The tasks in Measuring Up are intended for a largely hypothetical audience: fourth-grade children who have had a K-4 mathematics experience fully consonant with the NCTM standards. Unfortunately, very few U.S. fourth graders have had the benefit of such an education. This is, of course, the whole point of the reform effort. One would not expect many of today's fourth graders to do very well on these tasks. Nonetheless the aim was to keep the tasks accessible to most of today's fourth graders; they should at least be able to understand what the tasks are about and become engaged in working on them.
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