"Young, Gifted and Neglected"
Chester E. Finn Jr., New York Times, September 18, 2012

"It’s time to end the bias against gifted and talented education and quit assuming that every school must be all things to all students, a simplistic formula that ends up neglecting all sorts of girls and boys, many of them poor and minority, who would benefit more from specialized public schools. America should have a thousand or more high schools for able students, not 165, and elementary and middle schools that spot and prepare their future pupils."

"In Defense of Algebra"
Jessica Lahey, New York Times - Motherlode, July 31, 2012

"I know precisely where I lost my battle with math, the moment I was informed clearly and unequivocally that I simply wasn’t “a math person.” My seventh-grade math teacher, an otherwise lovely man, called each of his students up to his desk one by one in order to write a “1” (for the honors track) or “2” (for the standard track) on the school’s official math placement forms. As I watched from over his hunched and courduroyed shoulder, he wrote a beautiful, decisive and neat “1” on my form.

"There it was, in permanent ink. I was good at math.

"“Jess, could you come back up here for a minute?” he asked as I floated back to my seat.

"He reclaimed my form, and carefully overlaid that beautiful “1” with a dark, clumsy “2,” pressing hard with his black pen in order to make sure the ink obliterated any evidence of his indecision.

"And from then on, I wasn’t good at math anymore.

"From the moment I was relegated to standard math, I knew I was never going to be an engineer. I went through the motions of my math education, but never put any heart into the subject. My teachers didn’t push back very hard because the evidence was in: I just wasn’t a math person. I’d make it through to the day I could opt out of math forever, and I would never look back.

"Except, I did. For years, I have eyed my colleague Alison Gorman’s math classroom with wary suspicion. I peek in on her class when I hear laughter, wondering what could possibly inspire mirth in algebra class. I have watched with wonder during recess when her MathCounts students show up with their lunches, willing to spend valuable leisure time challenging each other to think through math problems."

"Is Algebra Necessary?"
Andrew Hacker, New York Times Sunday Review, July 28, 2012

"It’s true that students in Finland, South Korea and Canada score better on mathematics tests. But it’s their perseverance, not their classroom algebra, that fits them for demanding jobs.

"Nor is it clear that the math we learn in the classroom has any relation to the quantitative reasoning we need on the job. John P. Smith III, an educational psychologist at Michigan State University who has studied math education, has found that “mathematical reasoning in workplaces differs markedly from the algorithms taught in school.” Even in jobs that rely on so-called STEM credentials — science, technology, engineering, math — considerable training occurs after hiring, including the kinds of computations that will be required. Toyota, for example, recently chose to locate a plant in a remote Mississippi county, even though its schools are far from stellar. It works with a nearbycommunity college, which has tailored classes in “machine tool mathematics.” "

Creator of automated dorm room: “It’s a learning process”
Tracey Taylor, Berkeleyside, May 2, 2012

"The Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm, or BRAD, features automated lighting and drapes that can be operated by voice command or an iPad, as well as motion sensors and various “mood modes’, be it when homework, romance or parties are on the cards.

"...What motivated you to make BRAD?
I didn’t really create BRAD for a single purpose, like to be lazy or anything. It was more about the learning process for me. I just built it so I could learn more about automation along the way, but it turns out the end-product was pretty cool :-)"

Program trains girls to build phone apps, embrace science
Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside, May 2, 2012

"For the last few months, about 50 girls from Berkeley and Albany have been going up to the Berkeley Lab on Tuesday afternoons. The girls were split into teams and paired with female scientists from the lab who served as mentors. During their workshops, the students not only got a glimpse of what it was like to work in a scientific environment, they learned specific skills, such as how to use Google’s App Inventor and how to write a business plan. Technovation Challenge has seven programs in high schools around the Bay Area, and one each in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, serving a total of 520 girls.
"“I didn’t know much about computer programming and I thought it would be fun to expand my background and try something new,” said Siyao Ma, a sophomore at Albany High."