Secrets of the City

32%? That’s almost 1 in 5!

Where are we sending our kids, a school for ants?!?

Where are we sending our kids, a school for ants?!?

Could be. Came across this essay yesterday (from 1991) on the web: The Seven Lessons You Learn in School. It doesn’t speak too highly of what our schools do teach our children … and it’s even more poignant because the essay was written by a former Teacher of the Year.

Hey, why didn’t these results come out before the election?

minnesotans can’t do math?

sweet, less competition for work!

I’m torn because I’m sad we’re not doing better, and I simultaneously think this obessive infatuation with these tests is related to education becoming more of a commodity and less of something we do because we value it intrinsically.

Here’s a story idea for Fox 9 News: Have our state elected officials (at least the executive and legislative branches) take the same tests and see how well they do. Or how about a sampling of CEOs in Minnesota? I bet they will make the kids look good.

While it is not the exact test, this is the study test that was made available to the schools. Give it a whirl. It has been years since I had to do any math, but the test was not super difficult.

http://www.education.state.mn.us/mde/static/Grade11_Math_MCAII_Item_Sampler.pdf

It didn’t look difficult at all, especially since the students are given a formula cheat sheet and can use calculators on most of it.

What’s sad, is that this is what we get for over $10,000 per student. At $300,000 per classroom, I guaran-damn-tee you, I could not only teach them math but how to sing and dance.

The Chinese pay attention in math class, and they outnumber us 3 to 1.

Come on maza, step up!

Surly old conservative curmudegon brings gift of math to room full of screaming 6-year-olds. Talk about a reality show waiting to happen!

Talk about a reality show waiting to happen!

Jack Black redux (School of Rock being one of my favorite movies from this alleged culture).

You’re the man now dog!

actually there are some problems with academic dishonesty in chinese higher education, though. they’re encouraged to get results more than to be honest about their means of attaining them. so what ends up happening is you have a lot of very skilled cheaters who may or may not know much about the topic at hand. not so for grad students who come to america to study, but it’s a real problem domestically and why china is still doing more manufacturing than engineering/design like japan and korea.

but still, the praise of results over method sounds like something a surly capitalist conservative like maz would be down with!

Surly old conservative curmudegon brings gift of math to room full of screaming 6-year-olds. Talk about a reality show waiting to happen!

Already been done

IT’S NOT A TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMAH!

Believe me, I’m not an apologist for the education system. However, the papers said this morning that a reason for the drop is that they made the new tests more rigorous than the old tests.

Yeah, we wouldn’t want our kids to have to pass any rigorous tests.

heh.

Again, not apologizing for education, but if we’re simply looking at why there was a statistical drop, it may be because of a change in the tests.

I’m all for making it look as bad as possible to light some fires under anyone and everyone who can make a difference. I’m going to invite my brother into this discussion who’s working with the Search Institute on how to help teachers build better classroom environments for learning.

“Making the grade” isn’t a silver bullet. It’s not just about tests. Or “no child left behind.” Or the efficacy of teachers’ unions. ALL of it needs improvement. Including families who send kids to school unprepared to learn. White, black, poor, rich…everyone.

So 58% of all students passed and only 32% in high schools? That means our non-high school population did pretty well. No mention of that. Not defending it though. I would like to see Katherine Kersten take the test too.

Hey all.

I’m Andy’s aforementioned brother, and also not an apologist for public education. I’m on a year leave from the public high school where I’ve taught English (and administered the state tests) for the past 12 years. Presently I’m working as an educational consultant and ed reform researcher. Obviously I come at this issue from many levels, personally and professionally. I could write pages and pages, but I’ll try to keep it succinct.

First, be mindful about hating on educators. We’re all smart enough to know that our students didn’t get dumber in the last year. The new tests, stricter standards, and more stringent rules for improvement obviously come with a cost. One of the biggest costs is horrible PR for public education, as evidenced by some of these posts. However, please PLEASE remember that these new tests and standards came with no increase in funding, zero professional development, students bringing increasing deficits to the classroom, and tremendous pressure from the public to perform with no real support to do so. That said, try reading these posts and today’s paper from the perspective of a teacher who is being called an embarrassment and a failure, despite the daily reality of some serious personal and professional struggle.

Hmm… I wonder why over 50% of teachers leave in the first 3 years of their career or why lots of smart people (like many of us here) never considered being an educator as a serious career option. I’ll leave it at that for the moment, but I look forward to some teacher-centric discussion that takes into account the almost overwhelming challenges facing modern schools.

Yours,
Nathan Eklund

See? He’s smarter than me.

Damn. He’s taller, skinnier, and mom loves him more.

But I’m a better bass player.

It would seem there’s a major disconnect in what’s happening in the math classroom and what’s being tested. What’s the problem here? And why do we need math anyway?

Oh man, Jason. I totally agree. Let the ‘puters do it.

Managing my checkbook, one login after another…

(btw, we’ve officially locked my bro into the MNSpeak “time waster” machine…bwa-ha-ha-ha…)

No. There is a problem with people being able to do functional computation. It’s tips. Andy and I were out for lunch yesterday and our waitress, a very kind, attractive, and seemingly talented woman was complaining how poor people’s tipping was. So there you go. Math is important.

Perfect. $20.00 lunch. 20% tip. $2!

See, it’s all twos! This math is E-A-Z-E-E!!!

yo, dawg…

I thought this was MNSpeak…where are the white belters, and what’s with all the mini-deadheads? and bass players are best barely heard and never seen, and hopefully they have a van & crash pad that the whole band can use.

Amen, brother… you should never know a bass player. You should FEEEEEELLL a bass player.

Whitebelters can be seen on MySpace. Aging Deadheaders — which the Flying Eklund Brothers are truly not — can be seen on MNSpeak.

Touche, bro-ham…

Sorry, dude, no hablo Jambandese.

Oh I think you do quite well.

But I haven’t done the jamthang in ya-ears!!!

I would like to see Katherine Kersten take the test too.
You don’t need math when you’ve got faith in God!

And why do we need math anyway?
Derusha, I can forgive you for living in the burbs and even for being on TV because you’re pretty cool, but DON’T GO DISSIN ON MY PROFESSION YO! jk, but serious, that hurts.

Test scores plummeting?

Throw more tax money at the problem.

Oooops, the ‘problem’ is the parenting!

I think bud’s parents didn’t hold him enough.