[FRIAM] New Mexican's Sunday's story on education proficiency

[Russell Standish]

It is a test that you know your 7 or 8 times table. And the definition
of a prime number (which could be given as part of the question, if
not the curriculum).

I would expect most 9 or 10 years olds should know their times tables.

Or am I wrong abut kids these days?

On Mon, Jul 22, 2024 at 12:43:54PM -0600, Tom Johnson wrote:
> Ms. O'Hara:
> 
> RE your story Sunday, "Does proficiency give full picture?"
> From your lede:
> "Pop quiz: What number is both a prime number and a factor or 56"?
> 
> If I understand correctly, this is a question on an exam given to fourth
> graders, 9- or 10-year-olds.
> Could you please point me to some source in the city or state education
> departments who can tell me what short- or long-term value this question about
> mathematics -- NOT arithmetic -- has for students that age?
> 
> We live in a state where it is a rare cashier who can do the mental
> arithmetic to make change from a $20 bill. Can we first find out if fourth
> graders can do that before getting into primes and factorials?
> *--
> ============================================
> Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com
> Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
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Dr Russell Standish                    Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders     hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au
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