Some interesting news flashlights

There are a couple of interesting articles from regular news sites that have been published lately that you might be interested in reading. ABC News published an article about math tests for kindergartners on August 28, and this article raises several important issues. The article is entitled NYC Schools Eye Math Tests for Kindergartners. The issue is that "New York City is asking public school principals to consider giving math tests to kindergartners, a proposal that comes amid debate over the growing use of standardized tests nationwide."

The other article was published in Washington Post on Monday, and it aims at giving an overview of issues related to mathematics education. Some of the main issues in the article are:

• How is math taught?
• How much math is taught?
• What's the fuss over math?
• When should kids learn algebra?

At the end of the article, they give a sample of some mathematics textbooks that are used in school (in the US). The article is, of course, very much headed towards issues in the US, but I find it interesting even though.