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A Math Test That's Rotten To the Common Core
theodp writes " The Common Core State Standards Initiative," explains the project's website, ""is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics that states voluntarily adopt." Who could argue with such an effort? Not Bill Gates, who ponied up $150 million to help git-r-done. But the devil's in the details, notes Washington Post education reporter Valerie Strauss, who offers up a ridiculous Common Core math test for first graders as Exhibit A, which also helps to explain why the initiative is facing waning support. Explaining her frustration with the intended-for-5-and-6-year-olds test from Gates Foundation partner Pearson Education, Principal Carol Burris explains, "Take a look at question No. 1, which shows students five pennies, under which it says 'part I know,' and then a full coffee cup labeled with a '6' and, under it, the word, 'Whole.' Students are asked to find 'the missing part' from a list of four numbers. My assistant principal for mathematics was not sure what the question was asking. How could pennies be a part of a cup?" The 6-year-old first-grader who took the test didn't get it either, and took home a 45% math grade to her parents. And so the I'm-bad-at-math game begins!"
Well when there isn't an explanation of what is being asked and the test was written by the same person that puts the iconography in airport bathrooms....
oh, wait! Those aren't pennies! They're oreos! Now it makes complete sense!
People, people, you need to step back and reexamine your basic assumptions about the question. They are not 'pennies', but rather 'oreos'. -folds arms in triumph
Part of my job a couple of years ago was handling university archives. I was exposed to a large number of essays written by college students from ~1890-1910. They were all on the level that I was expected to write freshman year of high school.
Hush. You're bringing relevant facts into a discussion of cherished golden-age mythology. You're supposed to join in the wailing and gnashing of teeth over our decline from those halcyon days (always conveniently just out of living memory) when people were upright and moral and true, before the rot set in and we declined to our present sad state of affairs. O tempora! O mores!
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
But it's obvious the cup is full of liquid, therefore the answer must be 787. That being the number of degrees required to melt zinc, which is clearly what is missing.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
I see 5 pennies.
I see a teacup with a label 6.
Your observational skills are somewhat lacking, I'd say.
I see five stacks of two coins. (look closely)
I see a coffee cup with a label.
If I turn the coffee cup over the stack of coins, I would read 9, but there would be 10 coins under them. Thus, I need to take away one part - one coin. The answer is thus one.
Q.E.D.
That's easy:
There's 4 people in a car, 6 get out. How many have to get in before there's no one in it?
I bet Eve knows the answer, she's always nosing in.
But anyway, the question is clearly referring to all apples, so:
There were about 69 million tonnes of apples produced in 2010, at 6,666 apples per tonne that's 460 Billion apples, but they only last for a few weeks, so 460 / 26 = 17.7 Billlion
Answer: There are roughly 17.7 billion apples.
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