Assault on education

[Destino]

4 hours ago, China said:

A Top College Reinstates the SAT  A Top College Reinstatest the SAT

 

Dartmouth College announced this morning that it would again require applicants to submit standardized test scores, starting next year. It’s a significant development because other selective colleges are now deciding whether to do so. In today’s newsletter, I’ll tell you the story behind Dartmouth’s decision.

 

Last summer, Sian Beilock — a cognitive scientist who had previously run Barnard College in New York — became the president of Dartmouth. After arriving, she asked a few Dartmouth professors to do an internal study on standardized tests. Like many other colleges during the Covid pandemic, Dartmouth dropped its requirement that applicants submit an SAT or ACT score. With the pandemic over and students again able to take the tests, Dartmouth’s admissions team was thinking about reinstating the requirement. Beilock wanted to know what the evidence showed.

 

“Our business is looking at data and research and understanding the implications it has,” she told me.

 

Three Dartmouth economists and a sociologist then dug into the numbers. One of their main findings did not surprise them: Test scores were a better predictor than high school grades — or student essays and teacher recommendations — of how well students would fare at Dartmouth. The evidence of this relationship is large and growing, as I explained in a recent Times article.  

 

A second finding was more surprising. During the pandemic, Dartmouth switched to a test-optional policy, in which applicants could choose whether to submit their SAT and ACT scores. And this policy was harming lower-income applicants in a specific way.

 

The researchers were able to analyze the test scores even of students who had not submitted them to Dartmouth. (Colleges can see the scores after the admissions process is finished.) Many lower-income students, it turned out, had made a strategic mistake.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

not surprising that they found independent testing to be more reliable than grades. We see the same thing in standardized tests at earlier ages. Schools telling us they’re doing great, only to have test results show 40% of students can’t read at their grade level has become common place. 

 

 

On 2/4/2024 at 1:16 PM, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

Second: How was Woke Kindergarten gonna help with attendance rates? Apparently all WK does is hold workshops to show teachers how to…something lol…but how did anyone track whether or not the teachers actually utilized any of this stuff in their classrooms? 
 

Third, why did the school system think WK would help with attendance, of all things? 

I find the idea that curriculum is the main driver of attendance in k-6 hard to swallow. Other than maybe in unique circumstances where some scandal erupts surrounding a particular lesson parents in the area are completely opposed to. Kids really shouldn’t have any say at all at those ages as to whether they go to school or not. 

[PokerPacker]

6 hours ago, Destino said:

not surprising that they found independent testing to be more reliable than grades. We see the same thing in standardized tests at earlier ages. Schools telling us they’re doing great, only to have test results show 40% of students can’t read at their grade level has become common place.

The curse of standardized tests, however, is that now you only teach to the test.  You get what you measure.  The best teaching I ever experienced in High School was from a history teacher that offered some after-school lessons where he taught what/how he wanted to rather than teaching to the test as he did during school hours.

[Destino]

45 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

The curse of standardized tests, however, is that now you only teach to the test.  You get what you measure.  The best teaching I ever experienced in High School was from a history teacher that offered some after-school lessons where he taught what/how he wanted to rather than teaching to the test as he did during school hours.

I’m aware, which makes negative results for those tests so much more alarming. 

[PeterMP]

1 hour ago, PokerPacker said:

The curse of standardized tests, however, is that now you only teach to the test.  You get what you measure.  The best teaching I ever experienced in High School was from a history teacher that offered some after-school lessons where he taught what/how he wanted to rather than teaching to the test as he did during school hours.

 

I never really actually understood this, especially not today with computers and adaptive test.  If the test are good test and test for what you want people to know, then teaching to the test should be fine if you have a good teacher.

 

In your case, it just sounds like maybe your history teacher wasn't passionate about the core/fundamental things in history or really a very good teacher.  If somebody is interested in the role of changes in fire arm technology on historical conflicts (e.g. the revolutionary war) and can teach that well, that's great.  But that isn't what most people need to know about history, and so they are actually pretty useless.

 

I love to teach a class about my expertise, but mostly, I teach basic/fundamental biochemistry to people that aren't ever going to actually do biochemistry.  And realistically, I teach to a test (the MCAT).  My job is to find ways to make that material engaging/interesting for myself and to my students.

 

The other issue would be a bad test.  For example, if your history standardized test is do the people know a bunch of dates, that's a hard test to make the material engaging because it is just going to be on this date this happened and here's a way to help you memorize it.  But I doubt most people think that's a good test and what we want people taking out of history for the most part.  That people know 1776 is important and why would be good, but I doubt today standardized history tests cover much have you memorized the dates.  But if the test is just a bunch of dates, the test should probably be changed.

Edited February 6 by PeterMP

[PeterMP]

8 hours ago, Destino said:

I find the idea that curriculum is the main driver of attendance in k-6 hard to swallow. Other than maybe in unique circumstances where some scandal erupts surrounding a particular lesson parents in the area are completely opposed to. Kids really shouldn’t have any say at all at those ages as to whether they go to school or not. 

 

Were they dealing with just the dry and nuts and bolts of curriculum or other things related to student engagement or interacting with students?

 

I could see if you're hispanic and your teacher comes across as a xenophobic WASP that doesn't like or interact with the students that affecting attendance.  Realistically, kids at that age to have a say.  They say their sick, especially at that age things like stomaches can be difficult to diagnose.  You can spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out what is wrong with a kid that just doesn't want to go to school because of social/teacher problems.  And the kid misses school.

 

Student engagement even in early grades is well correlated to student attendance which is then a good predictor of finishing high school much later.

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327671espr0903_4

 

The test scores might not have gone up, but history/research tells us the likelihood of those kids at least finishing high school has gone up.

 

Edited February 6 by PeterMP

[Destino]

7 minutes ago, PeterMP said:

 

Were they dealing with just the dry and nuts and bolts of curriculum or other things related to student engagement or interacting with students?

 

I could see if you're hispanic and your teacher comes across as a xenophobic WASP that doesn't like or interact with the students that affecting attendance.  Realistically, kids at that age to have a say.  They say their sick, especially at that age things like stomaches can be difficult to diagnose.  You can spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out what is wrong with a kid that just doesn't want to go to school because of social/teacher problems.  And the kid misses school.

 

Student engagement even in early grades is well correlated to student attendance which is then a good predictor of finishing high school much later.

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327671espr0903_4

 

The test scores might not have gone up, but history/research tells us the likelihood of those kids at least finishing high school has gone up.

 

I’d rather my child be bored to death and hate school than sending her to fun communism indoctrination camp. And if tests show they aren’t learning anything, that things have worsened, is this a solution? I imagine it’s easy to make school fun if learning isn’t a priority. 

[PeterMP]

21 minutes ago, Destino said:

I’d rather my child be bored to death and hate school than sending her to fun communism indoctrination camp. And if tests show they aren’t learning anything, that things have worsened, is this a solution? I imagine it’s easy to make school fun if learning isn’t a priority. 

 

Tests aren't showing they aren't learning anything.  Tests scores went down is all that we know.  The original article didn't say how much (was it a significant affect or just random fluctuations) or what else happened.  Certainly having more kids in schools more often with the same resources makes teaching the ones that are there harder.  I'd rather teach 20 kids that are independently buying in (maybe with pressure from home) than 30 even if they have the equivalent buy in. 

 

Were kids that had a high number of absences before ever actually being tested?  There are a number of reasonable factors by which having higher attendance would lower scores and not indicate that any given student actually learned less (without more information).  Or maybe kids did learn less, and it is a matter of adjusting resources to take into account having more kids in a class on a regular basis.  Or maybe the result of changes in the curriculum actually resulted in less teaching to the test.  Or maybe it is something else.

 

In addition, emotional intelligence which isn't being tested for also matters.

 

The amount of information that is lacking in this story is gaping.  And to fill those gaps with "tests show they aren't learning anything" is assuming the worse and is just ridiculous.  You're using your ignorance and a lack of information to fill gaps based your preconceived (politically biased) ideas.

 

And worrying about your child is great, but the bigger picture is important too.  Having a population that is 50% super educated and 50% high school drop outs might be great for the 50% of the people that are super educated (at least short term).  But it won't be for the 50% that are high school drop outs.  And I suspect longer term wouldn't be great for any of them as I suspect the society as whole eventually would have big problem.

Edited February 6 by PeterMP

[Destino]

 

 

1 hour ago, PeterMP said:

 

Tests aren't showing they aren't learning anything.  Tests scores went down is all that we know.  The original article didn't say how much (was it a significant affect or just random fluctuations) or what else happened.  Certainly having more kids in schools more often with the same resources makes teaching the ones that are there harder.  I'd rather teach 20 kids that are independently buying in (maybe with pressure from home) than 30 even if they have the equivalent buy in. 

 

Were kids that had a high number of absences before ever actually being tested?  There are a number of reasonable factors by which having higher attendance would lower scores and not indicate that any given student actually learned less (without more information).  Or maybe kids did learn less, and it is a matter of adjusting resources to take into account having more kids in a class on a regular basis.  Or maybe the result of changes in the curriculum actually resulted in less teaching to the test.  Or maybe it is something else.

 

In addition, emotional intelligence which isn't being tested for also matters.

 

The amount of information that is lacking in this story is gaping.  And to fill those gaps with "tests show they aren't learning anything" is assuming the worse and is just ridiculous.  You're using your ignorance and a lack of information to fill gaps based your preconceived (politically biased) ideas.

 

I really wish I hadn’t gone down this dreary rabbit hole of sadness. This school is an utter disaster. Here are the test results for the most recent two available years. 2nd image is the most recent.

 

 

 

 

source:

https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2022&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=01&lstDistrict=61192-000&lstSchool=6000988&lstFocus=a

 

This school is a dumpster fire and it’s mostly Latino, which makes me even angrier. I see nothing on this “woke kindergarten” nightmare of a webpage that tells me this company kniws anything at all about the Hispanic community. This looks like the sort of thing a fool imagining one size fits all for BIPOC people exists. I say this because the school is 83% Hispanic, so a little cultural knowledge might go a long way. 
 

I’m deeply saddened that anyone has to send their kid to this place. 
 

 

1 hour ago, PeterMP said:

 

And worrying about your child is great, but the bigger picture is important too.  Having a population that is 50% super educated and 50% high school drop outs might be great for the 50% of the people that are super educated (at least short term).  But it won't be for the 50% that are high school drop outs.  And I suspect longer term wouldn't be great for any of them as I suspect the society as whole eventually would have big problem.

I agree the bigger picture matters. Kids being passed along that don’t meet the standard each and every year doesn’t produce a graduation rate. It produces a diploma mill masquerading as a graduation rate. 

[PeterMP]

8 hours ago, Destino said:

 

 

 

I really wish I hadn’t gone down this dreary rabbit hole of sadness. This school is an utter disaster. Here are the test results for the most recent two available years. 2nd image is the most recent.

 

source:

https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2022&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=13&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=01&lstDistrict=61192-000&lstSchool=6000988&lstFocus=a

 

This school is a dumpster fire and it’s mostly Latino, which makes me even angrier. I see nothing on this “woke kindergarten” nightmare of a webpage that tells me this company kniws anything at all about the Hispanic community. This looks like the sort of thing a fool imagining one size fits all for BIPOC people exists. I say this because the school is 83% Hispanic, so a little cultural knowledge might go a long way. 
 

I’m deeply saddened that anyone has to send their kid to this place. 
 

 

I agree the bigger picture matters. Kids being passed along that don’t meet the standard each and every year doesn’t produce a graduation rate. It produces a diploma mill masquerading as a graduation rate. 

 

The infographics don't really tell me anything useful in the context of the school in terms of my questions.  You'd need more information than that to address my points.  I'm not saying that Woke Kindergarten is adding useful information or knowledge to the situation.  I don't know.  From the article, there are a few useful pieces of information:

 

1.  There is an organization called Woke Kindergarten.

2.  They work in the area of early childhood education beyond Kindergarten.

3.  They were hired by some school district.

4.  Whatever Woke Kindergarten did, it didn't result in an immediate improvement in the schools test.

 

I agree about the need to get kids to reach the standard.  But the first part about getting kids to reach a standard has to be getting them to come to school.  If you have a bunch of kids that never come to school, then there is no way they are ever going to meet the standard.  If you can put something in place that at least gets them there, you can tinker with teaching styles, who your teachers are, and curriculum to figure out how to reach the standards (while keeping them coming to school).

 

The useful information in that story is very minimal.  You filled the gaps with your preconceived politically biased ideas and jumped to kids learning nothing.  It is possible that the school district wasted a bunch of money by hiring Woke Kindergarten.  It is also possible that Woke Kindergarten helped them take a required and early step to getting the students to meet the standards.  I don't know.

 

(Unfortunately (IMO), it looks CA is one of the states that have abandoned required high school exams to graduate which certainly can turn the public education system into a graduation mill.)

Edited February 6 by PeterMP

[China]

Indiana’s AG launched a tip line for controversial classroom material. It’s already raising concerns about accuracy and privacy.

 

The Indiana Attorney General has unveiled an online portal for complaints about the teaching of race, gender, and political ideology in schools — an aggressive move that raises concerns about privacy and the veracity of the material made public.

 

The new website, which was announced Tuesday by state Attorney General Todd Rokita, is called “Eyes on Education” and includes complaints dating back to 2018. The website launched with material already posted, but the included school districts and state department of education didn’t know about it.

 

It lists 13 school districts around Indiana and the Indiana University School of Medicine with links to photos, screenshots, or presentation materials that the office describes as “potentially inappropriate.” In some cases, the portal also includes the addresses, phone numbers, and emails of people identified in the materials. Schools have characterized these materials as incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate.

 

Molly Williams, a representative for the Indiana Department of Education, said the agency was not made aware of the portal when it was under construction or when it launched.

 

The portal represents an escalation of a longstanding fight between Rokita and Indiana school districts over how lessons on race and gender are taught in schools. In establishing and promoting the website, Rokita has taken a similar approach to a controversial tip line started by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for parents to report “divisive” teaching at their schools.

There appeared to be problems right off the bat.

 

A majority of the districts listed on the portal told Chalkbeat that they were not contacted by Rokita’s office and were unaware of the portal until Tuesday. A press release from the AG’s office was sent early Tuesday morning, but not publicly posted on the website until hours later.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

[China]

The Loss of Things I Took for Granted

 

Recent years have seen successive waves of book bans in Republican-controlled states, aimed at pulling any text with “woke” themes from classrooms and library shelves. Though the results sometimes seem farcical, as with the banning of Art Spiegelman’s Maus due to its inclusion of “cuss words” and explicit rodent nudity, the book-banning agenda is no laughing matter. Motivated by bigotry, it has already done demonstrable harm and promises to do more. But at the same time, the appropriate response is, in principle, simple. Named individuals have advanced explicit policies with clear goals and outcomes, and we can replace those individuals with people who want to reverse those policies. That is already beginning to happen in many places, and I hope those successes will continue until every banned book is restored.

 

If and when that happens, however, we will not be able to declare victory quite yet. Defeating the open conspiracy to deprive students of physical access to books will do little to counteract the more diffuse confluence of forces that are depriving students of the skills needed to meaningfully engage with those books in the first place. As a college educator, I am confronted daily with the results of that conspiracy-without-conspirators. I have been teaching in small liberal arts colleges for over 15 years now, and in the past five years, it’s as though someone flipped a switch. For most of my career, I assigned around 30 pages of reading per class meeting as a baseline expectation—sometimes scaling up for purely expository readings or pulling back for more difficult texts. (No human being can read 30 pages of Hegel in one sitting, for example.) Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding. Even smart and motivated students struggle to do more with written texts than extract decontextualized take-aways. Considerable class time is taken up simply establishing what happened in a story or the basic steps of an argument—skills I used to be able to take for granted.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

 

[China]

High school cheerleader told to ‘cover up’ while wearing her uniform at school

 

We all remember the high school tradition of football players and cheerleaders wearing their uniforms to class on game days, right? At a school in Michigan, where this is still the tradition, one high school cheerleader was told to “cover up” when she wore her uniform during the school day.

 

Amanda Alburg told reporters that her daughter, Marianah, is a varsity cheerleader at Pinconning High School, where athletes are “instructed” to wear their uniforms on game days, regardless of their sport. But even though Marianah’s cheerleading coach told her and the rest of the team to wear their uniforms to school, she was told to put pants on underneath it.

 

“I called the school office, and I was told that they are to wear pants under their uniforms at all times. [Not wearing pants] is a distraction to the boys,” Alburg said. “I don’t feel that should be a distraction to the boys. Girls have been wearing cheer uniforms issued by the school on game days to school since I was in high school. Never had to wear pants under it.”

 

Alburg added that if the uniforms are deemed appropriate for games, which are school-sanctioned events, then they shouldn’t be banned by the dress code during school hours.

 

The school district’s superintendent, Andy Kowalczyk, said in a statement, “Athletic uniforms may not meet school dress code requirements. This is the case for the length of the cheerleading skirts. PHS would not allow students from any sports team to wear uniforms to school that do not meet those requirements.”

 

He added via email that no one ever mentioned the cheerleading uniforms being a “distraction to male students,” but Alburg denies that.

 

“I know who I talked to at the school had told me it was a distraction to boys. That is what I was told personally,” she said.

 

Alburg attended a school board meeting along with several other parents to ask for the school’s dress code to be changed to be more fair to girls.

 

“If they can wear their uniforms that are issued by the school to games, and it’s appropriate, it should be appropriate for school also,” she said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Mufumonk]

This ultra MAGA, Mom's for Liberty supporting clown is running for the Board of Education in Anne Arundel County. The empty bottle of New Amsterdam on the floor, next to the Bible is a nice touch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 18 by Mufumonk

[China]

West Virginia House passes bill allowing prosecution of librarians

 

The West Virginia House of Delegates debated the merits of removing protections for public librarians and school librarians from criminal prosecution in the off chance a minor encounters books and content some consider to be obscene.

The House passed House Bill 4654 – removing bona fide schools, public libraries, and museums from the list of exemptions from criminal liability relating to distribution and display to a minor of obscene matter – in a 85-12 vote Friday, sending the bill to the state Senate.

HB 4654 would lift criminal liability exemptions from schools in the presentation of local or state-approved curriculum, and public libraries and museums displaying obscene matter to a minor when the child is not accompanied by a parent/guardian.

State Code defines obscene matter as anything an average person believes depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct, nudity, sex or certain bodily functions; or anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. According to State Code 61-8A-2, any adult who knowingly and intentionally displays obscene matter to a minor could be charged with a felony, fined up to $25,000 and face up to five years in prison if convicted.

The bill has been the focus of a contentious public hearing and a lengthy meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, where supporters of the bill and a representative of the library community were grilled by committee members during testimony.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Seems like a good way to get librarians to quit and move out of state for work.

 

Edited February 20 by China

[Larry]

25 minutes ago, China said:

State Code defines obscene matter as anything an average person believes depicts or describes sexually explicit conduct, nudity, sex or certain bodily functions; or anything a reasonable person would find lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

 

Isn't that a large portion of the Republican agenda?  

[The Evil Genius]

WV still actively trying to become the least populous state by 2050 

[Destino]

librarian is such a weird job. They have advanced degrees, are dispersed throughout our communities… yet few ever see them or really understand what it is they do. They’ve somehow become a bulwark against oppression. 
 

I'm never going to support anything that seeks to prosecute them criminally. Not for making books available. That’s insane.

 

21 hours ago, The Evil Genius said:

WV still actively trying to become the least populous state by 2050 

The three dozen people living in Wyoming don’t believe you. 

[The Evil Genius]

42 minutes ago, Destino said:

 

The three dozen people living in Wyoming don’t believe you. 

 

WV has lost 15% of its population since 1950...while the US population has nearly doubled since then. Yes places like Wyoming will still be less but WV is still shrinking and in a huge downward spiral with young people leaving. 

 

Them being anti education and 💯 MAGA (and abandoning their union blue collar roots) doesn't help. 

[China]

Oops! DeSantis says book challenges have gone too far

 

In an extraordinary press conference last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) acknowledged that challenges to books in the state's school libraries are out of control. Over the course of the event, DeSantis blamed teachers, school officials, "random people," community members, "bad actors," and the media. DeSantis pointed the finger at everyone except for the person most responsible: himself. 

 

What is happening in Florida school libraries is a direct result of legislation signed by DeSantis and regulations and guidance produced by the DeSantis administration. As a result, thousands of books, including many award-winning works of literature, have been pulled off the shelves in Florida schools, and hundreds have been banned permanently from school libraries. 

 

DeSantis claimed that he only "empowered parents to object to obscene material in the classroom." Now, he is complaining that "members of the community… just show up and object to every single book under the sun." But DeSantis and his administration have championed laws, regulations, and guidance pushing for a much broader selection of books to be removed. 

 

Click on the link for the article

[Destino]

Quote

Required SEL Practices in FCPS

Morning Meeting, Closing Circle, and Responsive Advisory Meeting

All FCPS schools are required to implement the following practices, drawn from Responsive Classroom’s evidence-based SEL model:

• Morning Meeting and Closing Circles in elementary schools
• Responsive Advisory Meetings in middle and high school

The Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for success socially and academically. 
 

The Responsive Advisory Meeting (RAM) offers a time for building meaningful connections and developing respectful and trusting relationships. It helps students to know they belong, feel significant, and apply key academic and social skills. 

https://www.fcps.edu/family-resources/student-safety-and-wellness/social-and-emotional-learning-sel
 

got this off the FCPS page, link above, can anyone tell me what exactly “Responsive Advisory Meetings” are? The definition provided by FCPS reads as being intentionally unspecific. Seriously, “a time for building meaningful connections and developing respectful and trusting relationships” could be anything.
 

Anyone know what is discussed, specifically?

[Long n Left]

28 minutes ago, Destino said:

can anyone tell me what exactly “Responsive Advisory Meetings” are?

Homeroom 

[Destino]

3 minutes ago, Long n Left said:

Homeroom 

So nothing specific is discussed at all. There no responsive advising at the responsive advising meeting, it’s just a chance to do work on unfinished homework?