Weak math skills could cost young workers as much as $1 trillion in the coming decades, warns a a new study. National test scores show an erosion in eighth-graders' math skills, writes Kevin Mahnken. That will lower their odds of success as adults.
"After controlling for the possible effects of race, gender and educational attainment of parents," researchers found that eighth-grade math scores correlate with "high school graduation, college enrollment, and life earnings from age 28," he writes. Girls in states with improving math scores are "less likely to become teen mothers, while boys were less likely to be arrested for violent crimes or institutionalized."
The Education Recovery Scorecard shows how much learning students lost in the pandemic years in 29 states and the District of Columbia.
John Bailey also looks at the costs to children of disrupted schooling: "The average U.S. elementary-school student lost more than half a school year of learning in math — and nearly a quarter of a school year in reading — during the pandemic."
Actually when students don't master the principles of add, subtract, multiplication, division, place value, fractions, and percentages, they're going to struggle in math starting with algebra and going beyond, which will pretty much shut them out of most fields which require a high degree of math requirement...
There was a time in most UC system schools where business majors were required to take and pass calculus (early 80's mind you)...since calculus deals with rate of change and is very advanced algebra and trig, this is what the article is referencing
Without mastery of the basics, you cannot succeed in later courses (since math is for the most part a foundation subject)...
Perhaps I missed all the references to calculus in the post above. What I didn't miss, however, are the references to *elementary school* and middle school math.
--mrmillermathteacher
Once again, an article written from the point of view that everyone can learn calculus if the schools are good enough and everyone tries hard enough. In reality, the type of student who can master calculus is going to be positively correlated with many good things throughout their life. Having bad students take calculus or algebra II does not turn them into good students, good students can master calculus and algebra II.