That is sobering. Do you think any of the people in that borderline-remedial class may have been the victims of poor instruction, or do you think that they're all in the bottom 10% for native ability?
They are 1st-year college students, most of whom graduated from high school, so I think they are in the bottom 50%. Many in the bottom 10% cannot get a high school diploma. Rude addresses the question you raise:
"Surely we have to ask why there should be such a lack of understanding of fractions. Two possibilities come to mind. Possibility one is that we are doing something wrong in the teaching of fractions. Possibility two is that our teaching is okay, but the human species is just not that mathematically inclined. Perhaps under the best of circumstances only a minority of people can actually gain a useful understanding of fractions.
Obviously I don't like the pessimism of this second possibility. I prefer to think that probably we are doing something wrong. Of course I have been saying that for a long time. I think the perspective of math offered by the NCTM in the 1989 and 2000 standards are not well thought out. I think this NCTM perspective has to be doing substantial damage."
I take the pessimistic view, but if better math curricula proves me wrong, good.
