This economy demands higher-order math skills

There’s an old saying that goes like this: When everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority. And while elementary school students running around the playground couldn’t care less about what that means, the reasoning matters enormously to their future.

That’s because when it comes to math, students are better off when they go deep into a few core areas, like learning fractions. When their teachers go shallow across a broad range of concepts, students have a lot tougher time mastering harder subjects such as algebra.

That conclusion is key to young people and their parents right here in North Texas, even if they have never heard of the President Bush-appointed panel that recently reported these findings. Because students who can’t master the complexities of algebra will be lost in the worlds of finance, computer programming and social sciences.

Fortunately, the state’s math standards embrace some of the Bush committee’s goals, because Texas is intent on getting elementary and middle school students ready for algebra. Likewise, the Dallas Achieves effort includes developing a curriculum for schools that prepares students for algebra.

But goals mean little unless teachers follow them. That’s the toughest part. You hear Texas educators worrying all the time about how to line up their classrooms to the state’s standards. No easy task, but it is up to principals and teachers to make sure that:

- Every seventh-grader understands elements of geometry.

Those are among the specifics proposed by the panel, led by Larry Faulkner, former University of Texas at Austin president. And we agree with his assessment that in today’s complex economy, learning algebra has become as important as being literate.

Some have even called it the new civil right. With higher-order math skills in hand, you can march into a more demanding economy. Without them, you stay behind.

Source: Dallas Morning News, TX
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