The president of Minnesota policy group is advocating for a way to help Minnesota students score better on math tests.
However, the Center of the American Experiment leader is taking issue with how state educators want to solve the problem.
John Hinderaker, president of the American Experiment, writes that Minnesota students have recorded a 6 percent achievement drop on math scores over the past 10 years. Educators say they want to have a new conversation on the topic, and look for ways to teach math in a more "holistic" way, the article states.
Hinderaker writes that he does not think it would be a helpful conversation.
“Why, exactly, do falling scores suggest a need to teach more 'holistically?'" he writes. "Math is an objective field. Either the student comes up with the right answer, or he doesn’t. Increasingly, Minnesota students don’t.”
He points out the test has not changed much over the years and that teachers are looking for ways to "excuse failure" by saying the problem lies with tests themselves and not teaching methods or other factors.
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