"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.

High school graduates lack math skills needed for construction jobs

Joanne Jacobs writes about a problem.

When construction comes back, skilled workers will be needed to replace those pushed into early retirement by the long slump. But many young people don’t have the math skills to learn construction jobs, contractors fear.

From the linked article:

And construction is all about math. Everything from carpentry and brickwork to grading and sloping involves math.
Construction veterans are shocked at how few graduating students have functional math abilities. That’s why associations and contractors are trying to teach applied math skills