{"id":1280,"date":"2017-01-30T09:03:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T09:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2017-01-30T09:03:38","modified_gmt":"2017-01-30T09:03:38","slug":"graphic-calculators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/?p=1280","title":{"rendered":"Graphic-Calculators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graphic-Calculators<\/span><\/p>\n

The Detroit News
\nMetro Section<\/span><\/p>\n

June 17, 1998<\/span><\/p>\n

Math debate heats up Professor won’t give up controversial data on Core-Plus
\nprogram in Bloomfield Hills By Rusty Hoover \/ The Detroit News<\/span><\/p>\n

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — A math program at Andover High School that students say has
\ncheated them out of a solid math education is now causing a second round of
\ncontroversy.<\/span><\/p>\n

This time, a university math professor, trying to find out if students in Core-Plus
\nmath are learning anything, is battling the Bloomfield Hills School District to keep
\nhis data confidential. Wayne State University math professor Gregory Bachelis vows
\nnot to turn over his surveys about the math program without a court order. At issue
\nis whether teaching Core-Plus math at Andover is seriously handicapping
\ncollege-bound students, as indicated by some survey comments collected by Bachelis.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the school district, which includes Andover and another high school that doesn’t
\nuse the math program, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain
\nBachelis’ documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some Andover parents are angry that their children were forced into the Core-Plus
\npilot program, which relies on the use of graphing calculators, which allow students
\nto enter an equation and get a visual representation of it. Parents have demanded a
\nchoice of math courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is too late for Melissa Lynn, 18, who graduated summa cum laude with a 3.97
\ngrade point average from Andover last year. She failed the math placement test at the
\nUniversity of Michigan, scoring in the first percentile, the lowest possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worse, she didn’t recognize what was being asked on the test. She called 14 other
\nU-M students who had taken Andover’s Core-Plus math and found they placed
\nanywhere from the first to the sixth percentile, she said. “Everything I didn’t know
\nwas algebra,” Lynn said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But proponents of Core-Plus say the program does a better job of preparing students
\nto handle math and higher order thinking in a complex world. But critics say the
\nprogram doesn’t focus heavily enough on basic algebra. Core-Plus was implemented
\nas a pilot program at Andover five years ago, with the first class of Core-Plus
\nstudents graduating in 1997.<\/span><\/p>\n

The battle has widened. John Toma, Andover principal, has written to Wayne State
\nUniversity President Irvin Reid, calling Bachelis’ character into question and saying
\nthat Andover will caution students about attending Wayne State.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Our community and our educators have been maligned and I think we have the right
\nto see the complete information,” said Gary Doyle, superintendent of the Bloomfield
\nHills School District. Bachelis said a parents’ group is funding the survey, which he
\nis doing on his own time. Bachelis sent surveys to all the 1997 graduates of the
\nBloomfield Hills School District — students who took traditional math and those who
\ntook four years of Core-Plus, a controversial new math program. Bachelis wants to
\nsee how Core-Plus students did their first year in college, compared to students who
\ntook traditional math — algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus. Wayne State
\nofficials said Bachelis’ survey is not a Wayne State project and they don’t have the
\ndocuments to give to Bloomfield Hills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bachelis said he wants to make sure that students’ names won’t be revealed because
\nhe promised them confidentiality. Doyle said he doesn’t care about the names, he just
\nwants the data. It would be of interest to Andover graduate Loren Thal, 19. He is
\ntaking a beginning math course this summer to make up for what he didn’t learn in
\nfour years of Core-Plus, earning A’s and B’s. He took a math placement test at
\nMichigan State, and wound up in Math 103, the lowest level math course a student
\ncan take for credit. He had to drop the class. “I was having tremendous difficulty with
\nit. It stems back to Core-Plus.<\/span><\/p>\n

The basic and fundamental ideas weren’t covered in class,” he said. “I got (stuck) in
\nthis program. I did not have a choice,” he said. Although he had tested in the superior
\nrange in math capability, he said he is not successful in math right now. “I have to
\nrelearn all my math.” Bachelis said that the problem with Core-Plus is that students
\ndo not drill in algebra — practice solving a number of similar problems. If a
\nstudent can’t do algebra, the student can’t move on to calculus, Bachelis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Christian Hirsch, a Western Michigan University math and math education
\nprofessor who developed Core-Plus, said that algebra is integrated into the program.
\nSince the first four-year Core-Plus class graduated from Andover in 1997, the
\ncourse has been revised with more emphasis on things like algebraic factoring.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that many students from traditional math programs go to college and fail the
\nplacement tests. “People then tend to say the student didn’t have a good day and the
\nfailure isn’t ascribed to the math program.” Andover will add a traditional algebra
\nclass to the curriculum this fall, along with a survey class of algebra and geometry.
\nStudents can also opt to take a traditional math curriculum by going to nearby
\nLahser High School, Toma said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the debate<\/span><\/p>\n

Core-Plus math Students work in groups to investigate, experiment with and apply
\nmath concepts. Students use graphing calculators to solve problems, but don’t spend
\nas much time on drills — doing repetitive problems to learn a concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics say Program is light on algebra. Proponents say Algebra is woven into many
\nlessons. Origin Developed at Western Michigan University and financed by the
\nNational Science Foundation. Goal To apply new standards developed by the National
\nCouncil of Teachers of Mathematics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where offered Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, Southfield-Lathrup, Ypsilanti and
\nSouthwestern High School in Detroit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sources Western Michigan University, Bloomfield Hills Schools and Detroit<\/span><\/p>\n

News research.<\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright 1998, The Detroit News<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graphic-Calculators The Detroit News Metro Section June 17, 1998 Math debate heats up Professor won’t give up controversial data on Core-Plus program in Bloomfield Hills By Rusty Hoover \/ The Detroit News BLOOMFIELD HILLS — A math program at Andover High School that students say has cheated them out of a solid math education is … Continue reading Graphic-Calculators<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1281,"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mathwise.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}