| This paper compared the Arizona academic standards in mathematics to the mathematics used in business and industry. Sample math problems were randomly selected from each of the six standards in each of the four grade level Student Guide to AIMS, Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) review booklets to construct two survey instruments, one survey for business and industry managers and another for employees. Each survey contained the same 24 math problems. The survey instrument for managers asked two questions per math problem: (a) to what degree does the manager agree or disagree the 24 math problems were required of employees, and (b) to what degree does the manager agree or disagree the 24 math problems were used by employees. The survey instrument for the employees asked to what degree the employee agreed or disagreed the 24 math problems were used in their daily work.; For this study, businesses and industries were selected and categorized based on ordinary language and common understandings of areas of employment. Employment areas included health care, law, food, wholesale, government, retail, construction, finance, service, and engineering. Responses of each company manager and representative employees were summarized based on differences in responses and agreement of responses. Summaries were calculated for each employment area. An overall summary was calculated for differences among responses for all respondents. Separate summaries of agreement of mathematics use were also conducted for managers and employees.; Regarding differences in responses between all managers and employees surveyed, managers were more likely than were employees to see third-grade AIMS mathematics used and less likely than were employees to see fifth-, eighth-, and tenth-grade AIMS mathematics used. Regarding the degree of agreement of AIMS mathematics usage, managers agreed or strongly agreed that 62 percent of third-grade, 52 percent of fifth-grade, 23 percent of eighth grade, and 12 percent of tenth-grade AIMS mathematics was used by employees. Employees agreed or strongly agreed that they used 61 percent of third-grade, 51 percent of fifth-grade, 35 percent of eighth-grade, and 17 percent of tenth-grade AIMS mathematics. |
