Claculators in the class room/ math scores

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/for-math-click-calculate.html?_r=2&ref=mathematics

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-school-notes/2011/11/01/national-math-assessment-scores-creep-up-but-stagnate-in-reading#comments

Summary: One of the articles talks about whether calculators are good for learning or if it is hindering learning and understanding. Calculators have become so advanced that they can do almost any problem and the student does not have to do any work except for typing the problem in. The other article talks about how math scores have increased where reading scores have stayed roughly the same.

            I feel that calculators are very useful. In younger grades I do not think that students should be able to use calculators because that is when they are learning the fundamentals of everything and need to know how to do it all by hand. In upper level math classes, I think that once you know how to fundamentally do the work by hand, that you should be able to use a calculator. When I read through these articles, I was thinking back to when I was in school and what my teachers made me do. I also thought about what I might do as a teacher and how often I will allow my students to be able to use their calculators. Looking back at my experiences, I know that when I used my calculator, I did not have to think much and the more I used it, the more I forgot how to do the basic math. Most students do not know when they should and should not use a calculator and they tend to use it too much.

            The other article I found interesting also, because I feel like most students do not like math and do not do well in it. I was happy to see that the scores were going up, but then I wondered if math scores going up had anything to do with calculator usage on test. If students can just type the problem into their calculator, of course they will do better. I also wonder what causes the scores to go up. Is it because the students are just smarter? Are the teachers teaching better?  Is the material getting easier? These are questions that would be helpful to know as a teacher.