Commissioned by the Piton Foundation, the Donnell-Kay Foundation, the Colorado Children’s Campaign and the Public Education & Business Coalition, the report suggests 7 strategies the state might take while applying for the Race To the Top (RTT) funds.

• Strategy 1: Performance management (Teacher Evaluation, Tenure & Dismissal) – Given the tremendous impact teachers have on learning, no strategy a state will take on is likely to have a greater impact on student achievement than one that seeks to maximize teacher and principal performance.

• Strategy 2: Equitable Distribution of Teachers and Principals – Schools serving children living in poverty are more apt to employ teachers with lower qualifications than schools serving more affluent children.

• Strategy 3: Induction – CO should develop a statewide system of induction support for new teachers, particularly in its high needs and remote rural schools.

• Strategy 4: Compensation Reform – CO needs to move away from lockstep salary schedules towards a system that differentiates salary on a number of factors, including teacher effectiveness, the relative difficulty of a school setting and the demand for teachers with particular skills or knowledge.

• Strategy 5: Teaching in STEM fields: CO should develop a coherent state strategy to address the difficulty school districts face in attracting and retaining sufficient numbers of qualified STEM teachers.

• Strategy6: Statewide Adoption of an Effective Curriculum: Students achieve when 4 elements are in place: Standards, Curriculum, Teachers & Assessment.

• Strategy 7: Educator Preparation (Including Alternate Certification) – In spite of countless studies looking at the value of teacher education, we have only been able to learn (apparently) that no single method of teacher preparation yields more effective teachers than another.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t read through the entire report as yet, however I managed to get through Strategy 6, in which the authors recommend statewide adoption of Singapore Math at the elementary level. The report notes that:

…curriculum has been troublingly absent in conversations about education reform as well as ignored in the indifferent approach some educators take to curricula adoptions.

… the current emphasis on human capital and effective teachers has been at the expense of an equally urgent emphasis on the importance of good curricula.

And when discussing common standards, the report flat-out states:

We would go so far as to say that if the standards were in conflict with the Singapore curriculum, a state ought to consider opting out of the new standards.

Well, you don’t hear that everyday!
Read and enjoy.

(Cross-posted at KTM-2)

Rate problems provide some of the biggest challenges to students and adults. These come from Problem-Solving Processes in Mathematics -6 B by Fabian Ng.

1. At 10:15 am, a car left Town X for Town Y at an average speed of 86 km/h, while a truck left Town Y for Town X at an average speed of 74 km/h. At 3:15 pm, the two vehicles were 12 km apart. How far apart were the two towns?
2. At 10:30 am, a cyclist started traveling on a road at an average speed of 60 km/h. At 2:30 pm, a motorist started from the same place, traveling on the same road. If the motorist took 4 hours to catch up with the cyclist, find his average speed.
3. The distance from Town P to Town Q was 312 km. Winston started from Town P at an average speed of 76 km/h. He maintained this speed for 2 hours before increasing it by 4 km/ for the rest of the journey to Town Q.

a. how long did he take to complete the whole journey?
b. What was his average speed from Town P to Town Q?

Can you draw a model or diagram to illustrate each of these problems?

(Answers next week!)

Old School aims to be the premier resource for FREE educational material from Singapore, especially Singapore Math and Singapore Science. We have a large database of test questions and assessments and are always adding new content.

Currently, they offer test papers as well as the ability to take tests online in English, Mathematics and Science. Registering on the site allows you to track your progress on the online tests (usually the “A” part of each). Best of all, you can search the questions by topic and select questions with either a multiple choice or free-response format.

As an example, the Primary Four 2009 Mathematics page offers:

• 3  Continual Assessment 1 tests
• 4  Mid-Year Examination tests
• 3  Continual Assessment 2 tests
• 4 End Year Examination tests

That include the following topics (with the percentage of questions):

• Angles (7%)
• Area and Perimeter (8%)
• Decimals (4%)
• Factors and Multiples (6%)
• Four Operations (22%)
• Fractions (18%)
• Geometry (2%)
• Graphs (2%)
• Measurement (7%)
• Non-Standard Questions (6%)
• Perpendicular and Parallel Lines (4%)

The majority of mathematics papers are a 2 out of 4 on the site’s scale of difficulty. There were some assessments with a difficulty rating of 1.

Here’s a problem from the 2009 Primary Four End Year Assessment for your enjoyment:

Fill in the missing number.

108 x 99 = 110 x 99 + 10 x 99 – ( ? ) x 99

1. 8
2. 2
3. 12
4. 228

Enjoy!

A farmer planted 22 rambutan trees in a straight row. The trees were spaced out equally. If the distance between the 3rd tree and the 10th tree was 42m, find the distance between the 2nd tree and the 22nd tree.

The front page states:

In this book, “Accelerated Learning” fosters in pupils the ability to learn faster, to remember more and to think creatively.

The Ministry of Education has initiated IT in education for pupils. To make time for IT, pupils need to learn faster to cover the syllabus. And this requires ACCELERATED LEARNING – a new dimension in pedagogical skills. MOE has also emphasized the need to develop CREATIVE THINKING, which we have incorporated in this book.

The book has seven pages of “Infographic  Images” at the beginning (visual dictionary of terms), then practice pages for 12 units. Each unit of six to seven pages has:

1. two worked examples
2. multiple choice practice
3. short answer practice
4. problem sums practice
5. creative thinking problem (one or two)

Here are the Creative Thinking problems from the unit on fractions:

And a Creative Thinking problem from the unit on time:

It takes 4 h 15 min to repair 3 computer. Repairing a radio takes 47 minutes less that the time needed to repair a computer. If a worker works 9 hours a day, he needs to complete repairing 10 items that can include both computers and radios. How many computers can he repair if he needs to repair as many computers as possible?

Do you feel that these problems will help students “develop creative thinking” ?

Once a week, Lefty (as in left-brained) over at Out In Left Field posts assignment comparisons between either a traditional math program or Singapore Math and various reform math textbooks.

From the original post:

Math problems of the week: Reform Math vs. other math

We’ll pair up a specific assignment drawn from this set with a specific assignment drawn either from a traditional series like McGraw-Hill, or from the foreign series most popular in America: Singapore Math.

I’ll try to pick assignments that take place at approximately the same point in the school year.  For example, I might choose two assignments from the first few weeks of first grade, or from the last few weeks of second grade, or from approximately 2/3 of the way into third grade.

At the end of many posts are some thought provoking Extra Credit questions. Some examples:

• Which problem set involves more rote repetition of a given algorithm?
• Which problem set is more accessible to children with language impairments?
• Discuss how the two problem sets reflect the cultural and political differences between American and Singaporean societies.

Although many of the sample problems come from Singapore Math, there are also comparisons to traditional math books from the 1920s.

Enjoy!

A mixture, weighing 100 kg is made up of 2 chemicals A and B in the ratio of 7:3. When some volume of Chemical A evaporates, the content of Chemical A is reduced to 60% of the new mixture. What is the mass of the mixture now?

I thought I’d share how my son worked the problem:

He knew that if he multiplied 40% x 2.5, he’d get 100% so:

2.5 x 30 kg = 2.5 x 40%

75kg = 100%

I used a different drawing for “after” :

How did you solve the problem?

World Metrology Day is celebrated annually on May 20, the anniversary of  the international agreement on units of measurement finalized at the Metre Convention in Paris, France in 1875.

World Metrology Day (WMD) commemorates the signing of the treaty and it is a day when all the countries in the world that enjoy the benefits of a single, coherent system of measurements, traceable to the International System of Units (SI), celebrate the scientific, technological, and economic achievements that this treaty has enabled for more than a century.

There are only 3 countries in the world that have not officially recognized the metric system: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.

Great news for students struggling to remember how many ounces in a pound, feet in a mile, or cups in a gallon. According to Elizabeth Gentry of the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST):

The United States is undergoing a subtle transition to the International System of Units (SI), commonly known as the metric system.

Learn about events in Gaitherburg, MD and Boulder, CO as well as celebrations around the world at the official WMD2009 site.

You were wondering: “What is Metrology?”

From Coastal Calibration Laboratories:

Definition 1): Metrology is the science of measurement.

Definition 2): Metrology is the science of weights and measures used to determine the conformance of an item to technical requirements. Metrology also includes the development of standards and systems for absolute and relative measurements.

Want to learn more about Metrology?

• Direct links to placement tests & recommended supplements -  Curriculum Materials.
• Websites that support & supplement Singapore Math -  Math Links.
• Download materials from trainings – Handouts.
• AIR & TIMSS Reports – Resources

MissKoh.com (The url is actually www.MissKoh.info) is a website supported by Singapore’s Straits Times. If you click on the academic year, then the grade level you are interested in, you will be brought to a page of mid-year and final semestral papers as well as a few continual assessment papers, all from top schools in Singapore. For example; select 2008 and Primary 6 and you are offered test papers for English, Chinese, Maths or Science from 5 schools. (You need to register for some of the schools)

Go back to the 2007 Academic year and find tests through the second year of Junior College. All assessments are scans from actual school papers, so expect some rough looking pdfs.

My 8th grader and I had a great time working our way through some challenging word problems on a test.  For your mathematical enjoyment, here’s one from the Nanyang Primary School 2007 Preliminary Examination:

A mixture, weighing 100 kg is made up of 2 chemicals A and B in the ratio of 7:3. When some volume of Chemical A evaporates, the content of Chemical A is reduced to 60% of the new mixture. What is the mass of the mixture now?

MissKoh.com advertises itself as “Your Online Test Center” From the About Us page:

Misskoh.com is set up to create awareness for “The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund” to help students from low income families who cannot even afford a proper meal during recess…

Most of the these students do not have extra revision materials to revise, so we hope you can help by sharing your printouts with them if you know of any such friends in school.