"Planners base prison cells on pupils' math scores"

Lohud.com reports from a panel discussion on the importance of math:

Smikle gave the parents in the room a sobering statistic: people who build prisons determine the number of cells on math scores from local fourth- and fifth-graders. If your child is failing math, he said, "there is already a cell being built for them."

Planners should also use reading scores, since the level of reading skills children develop by third grade may indicate their likelihood of graduating high school.

Wanda Foy-Burroughs, who spent 28 years teaching algebra in Newark, said training math teachers how to incorporate hands-on learning into their lessons is key to students' success.

Hands-on learning can be good, but the overuse of manipulatives can be very inefficient and impede the learning of abstract math concepts.

April is Mathematics Awareness Month.