Clarkson interviewed by media on drop in statewide math test scores

Lesa Clarkson, assistant professor of math education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, was interviewed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and WCCO Radio on the recent results of statewide math scores among elementary and middle school students. Scores dropped sharply, a result that many educators chalk up to a tougher exam that students took for the first time.
Facing the new math standards was almost like skipping an entire grade of learning, said Clarkson in the Star Tribune story. Clarkson has volunteered in north Minneapolis classrooms for years, observing and teaching teachers and students. Her research focuses on math teaching and curriculum in urban classrooms, home to some of the state’s toughest education struggles.
“Students have to know the information at so many levels,” Clarkson said in the story. “One of the questions we have to ask is this: Was every teacher prepared to teach that course? We need these students to succeed.”