Wouldnt be understating the intolerance that exists there. And you know i think the right should not copy the politics of the left by overstating the intolerance that does exist. Host professor, have universities always been largely liberal institutions . Guest yeah for very long time, that certainly the case. We dont have very good survey data prior to the 60s but a lot of the evidence that does exist that University Faculties were quite liberal throughout the 20th century certainly so they have been ripped liberal for very long time. They do seem to have become more liberal in the 60s and 70s the new left and particularly as feminists entered the universities in the 70s. It drifts to the left but its been a broadly liberal institution for a long time. Having said that the political makeup of the university is defined this way so its much more conservative than the Natural Science for example that in the social sciences or the humanities and within the social science its berries as well so economics is a much more conservative discipline than the other social economics is the one discipline that looks like america with the balance between liberals, conservatives and moderates. Host what do you teach at claremont . I teach american politics. Freshman course. Guest i teach introductory courses. I take teach a course called the social movements and i sometimes teach on religion and politics as well. Guest student body comes in. Its a pretty split . Do they have a predefined attitude . Guest they are mostly liberal. We did get some conservatives. We are a liberal arts college. We get more conservatives than lots of other elite liberal arts colleges do and thats partly because we have, we do have conservative professors here and that makes us a little bit unusual compared to our competitors like stanford and williams. Host john shields and Joshua Dunn Everett and this book, passing on the right conservative professors in the progressive university. Is it bad that colleges are overall liberal . Guest i think more conservatives would be a good thing. I dont think there needs to be a perfect talents or the academy needs to look like america. I dont think thats true but i think more conservatives would be a good thing especially in fields that are dominated by the left and i think this is because more conservatives would improve social science. Host is there an intimidation factor at all . Guest what you mean by intimidation factor . Host there are a couple of movements in our current policy all lives matter, black lives matter, triggers. Guest i think there is. And i think its a problem that affects the left somewhat more than the right and this is because professors tend to teach the courses as a subject that might get them in hot water. Liberal professors are more like you to teach courses on race and gender and thats largely because a lot of conservatives and professors avoid teaching those. Does provide one benefit for conservatives. They tend to teach courses that are less likely to incite the kinds of movements and energy and passion so they are somewhat shielded i think from those movements. Host have you ever steered away from a potential course . Guest i have not but certainly some professors do steer clear. Host have you forgotten yourself and trouble for teaching anything . Guest i have not. Host john shields to fester at claremont mckenna, thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Now mathematician and scientist Andrew Hacker debates ever whether should be allowed in school. This is one hour and 20 minutes. [inaudible conversations] good evening. Welcome to the National Museum of mathematics and to a very special event, and i think we are all delighted that the museum is putting on this event tonight and even more delighted that we are doing it with the support of the Mathematical Association of america which is helping out here and in particular loaned us james tanden who i will and should do so in a minute. My name is john viewing and im the president of math for america and i am a mathematician [applause] this was not meant to be an aa meeting. Every professional mathematician knows that mathematicians and their subjects have a certain reputation. A worldfamous mathematician was walking in the countryside one day when he comes upon a huge plot flock of sheep and being a worldfamous mathematician, goes up to the shepherd and makes a proposition. 100 against one of your sheep that i can tell you instantly how many sheep are in the flock. The shepherd knowing that there were an awful lot of sheep says, okay i will try it. The mathematician looks around and he says there are 937 sheep in this flock. The shepherd says, incredible thats actually incredible. The mathematician picks up an animal throws it around his shoulders and begins to walk away. The shepherd runs after him, wait, wait he said double or nothing i can tell you exactly what your profession is. The mathematician thinking this is a my key says sure, go ahead. The shepherd says you are worldfamous mathematician. Incredible said the mathematician how could you possibly no . Well, said the shepherd, put down my dog and i will tell you. [laughter] this reputation is not new. In 1914 William D Lewis the principle of William Penn High School in philadelphia wrote about democratizing education but focused on High School High school mathematics. My objection hero to the traditional requirements of mathematics is largely and. Ive seen so many pupils driven out of the school by work which could not have any practical advantage to them and i have watched so many classes under the caption of algebra that i have come to believe that we want to discriminate as closely as possible between those peoples who need the advancement and those who will find other work more profitable. 1914. Whats mathematics we teach in our schools, especially our high schools, has been debated for the past century . Often with an eye toward democratization and opportunities for students. Indeed much longer than a century. You may be unaware arithmetic was not taught in Elementary Schools in the colonial period. Spelling, reading and writing constituted a curriculum at that time. Arithmetic was known as folder. The folder. Arithmetic was needed and when it was needed it was learned on the job. By the early 20th century algebra and geometry were part of the curriculum in nearly every high school in the country that the graduation. In 1900 with 8 , 8 . As Graduation Rates climbed over the coming decades the role of mathematics became a contentious issue almost everywhere. Mathematics was then as it continues to be now the most difficult of subjects for many students. The debate commented at the end of the 20 century were three provocative and quite exceptional essays written by Underwood Dudley a mathematics professor at Depaul University with the titles by math . Is mathematics necessary and what is mathematics for . To the dismay of many mathematicians he argues that there were many good reasons to teach mathematics but utility wasnt one of them. Almost all jobs he wrote required no knowledge of algebra or geometry at all. He went on for algebra is necessary for 75 of all jobs our algebra textbooks would be filled with our onthejob problems and examples would be so plentiful. This is clearly not the case. The math mystery by Andrew Hacker which is the catalyst for tonights discussion is in many ways the child of this century long debate as well as douglas essays. Although i will say that the two authors reached very different conclusions. Is High School Mathematics serving society . Whats mathematics should be taught . How should it be taught and why should it be taught . These are hard questions that i believe finding answers to hard questions is best done in open public discussion. Thats why we are here tonight. Our two speakers this evening or Andrew Hacker and james tanden. You will be glad to know i have reached the point where i will introduce them. Andrew hacker is a professor of Political Science at Queens College at the City University of new york where in addition to teaching Political Science use taught an experimental course in mathematics literacy. He was an undergraduate at Amherst College and received his ph. D. From princeton university. He taught at cornell in 1955 until the early 1970s and since then he has been on the faculty at Queens College. He is the author of 10 books and a sample of the titles suggested their reach. Two nations blackandwhite separate hospital and unequal. Mismatch, the growing gap between women and men. Higher education, how colleges are wasting our money and failing our kids and what we can do about it. In 2012 he published an oped in the New York Times entitled is algebra necessary which led to his most recent book passing on the right substitute the math myth and other stem delusions. James tanden when he speaks tonight you may detect he is not a native of new york. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics at Adelaide University and came to the u. S. In 1988 where he received his ph. D. In mathematics also from princeton university. After teaching at st. Marys college in maryland and exceptional liberal arts college i might add, he followed his wife to boston where he soon turned his attention to the general state of k12 mathematics. Eventually he found himself at a private school in southborough, st. Marks where he founded the st. Marks institute of mathematics and then on to washington d. C. Where he served as a Mathematics Association americas visiting mathematician and then the mathematician and residents. James consults with schools all across the globe on the teaching of middle school and High School Mathematics. He is also the author of a number of books, solve this, mathematics activities for students and clubs, mathematics galore and is also the author of two puzzle books without words and more without words both of which im told are being presently translated into serbia i had offered to complete the translation tonight. James is also part of the global math project with the goal of initiating a fundamental change in the way we perceive and enjoy mathematics. Tonights presentation will be divided into six segments, 215 minute presentations by each of our speakers to lay out the case , to eightminute responses from each and then questions and answers from the audience. The questions are from the audience. Followed by a short time for people to come up and talk individually with the speakers tonight. My job tonight is to keep us on schedule and i will do so with ruthless resolve. So i would like professor hacker to begin tonights presentation. [applause] thank you john and its great to be here. I am the only nonmathematician in the house. I will say at this point it is not my intention to put you out of this mess. I think yours is a grand inquiry is calling. There are a total at last count statisticians 217,584 teachers of mathematics in this country. Its a sturdy profession and i dont think it has anything to fear. Now, i am a political scientist. The chief job of a political scientist is to analyze policy particularly governmental policy and even more particularly governmental policies which require everyone to do a certain thing. Very simply if you were going to drive a car you have to pass a test, the government says that. You were going to have a child, the child has to be vaccinated. We understand that. What interested me was in effect a governmental policy that we have which is that every single young person in this country will be required, required to take a full sequence of mathematics starting with algebra, geometry, precalculus and for many the idea was to have everybody studying calculus my simple reason for writing my book can be summed up in one word. I understand we have some visual aids here. I only did this last minute so i brought one of my own. May i put it down . [laughter] thank you. You may keep that up while i am going. We currently have another statistic. 4 million, 16yearolds and the goal is to have every single one of us and rolled in algebra ii. We have coming up the common core and the common core is by the way the common core is for everybody. They say career and collegeready but everybody has to pass a common core test and they are tests which are going to be conducted nationally and algebra ii is going to be there. We are going to be in for some problems. We are to have some. The math hurdle if you like take state tremendous toll every year in developed countries, about 20 out of 28 in the number of our young people who finish high school. Our high schools are 20 . One out of five people you see are older people in the street have failed to finish high school. A major academic reason for that is failing in math class. The academic reason is we dont know the exact facts and figures of this but job older whose work you may know has concluded the majority of students eventually fail one or another math course. This is because they are indolent, because they are or is it a coast we are asking something of everyone that we really shouldnt he requiring universally . One out of five dont graduate from high school. Of those who graduate from high school and go on to college, 43 do not graduate. This is one of the highest College Dropout rates in the advancing world. We have more colleges per is that we have fewer people finishing college. Why . Because colleges mindlessly require mathematics if everybody even if you were going to major in poetry, modern dance, interior design, he still have to pass an algebra test to get on board. Now we have a fantastic talent loss here. We are shooting ourselves in the foot. People who would be very skilled and talented are not being allowed to proceed even at the Junior College peered somebody who wants an associate degree, certificate and cosmetology, you know in industrial design, lets say commercial art. Even they have to pass a math test and as a result our church and. Is just savage. A report came out a year ago saying 43 of people taking the test or not collegeready. 23 taking a college test are not ready because collegeready requires advanced mathematics for everybody and as a result some very Good Students who might be in my College Class wont be there because of this requirement. My book is called the math myth and in fact the more i study what has happened the more ive discovered that people who are entrenched, and that kind trying to be kind here in trenton is certain profession occupation boquet should will literally say anything to defend the status quo from which they benefit. This can be true of the lease officers and i discovered so much of what we were told about math is shared myth. For example. For example there is a 62 figure. We have something called the american diploma project a couple of years ago. A decade from now 62 of all occupations will need algebra. As Underwood Dudley said years ago at most 5 of occupations need algebra and i respect those in the course of writing my book i went down to marietta georgia where he interviewed aeronautical interviews at lockheed and i was just blown away by the way they use calculus to study the ice on the wings. Theyre there are fantastic things i learned about ice. You certainly need mathematics and wall street your sponsors use calculus all the time to study risks, payouts and the rest. But not 62 . If we are only talking occupational terms why the other 95 have to take it . I dont want to dive into much to the questions of the story that stems we all know what s. T. E. M. Means. People have a degree and stem studies. Only more than one third are working in s. T. E. M. Occupations now. We actually have an oversupply of people with s. T. E. M. Qualifications. We are told we had better watch out in the global competition because career china singapore and hong kong are far ahead of us in mathematics. Its true. Their students score in the stratosphere on the International Math tests. They score high because they work 23 hours a day. You know the biggest illness a down among young people in korea is sleep deprivation. They work 23 hours a day if and i want say this in the best way, if the International Competition were in chess or crossword puzzles the chinese would score up there too so the big challenge is not more math but getting i would advise that. Their size the question whether math sharpens our minds. Really doing well at it sharpens your mind in mathematics thats for sure. There is no evidence whatever that mastering mathematics makes you agile, adept, excel and other fields. There is none whatever. I did a short test of my own at williams college. I took a math scores of our incoming freshmen. They took all the freshmen who took an intricate ture history course. I plotted the math scores high, low versus the history of scores. History, reasoning ability weigh the evidence and guess what . The correlation was zero. It can be high in math and bomb out in history and vice versa. Math does not help in other fields. Now, im not sure i want to call this a myth. There is the view for example a mathematician i really respected i keep this book by my bedside. Its showing a lay person would mathematics really is the quotes in the book, he believes that mathematics is one of the greatest creations of the human mind, perhaps even the greatest. Well, hey i will go along with that. I simply ask though by the way is mathematics something we created versus something that we have discovered . Could it be that mathematics is out there created by nature. Isaac newton had to discovery. Just like pai for example. We didnt create pai if we have defined it to show how its used. I would really love for everybody to appreciate mathematics. Its glorious, its cold but this isnt being done by making people learn polynomials yeartoyear. I would love to have teachers treat mathematics as a liberal arts so all of us could know the beautiful the beauty of poetry in mathematics. Theres also the view that appomattox is objective which is to say there was one right answer and you dont have to worry about opinions, subjectivity, bias and things like that. There is Something Else going on. Mathematics has else and biases not so much the subject but the way we assess it and value weighted. One thing we know, the chapter in the book called gender gaps in mathematics. Girls and young women actually get higher grades in math courses than the guys do great they do. We have enough acrosstheboard to show that and we both know that. The boys get higher grades but when it comes to the tests, s. A. T. , the s. A. T. And in time common core the men are always ahead. I would really ask you Mathematics Teachers to find some way of having tests. They give girls and young women a chance to show what they really know. For the last halfcentury girls have been 30 points behind boys on the s. A. T. S and by the way there are consequences. One consequence is the National Merit scholarships. I went into this. The National Merit scholarship, given what they are. They do not give a gender breakdown of their winners. They refuse to do it. They hide that information. Do you know why . Because 53 , 53 of the people who enter the National Merit competition are girls but voice and that getting 53 of the awards. Why . Because they score 30 points higher than the girls do on the tests. The same thing is going to happen with common core and this is one reason why girls find it harder to get into Ivy League Schools, because Ivy League Schools require 700 before we open your application on mathematics, both, 700. Twothirds of those 700 are boys so as a result stanford and yale for example are majority men. Opposed to abolish algebra, no of course but i do want to see other options and alternatives instead of the full sequence of everybody. [inaudible] all it requires is adult arithmetic and we dont have to be ashamed of that at all. [applause] thank you for raising this important concern and we appreciate you bringing it to the world. You pointed out in your book to expand even further. Your work probably understands the concerns and it is truly wonderful. We personally assess the claims made in the general conversation and not the general impression i like to. There is a sense of deep concern of that before the conception of the common core and also the strong warnings that implements the standards. He doesnt want this implementation to fall into old. The Human Experience of mathematics be pushed aside. Many feel the same way. So. The other was a pleasure to re read. Id like to share my mathematics philosophy so i will need my glasses and start reading things soon. [inaudible] we should teach philosophy as the human story of mathematics. The High School Level can be argued as somewhat secondary. Ive never used this formula in my personal life. It is a story that i knew to deal with the subject and i loved the story of how it battled with the millennia. The success of completing the square and while teaching mathematics, the stories would portray on each being a story of symmetry, Teaching High School students of the beauty and power of the symmetry to the advanta advantage. It is relevant and secondary. Its to help people see and consider and practice taking the road to Higher Ground that has s developed into considered alternative views and also to be aware of some achievements in mankind the works of shakespeare and the revelation of completing the square. Learn how to appreciate the accomplishments. Hi school is not about content. Every piece of High School Math and every topic if you are only looking for the use of it. When is the last time its not really so much the point, its about teaching the space and accomplishing the thinking. And i think math is particularly good at teaching problem solving and life skills and thinking through challenges. Math certainly offers one as a worthy piece of the general thinking repertoire. They are good at teaching patients in the problemsolving with the false terms and the like. We each believe in the common core but we are deeply concerned about the possible implementation in particular with the deleterious effects. Lets teach algebra two and common core as it should be in the context and joy in the next generation. Now, lets be absolutely clear what the common core actually is. What is the common core . Date outline the storyline of k12 and inappropriate storyline is actually nothing new in the standards of the mathematics. Its just people have thought very deeply and i say yay to that. However, it goes further to also say we must attend the statements of thinking to actually attend the thinking and i have to say yes, yes, this is a major achievement of common core. The reason quantitatively dont just i know the abstract. Its struck by the arguments of others to think about the mathematics. Use appropriate tools to think about what is necessary and appropriate with mathematics. You cant argue this decision. Now, this one misleads people. It sounds like okay there are two things with the decimal places. It means the language. Learn how to describe what youre talking about. Look for and make use of the structure. Can you step back from it and form the piece of mathematics and expressed the regularity of the repeated reasoning. That is rather than the same thing over and over again can you notice if you take one step back they all follow the same structure. When i said we are each responsible for our outstanding matters you can download the common core state standards to find the keywords. I actually counted 436 state standards. I was generous. I counted 436 of these things in grade k. Through eight and 149 for high school and 30 of the 129, they felt optional in the flexibility. So, always looking good. The biggest point to make is the curriculum. Heres the trouble. This is the danger. It is very easy to confuse the common core standards as the state standards. I agree you can find troubling examples out there. There are no lesson plans. They are the uniform test. There is no general form in the nation and people like the standards themselves forgive me im going to use the central conversation. Some are the two state standards for the functions give meaning to it. The standard number names. They are not questions. [inaudible] is optional depending on what the state decides to do. Theres two things here. None of the standards are actually optional. And if they are not they are written for the experts, teachers, the curriculum writers. Why use that language, but, thas the educators choice. The common core is speaking to the academics of the world. Theres a lot of scary words out there about the state standards. And i feel like im being a little bit rude here. Theres two words in particular. Forgive me. We did pull out a lot of words that are being developed into a common core state standards. It doesnt appear to. It is one optional stand. A lot of people are scared of the word algorithm and the claim that common core is teaching fees that are relevant to everyday life. Guess it is true they appear five times in the state standards. Addition, subtraction, division, all done. So these misconceptions we can check them for ourselves. Are there thingeither these peod about in the common core . In the equations. It appears five times and turns out to be optional. Its not a curriculum test. Its peoples interpretations that might go that way. Another thing being bandied about is that correlation and causation and that they dont attend to this. They called this one a National Standard between correlation. Proof, this is a scary one because we all had the experience of. Not in the common core. There are the thinkings in one statement reason. Another is a shocker for the educators but simplified in the common core at one place which is scary for a lot of teachers. All of these kneejerk reactions must not just to b be kneejerk reactions lets be honest here. Common core, fine. There is a process of getting mathematics. And i will finish in much further detail. It is in the common core. Again, please, check the quotes, that was 2003. We want the kids to think quantitatively. Theres a group trying to find those related to the core topic. I can give you a list of all of the examples in the estimation for the special reasoning. We should talk about pie at some point. But i will stop there. Thank you. [applause] ive been taking some notes. [inaudible] i have read all these common core state standards. I went through them and i think at a certain. 1764 individual standards. The tests are going to be given next year, nationwide at least 40 plus states. And they are going to be uniform or at least parallel tests. They are beating down my park they are being done by park. Before common core, each state did and guess what, in mississippi 90 of the people, High School Seniors were passing in math. And in minnesota only 54. Why, because each state has its own test. Those that are math teachers will have to teach to the test. The test results, im not talking about evaluating teachers in terms of closing schools. The states themselves will be evaluated on the common core results. So it doesnt matter whether it is the standards of curriculum. The students will have to go through hour after hour. The failure rate is going to be disastrous. Why, because the College Level for the common core and in the second year, algebra. We will do one of two things. Theyve done. Com in court tests. Two thirds failed. Next time around, they decided do we judge a system that we dont have two thirds failing. If we end up with two thirds failing you will hear from the legislatures on that one, because it is their constituen constituents. Its going to be kids from the suburbs not just kids in the back row at the rural counties. Well see what happens into the question is why. Why are we putting ourselves through this torture when we really dont have to ask . [inaudible] [laughter] there is problem solving and mathematics. I will give you one that ive had to deal with five times myself as a citizen. Ive been in five criminal cas cases. Anyway, at each of those trials, the prosecution said we will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did it. We had to use our mind to solve that problem. If they have enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt or not, i assure you that any mathematicians were no better than the messenger who was voicing something out. I never thought of looking at it that way. And by the way, just do you do know the name Paul Wolfowitz . He was number two in the defense department. More than any other person. He was famous in the iraq war. I knew it because i knew about the core. He was a math major and the finest mathematical line that we had. Razorsharp mindset. When we go into baghdad, everyone will hear us on the streets and democracy tomorrow. I dont even make this in the Political Science mathematical terms. The beauty of mathematics when we teach the merchant into t. S. Eliot poetry and to jane austen novels, there are a few that we can convey. And my challenge to is can you convey that to your students, you have a captive audience. And yet the success rate of 3 degrees last year only 1 for math majors. Its down to 1 now. Something is happening now. Its the beauty. Give it a try. I realize most of us are academics. Im a liberal arts teacher and i teach in the liberal arts collega liberal arts collegeando be lawyers, but we are really being sold on how we have to train people to get them to majors. Stem and even starbucks, thats hightech. By the way, its all china and russia, too the magic of those words, but who thought of putting it out there, we dont have two major. Those are poetic words. They are not even going to get to college because algebra. So then maybe when you think of the fifth one to put down their across the globe i would say more power to you. [applause] the beauty of math in general all the way through even Teaching High School in algebra. We are on the same page in the testing. That is i personally wouldnt want to participate. The. Then a big blank space to work on. We should have more of that. You have a month to do this. No worries, figure it out. Its the cultural shift we need. Thats a tough one. Its how we teach the subject. Trigonometry is often deemed as too scary. Where am i. , what is this, contemplating what im giving you might notice the east goes overhead a little bit and then comes from belfast and back again. Something like that. The natural question would be not how high it is but down to measure the only thing i could measure is the single elevation. And then the story of trigonometry was born. Its one great big unit and then it took off in the middle east and was translated to arabic. But then it was just at the height of different angles. Then it was from arabic and latin. Why do they call it the height of the star overused words like [inaudible] there is a human side to that. Next question, lets say it is one big astronomical unit. Eventually someone might have an epiphany. Which case it must be half. Finally i have my kids working at 30 degrees just like this. This is joy is teaching in reach of everyone and to me that experience one has i think it is actually reached to share that with the world. I dont think it is anythin anyo deep i think that it is to bring the humakeepingthe human story. [inaudible] 337. Truth. Its used to talk about Different Things. But does come up in th, then ths and mathematical proof and i think we only have time for one. So as a classic example, they wrote about this imagine the town where 9 is blue and 10 is purple. So they will just do this. You have a town with 100 cabs, mine will be blue and ten will be purple. Well, these cases are similar cases. [inaudible] eight out of 26 times she was correct. Eight out of 26. That sounds like about 30 for me. I believe that thinking does happening course dash court cases. It would help if i got the numbers right but that is a good example that in math, its used by somebody and know one individual probably ignores 99. 5 of it. However, i cannot say which 99. 5 a should throw out of the curriculum. I think we could reach algebra two as a reasonable challenges we teach it with truth, relevance, and joyful. Even polynomials can be joyful. [inaudible] thank you. [applause] think you both, now its time for questions so we will get set up for questions. There has to be somebody who will run the mic around. We will turn off the lavalley or mikes. We have to turn those off to make the other ones work let me Say Something thats slightly unusual here. We are going to spend about 15 minutes or so with questions from the audience. Then you have a chance to come up and ask individual questions of the speakers. I cant help myself here. I have to make an observation and the observation is that all three of us are really in some sense, james has been a teacher, but were not presently teachers in schools. We are in some sense University People or University Like people this is what happens all the time. Think about it. We are talking about k12 education, about mathematics and the role in k12 in high schools but also in middle schools and Elementary Schools. Can you imagine having a meeting in which we discussed some medical practice and there wasnt a practicing doctor anywhere in sight, can you imagine ever doing that . The fact that we are three people, all of us who are not teachers says an awful lot about the state of education in this country and so i would like to say i would take questions from the audience but i would prefer to take questions from k12 teachers in the audience, if you dont mind. So at least in the beginning i would like to hear from k12 teachers. I will bring the microphone and give it a second. If you could stand up. I do teach eighth grade math. Sure, what you want. My question is dealing with that , what do you suggest. I think you both have great points but what we do. We are stuck in the middle what do you have for suggestions. That is where we are right now. I think simply, i know your cause because you are a school in the state lays down what you are to teach and this is something that is done at the College Level but i understand and appreciate what you are there to do. I would say write your congressman. This is a political question. This is not just an education question. Make your voice heard on this say i want more freedom to teach the beauty of mathematics rather than the standard you are requiring me. If you belong to a union i hope they will take that up to i have to say my biggest Culture Shock is how okay my biggest Culture Shock coming from the university to High School Teaching was how busy and connecticut was and how we should reflect deeply on teaching and their given no chance to reflect on teaching. It was really shocking and disturbing to me. I was really interested in the challenge of how to i find the wiggle room, nonetheless, nonetheless, get my kids to pass the test. I do a met i was in the private school which was exempt from the state standards and state test so im not actually qualified to teach in the Public School world but i had the culture. My algebra to experience. [inaudible] i taught the story and got my kids jawing little boxes on the sides of their test. My colleague had no idea what they were and they answered the question. Its wiggle room and its very hard and you feel like youre alone and blog and tweet about it. I think the power of social media is very strong, in this very room where people are working and examples to bring joy to all level of math teaching. It is, it can be done. I want to speak about teaching that i did in east harlem here in elementary school. I taught problemsolving, how to think mathematically and in the weeks before the test i said to the teacher you know how to teach them how to bubble in and do a test now you do that. I want to know what you mean by teaching for the test because teaching mathematics is teaching for the test and the better you teach mathematics come the better they can handle whatever is handled at thrown at them that they might not have seen before you are talking about something you need to explain because it is teaching mathematics. Very briefly, what i mean by teaching to the test, heres my best example. Princeton review and kaplan you go, you pay pay and they teach you how to beat the test. In fact, people i talked to said i can teach you to get 400. I know know its not great but 400 without knowing anything about mathematics. There is a test in bulgaria they teach you how to beat the test. We professionals. We are teachers. We love learning. My own view is i happen to be with the far right wing on this. I am against the common core. I would rather have to leave it to you in the classroom. You are the professional so you should teach what you think should be taught what you think is important. If in one School Different people are teaching Different Things in math classes, fine. Let a thousand flowers bloom. There isnt one thing everybody has to know. Teaching to the test, that is a a big scary one because the easy way to interpret that, heres the formula you can do that. Its joyless and its kind of whats expected by parts of our culture. Its all about computation and getting the answers with speed. The fundamental paradigm shift has occurred and i dont know how to make that happen but i agree im teaching my kids to think and im confident they can pass the test. But, the felt resistance because they knew their colleagues were doing Different Things and i got nervous about it. Work with parents is also very scary. I picked up an accent that seems to develop some respect so i think i can talk to parents and sound like i knew what i was talking about so they believe me. However, i admit that was in my favor. They trusted me. That trust is hard to obtain, i agree. Im a high school, ive taken the common core and i feel a real a adjustment. What we make this switch to the common core and i think it will be shaky. You can use that only two thirds of students have passed it in new york or have failed it so far, or or one third. I was just wondering overtime do you think as more kids have taken it, and teachers have had more time to learn how to prep if results will improve and it will be more assesses. Theres a misconception. Being proficient, the test has four different levels. The misconception is that in order to pass the test you have to be profession or advanced amounts not at at all whats meant here. Theres basic proficient, advanced in the figures that you hear about, only one third passing it are not. By the way, please, its a misinterpretation. No, they havent failed, there just and proficient. Word proficient does not mean what you think in english. Labels, labels. Lets be very clear. Are you talking about engaged new york . Youre studying in new york . Okay is my point earlier on. I think they worry about implementation of state interpretation of the common core. News very disturbing to me. Every student has gone through the k9 cultural experience of that curriculum and they havent. So, its probably going to be a tough challenged to stay in new york if thats the cultural introduction to this. If we give it a chance, i think there is good hope for. Testing is always the issue. I worry about testing if it will do anything, but theyre trying to be clever in the test and theyre asking why or heres an algebra problem, cool draw picture on how you would best attempt to solve it. Actually asking a . Behalf of somebody online. He asks, but suppose Andrew Hackers proposal to abolish standards, that the summary of the proposal, he is executed and they abolish all. What might be the consequence for that . The consequence of abolishing standards . What is going to happen with the common core, onesizefitsall. Currently almost half our students dont go on after college. They just finish up high school and dont go further. When he tried college and dont finish. Only a third of americans finish college. What we going to do for the non academic . We are going have common core standards, college and career ready that make into one thing it will make them both to. My answer is if you get rid of it we would have much more freedom in tailoring education for various levels of students and i dont mean dumb versus smart. I mean not everybody is going to go to caltech. They are going to be people who will be ups drivers. Its an honorable job. Wide demand triples of them . Polishing the standards. I cant help it. Its not in the common core. Its an example of one standard. I personally believe, its a beautiful story line. Look at it from 2000 years ago. They were basically listing, curious question, why, whats delightful about those things . Look at the table. You can actually look at two numbers on the diagonal and generate a whole bunch, theres a a great mystery you can play with. Okay, the triangle, the standard, if you you want to play with it, fine, if we let go of the standards we let go. We want some commonality that kids should go through grade eight mathematics or not. I dont know where that line is. I guess my argument is i have no trouble with the content of whats typically deemed algebra true if its taught in the right way. I believe it can be. It just by a large isnt. I would say maybe general standards, id be be scared to go over them personally. Im a High School Match math teacher in the south bronx. My biggest concern with the idea of not making higher level math mandatory is that theres already an achievement gap in this country and my students are already having lots of doors shot on them and i think by saying okay, only those who can learn math are going to be the ones to learn it, the achievement gap is just going to get larger. My question to you is if we go with us and get rid of those standards are we going to prevent our students who are already at a disadvantage from continuing to get doors closed on them . [applause] i really am glad that question was asked because its