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For decades, business leaders, educators and politicians have argued that U.S. students should study more advanced levels of math. Concerned about competition from countries like China and India, these advocates raise alarm about the shortage of Americans trained for jobs in engineering and other high-tech fields, arguing that in a knowledge economy even entry-level manufacturing jobs require greater levels of math competency. But is there merit to such claims?

Most prominent in the movement to raise standards is Achieve, Inc., which has called for all high school graduates to be proficient in math through at least Algebra II.

Achieve, a nonprofit organization, now counts 35 states in its American Diploma Project network. Participating states commit, among other things, to raise high school graduation requirements so that, at a minimum, all students take four years of English and math, including Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II (or an equivalent course), and data analysis or statistics.

Five years ago, only a few states mandated that students take Algebra II to graduate from high school. Until recently, most states simply required high school students to complete two or three years of math, but they didn't require specific courses. As a result, many students never made it as far as Algebra II, although they satisfied state graduation requirements. Now, 20 states and Washington, D.C. require Algebra II for high school graduation.

Achieve argues that taking higher-level math courses in high school provides "a ticket to college access," and also that advanced math is needed in careers ranging from health care to construction. "You see it in the basic 3:4:5 triangle," says Kate Blosveren, a senior policy analyst for Achieve. "In math class, that's the Pythagorean theorem. In construction, it's the 3:4:5 triangle."

Verizon is among the major companies that have advocated for improving U.S. math education. Network engineers are at the heart of Verizon's business. "Without networks, we're not much more than a marketing company," says Alberto Canal, a spokesman for the corporation's human resources division. But workers at lower levels also need to be adept at calculation, Canal says. For example, customer service representatives must be able to compute and compare calling plans quickly. "Customer service representatives need to be able to work out rate arrangements live, right then and there," Canal says. "It's in the context of problem-solving, which package works best for a customer. That's a very real example of math skills."

Not everyone agrees, however, that all graduates - regardless of career goals - need to master advanced math skills. Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, has long maintained that Algebra II is mostly useful as a marker for overall ability or educational achievement. In other words, an employee who has mastered Algebra II could be expected to master complex tasks on the job, even if such tasks are not math-related. "It seems that math ability, that is Algebra II and beyond, is being used as an initial screen, but most occupations really don't require a sound knowledge of trig functions or the quadratic equation," he says.

Others say the gateway remains basic algebra (a requirement for jobs in many trades), with Algebra II serving as an important stepping stone to calculus but not an end in itself. Joseph Rosenstein, a math professor at Rutgers University who has been critical of the Achieve standards, says that if a student isn't going on to calculus, concepts such as complex numbers, rational exponents and cube roots have little value. "If you think about it," Rosenstein says, "a class in statistics would be more important than Algebra II, in reading charts and determining probability."

Given the increasingly prominent role that data and statistics play in Americans' everyday lives, Rosenstein's argument has merit.

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How much math do you need? - The Hechinger Report

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For decades, business leaders, educators and politicians have argued that U.S. students should study more advanced levels of math. Concerned about competition from countries like China and India, these advocates raise alarm about the shortage of Americans trained for jobs in engineering and other high-tech fields, arguing that in a knowledge economy even entry-level manufacturing jobs require greater levels of math competency.

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http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-corporate-strategy-2013-3?IR=T

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A Robot Has Just Passed a Classic Self-Awareness Test For The First Time

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A researcher at Ransselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US has given three Nao robots an updated version of the classic ‘wise men puzzle’ self-awareness test…

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Understanding the four types of AI, from reactive robots to self-aware beings

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We need to do more than teach machines to learn. We need to overcome the barriers that separate machines from us – and us from them.

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Ronny and Mohamed reading

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UN News - Responsibility to protect principle must cover all who need it, Ban says

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the need to ensure that the principle of 'responsibility to protect' - safeguarding populations from genocide and war crimes - becomes a reality for all the peoples of the world that need it.

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11 September 2013 – Countries must remain committed to protecting populations from mass atrocities, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an informal dialogue in the General Assembly today, stressing this does not only entail acting in the face of violence, but also focusing on conflict prevention.

"Let us [...] remember that the responsibility to protect seeks not only to protect populations at the eleventh hour but, first and foremost, to prevent crises from erupting at all," Mr. Ban said in his remarks at to the General Assembly's Informal Interactive Dialogue and panel discussion on "The Responsibility to protect: State Responsibility and Prevention."

"Prevention may sound abstract, but it is very concrete and specific. It means, among many things, that States translate obligations and standards set out in international law, notably international humanitarian and human rights law, into policies, programmes, laws and institutions that protect and empower their people," Mr. Ban said.

Sometimes known as 'R2P,' the principle of the responsibility to protect holds States responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met.

Mr. Ban noted that the concept of R2P arose out of the brutal legacy of the 20th century, including the Holocaust, the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, and other large-scale tragedies that underlined the failure of individual States to live up to their protection responsibilities.

He noted that his fifth report on R2P aims to provide analysis and strategies that can help States fulfil their responsibilities by building societies that "embrace diversity and where disputes are resolved amicably, under the rule of law."

Mr. Ban also addressed the issue of the Syrian conflict, saying it illustrates the challenges that States continue to face, in spite of efforts by the international community to end the violence and push for a political solution.

"Many observers regard the international community's divisions and immobility as a failure of the responsibility to protect. But this critique misses the mark. The concept itself is not to blame," Mr. Ban said.

A number of protection measures have been put in place in response to atrocities and as a way to prevent further escalation, he said. These include the Commission of Inquiry established by the Human Rights Council, the imposition of sanctions and asset freezes by States or regional organizations, and the humanitarian assistance efforts of UN entities and our partners.

"These are all part of the responsibility to protect," he said. "Notwithstanding these steps, and as I state in the report that is now before you, our collective failure to prevent atrocity crimes in Syria over the past two and a half years will remain a heavy burden on the standing of the United Nations and its Member States."

Mr. Ban said he hoped that current discussions related to safeguarding Syria's chemical weapon stocks will lead to the Security Council playing an effective role in promoting an end to the Syrian tragedy.

In his remarks, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson underlined that States must acknowledge that atrocity crimes are processes, not single events, which requires conflict prevention to be a continuous endeavour.

"It starts with Member States taking decisive steps to fulfil their human rights obligations, and regional actors and international institutions to assist them in building societies based on the rule of law," he said. "We pay an enormous price for waiting for conflicts to get worse."

Mr. Eliasson added that the international community must strive to build a spirit of co-operation dedicated to atrocity prevention. This must be rooted in national efforts as well as in the work of regional and international organizations. "Everybody has a role to play. Nobody can do everything; and everybody can do something," he concluded.
News Tracker: past stories on this issue

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UN News - International community must remain committed to 'Responsibility to Protect' principle - Ban

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Countries must remain committed to protecting populations from mass atrocities, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an informal dialogue in the General Assembly today, stressing this does not only entail acting in the face of violence, but also focusing on conflict prevention.

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Click on the attachment icon in this box and then paste in your URL and click return.

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Nobody pictures the quiet new person at the back of the room when they imagine who the most promising employee in the company might be.

But if you're the quiet new person at the back of the room, you don't want to succeed at your ambitions on the strength of your image-you want to succeed on the high-quality hard work that you turn out your own way, day after day.
Related: The Introvert's Guide to Getting Hired
Unfortunately for introverted people, getting as far as that rewarding day-after-day grind means first having to negotiate the " getting to know you " stage of having a new job, which is precisely the opposite of the strengths you intend to bring to the role.

The good news is, those strengths can do all sorts of things you never expected; it's just a case of thinking laterally.

Related: Answer 3 Questions to Identify Your Strengths

To help you figure out how to turn your introvert superpowers into a strategy for acing your first day in a new job, check out the new infographic below. The power to succeed is yours.

SOURCE:
ONSTRIDE.CO.UK

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The Introvert's Guide to Starting a New Job

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Nobody pictures the quiet new person at the back of the room when they imagine who the most promising employee in the company might be. But if you're the quiet new person at the back of the room, you don't want to succeed at your ambitions on the strength of your image-you want to succeed on the high-quality hard work that you turn out your own way, day after day.