\doc\web\98\05\kiris.txt
Date sent:        Thu, 23 Apr 1998 13:30:52 -0400
To:               arthurhu@halcyon.com
From:             George <gkcunn01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu>
Subject:          Re: Research show reforms work??


At 11:29 AM 4/22/98 +0000, you wrote:
>George, the Kentucky benchmarks seem at least as
>specific as the WA ones, have you been able to find
>something as obvious as marking "area = width x height"
>in G7, and including a question that requires comparing
>rectangles by width and height?


These sort of problems have not emerged as much with Kentucky's system
because the test has never really been tied to any curriculum.  There are
five different dcouments, each of which is quite different and each of
which is supposed to define the curriculum to be tested.  So no one can
really show that an item is inappropriate in terms of when it was supposed
to be taught.


What we do have is the same slavish committment to NCTM thinking which
asserts that math should consist trick, puzzle questions which presumably
assess higher level thinking skills.  This is done in the absence of any
evidence that such skills transfer.


>How common are people like Professor King at U Wash
>who says that having such a benchmark does not
>preclude assessing for wxh in grade 4?
>