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LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

nytimes.com

161–170 of 209 posts

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#161

Of course it was going to be a success. Most other approaches that approached intergenerational poverty via the three pronged approach of better child care, housing, and economic opportunity has work to great success. The school doesn't try to solve all 3 at once, but the approach to child care makes the other much easier to manage for parents.

Wonder if such a 3 pronged approach can be applied to integration of immigrants.

Depends on what you're trying to achieve, I suppose. Most Western European countries don't know any intergenerational poverty similar to US-levels (housing and basic needs are always taken care of by the state, education + health care is free), but still ended up with parallel societies for some immigrant groups.

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The inclusion of a barbershop is very much an African-American cultural thing - these are traditional male social gathering places in that society. So this is probably not just providing a haircut, but also some things a bit higher up the Maslow hierarchy like that belonging you mentioned.

As a white male, the barber shop is one thing I always envied African-Americans. Seems nice to have a place where you can always drop by for some loose banter with the local guys.

Last year I walked into a McDonald's at 8am and a bunch of old white guys seemed to be using the place as just such a venue.

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the costs of these schools similar to that of a normal school, per student?

This is in the article, but the budget is $2m from the state, which is standard, plus $600k from LeBron, which is not

That $600k is where a well-funded PTA steps in for many schools in well-off areas and is a big difference between seemingly similar schools.

Wealthier parents can afford to donate, which turns into a bunch of benefits.

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#164
> Nataylia Henry, a fourth grader, missed more than 50 days of school last year because she said she would rather sleep than face bullies at school. This year, her overall attendance rate is 80 percent.

Really? You had to switch to percentages instead of saying she missed 36 days a year instead of 50?

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#165
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went to a HS that strongly encouraged under-performers to go to the "alternative" vocational high school. (#1 in the nation my ass).

If there were actually vocational trade schools I would support this kind of thing. I know that in this context it just means the shittier school.

How do you know that? I toured the local vocational high school when I was in seventh grade and, at least from my naive point if view it seemed legit, with students spending something like a third of their time studying HVAC or whatever.

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is selection bias for sure; except it works in the opposite way regarding successful outcomes. IPS takes low-performing individuals and puts them in a lottery system. This differs from a charter school or other alternative schools that skirt responsibility of special needs kids... but it should bear mention that IPS is not without controversy. The lottery system causes a lot of strife in eligible-but-unpicked i…

Charter schools dont skirt special needs kids they take them in. Whats really absurd is that a lot of people are against the lottery but totally fine with public schools zipcode method. Edit: why the downvotes? My two sons are at a charter school they take special needs children. They have to by law.

I don't like the lottery because it inhibits life planning. I'm not going to move near a charter school based on a 1/2 chance that my kid will get into the school. But I can shop around different zip codes, move to a house near the school in the one I choose, and know just what I'm getting.

Obviously, this might price me out of the very best zip codes, but at least in my case it still leaves many good options on the table.

The story may be quite different for someone in the bottom 50% of income. Maybe they should prefer a lottery. Maybe they do?

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#168
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a major flaw which you are getting at. If you take the students who performed at the 10th-25th percentile in any school in one year, on average they would do better the next year because of reversion to the mean. The way to understand it is that the population they chose did so poorly on their test last year, it is likely that they did worse than they usually do. They are more likely to have had an o…

> Any school which is claiming really great results pretty much never holds up. That actually isn't true. We know (we have had multiple state programs demonstrate in real programs) what works in the elementary to early middle crowd--roughly $15,000-$16,000 per pupil spent on the worst performers sustained every single year will bring the worst performers closer to mean ever year. Even the Gates foundation documented…

$15,000 spent how?

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um so what about the endless govt programs out there that were supposed to achieve things like this brat have failed? It's not like our country doesn't do anything - it's a very complex problem. There are efforts and they tend to have mediocre results at best. I've personally worked in some of these programs and the reality is govt just isn't well suited for the nuance and individual attention/thought different disad…

> the reality is govt just isn't well suited for the nuance and individual attention/thought different disadvantaged groups require This is a solved problem in other countries. Finland is a good example. Their education system focuses on equality above all: all kids are going to have access to the same educational opportunities, even if equality comes at the cost of quality. As part of this idea, privately funded sch…

What do Finnish parents do if they disagree fundamentally with the educational approach of the system (like they want to do Montessori or whatever). Is there homeschooling? Does everyone have to just suck it up and use the one public school? Do Fins just never disagree about what education should look like?

Re: LeBron James school that was considered an experiment is showing promise

#170
post #71

This story resonates with me deeply. I grew up in a lower income, single parent household to a family environment plagued with drug addiction and feelings of economic hopelessness. I was on track to drop out by my senior year of high school. My father (who was always in and out of prison) committed suicide my freshman year of high school. I was distraught but blessed. My English teacher at the time noticed what I was…

The system is wired to goad students to fall into debt to sustain a decent living standard. I am transferring school from a fairly low-cost city (Albuquerque, NM) to Atlanta. My own issues are not comparable to these kids, but about 60% of my stipend is potentially going into rent, and more than 20% into fees, so I have started to doubt my decision to continue grad school.

If you want to chat about Atlanta academic housing, happy to offer any perspective I can. I had a "wide" spectrum of experience during my time there (for better or worse). Mail {username}.co at gmail.
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