Obama to Propose New Reading and Math Standards

[tonysam]

This is what happens when you have ignorant politicians trying to tell teachers and school districts what to teach.

This is nothing but a formula to create MORE dropouts and pushouts, and MORE of an underclass. Relatively few jobs are "careers" requiring anything beyond a high school diploma:

In a proposed change to the No Child Left Behind law, the Obama administration would require states to adopt new academic standards to qualify for federal money from a $14 billion program that concentrates on impoverished students, the White House said Sunday.

The proposal, part of the administration’s recommendations for a Congressional overhaul of the law, would require states to adopt “college- and career-ready standards” in reading and mathematics.

The current law, signed by President George W. Bush in 2002, requires states to adopt “challenging academic standards” in reading and math to receive federal money for poor students under the program known as Title I, but leaves it up to states to decide what qualifies as “challenging.”

The result was that states set their standards at widely varied levels, some as rigorous as those used in high-performing countries like Japan, but others at far lower levels that lay out at best, mediocre expectations for their students.

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[Don Caballero]

1. A President who cares about education. Such a breath of fresh air.

[tonysam]

2. No, he doesn't. He's no different than Bush when it comes to education. n/t

[T Wolf]

3. He only cares to destroy public education at the altar of for-profit Charters ala his buddy Arne.

Can't the administration (Obama) touch anything without going in the wrong direction?

[noamnety]

4. This won't help education.

Some high schools have 80 percent of the kids entering able to perform "at grade level" in math. Those kids can move into trig and precalc relatively easily. These are the rich districts - wealthy primarily white districts with high test scores because the bulk of their kids have had every advantage in life.

Other high schools have 80 percent of the kids entering UNable to perform at grade level in math. Those kids end up getting forced into algebra to meet some random federal standard, even though they enter the school unable to do basic computations with fractions. They can't read a ruler. Then they get shoved into geometry, trig, and precalc even though they don't fully grasp the fundamentals they need to be successful in those courses. Those are the poorest districts, high percentages of poverty, minority students, ESL students, kids who have had the least advantages in life.

What the bill does is pressure the schools with kids who can't do basic math to place those students in courses we know they aren't prepared for. And the end result is that the richest districts get the most federal dollars while the poorest districts get less funding.

[sandnsea]

6. That's why you implement remedial programs

But if the standards aren't there in the first place, then the parents and kids never have the opportunity to know what they're supposed to be striving for. Algebra is not some random federal standard. How many career paths are you removing from a child by not requiring them to know algebra? Are you saying only the rich are going to get to move their kids into the highest earning careers, because their kids got to learn algebra?

[noamnety]

8. The problem isn't algebra itself

The problem is a mandatory path that requires kids to take algebra in 9th grade when they first arrive in our school, and requires them to take precalc by the time they graduate.

They never have a chance to pick up the basic skills because the state requires us to shove them along so quickly they can't get the foundation in high school if they happened to miss it earlier.

Where I see the effects of this are in my non-math classroom where we occasionally need to use rulers. I've had years where MOST of my class can't find a 1/2 inch on a ruler. That's got more real world applications than precalc for many of our kids. When I talk to the math teachers, they nod, they understand and agree with my point, but their hands are tied because if they back up and ensure the kids know that, they will fall behind in the instructional time they are frantically trying to get in for state-mandated benchmarks and high stakes testing.

This is not so different from when I had an exchange student one year. She was bragging about how they do algebra in elementary school, calculus by junior high. I was shocked. I asked her if the kids can really understand it at that age. She said no, not at all, we don't get the concepts ... but the point is they teach it. She was convinced that was the superior system.

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"Are you saying only the rich ..."

No. You're stating an absolute. 100% of these kids vs, 0% of those kids. That wasn't my point and doesn't make any sense.

As for the highest paying careers ... I don't think we're talking about that exactly, because the emphasis from the administration seems to be on academic careers vs. careers that are more hands on, with an implied value judgement that the hands-on careers are worse, even though in reality they might pay better. (Plumber vs. social worker with masters degree, for example). Some of the math skills they are skipping are even basic things (fractions) they might need to be a nurse and be able to dose medicine properly.

[sandnsea]

9. If 9th graders can't find 1/2 inch on a ruler

Then you have a problem in your school district and you need to organize to address it - at the elementary level. The answer isn't to remove the standards, it's to bring all the kids UP to those standards.

Oregon implemented school to work and lowered standards nearly 20 years ago. Now everyone is complaining that Oregon schools aren't in the top 5 anymore. Well duh.

[noamnety]

12. I like how you squarely put that on my back.

Funny.

[sandnsea]

13. Are you a teacher? Do you want to control education?

Well that's how you do it bub. Get with the program or get knocked out of the way.

[noamnety]

14. You are being rude. And my name's not "bub."

As a high school art teacher, much as I'd love to be responsible for restructuring the whole elementary math program in the entire region here, I think it makes as much sense as me rudely implying that the problems in public education are entirely your fault, you should have fixed them by now.

That's kind of a silly confrontational way of having a discussion, no? Seems like a way to avoid addressing any issues raised, and instead just flinging around personal accusations for no reason. What's the point?

[FBaggins]

15. That can't possibly be true!

There are still art teachers out there?

Goodness gracious... can you send a picture before the species becomes extinct?

[noamnety]

18. Some schools still prioritize the arts over sports.

About a third of our teachers are art teachers. But we don't have any sports teams.

It's a different culture, for sure. I was thinking over the weekend that I should put up a sheet of paper on my door with "why I love working here" with items like this jotted down:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=9260059#9260238

:)

[FBaggins]

19. A third? My goodness...

...it's like discovering fifty pandas in a clearing along the blue ridge. :)

[sandnsea]

16. Look. You're part of the problem

or part of the solution. If the math program in your district is inadequate, then yes, YOU are responsible to begin organizing to change it. That's the entire point of Obama's initiatives. Quit bitching and whining and MOVE. CHANGE. Make your district what it should be. There isn't any excuse not to.

And if that's rude - well tough shit. Get out of your lalaland and start realizing YOU are the one that's inflicting a life of poverty on your students because YOU won't take responsibility for improving the education in YOUR district.

And if you won't, then PARENTS will.

Do you get it yet?

[noamnety]

17. You have some laughably wrong assumptions in your post.

And you are still being rude for no apparent reason.

It's possible to make your point while being civil.

[PVnRT]

20. Yes, let's have non-mathematicians decide math standards

While we're at it, we can let fundamentalists decide our biology standards and let conservatives decide our history standards. It makes so much sense!

[tonysam]

21. Not to mention these people are clueless about child development

and think we should have, like Detroit proposed, FOUR YEAR OLDS be tutored in reading and sixth graders take pre-algebra. It boggles the mind.

[sandnsea]

5. I agree

I've seen the difference standards in a school can have. Barring extreme disabilities, every kid can learn and anybody who says otherwise is not an educator I want in the classroom or anywhere near a student.

[FBaggins]

7. Appears to be a false title

Should be "Obama to Propose that other people propose New Reading and Math Standards"

Anyone care to guess how many of those "others" will be teachers?

[Catshrink]

10. Given their track record, I'll say 0.

Teachers are the last people Arne includes.

[FBaggins]

11. Sorry... no door prize for you.

The question was too easy.

Maybe once we get up to addition of whole numbers?