Save Rhode Island: Do the Math

Mike Magee:

This is a story of hope, but you will have to read all the way to the end to know why.

This past October, all of Rhode Island's 11th grade public school students sat down to take the NECAP test. As recently reported in the Providence Journal, one of the questions went like this:

Courtney walks three laps around a ¼-mile track. How many feet does she walk? (1 mile = 5,280 feet.)
A 440 feet. B 1,320 feet. C 3,960 feet. D 7,040 feet.

Being able to multiply and divide four-digit numbers would have helped but as long as students understood the problem and the concept of fractions, a rough estimate (what is ¾ of 5280?) would have given them the answer: C.

Sixty-nine percent of them chose the wrong answer.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 17, 2012 4:53 AM
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