Math is symbolic abstraction and formal proof. It makes my eyes light up. But Nancy Metz, the county's math coordinator, who also taught math and was a mathematician in the aerospace industry, feels just as deeply. In the latest international math comparison, high school seniors scored above only Cyprus and South Africa. And both sides agree that middle school math has, for years, been a wasteland.
Students are able to compute or memorize formulas.
But when faced with solving a story problem, they freeze. Many have no idea how to use what they know. We've had the longest-running experiment in human history about whether rote memorization of math facts and skills works. And it doesn't. I don't think there's any doubt we want progress in the math program.