Math Forum Discussions

Prehn, Lynn M.

Posts: 16
Registered: 12/3/04

Math 6 - 8
Posted: Feb 8, 2010 9:13 AM

Plain Text

I know this is a HS forum, but I wanted to ask a question about the MS testing program.

Now that the Testing Program has changed 6 - 8 ELA and math tests to late April and May back to back, is anyone annoyed that ELA will go first two years in a row? The schedule for next year was just released and it again shows that the kids will be tested two weeks in a row with ELA testing on the first week and the testing for math completed the following week.

The kids get so easily stressed and sick of sitting for exams that by the end they don't even bother checking their work or caring anymore. It seems to me that whichever subject matter goes first will have better results as a whole. Yes, I know that the whole state will have the same disadvantage, if you will, but math scores seem to be held to a higher expectation in many different arenas (newspapers, special reports, etc.).

Would it be fair to ask the state to alternate between the two subject matters each year? Is this something that would have to come from AMTNYS?

If you would like to respond directly to me, my email is lmprehn@galwaycsd.org. I would appreciate any feedback and if you could forward this to MS dept chairs who might have an interest, that would be great.

Thanks,

Lynn Prehn
Math Department Chairperson
MS Math AIS Teacher
Galway Central Schools

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nyshsmath@mathforum.org [mailto:owner-nyshsmath@mathforum.org] On Behalf Of Kirk W Weiler
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 4:25 PM
To: nyshsmath@mathforum.org
Subject: Re: A2T PI Question

It certainly is on the sample test they put out in the spring, but it is certainly NOT in the standards. It's really unfortunate that they included it on that test. Here's what the standards say concerning the LOS, LOC, and Area formulas:

A2.A.73 Solve for an unknown side or angle, using the Law of Sines or the Law of Cosines.

A2.A.74 Determine the area of a triangle or a parallelogram, given the measure of two sides and the included angle.

A2.A.75 Determine the solution(s) from the SSA situation (ambiguous case).

I believe that if the state wants them to know a very specific application of these laws, then they need to have it spelled out in these standards. Otherwise they should just stick to generic applications that do not require a background in physics. For some nice problems on applying these formulas check out:

http://www.emathinstruction.com/id17.html
*******************************************************************
* To unsubscribe from this mailing list, email the message
* "unsubscribe nyshsmath" to majordomo@mathforum.org
*
* Read prior posts and download attachments from the web archives at
* http://mathforum.org/kb/forum.jspa?forumID=671
*******************************************************************
*******************************************************************
* To unsubscribe from this mailing list, email the message
* "unsubscribe nyshsmath" to majordomo@mathforum.org
*
* Read prior posts and download attachments from the web archives at
* http://mathforum.org/kb/forum.jspa?forumID=671
*******************************************************************