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Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

nationsreportcard.gov

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Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#91

Post by redsocksfan45 »

BrenBarn wrote: post #45
jaccola wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most common reply to this is: “people said the same about Books/TV/Comics/Games/Facebook stop being such a Luddite” My answer to this is approximately: “yes they’re all relatively bad compared to the thing that came before so they were all right!” Even books. If the option were between my child reading about blacksmithing/compsci and DOING blacksmithing/compsci I’d choose the latter every time. It gives you real…

It's also not possible to carry around enough books with you to allow you to jump from one to another whenever you get bored, while it is possible to effectively carry around a device that lets you watch YouTube/TikTok at all times. I think this is an important factor.

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Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#92

Post by greenchair »

shigawire wrote: post #55
win2k wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain for the non-terminally online?

They want to say that non-whites are naturally dumber than whites. There will be varying degrees of subtlety but that's what the dog whistlers are on about.

Here's another way to say it: when you import the third world, you become the third world.

Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#93

Post by commandlinefan »

havaloc wrote: post #86

Much ink has been spilled in the comments already, but as a child of the 80s, computers were a class, and not a lifestyle. If I had gone through school with what's available today, I doubt I would have done as well as I did. Most things were handwritten, I learned cursive, and computer class was Oregon Trail and basic programming essentially. Looking back, I don't think Chromebooks, iPads and the like would have been…

> Much ink has been spilled

Ironically...

Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#94

Post by nradov »

throwaway27448 wrote: post #53
nradov wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you to an extent, but many states and school districts also engaged in fiscal malpractice by using defined-benefit employee pension plans to shift costs into the future. Those plans are financial weapons of mass destruction: far too risky for employers, retirees, and taxpayers. We need to eliminate them and shift all public school employees to 403(b) defined-contribution plans. This is especially critica…

[flagged]

The pension issue has nothing to do with private schooling one way or the other so I don't know what point you're trying to make.

Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#96

Post by redsocksfan45 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #48
crabbone wrote: post #38

Being a parent, I ask myself this question: is it worth it to struggle to get my child to try for better grades? And I don't have a definitive answer. The reasons to doubt are perfectly known: meritocracy is on a decline in the Western world, there's an ever improving safety net for losers, there's a price to pay for forcing my child to study vs the child spending time with their friends who were left to roam free as…

Why do you want to force your kid to study? Kids are naturally curious, it's likely that your kid will be curious about something . Introduce them to study and scholarship as a means of figuring these things out, so that it becomes natural to them.

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Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#97

Post by lamasery »

CodingJeebus wrote: post #79
jvanderbot wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funding per student is on the rise, or level on inflation-adjusted $ https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... The funding for dept of ed has _exploded_ after 2000 https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... At the same time, school scores started to sag after 2014 https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory/results/scores/ There are highly politicized blogs which can discuss…

I met a forensic accountant recently who mentioned a corruption investigation she participated in involving a school district nearby, several high-ranking board members and admins were on the take. She pointed out the futility of the project, it was a large sum of money for a school district, but nothing like your headline-grabbing Medicare scams. She wound up leaving the investigation due to threats to her safety an…

I have had enough insight into enough school districts that I'm confident lots of them are hotbeds of corruption. Mostly at the upper admin level (superintendents and such). Kickbacks for contracts, hiring absurd numbers of assistants and secretaries to the point that one wonders what work remains for the top dogs, creating do-nothing decently-paid positions for people they're having affairs with. That kind of thing.

Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#98

Post by troosevelt »

zozbot234 wrote: post #82
mlyle wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth pointing out that wages in the US are vast compared to other developed countries, though, too. We outspend OECD by 35-40%, but our average national wage is also higher than OECD by 35-40%.

Labor compensation in the U.S. is also extremely unequal, which pulls the average up in a way that isn't very informative as to this particular issue. The average starving PhD would be a much better and more knowledgeable teacher to high school students in the subject she took her PhD in, than the typical high school teacher with nothing more than an Education credential. Are you sure that you need to pay such high w…

Here in my state teachers in good districts start at $60,000 per year and see minimal increases due to length of service; after 20 years they might be making $75,000 per year. You ever done the math on living on $60k per year? Hard to do a lot besides support youself on that income. I note that surrounding states (even higher cost states) have lower salaries.

Teachers get paid peanuts.

Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#99

Post by randomNumber7 »

Children spend an insane amount of time in school yet it has little results.

One overlooked problem is imo that you can't just waste their time with nonsense and get good results.

A lot of people in the education system are so full of shit that they believe it's good for children to sit there the whole day.

Improving exercises and lectures should be a priority.

Re: Scores decline again for 13-year-old students in reading and mathematics (2023)

#100

Post by jltsiren »

jvanderbot wrote: post #62
japhyr wrote: post #22

People are talking about Covid, smartphones/screens, social media, and AI. No one has mentioned defunding public education yet. In Alaska, where I lived most of the last 20 years, education has been largely flat funded for about a decade now. Imagine running an organization in 2026 on that organization's 2016 budget. Schools have a bunch of obligations they have to spend on. Every time health care costs for staff go…

Funding per student is on the rise, or level on inflation-adjusted $ https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... The funding for dept of ed has _exploded_ after 2000 https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... At the same time, school scores started to sag after 2014 https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory/results/scores/ There are highly politicized blogs which can discuss…

You should not adjust for inflation or even for wages, but for cost of employment. The way health insurance works in the US makes public sector jobs with average wages and good benefits expensive to the employer.
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