From: Jim <jschwar@frontiernet.net>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2002112008:51:10
Subject: Re: amazing test results in our school 4th grde assessments

I am curious about the test that your children are excelling on. Are
these state or local tests? If they are state tests, would you be
willing to tell us what state they are? 

The state tests differ greatly from one state to another in terms of
the type of thinking and skill that is needed for success. If the
state tests are built on the same philosophy as the Chicago math
series, then we can expect excellent test results. On the other hand,
if a state test measures low-level skills like meaningless procedural
performance, then the Chicago math series is teaching for something
different. Of course, students who learn to understand math and think
their way through problems will also perform well on low-level skills,
but probably not any better than their peers who were trained on
low-level skills only.

BTW, the New York State mathematics tests are, in my opinion, aligned
well with the Chicago math series.

JS

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