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[mccfan]

I am teaching Data Analysis to jr level Sociology and Poli Sci majors again this year, but I have had a new experience.  On the last exam, the students had to solve a simple equation

(z= X - mean of X  /   standard deviation)

I gave them 3 of the 4 values in a word problem, then they had to solve for the unknown quantity.  As I was going over the answers in class the other day, I said "using simple algebra which you had in high school..." when one of my students said she had never had algebra.  I was so surprised I asked "then how did you get into college?"  I thought everyone had to have algebra 1 in order to graduate high school, much less qualify for college admission.  I guess not.  Argh! 

When I followed up to find out more, she said her high school teacher kicked her out of algebra class because he thought she was too dumb to learn it.  I told her she ought to write a letter to her school board to complain.   Wow.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Is there a math prereq for your class?

[fossil]

How in the world can students be allowed to enroll in a quantitative methods class like yours without at least some background in one-variable calculus (or, preerably, multivariable) and linear algebra?  Shouldn't there be a warning to that effect in your course catalog?

[zharkov]

HS math requirements vary a lot by state, and sometimes by communities within a state.

I had an advisee who told me he had not actually passed math since middle school, took the two years of HS math as required, but flunked them and went to summer school.  (In a city where re-taking the class in summer school was a defacto pass.)

A state or two over, the high stakes HS leaving exam tests students in algebra, so all HS students must take a year of algebra.

While teaching at a pretty good SLAC, in a soph/junior class, not math, I drew the cartestian plane on the board, drew a line, and asked, "Everyone know the equation of the line is y=mx + b, right?"

I got looks of horror and spent the rest of the class reviewing linear functions.

[math_prof]

This is exactly why, at my community college, over 60% of entering freshmen must take a remedial math course before they are able to register for a college level math course.  It's frightening because each year that percentage increases.  And I'm not talking remedial math as in one level below College Algebra.  Nope, I'm talking about Pre-Algebra for some of these students.  That's sixth-grade levelmathematics, as in adding and subtracting integers, dividing, multiplying, etc.  I've seen some students spend three-four years here at the CC just to get their math requirements out of the way so that they can move on to a university.

Of course, that doesn't explain why the OP's students couldn't solve a simple algebraic equation.  My guess is that they couldn't see that it was an equation.  In other words, the "words" threw them off.  Students freak out about word problems.  If you had given them " z = (d - m)/s ", I bet more of them could have solved it.

[mountain_ivy]

I took and passed two years of algebra and geometry in highschool.  Math is a definite weakness, so I figured out how to avoid it in college.  Then I got to grad school and had to take a quantitative methods course.  The prof kew that many of us were weak in the basics, so she gave us a basic math test, telling us that if we didn't do well on that test, then we probably wouldn't do well in the class.  She was absolutely right!!!  I'm not surprised that liberall arts/social science students are underprepared for OP's class.  I would definitelyrecommend a basic math test at the beginning of thesemester.

[fishbrains]

To paraphrase Menken: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the math knowledge of the American public.

Of course, the current mortgage crisis may soon prove this theory to be incorrect.

[wittgenstein]

My syllabus for Statistics now contains the following phrases:

"Will I pass this class?

That depends on your arithmetic skills. In particular, you need to know how to change 0.575 to a percent and how to change 47.2% to a decimal. You also need to be able to tell me which is larger, 0.006 or 0.052. If you cannot do these things, I am telling you on day one of the class that I do not expect you to pass the class unless you spend a  substantial amount of time in the learning center beginning today."

You would be amazed how many of my students think 0.006 is larger than 0.052. This makes p-values difficult to discuss.

[immigrant]

Funny timing...I was covering z-scores today, also in a non-math/non-stats class.

My 'handle' shows that I probably didn't go to high school in the U.S., and I took my last maths class half a lifetime ago. What irks me now is that I *used* to be really strong in math, but really struggle now with even basic algebraic operations; I've had to re-teach myself to do things I used to be able to do easily, but have relied on computers to do for years!

Some people choose majors they think will allow them to stay as far away as math as possible. Our majors are some of these people, and I feel their pain.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were very comfortable with some of these admittedly quite basic operations.

[gourmetless]

In particular, you need to know how to change 0.575 to a percent and how to change 47.2% to a decimal. You also need to be able to tell me which is larger, 0.006 or 0.052.

I just want to check if I am right....

57.5%
.472
.052 is larger

Either I will be right, and vindicated.  Or wrong and a ridiculous figure of scorn and derision.

Signed, a performing arts humanities person

[math_prof]

Vindicated.  You have escaped scorn...this time.

[geonerd]

At my state university > 50% of all incoming students take remedial math and remedial reading. How are these people passing the high stakes tests and graduating from high school?? Part of me wants to cry, part of me sees a money making opportunity if I switch from academia to selling sub-prime mortgages.

[sciencephd]

Clearly, some explicit math prerequisites need to be added to the description of this class.

[zharkov]

At my state university > 50% of all incoming students take remedial math and remedial reading. How are these people passing the high stakes tests and graduating from high school?? Part of me wants to cry, part of me sees a money making opportunity if I switch from academia to selling sub-prime mortgages.

One of the most sensible proposals I have seen is making the HS high stakes test the entrance exam for state colleges, or at least CCs.  Thus, passing the high stakes test should imply the student does not need those remedial classes.

Maine sort of does this, in that they use the SAT as their NCLB test, although the US Dept of Ed isn't too thrilled with the approach.

[asstprofjr]

My students cannot compute their own averages, which are....

Points obtained/ points attempted. Says so on the syllabus. With alphabetical grade correspondence.

Compare percentage to grading rubric on syllabus for A/B/C/D/F equivalence. And I'm a humanist.