Why MathMedia Educational Software Works

Technology allows education to take place anywhere, any time, and any place. Using computers to enhance the home school learning environment is beneficial and necessary. For this reason, home school learners benefit greatly from our math software product line. Some home schoolers use our math software curriculum as their only learning tool and others use it to complement textbook and classroom work. This software is excellent to learn from scratch or fill in the "gaps". Learn elementary math through high school math with this educational math software.

Adding math software to your home school curriculum will benefit both students who require an extra boost to supplement their class work at school or the student who is a full time home school student. Home school math can be very challenging to teach at home. With this software, the parent/facilitator can direct the math learning while the math software will do the teaching, offer the appropriate practice problems with systematic interactive solutions, concluding with a test, which will record strengths and weaknesses. Home schooling is what you make it - whether it is a part-time or full time endeavor. The home school curriculum needs to include a serious math curriculum so that the homeschooler will be able to compete on par or above his grade level peers. This interactive comprehensive math software will assure that the homeschooler is missing no part of the math education curriculum.

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Although our mission and vision has been to accommodate school math programs, home users may purchase our software as a download here at our website.

The truth is that you really do not "need" algebra unless you plan to teach it or use it in a scientific profession. But before you put away your algebra books, let me give you some good reasons "for" learning algebra.

Algebra is a very unique discipline. It is very abstract. The abstract-ness of algebra causes the brain to think in totally new patterns. That thinking process causes the brain to work, much like a muscle. The more that muscle works out, the better it performs on OTHER tasks. In simple terms, algebra builds a better brain (as do other disciplines such as learning an instrument, doing puzzles, and, yes, even some video games). When the brain is stimulated to think, the hair-like dendrites of the brain grow more extensive and more complex enabling more connections with other brain cells. We often hear that we use only a small percentage of our brain's capacity. The study of algebra is a way to increase our use of this marvelous muscle. By studying algebra, more "highways" are "built" upon which future "cargo" is transported -- cargo other than algebra.

My favorite analogy is comparing learning algebra to the construction of the railway system in the United States in the 1800's. When railroads were built, surely those men never conceived of the items that would be transported on those rails more than a hundred years later. They could not have imagined home appliances and computer equipment traveling over that railway system. But they knew that building the transportation system was important. So is it with the study of algebra -- you learn algebra by transporting numbers and variables -- later, those variables will change and you will transport something useful for your purposes.

An example in my own life is the four-year break I took from math education when I founded an activities company in Hawaii. I ran the business myself -- from creating forms, organizing activities for up to 1100 people per week, with folks going off in multiple directions for horseback riding, snorkeling, land tours, helicopter rides, deep sea fishing, windsurfing, etc, etc, etc -- busses and vans were coming and going at half hour intervals and only one person missed their ride -- out of 1100 people -- not too bad! So what's my point? I think that the ability to organize a rational procedure for handling this kind of chaos came from my algebra background. You lay out the variables, design a procedure, and follow the procedure. It is an intense form of organization.

Having said all this... I do believe after 30 years of experience with students, that learning algebra is truly not for everyone. I once had a 9th grade girl in my algebra class who, when I fretted over her disinterested attitude toward algebra, kept reassuring me that she really did not need to learn algebra for her life. Today, she is a successful TV actress and every time I see her on the tube, I say, "Charlotte, you were right!"

Which brings me to the right brain / left brain discussion. An actress, actor, or artist of any kind is a "right brain" dominated person. These people usually do not have an affinity for algebra. For the creative mind, algebra is usually quite a struggle. Those making an attempt to learn algebra bring themselves closer to understanding the mind of a "left brain" person for whom math, science, and usually, languages come easy. Much of our public school curriculum is based upon the latter -- a "classical" education rather than an artistic "romantic" education.

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"Learning algebra isn't about acquiring a specific tool; it's about building up a mental muscle that will come in handy elsewhere. You don't go to the gym because you're interested in learning how to operate a StairMaster; you go to the gym because operating a StairMaster does something laudable to your body, the benefits of which you enjoy during the many hours of the week when you're not on a StairMaster." -- Steven Johnson, "Everything Bad Is Good For You"

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There are other disciplines, which will help build a better brain, but curriculum designers have chosen learning algebra as a universal "brain builder" along with preparing those strong left-brain students for careers in math and science.

Our tests are driving our teaching. This is the message from coast to coast as pressure mounts to produce results and meet the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Is this good or bad, and can a good mathematics program survive in this kind of environment?

Accountability is important in mathematics teaching. As professional mathematics educators, we must be able to demonstrate that our students are learning mathematics. Furthermore, the reporting of group data required by NCLB sheds light on gaps and problems within the mathematics program, including whether any group of students is achieving or not. Nevertheless, the kinds of tests that many states require, and the ways that many schools prepare their students for these tests, have serious limitations.

On the positive side, if a test assesses important mathematics in ways that require students to demonstrate mathematical thinking and proficiency, the test might effectively support a comprehensive mathematics program. For example, the state tests used in Connecticut and Washington call for students to complete a variety of mathematical exercises, including open-ended problems designed to require more complex thinking than what is called for in many state assessments. Students in a well-balanced mathematics program anchored in understanding, proficiency, problem solving, and mathematical thinking are likely to do well on these tests with or without special preparation strategies.

However, many state tests fall short of this ideal. Some are based solely on content that can be tested economically in a multiple-choice format, which often encourages students to try out all possible answers to a problem rather than actually solving it. Furthermore, although some state curriculum standards may include complex and high-level mathematical ideas, testing students’ understanding of these ideas is not easy. This important content may get overlooked as teachers prepare students for items that are most likely to be included on the test. We must be cautious about the decisions that we make about students on the basis of such measures. No decision about a student’s future should be based on any single measure, particularly a large-scale measure with inherent issues of context, bias, and intended purpose.

In too many schools, teachers are expected to “set aside” their mathematics program and instead prepare students for the state test. This may mean weeks or even months of missed instructional time. If preparing for the test means practicing a few items to get used to the format, it might serve students well. Too often, however, test preparation also includes learning tricks and tips that may or may not prove helpful on the test. For example, some schools use materials built on “clue words” for solving story problems or teach other tricks about what to do if presented with particular types of problems. Students memorize such phrases and words as all together, more than, and total, associating each with a particular operation. This type of practice falls apart on two levels. First, it misleads students. For any clue word or trick, most of us could create a test item for which the trick does not work. Second, the time that students spend memorizing tricks or words without understanding the related mathematics is precious time they lose from instruction that could support their mathematics learning. Students are better served by learning the concepts behind the numbers and operations so well that they carry mental pictures of what addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division mean. Recognizing a mathematical operation in the context of a problem and knowing how to perform the operation are far better preparation strategies than memorizing tricks or a list of words.

One other method of teaching to the test is periodic benchmark testing. Some school systems expect students to take tests throughout the year that are similar in format and content to the state accountability test. This can be an appropriate application of datadriven decision making. However, to be effective, any such strategy should be weighed according to cost and benefit. How much information is gained in a usable and timely manner for guiding and improving students’ learning on a day-to-day basis? And what are the costs in instructional time and teacher time for planning, administering, interpreting and reporting results, and incorporating those results into the teaching process? These questions are essential to consider in any decision about testing and preparing for tests.

The best preparation for any test is teaching a good mathematics program well to every student. Even if the accountability test is a less-than-ideal measure, a strong mathematical foundation can prepare students to perform well. The reverse is not true, however. If we focus on test preparation at the expense of longterm learning, we may see short-term gains, but students are unlikely to be able to build on their learning from year to year. And some schools that devote excessive time to test preparation at the elementary grades may actually find, a few years later, that their middle school test scores have fallen. The bottom line is that professional mathematics educators need to be skeptical consumers of test-preparation programs and materials and knowledgeable judges of quality assessment practices that support students’ learning. Most of all, professional mathematics educators need to be outspoken advocates for students, raising our voices when testing practices may not serve the best interests of students.

Unlike Algebra, Geometry is all around us – everywhere! It is physical. It is tangible.

Start talking about geometry to your children early – they won’t know at pre-school ages that it is called geometry when you talk about shapes – the ball is a “sphere”, the can is a “cylinder” and the label on the can (take it off and show them) is a “rectangle.” Road signs are a perfect way to practice shapes… there are triangles, squares, octagons, and kite-shapes.

Understanding geometry in our environment can grow with the child from the simple to the complex. From pointing out the ice cubes in the ice tray and shape of the tray itself to the cross-section of an ice cream cone (if the cross-section is parallel to the ground, it forms a circle, if not then an ellipse). A hands-on experiment would be to take the cone and place the circle part on a flat surface with the point straight up. If you cut straight across the cone (parallel to the surface), you have a circle similar, but smaller, to the one on the bottom. But, if you cut the cone at an angle, you have an ellipse. This works well with clay.

Geometry in nature is a whole complex body of study. An interesting form in nature is the inside of a snail’s shell or the inside of the nautilus shell from the ocean – these are actually ever smaller right triangles with each hypotenuse becoming the leg of the next right triangle. Take a look at our MathMedia logo for an example of this. Then, take a look at flowers. The petals of a daisy are radii from the center of the circle. The possibilities in nature are endless. A wonderful visual of these types of examples in nature are in the Disney video called “Donald Duck in Mathamagic Land” – a delightful addition to any video library for all ages. Every time you watch it, you will discover something new.

TV’s in a store are measured on the diagonal – the length or width are found using the Pythagorean Theorem (a2 + b2 = c2, where c is the diagonal of any right triangle). Billiards requires a keen innate sense of geometry with the angles and arcs necessary to predict and cause the balls to end up just the way you want them (also in the Donald Duck movie!). The immensely practical necessity of being able to calculate the area of the floor of room to know how much carpet to buy or the area of the walls of a room to know how much paint to buy – it’s all geometry. Want to buy an aquarium for a fish collection – what’s the volume of the tank? How should we cut the pizza, the pie, the cake – how many sectors and at what angle? How do we find the shortest distance between two points when driving – which route is the most efficient? For years I could not parallel park my car until someone told me to back in at a 45 degree angle – how about that?!? Every moment is a lesson – every place is a classroom!

Putting up a tent (which is a “triangular prism” with a rectangular base) requires poles perpendicular to the ground to hold up the front and back doors. A parallel bar holds up the ceiling of the tent. If a circular water sprinkler is placed in the center of the lawn, a circular area will be watered, but most lawns are rectangular – so, either the edges will not be watered or the sidewalk and building will be watered – this problem has obviously been pondered by the manufacturers of water sprinklers who have designed more efficient sprinklers that go back and forth to water a rectangular lawn.

Any kind of carpentry work involves geometry – it’s all about angles and levels (a tool to measure parallels to the ground) and circles with their radii and diameters. Obviously, an engineer building a bridge had better know geometry as well as an architect who uses geometry and physics to make sure the building will stand the test of time. Look up the “Transamerica” building in San Francisco and talk about the shapes used in that structure! Another industry dependent on geometry is theatre lighting which is all about angles and so important to some actors that they bring their own lighting designers with them. Geometry is also used to measure the width of a lake, to find the height of a tree, a building, or a mountain. In many situations, Algebra is used to find the answers to geometric situations. These concepts are covered in a high school geometry course.

Read any periodical and notice the geometric representation summarizing the contents of the written article. A graph is a geometric representation of data. Newspapers will use bar graphs, line graphs, picture graphs…. Lots of analytical discussion there! Election years bring out the best graphs on a daily basis -- understanding these graphs allows us to understand the issues.

In conclusion, whether we know it or not, we live our lives through a series of geometric experiences.

Copyright 2004 Illana Weintraub for MathMedia Educational Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Spellings Speaks on High School Dropout Crisis
(Posted on June 3, 2007)

On May 9, Secretary Spellings spoke at the National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic in Washington, D.C., about the federal role in ending the high school dropout crisis. An excerpt from her speech follows.

... Every year, nearly a million kids fail to graduate high school with their peers. It's hard to believe such a pervasive problem remained in the shadows for so long. That's in large part due to state reporting systems and data collection that masked the severity of the situation.

For example, in some districts, a student who leaves school is counted as a dropout only if he or she registers as one. In others, a dropout's promise to get a GED [General Education Diploma] at an unspecified future date is good enough to merit "graduate" status. With such loose definitions of what it means to be a high school graduate, it's no wonder this epidemic has been so "silent."

Fortunately, today it's a different story.

All 50 governors have agreed to adopt a common, more rigorous graduation rate measure. ... Data is helping us shine a light on the magnitude of the crisis. And as I like to say, what gets measured gets done. ...

... This administration is already moving forward with policies to help ensure every child is given a chance to graduate, and that their diploma is a ticket to success, not just a certificate of attendance. ... Our policy blueprint for No Child Left Behind [NCLB] reauthorization includes several key proposals to help meet these needs and address the dropout issue head-on.

First, we would increase Title I spending by more than $1 billion to improve and strengthen our public high schools serving low-income students. These targeted resources will bring more equity to the system—something that's desperately needed if we're going to have any hope of transforming "dropout factories" into flourishing high schools.

We also propose increasing funds for reading intervention so that teachers can help struggling students get back on track before they fall too far behind. ...

A significant portion of our NCLB reauthorization calls for increased rigor in our high schools, including:

Strengthening math and science instruction;

Calling on business and higher education officials to work with states to better align curricula to meet workforce and college expectations; and

Creating an Adjunct Teacher Corps that will bring math and science professionals into the classroom to share their expertise. ...

We're also calling for the expansion of AP and IB [Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate] classes. We know that rigorous course work is one of the best ways to improve student achievement. Studies show that by taking just one or two Advanced Placement courses increases a student's chance of going to college and the odds of graduating in four years. ...

We're also working with state and local education entities to increase the rigor of career and technical education programs to ensure that all students receive challenging academic course work and are better prepared for high-skill, high-wage occupations in current or emerging professions.

Finally, we propose to build on the governors' call for a more accurate graduation rate. By 2012 we would require all states to disaggregate this data by race and ethnicity so we can see clearly who's dropping out and report it as part of their accountability plans. ... Without accountability, we're just posting numbers and hoping for the best. Our children deserve better than that. ...

For the full May 9, 2007, remarks, visit http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2007/05/05092007.html.

Fifth Anniversary for No Child Left Behind Landmark Legislation Has Changed Landscape of American Education
(Posted January 8, 2007)

This month marks the fifth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the bipartisan legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush on Jan. 8, 2002, to reform America's public schools. The law is based on four principles: 1) stronger accountability for results; 2) greater flexibility for states and communities; 3) proven education methods; and 4) more choices for parents.

"At its heart, [NCLB] was intended to help teachers help students reach their potential," said U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings at a national summit on the law held last April.

Ultimately, NCLB set a historic goal for the country: every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014. Schools are held accountable for students achieving annual progress toward proficiency in those subjects based on state standards. Performance is measured in grades 3-8 and once in high school by state assessments that must be reported by income level, race and ethnicity, disability and limited English proficiency to ensure that no child falls through the cracks.

Since its enactment, test results have shown that the law is working. "The achievement gap that has persisted for decades in the younger years between minorities and whites has shrunk to its smallest size in history," said Spellings. The most recent Nation's Report Card also revealed that America's fourth-graders posted the best scores in reading and math in the history of the 30-plus-year-old report, while eighth-graders earned the highest math scores ever.

Among its efforts for improving student achievement, NCLB has introduced free tutoring for children from low-income families in persistently underperforming schools, the Reading First program to boost literacy skills in the early grades, and grants to improve teacher quality. In addition, federal funding for it has increased by 34 percent over the life of the law—from $17 billion in 2001 to $23 billion in 2006.

The No Child Left Behind Act is due to be reauthorized this year. President Bush has pledged to work with Congress to ensure that the accountability measures that have led to academic gains as well as the nation's commitment to NCLB's 2014 goal remain in tact.

For more information about the No Child Left Behind Act, visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/.

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State standards are all similar yet different. Do you need to know how MathMedia aligns with YOUR state standards? Just ask us -- we will provide you with a printout of YOUR state standards matched with MathMedia's program sections.

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What is the Purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act?

It is not about more testing.
It's about getting better results from the tests you already give.

The purpose and mission of the No Child Left Behind Act is to eliminate the achievement gap that exists between groups of students within our nation's schools.

A glaring disparity exists in the reading and mathematics achievement of black students, Hispanic students, and students living in poverty when compared to white and more affluent students.

In 2003, 39 percent of white fourth graders scored at the proficient level in reading, while only 12 percent of black students and 14 percent of Hispanic students scored at that level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the "Nation's Report Card." These results serve as a serious call to action!

Many schools are eliminating the achievement gap, accomplishing what some once thought was impossible. In rural Minnesota, the Cloquet school district completely reduced the gap in math, and now Native American students on average outperform the district average! (To view the Education Commission of the States case study, visit http://www.ecs.org/html/offsite.asp?document=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecep%2Ddc%2Eorg%2Fpubs%2Fnclbcasestudy%5Foct2003%2Fnclbcasestudy%5Foct2003%2Epdf)

Tools for Teacher Leaders:

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Education funded the National Center for Educational Accountability, which provides a tool that school teams can use to conduct a Best Practice Self-Audit for continuous school improvement. The National Center's Best Practice Framework provides an organizational schema to examine the practices of consistently high-performing school systems. Using The Framework, created following years of study at hundreds of high-performing schools across the nation, you can audit your own practices. (http://www.just4kids.org/bestpractice/self_audit_framework.cfm?sub=tools)

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No Child Left Behind—Improving Student Achievement Through Technology

Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide

In a recent editorial (speech), Microsoft founder Bill Gates demonstrated compellingly that our schools are failing both our children and our nation. These schools are "obsolete", because "they were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age" in which "you could train an adequate work force by sending only a small fraction of students to college...." By contrast, "Today, most jobs that pay enough to support a family require some post-secondary education." As a result, "We have to do away with the outdated idea that only some students need to be ready for college...." However, our schools, as currently designed, are not capable of rising to this challenge, because "even when they work exactly as designed [they] cannot teach our kids what they need to know."

We could not agree more. We commend Mr. Gates' for his efforts on behalf of our nation's students, and for his willingness to think "outside the box" in addressing their needs. We also believe that to achieve the kinds of educational results Mr. Gates desires, our society must collectively think outside several boxes in addition to the one he has so ably described. Based on our experience as physicians specializing in helping children with learning problems, we would like to offer several observations on what children in the present age "need to know", and what current brain science suggests about the best ways to help them acquire this knowledge.

Schools Must Prepare Very Different Children For Very Different Lives

We agree with Mr. Gates that our schools should prepare most children to attend college, so they can obtain the advanced skills they need to compete in the modern workplace. However, this does not imply that all students must be prepared for precisely the same thing. When students reach college, they will not all pursue the same course of studies, nor will they all train for the same careers. Despite out-of-major requirements, each student will eventually focus on a single discipline such as engineering, mathematics, physics, art, literature, accounting, management, music, education, history, law, biology, chemistry, sociology, medicine, etc. These courses differ markedly because they are preparing students for remarkably different careers. Even within a given major, different students often have considerable freedom to choose advanced classes in areas of special expertise and interest, with particular class formats and professors that appeal to them. How do they decide which classes and courses of study to pursue? Largely on the basis of personal interests and an assessment of their individual strengths.

The broad diversity of collegiate education provides a fitting preparation for the diversity of the workplace. Mr. Gates own company, Microsoft, is a fitting example of the contemporary workplace in that it employs individuals with enormously varied skills and talents: software engineers who write code for word processing and email programs, visual artists who make designs for Xbox, specialists in sales, marketing, publicity, customer services, management, personnel, human relations, building design and maintenance, corporate governance, and on and on. Obviously, building a company with top-notch workers in each of these positions is not simply a matter of hiring generically well-educated persons then plugging them into randomly selected positions. Individuals are carefully chosen for each position based on their training and aptitude, in accordance with what each position requires. Some persons who are remarkably well suited for one position would flounder in others. Yet these differences between workers didn't just into existence when they showed up to fill out job applications, or even when they began to pursue differentiated curricula in college. The aptitudes and abilities that made them well-suited for their present adult work were present to a remarkable extent early in life, and were caused by variations in individual learning styles and favored routes of information processing and uptake.

Despite the crucial nature of these individual differences to success in college and in the workforce--and an overwhelming abundance of evidence that children differ dramatically in the ways they are best able to learn and express information--our present K-12 educational system fails almost entirely to take such differences into account. Our present system is overwhelmingly built around auditory-verbal (lecture-based) instruction and handwritten verbal communication. Yet this approach is optimal for only a minority of students. For most it is sub-optimal, and for those with primarily visual, spatial, or hand-on learning styles, and oral or visual communication preferences, it can be a disaster. In many instances, children that are actually quite brilliant can suffer chronic academic underachievement and even failure because they learn and think in ways that are not well served by their educational environment. Often these thinking and learning styles are not "impairments" or "abnormalities" in an absolute sense, but inherited learning differences that for some tasks can have tremendous benefit. Our own clinical experience is illustrative.

Because our clinic is located in Seattle we see many of the children of Mr. Gates' employees. Often the supposed "learning problems" that make them poorly suited for the overwhelmingly verbal learning environments in their schools are manifestations of precisely the same visual and spatial reasoning styles that have made their parents so successful and creative in their professional lives. Such problems are entirely unnecessary.

The Schools We Need: Teaching Each Child The Way That Child Learns Best

If our primary and secondary schools are to prepare children so they can excel in college and in the workforce, they must be restructured to reflect the same diversity of thinking and learning styles that are reflected both in the diversity of the workplace and in the college curriculum. While it is important to maintain minimum standards for communication, critical thinking, and problem solving, we must also recognize that students can perform these functions in very different ways. Our educational system must be flexible enough so that each student can pursue excellence in communication, critical thinking, and problem solving in ways that take advantage of individual strengths. More is at stake in this than simply workplace need: social justice is at issue as well. Research has consistently shown that there are variations in thinking and learning styles among different races and cultural populations, and that consistent failure to match learning preferences with appropriate teaching styles leads to predictable losses in learning achievement.

We are not advocating a system of tracking where students are shunted into strictly diverging educational pathways. Such programs close as many options as they open. Instead, we are advocating a more flexible approach to K-12 education that would allow students to pursue the core curriculum through a variety of routes that better fit and nurture their individual learning approaches. Such a curriculum would provide flexibility in both pace and approach, and would allow children to pursue their education through curricula that emphasize and expand their strengths, while helping them improve in areas of weakness. Rather than creating tracks that prevent some children from achieving basic competency in math, language, critical thinking, or problem solving, such a program would allow different students to achieve competency in these areas using learning approaches that are best suited to their individual styles of thinking and learning.

Some students, for example, are much better at processing verbal information through reading than through listening. For others the opposite is true. Some children find that they can listen better when they take notes. Others find it impossible to take notes and listen at the same time. Some students prefer visual or hands-on presentations of information to purely language-based instruction. Other students benefit little from visual or spatial sources of information. Similar differences are seen with math, where some students solve math problems using primarily verbal approaches, others with visual approaches, and others using spatial approaches. While all students need to achieve basic competency in these subjects, there is no reason to believe that all children will find their needs optimally or even adequately met using a single educational approach. This is true not only at the middle and high school levels, where differentiated curricula are used to some extent, but from the earliest days of school.

Many common educational practices and assumptions need to be reexamined if our schools are to better prepare students for college and an increasingly competitive workforce. Three seem especially ripe for reevaluation:

· The notion that all students should master a core body of information at the same rates and in the same ways, using identical educational materials and informational pathways. Basic skills can be acquired in many ways, and each child's instruction should be tailored to his or her optimal learning style.

· The notion that students are best educated in age-based cohorts. The rates at which children develop vary as greatly as their learning styles, and clustering by age makes no more sense than clustering by height or weight. The whole notion of grade-levels is equally questionable. There is no reason to assume that each year every child should make identical progress in all subject areas, nor is there any justification to prevent a child from making progress in one subject (e.g., math) because he is having difficulty in another (e.g., reading). Flexible, modular instruction could eliminate this problem.

· The notion that lecture-based classroom instruction should be the primary--even a major--route of learning for all students is unsupported by data on children's learning styles. For enormous numbers of children lecture time is not only a waste but a strong provoker of misbehavior and dissatisfaction of school.

K-12 education must be updated to take into account the variations in thinking and learning styles that are reflected in the diversity of the workplace and the post-secondary educational environment. It must incorporate the kind of flexibility of emphasis and approach that is found in college, so that students can pursue knowledge in ways that are best suited to their individual thinking and learning styles. To make these changes, we must leave behind the arrangements of an earlier era that employ antiquated technologies and ideas to meet obsolete goals. As Mr. Gates has clearly demonstrated, the needs of our students and the requirements of the workforce have changed greatly. It is now time to use our modern technological resources and more precise knowledge of the ways children think and learn to create a flexible, individualized, and rigorous education that will meet the needs of our students and our society both now and in the years to come.

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Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide
Location:Edmonds, WA
Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide are physician-parents with a national referral practice for children with learning difficulties. They are strong advocates for neurologically-based approaches to learning and learning differences.
Their sister website is: http://www.neurolearning.com and their book on Neurolearning is due out with Hyperion Books in 2006.

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Generally, we all experience some level of nervousness or tension before tests or other important events in our lives. A little nervousness can actually help motivate us; however, too much of it can become a problem — especially if it interferes with our ability to prepare for and perform on tests.

Dealing with Anxiety The first step is to distinguish between two types of anxiety. If your anxiety is a direct result of lack of preparation, consider it a normal, rational reaction. However, if you are adequately prepared but still panic, "blank out", and/or overreact, your reaction is not rational. While both of these anxieties may be considered normal (anyone can have them) it is certainly helpful to know how to overcome their effects.

Preparation Can Help Preparation is the best way to minimize rationale anxiety. Consider the following:

Avoid "cramming" for a test. Trying to master a semester’s worth of material the day before the test is a poor way to learn and can easily produce anxiety. This is not the time to try to learn a great deal of material.

Combine all the information you have been presented throughout the semester and work on mastering the main concepts of the course.

When studying for the test, ask yourself what questions may be asked and try to answer them by integrating ideas from lectures, notes, texts, and supplementary readings.

If you are unable to cover all the material given throughout the semester, select important portions that you can cover well. Set a goal of presenting your knowledge of this information on the test.

Changing Your Attitude Improving your perspective of the test-taking experience can actually help you enjoy studying and may improve your performance. Don’t overplay the importance of the grade — it is not a reflection of your self-worth nor does it predict your future success. Try the following:

Remember that the most reasonable expectation is to try to show as much of what you know as you can.

Remind yourself that a test is only a test — there will be others.

Avoid thinking of yourself in irrational, all-or-nothing terms.

Reward yourself after the test — take in a movie, go out to eat, or visit with friends.

Don’t Forget the Basics Students preparing for tests often neglect basic biological, emotional, and social needs. To do your best, you must attend to these needs. Think of yourself as a total person — not just a test taker. Remember to:

Continue the habits of good nutrition and exercise. Continue your recreational pursuits and social activities — all contribute to your emotional and physical well-being.

Follow a moderate pace when studying; vary your work when possible and take breaks when needed.

Get plenty of sleep the night before the test — when you are overly tired you will not function at your absolute best.

Once you feel you are adequately prepared for the test, do something relaxing.

The Day of the Test To be able to do your best on the day of the test we suggest the following:

Begin your day with a moderate breakfast and avoid coffee if you are prone to "caffeine jitters." Even people who usually manage caffeine well may feel light-headed and jittery when indulging on the day of a test.

Try to do something relaxing the hour before the test — last minute cramming will cloud your mastering of the overall concepts of the course.

Plan to arrive at the test location early — this will allow you to relax and to select a seat located away from doors, windows, and other distractions.

Avoid classmates who generate anxiety and tend to upset your stability.

If waiting for the test to begin causes anxiety, distract yourself by reading a magazine or newspaper.

During the Test: Basic Strategies Before you begin answering the questions on the test, take a few minutes and do the following:

First review the entire test; then read the directions twice. Try to think of the test as an opportunity to show the professor what you know; then begin to organize your time efficiently. Work on the easiest portions of the test first.

For essay questions, construct a short outline for yourself — then begin your answer with a summary sentence. This will help you avoid the rambling and repetition which can irrate the person grading the test. For short-answer questions, answer only what is asked — short and to the point. If you have difficulty with an item involving a written response, show what knowledge you can. If proper terminology evades you, show what you know with your own words.

For multiple choice questions, read all the options first, then eliminate the most obvious. Unsure of the correct response? Rely on your first impression, then move on quickly. Beware of tricky qualifying words such as "only," "always," or "most."

Do not rush through the test. Wear a watch and check it frequently as you pace yourself. If it appears you will be unable to finish the entire test, concentrate on those portions which you can answer well. Recheck your answers only if you have extra time — and only if you are not anxious.

During the Test: Anxiety Control Curb excess anxiety in any of the following ways:

Tell yourself "I can be anxious later, now is the time to take the exam."

Focus on answering the question, not on your grade or others’ performances.

Counter negative thoughts with other, more valid thoughts like, "I don’t have to be perfect."

Tense and relax muscles throughout your body; take a couple of slow deep breaths and try to maintain a positive attitude.

If allowed, get a drink or go to the bathroom.

Ask the instructor a question.

Eat something.

Break your pencil lead — then go sharpen it.

Think for a moment about the post-exam reward you promised yourself.

After the Test Whether you did well or not, be sure to follow through on the reward you promised yourself — and enjoy it! Try not to dwell on all the mistakes you might have made. Do not immediately begin studying for the next test. . . indulge in something relaxing for a little while.

The Essay is just one new feature of SAT Monday, February 21, 2005 Posted: 10:39 AM EST (1539 GMT)

(AP) -- It's no mystery what sent a record flood of students to SAT test-prep courses this year: anxiety over the new, written portion of the college entrance exam.

But while the essay has generated most of the buzz surrounding the debut of the new SAT on March 12, it's only one of several changes. The essay counts for only about one-ninth of the overall test. Students will tackle the essay first, for 25 minutes. But after that, they'll still have three hours, 20 minutes to go -- and their scores could depend more on how they handle the other changes made by test-owner the College Board.

In many ways, the rest of the exam will look familiar to students who have taken the PSAT or old SAT. But the mix of questions will be different, and there will be some new formats. The basic changes: new kinds of grammar questions, more advanced math, more reading comprehension and less vocabulary. The little-loved analogies ("fire is to conflagration as snow is to ...") are gone, as are quantitative comparisons, which asked students to identify the larger of two values.

"I think most people are actually happier about these changes because a lot of people like myself didn't like analogies," said Nora Hakkakzadeh, a high school junior from Woodland Hills, California, who is preparing for the March 12 sitting. Still, she said she did well on quantitative comparisons, so she's less happy about the math changes.

The College Board says the new version will be "different, not harder." And even if it feels harder to some, the results are scored on a curve. As long as everyone finds the test harder, then fewer correct answers would be required to get the same score as before.

Nonetheless, "we're really talking about changing the skills that are being tested," said Ben Paris, director of test preparation for Peterson's. Students, even if they haven't prepared extensively, should understand what's coming, he recommended.

Many experts believe prep classes aren't necessary, though they suggest practicing. A free, full-length practice test is available at www.collegeboard.com.

Besides the essay, here's how the changes break down:

-- Math. Quantitative comparisons, which used to count for 25 percent of the math score, are gone. There will be a handful of higher-level, algebra II questions, though it should be material students have covered by 10th grade. Concepts like function notation and exponential growth will be introduced, and there will be more emphasis on graphs and interpreting visual data.

-- Critical Reading. This is the new name for what used to be called the verbal portion of the test, but there will be changes. Vocabulary will be de-emphasized with the end of analogies, though it could still be important in reading comprehension questions (for example, "In line 2, what does the author mean by the word ... "). Also new are comprehension questions on shorter passages, or pairs of short passages, besides the traditional longer ones.

-- Writing. This section is entirely new and will produce a separate score on the 200-800 scale (students will get one such score each for math, critical reading and writing; a perfect score is now 2400). But the essay will count for only 30 percent of the writing score, with 49 multiple-choice grammar questions determining the rest. The multiple choice questions will ask students to identify errors, and the best ways to improve sentences and paragraphs.

ACTION AGENDA

To ensure that all high school graduates are prepared for postsecondary education and work, governors and business and education leaders must develop a comprehensive plan for their states to: Restore value to the high school diploma by revising academic standards, upgrading curricula and coursework, and developing assessments that align with the expectations of college and the workplace. Redesign the American high school to provide all students with the higher-level knowledge and skills, educational options, and support they must have to succeed. Give high school students the excellent teachers and principals they need by ensuring teachers and principals have the necessary knowledge and skills and by offering incentives to attract and retain the best and brightest to the neediest schools and subjects. Hold high schools and colleges accountable for student success by setting meaningful benchmarks, intervening in low-performing schools and demanding increased accountability of postsecondary institutions. Streamline educational governance so that the K-12 and postsecondary systems work more closely together.

Download a PDF file of the full action agenda. http://www.2005summit.org/en_US/pdf/actionagenda.pdf

A Call to Action

This action agenda is ambitious, but the need for action has never been more clear or urgent. Governors and state leaders can neither implement all of the ideas overnight nor change the education system on their own. The business community must be a strong advocate for needed reforms and a consistent supporter of the education and political leaders who are implementing them. Parents and taxpayers must continue to demand change. Postsecondary education leaders also must get more involved. Most important, local education officials and the teachers and principals who work in our high schools must rise to the challenge and help lead the way.

We must not let the difficulty of the task sway us from taking the right course. We owe it to our youth and our nation to redesign the American high school and make it a cutting-edge institution once again. The future health of our economy and democracy depends on our answering this call to action.

So, what is the appropriate role for IT in education, in the broadest sense? As always, IT’s role is to augment (not to replace) the teacher, to provide human-centered tools that encourage and support adaptability and flexibility, and to enable appropriate modes of learning (e.g., small team interaction and not just individual task performance).

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