[Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing standardizedtests of math

[Amanda Lacy]

I think you mean 2D image, don't you? A 1D image would be on a Flatlander's 
standardized exam.<G>
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "sabra1023" <sabra1023 at gmail.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2013 3:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Understanding math versus passing standardizedtests 
of math


> When I took standardized tests, I got an accommodation that I could get a 
> 3-D picture if I needed it. This meant that the person giving me the test, 
> which was usually my vision teacher, could cut out the 1D image and fold 
> it into a 3-D image so I could understand it.
>
>> On Nov 23, 2013, at 2:48 PM, Susan Jolly <easjolly at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> I'm commenting as a "sightling."
>>
>> I'm retired from a successful career involving applied math and 
>> computational math.  I started out as a high school chemistry teacher and 
>> then went to graduate school to get a degree in computational 
>> (theoretical) chemistry.  I can't ever remember having to plot by hand a 
>> function of two variables either as a student or in my career and I've 
>> had very little need to even interpret a plane projection of a such a 
>> function.  I do not consider this an important general "math skill".  It 
>> is, rather, something someone can learn when necessary.
>>
>> From the latest discussion on this list and also from reading about math 
>> education it seems to me there is a growing disconnect between the math 
>> knowledge and understanding that is likely to turn out to be useful and 
>> the math questions that show up on standardized tests.  Questions based 
>> on visual representations are clearly unfair to students who are blind or 
>> have various visual impairments but they may also be unfair to sighted 
>> students if they obscure the students' lack of real understanding.
>>
>> The CAST organization has a number of US government supported research 
>> programs aimed at Universal Design for Learning.  They have not to my 
>> knowledge addressed the problem of testing.  Here is a link to their 
>> website if you want to read more about UDL and/or contact them.
>>
>> http://www.cast.org/index.html
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> SusanJ
>>
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