Investigations does include computational fluency with whole number operations. Further, mastery of Math facts remains an essential part of our district's board-approved curriculum. Grade level guidelines have been established for Kindergarten through Grade 6 for the mastery of specific sets of facts. Often, practice of Math facts is embedded into game scenarios to give the use of numbers relevant meaning and context.
Even so, knowing math facts and having computational fluency with paper & pencil does not guarantee a student understands what is going on conceptually or mathematically. It might only mean they have memorized a set of data, so that when instruction gets truly conceptual as in Algebra, they are at a disadvantage academically.
Many children are able to memorize the required math facts relatively quickly. For other students, specific strategies must be implemented to help them make sense of and reconstruct "facts" sets. As students get older, if "facts mastery" has not become automatic, use of these strategies facilitates their ability to recall key facts in a mathematically meaningful way.
In no case, however, should any student be denied the exposure to key math concepts or problem-solving strategies just because they have not mastered certain facts. Research has shown that students who often struggle with facts or pencil / paper computation can make sense of a problem, identify appropriate strategies and use a calculator to solve it.
Also, it is worth noting that ASK3 & ASK4 allow calculators for 90 percent of the points, and ASK 5-7 & GEPA allow calculators for all the problems. This reflects the effort within the NJ Standards to give major emphasis to problem-solving abilities and understanding of concepts rather than to raw pencil / paper computation.
