171–180 of 510 posts
I don’t get this idea that everyone should finish at the same time ?
why not let kids test into algebra in 8th grade and take pre-algebra when they are ready ?
I'll be the first to admit that I'm chronically stupid, but can someone help parse the linked SFUSD's decision for me: https://www.sfusdmath.org/richard-carranzas-remarks-to-board... (it's linked in the article as the decision to push math back a year). But I'm having trouble understanding why not exposing students to a subject earlier would be better for their development with that subject. Are they supposed to abso…
They were saying they split the old 1-year course across the two new 8/9th grade courses, but added in a bunch of extra stuff to the each of the replacement courses- useful modern stuff like data analysis and statistical modeling. They were making the point of focusing on deeper understanding through real world applications instead of rote memorization, which sounds good in theory, but takes up the time that was prev…
but without teaching the fundamentals like algebra and polynomials, which is foundational to understanding statistics (and how one would use it to model something to perform data analysis)?!
It's like trying to teach english by teaching novel writing, but without teaching any grammar.
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>> Has any child ever gotten better at something they don't have to do? > Nope It happens all the time. You think people are born being great at Mario Kart?
Are you implying playing Mario Kart isn't a must-do for a child? I would argue that as far as they are concerned, it is: It's fun. Must-dos fall under those dictated by our surroundings (eg: life, work, etc.) and those dictated by ourselves (eg: it's fun, it's for a greater purpose, etc.). Math education falls under neither.
and it's fun _because_ it's evolutionarily important to learn new things, and thus natural selection for humans have made learning (and mastery) "fun". Mastering mario cart takes lots of learning.
Maths isn't fun only because the kids aren't learning in class, and isn't gaining mastery. It's taught poorly - maths can certainly be fun.
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My parents were straight D/F students and never helped me with classes at all. I would’ve appreciated help that would’ve let me go farther, but that’s at a point well past algebra. Parents are part of the problem, but it seems like we’re just desperately trying to pin the responsibility on one specific person in the child’s life and put it out of their personal responsibility. That’s not the case. Some kids get every…
Today we are graduating an unacceptably large numbers of functional illiterate kids from high school. If a kid graduates high school and they are functionally illiterate, that illustrates neglect by parents over many years. It has nothing to do with the academic background of said parents or whether they themselves can read or write. It has nothing to do with the state of public education, or the quality of teachers…
It’s a compounding problem and each time we assign blame to one (1) thing, we’re leaving other causes untreated and not making the problem better at all.
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This is an exceptional article on the effect that Jo Boaler has had on California's math education: https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-divider It mentions Prof. Nelson's criticism among others.
I've seen this link elsewhere but I get a pay wall.
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It's absurd that you blame this on "white supremacists". This entire ethos is the egalitarian morality whereby they cannot have differentiated learning or high standards that expose differences in outcomes by racial group. This elimination of curriculum, and testing requirements, particularly as application criteria at elite colleges, is allowing for more under-performing students to gain entry to elite school while…
It’s creating a generation of black and brown students that are uneducated and won’t be able to compete against anyone else. It’s the ultimate in racism. Overt racist policies couldn’t be more effective and de-educating these students more than these ”progressive” policies have. Half of Black SF high school students can barely read. https://darrellowens.substack.com/p/half-of-black-students-c... Decades of EXCLUSIVEL…
It is because these brown groups were never performing at near the level of say Whites or Asians, that these policies are implemented. Eliminate any courses of distinction or difficulty, eliminate high standards that produce any outcomes of disparate performance. Flatten the overall strata of students by getting rid of opportunities of out-performance and differentiation.
And then, filters of credentialism at elite or high level institutions drop standardized tests as qualification for enrollment. What results? Massive increase in brown student admittance [0], particularly from low-quality schools into high quality universities. Who loses the most? Whites and Asians who would have had opportunity through advanced course selection and standardized test over-performance. But both the courses and the tests are being eliminated.
Does any of this help brown students become smarter? Of course not. But "Browns hurt the most, Whites supremacists victorious" is absurd. Look beyond the first level.
[0] https://www.takimag.com/article/low-grade-fever/
"Last week, millions of college acceptances and rejections were sent out to high school seniors. While the 2023 data won’t be available for some time, using 2022 numbers we can now begin to assess the impact of 2020’s dual body blows to higher education: the “racial reckoning” and the Covid-excused Not So Great Reset in which standards were lowered and policies made lazier and stupider."
> There aren’t any Republican boogeymen you can blame for this damage these policies have created.
Kind of a non-sequitur, this is obviously a massive left wing disaster, but the mainstream right is at least guilty of being so milquetoast in not hammering this nonsense harder, and many of them make the silly mistake like you of only ever saying a thing is bad if it harms Browns. No one ever sticks up for the Whites or Asians. The overall policy is an egalitarian disaster that aims to limit outperformers from advancing or being elevated above the broad masses of lowest-common-denominator "education". It's a leveling-policy. Democratization of education in the worst way.
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They were saying they split the old 1-year course across the two new 8/9th grade courses, but added in a bunch of extra stuff to the each of the replacement courses- useful modern stuff like data analysis and statistical modeling. They were making the point of focusing on deeper understanding through real world applications instead of rote memorization, which sounds good in theory, but takes up the time that was prev…
> modern stuff like data analysis and statistical modeling but without teaching the fundamentals like algebra and polynomials, which is foundational to understanding statistics (and how one would use it to model something to perform data analysis)?! It's like trying to teach english by teaching novel writing, but without teaching any grammar.
> "Families with resources turn to fee-required online algebra 1 courses in eighth grade, outside the public school system, or enroll their kids in private schools," Isn't this obvious result? The Russian School of Mathematics could manage to teach 10-year old kids basic algebra. And there's AOPS, there's Think Academy, and slew of local tutoring schools who can teach kids relatively advanced maths. Let alone many pr…