[CSPS] CS Response

[Mahajan, Arvind]

When I initially heard opposition to the four-year math and science requirement, my response was similar to yours, Sarah. Jonathan and I had a lengthy chat with Steve Ogden a few weeks ago about this issue and it seemed the legislation was well intentioned--American students were lagging those from other industrialized countries and this requirement would make them more competitive in the global market place. However, I am now ambivalent about this requirement and actually leaning against it. 
 
Clearly, students with math-science proclivity will not be affected by this requirement.  However, being a zero-sum game, this requirement will take away from courses in language arts, social studies and everything else. It can be argued that America's success is rooted in it's citizens' competitive advantage in creativity, initiative and risk-taking--traits which may have more to do with courses which the math-science requirement will deprive them of. Susan's email captures other concerns. My conversations with CSISD and BISD superintendents, teachers and my own high school junior (who will take four years of math-science) reveal other potential problems with this requirement.
 
The new rule deals with a very important issue deserving of a serious philosophical discussion. I wish it had occurred before the passage of the legislation but I am pleased that we have at least initiated this conversation.
 
Arvind
 
Arvind Mahajan
Lamar Savings Professor of Finance
Mays Business School
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4218
 
979 845 4876 tel
979 845 3884 fax

________________________________

From: csps-bounces at csps.tamu.edu on behalf of Susan Scott
Sent: Wed 12/13/2006 10:07 AM
To: Sarah Bednarz
Cc: csps at PHILEBUS.tamu.edu
Subject: Re: [CSPS] CS Response



Sarah,
I have heard some interesting perspectives on this from Linda Stearns,
Bryan ISD math teacher, at recent CSPS events.  She can explain this
better than I can but it is my understanding that when the requirements
jumped from 2 years of math to 3 several years ago, teachers found that
they had to water down the curriculum for the upper level courses in
order to have a reasonable percentage of the students (at least 60%, I
believe) pass the classes.  Linda stated that the college-bound students
are no longer adequately prepared for first-year college math classes.
She was strongly opposed to adding the 4-year requirement for all
students, both for the sake of the college-bound kids and for the
students who want classes with vocational emphases.  She and other
teachers expressed concern about increased drop-out rates with these new
requirements.
Susan


Susan G. Scott
Instructor and Internship Coordinator
Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-2261
Phone:  (979) 845-5350
FAX:  (979) 845-0446
susan-g-scott at tamu.edu
www.rpts.tamu.edu

>>> Sarah Bednarz <s-bednarz at tamu.edu> 12/13/2006 8:11 am >>>
Am I alone in being upset with the response of some school board 
members and administrators as reported in today's Eagle about the new

curriculum? It makes me question the collective dedication to 
preparing ALL students for life-long success if they do not support 
the idea of four years of math, science, language arts and social 
studies.

Just wondering if I have become too elitist or if standards are 
slipping.

Sarah Bednarz
*******************************************
Sarah Witham Bednarz
Associate Professor of Geography
Department of Geography
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-3147
s-bednarz at tamu.edu
979/845-1579
FAX: 979/862-4487
CELL: 979/229-7247
http://agsss.tamu.edu <http://agsss.tamu.edu/> 
*******************************************
The death-knell of the republic had rung as soon as the active power 
became lodged in the hands of those who sought, not to do justice to 
all citizens, rich and poor alike, but to stand for one special class

and for its interests as opposed to the interests of others.
Theodore Roosevelt, Labor Day speech at Syracuse, NY, Sept 7, 1903


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