Attrition

By David Bressoud @dbressoud As of 2024, Launchings columns appear on the third Tuesday of the month. This month I’d like to share some data gathered by Andrew Ekstrom, a lecturer at Macomb Community College and the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. He was able to obtain anonymized data on student enrollment and...

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Can AI Pass the Test, Part II: Playing to Space

  By Lew Ludwig In Tuesday’s post, I talked about the centaur vs. cyborg analogy for how people approach AI. My student John had used the cyborg approach with my cheat-proof calculus exam, yielding a rare perfect score, and I wasn’t sure how to move forward from that with the final exam. Playing to Space...

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Can AI Pass the Test, Part I: Of Centaurs and Cyborgs

  By Lew Ludwig Last week, as the semester was winding down, I found myself unexpectedly tearing up during a meeting with a student. I was pressing the student on their understanding of a mathematical concept and how they used AI in this process. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning...

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Reflections on my relationship with “Working hard”

  By Elizabeth Garcia “Hay que trabajar duro para salir adelante,” which translates to “we have to work hard to get ahead” is a phrase that echoes through my being. It encapsulates the perseverance of the working class and it has been the reality of my parents for as long as they can remember. It's...

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Mathematical Models – Useful But Often False

By Keith Devlin @KeithDevlin@fediscience.org, @profkeithdevlin.bsky.social According to the Ancient Greek philosopher Proclus (c.419–486) in his Commentary on Euclid, geometry (from geo metros, “measurement of land”) first arose in surveying practices among the ancient Egyptians, to assist them in redefining property boundaries following the annual the flooding of the Nile Valley. In modern terms, we would refer...

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The Politics of Education

By Michael Pearson A recent Washington Post article highlighted how state laws are increasingly dictating school curriculums, with conservative states often limiting discussions on controversial topics while progressive states opt for a broader, more inclusive educational scope. This growing trend underscores the deep divide in how education is approached across the United States, reflecting a...

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Using Data to Catalyze, Inform, and Sustain Change

By Jordan Kostiuk Recently, I had the joy of being in community with folks committed to tackling a wicked problem at the Critical Issues in Math Education (CIME) workshop hosted by SLMath: How do we provide equitable and effective math instruction to all students? As an inspirational and motivating three days came to a close,...

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The Power of Community in Tackling Wicked Problems: Reflections on a CIME Workshop

By Beca Lufi At the beginning of the year, I heard about the SLMath workshop on Critical Issues in Mathematics Education series. This year, the workshop focused on empowering teaching faculty to be change agents. I couldn't help but anticipate an extraordinary journey of professional and personal development. I had heard of MSRI (now known...

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Transforming Post Secondary Mathematics Education: A 50-State Scan

By Helen Burn & Joan Zoellner In recent years, a wave of reforms has swept through post secondary mathematics education, with the goal of improving student success and graduation rates. The central focus? Ensuring that students successfully complete an introductory or gateway mathematics course relevant to their programs of study within their first year of...

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Our Students Are Constantly Changing. Are We?

By Luke Tunstall Something isn’t quite right here, and it’s made me feel uneasy for the last five years. From my vantage point organizing an institution’s math placement process and creating quantitative support curricula, there’s an elephant in the room that many postsecondary institutions are struggling to address: the increasingly diverse mathematics backgrounds of our...

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