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From: "L-Soft list server at UVM (1.8d)" <[log in to unmask]>
To: Jim Abrams <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: MLMATHNET: approval required (0D111F12)
Date: Thu, Apr 13, 2000, 1:43 PM


New standards released today by the National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics call for four years of math in high school, and at least an
hour a day of math in elementary grades. Students should have mastered
basic algebra and geometry by the end of eighth grade, the group says.

Standards 2000 are the first major revision of NCTM's benchmarks in more
than a decade. The old standards have been controversial since their
release in 1989 because they shifted the focus from drills, rules and rote
learning to "real-world" problem solving and critical thinking. The new
goals haven't removed that emphasis says critic Paul Clopton, co-founder of
Mathematically Correct. "They are still afraid to definitely say our kids
should be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide," he said.