The whole focus of the piece in the Times was, as usual, on minimum standards: everyone should be able to add and subtract whole numbers by the end of third grade, etc. etc. The report itself is 120 pages long and pretty much just gives lip service to gifted students saying that learning faster doesn't appear to "harm" them and that they should be "allowed to do so". <sigh>
Don't get me started on this one! I agree with you completely. It's not only in math, but reading as well. Here the emphasis is on DIBELS and meeting a minimum standard of oral fluency. There is NO emphasis on reading comprehension and very little focus on fostering a love of reading. Fortunately, my girls love to read anyway.
As a high school math teacher, I'm seeing the effects of the focus on minimum standards. I have kids in precalculus who still ask me how to do arithmetic with fractions! Some days I go home very discouraged. I struggle to keep my bright kids challenged while trying to bring the weaker ones up to my higher standard. I have addressed this issue with the administration because we don't need to be referring so many kids to precal.
