would have been disastrous to approve it.

"....As [the mother of three children, two of whom are in
the public schools] I
am also
delighted....I look forward to seeing my children thrive in
mathematics. I
believe all
children will benefit from the clear and high expectations
represented in this
document."


       Cognitive Psychology and Developmental
Appropriateness

                     PROFESSOR DAVID C. GEARY

Department of Psychology, University of Missouri at
Columbia; Author, Children's
Mathematical Development
                       (American Psychological Association,
1994).

"Although there is much to be learned about how children
understand and acquire
mathematical concepts and procedures, what is known suggests
that children's
learning will be greatly facilitated with the implementation
of a highly
organized,
rigorous and explicit curriculum. On these dimensions, the
standards recently
adopted in California are the best that I have seen in this
country."

                           School Math Teachers


                            JAIME ESCALANTE


  Mathematics Teacher, Hiram Johnson High School,
Sacramento; former Mathematics
Teacher, Garfield
 High School, Los Angeles (Mr. Escalante's teaching of
Advance Placement
calculus at Garfield High School
  in East Los Angeles was the basis for the 1988 motion
picture Stand and
Deliver, starring Edward James Olmos.)

"These new math standards are good because they expect
students to give it their

best. They ask students to dare to master math. They are
clear and precise in
saying
what math is and what schools should expect from students.
They are good because

they discourage Mickey Mouse math classes with no content.
Mickey Mouse classes
don't prepare students for life. They don't prepare students
for the future.

"We have to increase our expectations. We have to shoot for
the highest
standards if
we are going to compete with Japan and other industrialized
nations. If American

students are prepared in math, they can innovate, they can
anticipate, and
America
will succeed in the world."

                             FRANK B. ALLEN


     Former President, National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics (NCTM);
Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Elmhurst College,
Elmhurst, Illinois

"....The 'reformers' will, no doubt, characterize the State
Board's post-seventh
grade
standards as 'traditional.' We must not be put on the
defensive by this
characterization. It means that these standards contain
elements which enable
them
to stand the tests imposed by time and experience. It does
not mean that these
standards foster 'back to basics' efforts to emphasize the
assimilation of facts
at the
expense of concept building. These standards are balanced
because they require
the
student to learn the facts that he needs as a basis for the
high level of
mathematical
reasoning demanded in every section of these outlines.

"Again, I commend the State Board for successfully demanding
standards for
mathematics which will serve to raise the level of student
achievement
throughout
the state and will also enable them to cope with the
manifold deficiencies of
the
'reform' programs that are now sweeping the nation. If these
California State
Board
Standards receive the publicity they deserve, they may
enable other states to do
the
same."


                                DAN HART

   Mathematics Teacher and former Department Chairman, San
Fernando High School,
Los Angeles Unified School District

"As a former mentor teacher in the California Math Project,
I believe in a
balanced
mathematics curriculum from the basics up. Therefore, the
action the California
Board of Education has taken to clarify and specify exactly
what our students
must
study and master is long overdue and welcome to those of us
in the trenches...

"Teaching [as I do] in an inner city Los Angeles high
school, these precise,
rigorous
standards will give the opportunity to implement real
student, teacher, and
administrator accountability. Precise, content based
standards are accessible to

'study,' the long forgotten word in American education. And
a system where
students are held accountable, working somewhere near their
potential, is one
that will produce the educated populace our state needs.
Depending on radical
curricular soufflés to solve all problems is utopian and
delusional."


                            DENNIS STANTON

  Mathematics Teacher and Department Chairman, Soquel High
School, Santa Cruz
City Schools; Member,
         California State Mathematics Curriculum Framework
and Criteria
Committee (1997)

"The standards adopted by the California State Board of
Education are truly
outstanding. These standards will provide teachers,
students, parents, and the
community with absolute clarity when evaluating programs and
individual
achievement. Since they are neutral with respect to
pedagogy, educators are
being
provided with a wide latitude in selecting programs which
best address their
students' needs. The return to the development of basic
skills and avoidance of
calculator dependency will significantly enhance students'
opportunities to
develop
conceptual understanding. Since the standards advocate a
'knowledge based'
developmental program, students will be able to confidently
advance through a
challenging mathematics program.

"I am both a high school classroom teacher and a department
chairman. Teachers
throughout our department share my enthusiasm for the 8-12
standards--because of

their emphasis on proof, their thoroughness in addressing
the concepts, and the
clarity that resulted from organizing the standards by
disciplines."

                           Education Specialists

                     PROFESSOR E. D. HIRSCH, JR.

 President, Core Knowledge Foundation; University Professor
of Education and
Humanities, University of
  Virginia; Author, The Schools We Need and Why We Don't
Have Them (1996);
Author, Cultural Literacy (1987)

"I am writing to congratulate you [the State Board of
Education] and offer my
support for the revised math standards [the Board has]
created....[T]he
standards you
have set are consistent with what the most reliable
scientific research tells us
about
the soundest principles to follow in teaching early
math....[B]oth controlled
psychological studies and large system-wide
comparisons...converge on the
principle
that early mastery of computational skills is the only
secure route to
higher-order
understanding and problem-solving by all students."


                      JONATHAN P. REIDER, Ph.D.

                 Senior Associate Director of Admission,
Stanford University

"As an admission officer responsible for reviewing high
school curricula in math
and
science for proper college preparation, I am especially
heartened by the new
standards adopted by the California State Board of
Education. They provide a
sound
basis for students to be seriously challenged in high school
and to acquire the
greatest depth in mathematics prior to attending college.
This is especially
crucial in
a technologically-driven state like California where mathe-
matically-advanced
students can use a college or university to pursue work in
greater depth."


                    Science, Medicine, and Engineering

                        SHOUMEN DATTA, Ph.D.

     Chair, National Task Force on Basic Mathematics and
Science Competencies
(sponsored by U.S.
 Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education); Founder and
President,
Endowment for Excellence in
 Education; former Special Assistant to the Superintendent
of Schools, San
Francisco Unified School District

"The initiative to foster basic mathematics in K-12
education exemplified in the
new
California Math Standards is a welcome change from the
quagmire of 'new-new
math,' 'fuzzy math,' and 'rain forest ethno-mathematics'
that has plagued
California's
students in the last decade. Rigor in mathematics is the
driving force for
economic
growth and is fundamental to our future success. Raise the
bar, and all students
will
successfully jump over it as long as we have teachers who
are content experts in

math and can really teach that content."

                     EDWARD L. ANDERSON, Ph.D.

 Former Chief, Chemical Separations Branch, U. S. Atomic
Energy Commission;
retired Managing Partner,
                      Tweedy, Browne, L.P. (investment
managers).

"To believe that tomorrow's world of industry and commerce
does not require
facility with arithmetic basic skills indicates lack of
experience in today's
world.
Calculators are not always available and on-the-spot
calculations or very rapid
approximations are of the essence in formal and informal
scientific discussions
or the
fast moving world of Wall Street. These skills come only
from repeated practice
of
those skills with sufficient understanding to devise
shortcuts and
reformulations in
one's head. No one would suggest that a golfer could become
competent without
extensive practice in basic skills, how could it be
different with mathematics?

"Obviously these skills, though necessary, are not
sufficient; broad problem
solving
and analytical reasoning are also of the essence, but to
suggest the latter can
be
taught without a grounding in the basics is absurd."


                      PROFESSOR ALAN CROMER


 Department of Physics, Northeastern University; Author,
Connected Knowledge:
Science, Philosophy and
   Education (Oxford University Press, 1997); Co-developer,
Project SEED
(Science Education through
   Experiments and Demonstrations), an in-service training
program for
middle-school science teachers
       (supported by National Science Foundation and
Massachusetts Department of
Education)

"The [California] Board of Education's draft standards [are]
a breath of fresh
air in the
standards business. The Post-7 standards follow standard
math curricula, as
[they]
should....

"[T]he K-7 standards are sound and clear. The detailed
specificity will help
teachers
focus on essentials....There is a coherence to the
material....

"I appreciate the Board of Education not pushing any
particular teaching
strategy.
Education has been too burdened by 'revolutionary' doctrines
that don't work."


                         ROBERT HERRIOT, Ph.D

   Software engineer, Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park,
California; Former Computer
Science Professor, University of Washington

"The changes to the California Math Standards made by the
California Board of
Education are a great improvement. The precision has been
greatly increased -- a

help to textbook authors and test makers. The new standards
have been changed to

define the desired goal rather than

the process. That is, they define what a child should know
and be able to do.
Previously, they specified how a child should learn a
concept. Now they allow
teachers to achieve each goal in a way that is best for each
child."


                          DAVID A. LEVINSON

  Staff Aerospace Engineer, Lockheed Martin Missiles &
Space, Sunnyvale; 1994
San Francisco Bay Area
 Chairman, Discover "E" (engineering careers outreach to
K-12 classrooms),
sponsored by the Silicon Valley
                               Engineering Council

"....In contrast, the standards produced by the California
State Board of
Education are
something Californians can be proud of. They are completely
devoid of jargon and

clearly state specific skills that the students must master.
The emphasis in the
later
grades on mathematical proofs is especially welcome since we
live in a time when

logical rigor is neglected all too often. A student who can
do what the State
Board's
standards call for will be well-prepared for engineering
programs in higher
education and engineering jobs in later life."


                      JOSEPH LIPSICK, M.D., Ph.D.

             Associate Professor of Pathology, Stanford
University School of
Medicine

"[Mathematics standards are] critical to our nation's
economic future. . .Many
students in [California] are currently taught mathematics
without textbooks
using a
'brainteaser of the week' approach. Rather than learning to
solve problems in a
methodical and logical fashion, they often perform
politically correct exercises
in
creative writing without clear answers ('What did you learn
about yourself
today?').

"The study of mathematics and science teaches important
skills in critical
thinking
and problem solving in addition to helping us understand our
increasingly
technical
world. The 'investigative' methods advocated by proponents
of the 'new new math'

can be useful in stimulating a student's interest, but can
never replace the
need for a
mastery of basic skills and facts. . .I for one would like
my airplanes,
bridges, polio
vaccines, federal budgets, and school curricula designed by
people who
understand
the value of correct answers and who possess the logic to
arrive at them."


                   PROFESSOR MICHAEL MCKEOWN

 Molecular Biology and Virology Laboratory, The Salk
Institute; Adjunct
Associate Professor, Department
                      of Biology, University of California,
San Diego

"....The Board's draft has the additional major improvement
that it concentrates
on
what students should know and do--and not on lobbying for
one teaching method
over others."

                             ZE'EV WURMAN

  Software Director, DynaChip Corporation, Sunnyvale,
California; Member,
California State Mathematics
                   Curriculum Framework and Criteria
Committee (1997)

"....The board-modified standards clearly define what
students should learn,
while
letting local districts decide how to teach.

"In addition, the board reformulated Algebra I, Geometry and
Algebra II,
protecting
our students from the Commission's experiment with
'integrated' math. The
Commission's recommendations for grades 8-12 mixed topics
from algebra, geometry

and trigonometry, and stretched teaching of a single subject
over four to five
years;
Instead of teaching all of Algebra I in eighth grade, some
beginning topics
would
have been pushed back to grades 9, 10 or beyond."


                Local School Board and Parent Leadership

                         RUTH UY ASMUNDSON

  Member, Board of Directors, California School Boards
Association; President,
Board of Education, Davis
 Joint Unified School District; Member, State Superintendent
of Public
Instruction's Mathematics Task Force
   (1995); Member, California State Mathematics Curriculum
Framework and
Criteria Committee (1997)

"Let's go beyond the philosophical debate between the
mathematics
traditionalists
and the mathematics reformers. What is important is what is
best for all
students, to
learn what we want them to know to be able to compete. We
cannot fail. They have

only one journey through our schools.

"The 1995 State Mathematics Task Force called for rigorous
standards. The State
Board of Education has responded to this call and approved
rigorous standards.
To
reach those high standards, a variety of teaching methods is
required. The
single-method approach of the past is too narrow for the
current needs of our
diverse
students. However, this decision should be left to local
school boards.
Fortunately,
the State Board's decisions have given us the best
combination: high, rigorous
standards and flexibility of approach for local districts.

"Students need to master the basics to be able to calculate
correctly and grasp
the
more challenging and complicated mathematics. The new
mathematics standards
provide for both."


                         SUSAN W. O'DONNELL

  Chair, Parent-Teacher Association Council, Berkeley
Unified School District,
Berkeley, California; past
         Chair, Franklin School Parent-Teacher Association,
Berkeley Unified
School District

"I feel confident that the new math standards will give
students a solid base of
math
skills and knowledge. I believe that only with such a strong
foundation will
kids be
able to understand and work with more sophisticated and
difficult math. The
standards are rigorous and comprehensive, clear and precise.
Our kids will be
challenged--which is good! Students are capable of much more
than we are
presently
asking of them. This is my personal opinion as an active
parent and not that of
any of
the groups in which I am active."

                            LESLIE SCHWARZE

                 Member, Board of Education, Novato Unified
School District

"As a newly elected trustee and the mother of two children,
I would like to
thank the
State Board of Education for establishing math standards
that are clear,
concise, and
rigorous. These standards offer the children of California
goals required for
effective
competition in our global economy. They also allow parents
to compare grade
level
expectations to their own children's classroom work.

"My district is in the middle of a curriculum adoption for
Mathematics, and we
have
spent several years working on our own district benchmarks.
It has been a good
test
to compare our own expectations to the new standards. Our
concern is not that
the
standards have been 'dumbed down' as some would have us
believe. Instead, we
recognize that these standards are rigorous and demanding.
Our teachers will
require significant staff development, and our students will
require
considerable
support for us to reach the goals set forth in the math
standards."


                               ANNE LINDL

 Member, Board of Education, Livermore Valley Joint Unified
School District;
Former Mathematics Teacher,
    San Ramon High School, San Ramon Valley Unified School
District; Former
Mathematics Teacher,
  Mendenhall Middle School, Christensen Middle School,
Livermore Valley Joint
Unified School District;
 Former Economics Teacher, Livermore High School, Granada
High School, Livermore
Valley Joint Unified School District

"Because the Math Standards are clearly measurable, they
give parents a valuable

tool with which to evaluate the math programs in their
children's schools.
Parents
are then in a position to go to their local school boards
and give kudos or make

demands--and woe to the elected school board member who
fails to listen."


             Remedial and Continuing Education Specialists

           KENT R. JOHNSON, Ph.D. and T.V. LAYNG, Ph.D.

    Dr. Johnson is President of Morningside Learning Systems
in Seattle,
Washington and Dr. Layng is
  Co-founder of The New School for the Learning Sciences in
Seattle, Washington;
Both are co-authors of
 "Breaking the Structuralist Barrier: Literacy and Numeracy
with Fluency,"
American Psychologist, November, 1992.

"Having been hired by major corporations such as Motorola,
at some expense to
those companies, to train high-tech workers in basic
computation and problem
solving skills not learned in school, we have seen first
hand the need for solid
basic
computational skills in a high-tech world. The issue is not
whether individuals
need
to be able to compute rather than be able to solve problems
and reason about
math, it
is that both are needed and are not mutually exclusive.


                       ARTHUR WHIMBEY, Ph.D.

 Former Adjunct Professor, Department of Mathematics at City
University of New
York; Former Professor,
    Department of Mathematics at Xavier University, New
Orleans; Former
Professor, Department of
 Psychology at University of Illinois; Author, Developing
Mathematical Skills:
Computation, Problem Solving and
     Basics for Algebra (McGraw-Hill, 1981); Author, Problem
Solving and
Comprehension (5th ed., 1992)

"We believe that students cannot learn higher level math
without being facile in

basic arithmetic skills. For example, factoring equations
whether in algebra or
calculus requires familiarity with basic multiplication and
division in order to
readily
see which number combinations can be used as factors. More
important is the fact

that teaching arithmetic is in no way incompatible with
teaching the analytical
ability needed to analyze problems and apply mathematical
modeling--and these
basic skills are also necessary [in and of themselves]."




                Industrial Arts Secondary School Teaching

                            DONN FISHBURN

        Industrial Arts and Mathematics Teacher, Soquel High
School, Santa Cruz
City Schools

"I want to thank the State Board of Education for the
December 11 revisions to
the
math standards. I have seen both the K-7 standards and the
8-12 standards and
find
them to be much more clear and concise, with a needed
emphasis on basic skills.

"I am an industrial arts teacher as well as a math teacher
and have watched the
students become less and less able to perform in a
technical-industrial setting
because of a lack of basic math skills. Fully half of my
freshman drafting
students are
unable to use a drafting scale because they do not know
their fractions. I must
give
them a diagram of an inch with the various fractional
divisions labeled so that
they
can perform the most basic measuring tasks. I am also
heartened to see the
requirement that students be able to perform basic
calculations without a
calculator.
The overuse of calculators has resulted in a near total loss
of number sense.

"We see many high school students who after making a simple
mistake such as
getting 60 as an answer to 20 times 30 cannot recognize that
60 is not a
reasonable
answer. Or that 8 is not a reasonable answer to 1/2 times
1/4. We all make those

types of mistakes from time to time. The difference is that
those of us who had
considerable practice between the first and eighth grades
can usually see when
we
have an unreasonable answer."


                        Newspaper Editorial Boards

                     INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY

                             Editorial, December 4, 1997

"California's Board of Education has backed new math
standards that stress
knowing
''times tables'' and mathematical formulas. That's good
news, not only for
California
students, but for kids all over the country....

"Unfortunately, the state has [in the past] produced some
fuzzy-headed thinking
about how kids should learn. In math instruction, right
answers have taken a
back
seat to learning 'the process' of solving problems. Teachers
have used
role-playing,
essays and group work to encourage kids' love of math. And
other states have
followed suit.

"But now California's state school board has come around to
the fact that right
answers to math problems are important. And it's realized
that right answers
require
basic skills, such as knowing how to add, subtract, multiply
and divide.

"With that in mind, the board this week adopted standards
that require a
third-grader to know the multiplication tables for the
numbers one through ten.
And
fifth-graders should be able to do problems with decimals
and negative
numbers....

"To be sure, learning how to solve problems is important and
should be taught.
But
only if basic math skills are taught first. If students
don't have these basic
skills, how
will they know if they've actually solved a problem?

"...[T]he board should not relent. The future of kids across
the nation is at
stake."


                          LOS ANGELES TIMES

                             Editorial, December 3, 1997

"The State Board of Education's proposed math standards
correctly emphasize a
return to the basics that every California student needs to
know without
depending
on a calculator. The fundamental skills--adding,
subtracting, multiplying and
dividing--form the building blocks of a

solid math foundation. Youngsters need to know, yes,
memorize, certain facts. Of

course in a more sophisticated world they need to do more;
they need to be able
to
conceptualize and use all the technology available. But the
state's outrageously

dismal math scores show that students can't get there
without the road map of
basic
skills."


                      ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

                             Editorial, December 3, 1997

"On Monday, the State Board of Education adopted tough new
mathematics
standards for California's public school children in
kindergarten through eighth

grade....

"[A] major reason for adopting new standards is precisely to
get past what has
proved to be, in large measure, fruitless experimentation
that has gone on in
California schools for two decades or more....

"It seems clear that these changes [the Board's revisions]
have made the
standards
more precise, not less. The Board of Education should stay
the course with its
revisions."


                           SACRAMENTO BEE

                            Editorial, December 11, 1997

"....The board appears to be trying to keep the state from
lurching once again
into an
experiment with the education of 5 million schoolchildren.
If it can accomplish
that,
without lurching too far in a fundamentalist direction, the
board will have done

California a favor. This state has seen far more than its
share of educational
course
corrections; it would be nice, for a change, to see the ship
steered somewhat
straight."

                      SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

                             Editorial, December 5, 1997

"Earlier this week, the State Board of Education endorsed
tough math standards
that
emphasize the basics for kindergarten through the seventh
grade....

"The tentative accord on math standards is especially
encouraging because it
underscores the importance of learning the basics. Ralph
Cohen, a Stanford math
professor who helped draft the tougher standards, put it
best when he said
teachers
should not expect children to understand concepts without
first gaining a solid
grounding in the fundamentals.

"Although critics complain such grounding kills student
interest in math, the
fact is
that kids who are deficient in the basics are being set up
to fail. Granted,
they may
not enjoy mastering the multiplication tables and learning
how to borrow and
carry
while adding and subtracting. But these are the tools that
will enable them to
function in society, because their calculator may not always
be at hand. Indeed,
the
new standards discourage the use of calculators on state
tests....

"California cannot afford to subsidize a public education
system that expects so
little
from its students. That is why the bar must be raised on
academic standards and
student achievement."


                      SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

                             Editorial, February 17, 1998

"The State Board of Education did the right thing last
December when it
unanimously adopted math standards that emphasize the basics
for kindergarten
through seventh grade.

"Since then, however, the board has been attacked by critics
who contend that
requiring students to master the multiplication tables,
decipher fractions and
learn
other math fundamentals is the surest way to kill off their
interest. Better,
they
argue, to allow students to brainstorm in the classroom, to
ask questions of one

another and otherwise engage in abstract exercises to solve
math's mysteries.

"To its credit, the state board rejected this fuzzy thinking
in favor of a more
traditional approach to math instruction. That should have
been the end of the
story,
but the critics have mounted a fierce counterattack.

"Before adopting the more traditional math standards, the
state board insisted
that
they be firmly grounded in solid research. That research
clearly shows that
students
who lack the fundamentals are destined to become confused
and discouraged as
they
try to fathom more advanced concepts.

"Students may not like putting forth the effort it takes to
master the basics.
But that's
no excuse for educators to shortchange kids for fear of
offending them."

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