Math

T-Mobile is taking a new approach to wireless billing by charging separately for devices and data and doing away with the traditional two-year contract. In a major media event Tuesday, T-Mobile chief executive John Legere said that the new T-Mobile plans could save consumers a whole lot of money compared to other carrier plans. But how does that claim match up? It can be a little difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison — features such as hotspot capabilities or unlimited talk and text differ from carrier to carrier — but T-Mobile's...

Montgomery County high school students have been failing their final exams in math at high rates for five years, according to data released Friday night by school officials. The new figures are similar to those released several weeks ago for January's exams, which showed high failure rates across seven high school math courses — with a majority of the 30,000 Montgomery students who took the tests flunking. But the five years of information released Friday includes data about individual schools and...

Montgomery County high school students have been failing their final exams in math at high rates for five years, according to data released Friday night by school officials. The new figures are similar to those released several weeks ago for January's exams, which showed high failure rates across seven high school math courses — with a majority of the 30,000 Montgomery students who took the tests flunking. But the five years of information released Friday includes data about individual schools and...

Montgomery County school board members voiced alarm Tuesday about steep failure rates on last semester's final exams in high school math courses, saying such problems go back many years and raising questions about school policies that might affect student test performance. Board of Education member Phil Kauffman (At Large) cited a 2004 report that showed about half the county's high school students failed Algebra 1 finals that year, highlighting what he said appears to be a persistent problem.

Even as most of the nation's 15,000 public school districts roll out new systems to evaluate teachers, many are still struggling with a central question: What's the best way to identify an effective educator? After a three-year, $45 million research project, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation believes it has some answers. The most reliable way to evaluate teachers is to use a three-pronged approach built on student test scores, classroom observations by multiple reviewers and teacher evaluations...

The federally funded National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called "the nation's report card," has tracked math performance for years. The share of students rated proficient or advanced on NAEP's math test is rising. Year Grade 4 Grade 8 1990 13% 15% 1992 18% 21% 1996 21% 23% 2000 24% 26% 2003 32% 29% 2005 36% 30% 2007 39% 32% SOURCE: www.nationsreportcard.gov

A Montgomery County math teacher lauded for his creative math raps resigned from the school system in late April, signing an agreement that he says bans him from discussing the circumstances. Jake Scott, a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, won praise locally and nationally for creating math videos that put such concepts as the quadratic equation and the Pythagorean theorum to upbeat raps that drew his students in. The Post profiled him last November.

There's nothing new about the approach described in the Feb. 19 front-page story "Parents Rise Up Against a New Approach to Math. " I engaged in this type of mathematical analysis in 1969 as a fourth-grader, much to the dismay of my teacher. Clueless as to what to do with pictures of bundled red sticks referred to as "units," I dissected them and reordered them into a manageable array. Rounding numbers up or down to the closest ten or hundred enabled me to easily add single digits separately to get the total; I still use that technique...

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should be charged with voodoo accounting for her July 11 op-ed ["The truth about health-care reform"]. She wrote, "Between 2000 and 2009, the average family premium more than doubled, from $6,438 to $13,375, an annual increase of 8.1 percent.  From 2009 to 2011, family premiums still rose — but at a rate 25 percent lower. That generated savings of more than $1,200 per family …. " Ms. Sebelius implies that American families pocketed $1,200 when in fact they do not. A rate increase of 8.1...

Montgomery County school board members voiced alarm Tuesday about steep failure rates on last semester's final exams in high school math courses, saying such problems go back many years and raising questions about school policies that might affect student test performance. Board of Education member Phil Kauffman (At Large) cited a 2004 report that showed about half the county's high school students failed Algebra 1 finals that year, highlighting what he said appears to be a persistent problem.

A Montgomery County math teacher lauded for his creative math raps resigned from the school system in late April, signing an agreement that he says bans him from discussing the circumstances. Jake Scott, a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, won praise locally and nationally for creating math videos that put such concepts as the quadratic equation and the Pythagorean theorum to upbeat raps that drew his students in. The Post profiled him last November.

       Regarding the May 5 Metro story " Majority flunked finals in math ": In the discus sion about the reasons for poor math scores among students at Montgomery County Public Schools, has the possible correlation between a math teacher and his or her students been considered? It would be revealing if math teachers were given the same tests as their students. It might show that teachers who did well had students who did well. Robert O. Disque ,...

Thousands of students in Montgomery County failed final exams in high school math courses last semester, according to data that raise questions about how well students have learned the material and whether there is a disconnect between the test and the course work. Recently released figures show failure rates of 62 percent for high school students taking the county's geometry final and 57 percent for those taking the Algebra 2 exam. Among students taking the same courses on the honors level, 30 percent to 36 percent failed the...

At first glance, Neha Pai thought working at a bank would be boring. "But once I started being a teller, I realized it's really fun," the fourth-grader said. Over the past few months, Pai has gotten a first-hand look at the inner workings of a financial institution, thanks to a program hosted by Sandy Spring Bank at her Fairfax public school. Every Wednesday, the Olney-based bank sets up a mini-branch in the school's cafeteria. Between 8:30 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., students can stop by...

Almost every time someone offered support for Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III's school takeover proposal during recent legislative hearings , members of the Board of Education bristled at the notion that the school system was somehow troubled. "If a real crisis existed, the state Department of Education would have stepped in to take over," Board Chairman Verjeana M. Jacobs (District 5) testified. "This system has shown steady and consistent progress.

The Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Awards this year recognize 18 principals from area school districts who go beyond the day-to-day demands of their position to create an exceptional educational environment, using a combination of management, interest in staff and students, respect for learning and vision for the future. The Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards this year go to 20 teachers from area school districts who demonstrate excellence in teaching, commitment to improving classroom learning...

In an April 29 Metro story on meters in D.C. taxis, I found the cabdrivers' math to be as dubious as the many outrageous fares that this city's knavish cabbies have quoted me over the years. I find it hard to believe that a cabbie working "10 to 12 hours a day" could clear only $650 a week before expenses. Assuming the driver was working 11 hours a day, five days a week, that works out to about $12 an hour. I often have difficulty finding a cab near my apartment just off Logan Circle and my office about four blocks from Union Station, so the cabbie...

Here are mathematics test score gains on a 500-point scale for public schools in selected cities from 2003 to 2009.* Fourth grade Gain Score Boston +16 236 D.C. +15 220 New York +11 237 San Diego +10 236 Atlanta +10 225 Houston +9 236 Chicago +8 222 Los Angeles +6 222 Charlotte ...

The March 21 Post Politics blog excerpt said: " The sequester has forced the Energy Department to lay off nearly hundreds of employees" at a site in Washington state. What kind of number should we be thinking of that approximates "nearly hundreds"?  The word "nearly" is usually followed by something finite, such as 100, 1,000, etc. "Nearly hundreds" is vague and does not help us understand the number of employees laid off. Roger Hartman , Annandale

GEMS clubs. If you think it might be fun to have a Girls Excelling at Math and Science club at your school, have your parents or teachers visit www.gemsclub.org . There's an online tool kit on how to start a club and many links to Web sites and projects for kids. Girl power. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory hosts a hands-on science and technology event for students in middle and high school. The event, attended last year by 1,000 people, will include demonstrations about...