mathematical educational system in us

7/23/2019 Mathematical Educational System in US

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The mathematical educational system in the

United States

Cezar Lupu1

1Department of Mathematics

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA, USA

August 21 2015, Campulung-Muscel
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Overview of the American educational system

From kindergarten through high school, the mathematicseducation in public schools in the United States has historicallyvaried widely from state to state, and often even variesconsiderably within individual states.

With the recent adoption of the Common Core Standardsby 45states, mathematics content across the country is moving intocloser agreement for each grade level.

Although there are no federal standards, 45 states have agreed tobase their curricula on the Common Core State Standards inmathematics beginning in 2015.The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)published educational recommendations in mathematics educationin 1991 and 2000 which have been highly influential, describing

mathematical knowledge, skills and pedagogical emphases fromkindergarten through high school.
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Overview of the American educational system

The United States differs from most other countries in thatmathematics is generally separated by topic at the high-schoollevel. Two years are devoted entirely to algebra and one yearentirely to geometry. (A few states, such as New York and more

recently Georgia, follow an integrated curriculum, as in othercountries.) The algebra-geometry-algebra sequence is followed by acourse often called pre-calculus for college-bound students.Pre-calculus usually combines advanced algebra (or Algebra 3)and geometry with trigonometry and other topics in preparation fora course in calculus, which is taken in the 12th grade at highschool or the first year of university studies. The age at which thealgebra-geometry-algebra sequence begins varies according tolocality and student ability.
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Overview of American educational system

Near the end of the 20th century, diverse and changing ideas aboutthe goals and methods of mathematical education led to wideadoption of reform-based standards and curricula funded by the USfederal government, and also adopted by other national curriculumstandards. These were based on research emphasizing theimportance of conceptual learning, student-centered learningmethods and equity in mathematics as the centerpieces of thestandards based education reform movement.

The goals for educators since the 1990s have been expanded in thecontext of systemic standards based education reform in theUnited States and other nations to promote increased learning forall students. It is a goal to achieve equity and success for allgroups in society, as it is no longer acceptable to many in the

education community that some have been historically excluded
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Overview of American educational system

from the full range of opportunities that are open to those whohave access to the most advanced mathematics.In standards based education reform all students, not only thecollege-bound, must take substantive mathematics. In some largeschool districts, this means requiring some algebra of all studentsby the end of junior high school, compared to the tradition oftracking only the college-bound and the most advanced junior highschool students to take algebra.Controversy still continues as critics point out that Common Core

standards does not fully prepare students for college. Another issuewith mathematics education has been integration with scienceeducation. The value of the integration is that science can provideauthentic contexts for the math concepts being taught and further,if mathematics is taught in synchrony with science, then the

students benefit from this correlation.
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Some opinions

Michio Kaku is an American futurist, theoretical physicist andpopularizer of science. Dr. Kaku is a Professor of TheoreticalPhysics at the City College of New York. He has written several

books about physics and related topics, has made frequentappearances on radio, television, and film, and writes extensiveonline blogs and articles.

Kaku has had more than 70 articles published in physics journals

such as Physical Review, covering topics such as superstringtheory, supergravity, supersymmetry, and hadronic physics. In1974, Kaku and Prof. Keiji Kikkawa of Osaka Universityco-authored the first papers describing string theory in a field form.
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Some opinions
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United States of America Mathematical Olympiad

The United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO)is a highly selective high school mathematics competition heldannually in the United States. Since its debut in 1972, it hasserved as the final round of the AMC series of contests. The

United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad(USAJMO) was introduced in 2010 to recognize top scorers basedon their AMC10-based index. Qualifying for the USAMO isconsidered one of the most prestigious awards for high schoolstudents in the United States, with only 264 students qualifying in2013 out of over 350,000 students competing. Top scorers on theUSAMO are invited to the Mathematical Olympiad SummerProgram to represent the United States at the InternationalMathematical Olympiad.
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Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program

The Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (also called theMathematical Olympiad Program, MOP, MOSP, and MOsP) is an

intensive summer program held at University of Nebraska-Lincolnor Carnegie Mellon University . The main purpose of MOP, heldsince 1974, is to select and train the six members of the U.S. teamfor the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). Studentsqualify for the program by taking the United States of America

Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO). The top twelve Americanscorers from all grades form the black group.
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Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program

MOP is divided into four groups that roughly correspond with thefirst four kinds of invitations. Black MOP consists of that yearsUSAMO winners and contains the IMO team members andalternates. The approximately eighteen next highest Americanscorers among students from 11th grade and under form the blue

group. In 2004, the program was expanded to includeapproximately thirty of the highest-scoring American freshmen andsophomores each year, the red group; this was later split into two,forming the green group, which consists of approximately fifteen ofthe highest-scoring freshmen and sophomores who have qualified

through the USAMO, and the red group, which consists of thosewho have qualified through the USAJMO.Each Weekday consists of three instructional sessions: 8:30 AM10:00 AM, 10:15 PM 11:45 PM, and 1:15 PM 2:45 PM. Classes

usually consist of a lecture followed by a problem set. Solutions areoften presented by students with the supervisionofaninstructor.
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Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program 2015

This year the 2015 Mathematical Olympiad Summer Programdirected by the Mathematical Association of America was held atCarnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh between June 7-July 1. Thecamp is run by Po-Shen Loh (CMU) who serves as the US teamleader for the IMO with the help of last years deputy leader RazvanGelca (Texas Tech University) and many other Ph.D. studentsfrom UC Berkeley, CMU, Stanford University, MIT, Harvard,

University of Virginia or University of Pittsburgh. Moreover, NoamElkies (Harvard University) will be this year guest lecturer.
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Va multumesc!!!Sper ca nu v-am plictisit atat de tare!
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mathematical educational system in us

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