Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
businessinsider.com
Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
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Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#2No post body was provided.
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#3Many people were saying this would be a result of all the 'virtual learning' during COVID however, states bowed to the teacher's union, and this is where we're at I'm not sure how you recover from that big of a deficit.
I'd be interested to see the numbers for other countries that implemented similar policies. It'd also be interesting comparing districts that were closed for a minimal amount of time vs districts that were closed the longest.
Although the previous numbers from 2019 show that there are much larger problems in education.
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#4Looking at the graphs when I got the report to load they look pretty constant to me. No obvious change from 2003 to 2018 that I could see. Which makes me wonder what they’re testing for when 3/4 of the kids in the states fail…. Is this stuff like set theory and geometry or is it basic math and simple algebra (word problems) or what? Any pointers to a sample test?
Any chance this is conflated with lousy reading skills as all testing relies on that.
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#5Some teachers I knew during COVID reported that in some cases nearly half the kids stopped attending online class and just never returned. Parents wouldn't respond to calls / efforts to get them back into class. Some school districts were faced with wondering what to do? Fail huge % of the students?
They chose not to fail them.
My son reports that his math classes for the last two years "are the same thing over and over again".
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#6The link they provide is to reading results, but the article is citing math results. Where are those? The reading is showing 4th and 8th grade levels are at exactly the level they were in 1992, which incidentally, is when I was in 6th grade. Telling me kids today are exactly as stupid as me doesn't sound quite as alarming. I'm actually kind of surprised scores went up by 2019. Also, "biggest ever" is since 1969 since the assessment didn't exist before then.
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#7I taught summer school math to 8th graders for a brief spell. I was teaching them addition and subtraction. I shit you not.
It's really sad.
And it did not matter how they performed, if they showed up for class, we passed them and sent them along. Also if they didn't show up, we passed them and sent them along anyway.
We should be absolutely ashamed of the public school system in our country. It'd corruption and perverse incentives from the top all the way down. Disgusting.
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#8Down from just 34%
So 8% drop
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#9No post body was provided.
Re: Just 26% of US 8th graders proficient in math, in biggest-ever setback
#10I taught summer school math to 8th graders for a brief spell. I was teaching them addition and subtraction. I shit you not. It's really sad. And it did not matter how they performed, if they showed up for class, we passed them and sent them along. Also if they didn't show up, we passed them and sent them along anyway. We should be absolutely ashamed of the public school system in our country. It'd corruption and perv…
I clearly remember that eight grade math was algebra: basic stuff with polynomials like multiplying (2x + 1)(3x + 4), or dividing single terms like 4x^2y/2xy = 2x.
And that was likely behind where I would have been had I not immigrated to Canada from Europe, where I had been into basic one-variable linear equation solving by the end of fourth grade, plus other topics like sets. For instance we used a kind of set partitioning method to convert numbers into binary.
When I came to Canada in the fifth grade, the teacher took me to a room and probed me on various arithmetic of increasing difficulty. She was blown away that I could do long division of like a five digit number by a three dight number, either leaving it with a remainder, or else continuing into the fraction.