This is what happens when no child is left behind. How can EVERYONE graduate from HS without lowering the bar?
Because education is not a zero-sum activity?
The resources allocated to education are not infinite.
America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
91–100 of 371 posts
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#92American academia is the envy of the world. I haven't met a single ambitious person in the US who dreams of teaching in a high school. It's kind of sad that secondary ed isn't high-prestige in today's American culture, but it's not.
I once had the ambition to teach high school. I'm forever glad I did it, but that experience comprised the 2 most intense years of my life. My experiences in an Ivy League grad school and as professional engineer don't even come close.
I wrote quite a bit in the process: https://alanjayteaching.wordpress.com/?order=asc
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#93I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. Most of the schools I attended growing up were completely useless. Filthy, full of drugs and gangs. Sadly I even listened to some of my teachers more than I did my own parents (indoctrination) which I now see lead me down the wrong path. I don't expect the public school to teach my kids any kind of career skills…
The responses to this comment seem like everyone took this seriously, but I read it as complete sarcasm.
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#94Yet America, has lead and continues to lead the world.
Maybe we are barking up the wrong tree, maybe school isn't as important for a country as what we take as just fact.
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn't pass the smell test all. Your school sent 10% of its students to elite colleges, that's clearly not common.
It doesn't have to be common. You can move to whatever school district you want to (if you have the money for housing there) and get that same level of education. No one's forcing you to send your kids to sub-par public schools.
Unfortunately, for many families that is simply not an option. They're stuck with the horrific local public school or a lottery-based charter.
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that you have to leave education. But anything would be better than 12 years just to learn the basics so they can re-learn them again in college. Public schools waste way, way too much time. Get kids into college sooner so they can actually learn things. I was that kid. I went to the "best" high school in all the surrounding cities. It was a mess, sub-pair on every academic, legal, and social level. Teachers…
Indeed, the pace of public education is horribly slow. Kids are bored, they need something to do.
This is partially because public schools have to also accommodate kids with disabilities, English learners, and those who simply will never keep up. For these kids, public education is horribly accelerated and they're being left behind.
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#97When it comes to technology skills, the story gets worse. The U.S. came in last place — right below Poland. The study looked at basic technology tasks: things like using email, buying and returning items online, using a drop-down menu, naming a file on a computer or sending a text message. Something to consider about your users.
Why can't I help but feel the "our users must never be forced to learn" and "our children must never experience discomfort" mindsets are related, and contribute to the US coming in last place.
Well, I certainly wouldn't want to start the company that makes the only product that has it as part of its philosophy to make their users learn in order to be able to use it efficiently. That being said you are probably right and the dumbed down UIs we see more and more with low information density are annoying and underline what you are saying. Everything is catering to the lowest common denominator.
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#98When it comes to technology skills, the story gets worse. The U.S. came in last place — right below Poland. The study looked at basic technology tasks: things like using email, buying and returning items online, using a drop-down menu, naming a file on a computer or sending a text message. Something to consider about your users.
I was at a Walgreens a little while ago, and there was a lady buying some sort of cable for a camera. I remember her literally asking the store clerk, "Will this work with a laptop, or does it have to be a computer?"
I bring up this anecdote whenever someone else asserts " is common sense, no one could be confused by it".
Help your parents with tech support at least once a year (or your friends' parents if yours are technologically competent). It helps you keep a healthy perspective of how other people see our trade :P
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#99And in this age of information and technology, many of these people are voting to decide the next leader of the only superpower left on Earth. This may sound grossly elitist, but democracy can be super scary sometimes.
I don't mean to be snarky here. I am honestly just trying to put these issues in context by pointing out that if you believe today's "uneducated" people being able to vote is "scary", then you should take a gander at the average level of education of voters in 1960. Even fewer college grads, even fewer high school grads, even MORE people that we would today term "dropout". Additionally, the further back that you go t…
Here's a historical table of literacy rates:
https://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp#attainment
The current estimate is 14% - and it hasn't changed for a decade.
The disparity makes me wonder if the figures are right, but it's nearly impossible to find reliable research on literacy in the US.
You'd think it would be assessed annually, but it isn't. The NAAL data is the most recent definitive survey, and that was done in 2003. I can find one survey since, but the National Institute for Literacy which is quoted in it seems to have closed in 2010.
The fact that there seems to be so little federal interest in rigorously tracking literacy is even more amazing to me than the nominal rate.
Re: America's High School Graduates Look Like Other Countries' High School Dropouts
#100I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. Most of the schools I attended growing up were completely useless. Filthy, full of drugs and gangs. Sadly I even listened to some of my teachers more than I did my own parents (indoctrination) which I now see lead me down the wrong path. I don't expect the public school to teach my kids any kind of career skills…
Many public schools are just fine, if not excellent.. Something like 90% of my 300-student graduating class ended up in college, several dozen at Ivys or "near-Ivy" schools. We had intensive programming classes and maybe 15 or 20 AP options. This was just a random upper middle class district in the Midwest, we were rarely on the list of the 100-best schools in the state.
What point are you trying to make exactly? Or are you just inserting meaningless anecdotal pseudo-data?