Evaluation of General Sources

Robert DeLaRosa "Accounting Calculator Math" 6/24/2015 via Pixabay Public Domain Distribution License

My topic is an ongoing even called the "Math Wars". This refers to the present controversy on whether or not the current way of teaching and educating students from elementary to high school math is adequate or not. Many scholars say that our current system, called "New Math" is more than good enough, while others say otherwise.

Inside Higher Education
Specific Article: Casualty of the Math Wars

URL: The following link has a .com domain, which is a little bit shaky, but Inside Higher Education is a news source that solely reports on the happenings in education. This is a credible source because the link is an official credible newspaper article; one that specializes in this topic.

Author: The author is an editor by the name of Scott Jaschik. Jaschik is one of the three founders of the news website the article is on, Inside Higher Education. Considering the author's background, its safe to assume that his qualifications are more than necessary to make this source credible.

Last Updated: While the news is updated on a daily basis, the article in particular that talk about my event was written October 15, 2012. Unfortunately, Inside Higher Education doesn't seem to have any other articles or connections about the Math Wars (my topic), but it is referenced in other articles.

Purpose: Since this source is a news website, it is meant to inform its audience about certain events. The article remains as unbiased as possible while only giving quotes and facts about the specific subject at hand (in this case, the perspective of a teacher who challenges current math policies).

Graphics: There is a picture of the teacher who is being challenged, but other than this, there are no graphics.

Position on Subject: Since this is a newspaper article, the author makes his perspective as least opinionated as possible. I looked up this specific story that Inside Higher Education reported on, and it appears to be true, so we can assume that its credibility is still intact and remains unbiased. Lastly, since the website is an official newspaper, the profits of this article will go to the newspaper itself so it can fund itself (rightfully so).

Links: There are links to the teacher's journals that she had previously written and accounts to the events that transpired. There are also various quotes from interviews and the individuals involved with references to where these statements were taking from. Although there are no links, with a little effort, the sources for this paper can be found.

Slate
Specific Article: What's Wrong with Math Education in the U.S.?

URL: As with the previous source, the source has a .com domain, but it comes from a news website called Slate. Since this a news website, we usually can safely say that this is a credible source, but this appears on the opinion column of Slate. This may take away from its credibility.

Author: There are two authors. The first author is Alon Amit, a PhD in Mathematics. The author's qualifications make this source credible, even if the article is technically an opinion article.He even states his credentials in the article.  The second is a lawyer by the name of Neil Aggarwel. Although he states he is a lawyer, in his writings, he explains how he was a middle-school math teacher and has experience with this subject first-hand. This is enough to make the lawyer are credible source as well.

Last Updated: Once again, the newspaper is updated daily, but the article was written on a specific date : February 25, 2014. No links are given on the page.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to inform the reader of first-hand experiences with the controversy at hand, in this case its the Math Wars. I imagine that the authors want to persuade the reader that their opinions and perspectives are important enough to change sides on the subject.

Graphics: There are no important graphics given.

Position on Subject: Both pieces seem to be biased. Since the writings are about first-hand experiences, the authors want the reader to take their stories into perspective and possible use this information to change or strengthen their opinion on the Math Wars. We can't prove their stories to be true however, but putting their backgrounds into perspective, we can say that the authors aren't lying.

Links: The authors don't go into further detail with additional stories since these are their personal experiences. I wish that they did include some sort of link more information, since their writings basically tell the same story, and it would be great to learn more of this perspective.