Are disparities creating an educational caste system?
One of the key predictors of college success is whether a student takes algebra II in high school. Yet, a new survey by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that 3,000 high schools serving nearly 500,000 students don’t even offer algebra II.
“Without algebra II, you probably don’t go to college,” said Patte Barth, director of the National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education, in a conference call last week.
“If you do go, you are probably going to end up in remediation. Without algebra II, you don’t become an auto mechanic. Without it, you don’t get into one of the growing service jobs in growing fields like communications,” she said.
The new U.S. DOE report, based on the Civil Rights Data Collection 2009-10 sample from more than 72,000 schools that encompass about 85 percent of the nation’s students, paints an unsettling picture of an education system in which poor and minority students are often on the losing end of discipline, achievement and resources.
“Instead of creating equal opportunities for all of our students to thrive, too many schools are still stuck in an educational caste system,” said Wade Henderson, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Among the findings of the federal study garnering the most attention:
•Only 29 percent of high-minority high schools offered calculus, compared to 55 percent of schools with the lowest African-American and Hispanic enrollment.
•Black students, particularly males, are more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their peers. African-American students make up 18 percent of the students in the survey sample, but 35 percent of the students suspended and 39 percent of the students expelled.
•Although blacks and Hispanics constitute 44 percent of the students in the survey, they make up only 26 percent of students in gifted-and-talented programs.
•More than half of all fourth-graders held back in 2010 were African-American. Overall, black students were nearly three times as likely as white students to be retained, while Hispanic students were twice as likely.
•Teachers in high-minority schools were paid $2,251 less per year than their colleagues in other schools.
•Fifteen percent of teachers in schools with the highest black and Hispanic enrollment had taught two years or fewer, compared with 8 percent of teachers in schools with the lowest minority enrollments.
“This report speaks urgently of the need to address the chronic suspension of minorities, the growing resource gap between wealthy and poor school districts, the failed policy of closing public schools and destabilizing neighborhoods, the use of law enforcement as an extension of school discipline, and the inexcusable fact that children of color are routinely shut out of opportunities for gifted-and-talented and college-readiness programs,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.
Those opportunities must begin with ensuring that all students have access to the courses necessary for the higher wage jobs. Students can’t learn if they lack the opportunity to do so.
Nationwide, a third of first-year college students require remediation, typically in math. And remediation maps directly to the intensity of the courses that students took in high school, or, as Barth of the National School Boards Association noted, “More significantly, it maps to the courses they did not take.”
In some schools, students can’t take the courses because they aren’t offered. For example, a third of high schools in the United States don’t offer advanced placement courses. And while 77 percent of white students attend high schools that offer trigonometry, only 67 percent of black students and 60 percent of Hispanic students do.
“The simple fact of taking a math class beyond algebra II [such as trig or precalculus] doubles the chances of getting a B.A. The simple fact of taking an AP class doubles a student’s chances of graduating from college,” said Barth, whose group just released its own new study, “Is High School Tough Enough?”
The argument that tougher high school courses should be limited to the college-prep track ignores the fact that even blue-collar jobs now demand higher-order reading and math skills.
It’s long been realized that U.S. schools suffer an achievement gap, but the federal data now help us understand there’s also an opportunity gap in some schools.
–From Maureen Downey for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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105 comments Add your comment
To Brandy regarding mechanics
March 12th, 2012
6:35 am
Brandy, algebra II should be required but it isn’t because mechanics aren’t really mechanics.
Today’s “mechanics’ are just parts changers.
When you take your car to be repaired the mechanics do not have the knowlege to correctly diagnose the problem and fix the caues of the problem, they simply guess what the problem is, remove a part and then replace it with another new part and charge you a bundle.
Today’s mechanics do not understand how cars operate; they do not understand how engines work; they just remove a part and then replace a part.
Ask yourself how many times you’ve taken your car to be repaired and a day or a little later after the repair, the same problem exists.
It’s like baking biscuits.
Imagine all you do is bang the can on the side of the counter and put them in the oven. you’re not really baking biscuits, you’re heating biscuits.
If all I’ve ever learned how to do is pop the can on the side of the counter and put them in the oven, then I won’t know how to really bake a biscuit. I won’t understand the science of baking. yes, there is science in baking. If my biscuits are flat and hard, what ingredient am I missing? Knowing that requires some science and that’s baking.
Mechanics need algebra II because algebra II requires one to understand how to write an equation. Algebra I only requires we solve the equation someone else wrote.
Bakers and mechanics need to learn why and they need to understand how; they don’t only need to know the motions of it. Their brain needs to be engaged.
Good Mother
Mountain Man
March 12th, 2012
7:15 am
“Also, unfortunately, the summer break is too long. Children need to go to school year round, with a couple of weeks off in between.”
So how did we do so well in the 60’s when the summer break was even longer? The summer break has been getting shorter and shorter and grade performance has been getting worse and worse. So that is not the magic bullet, is it?
What we DID have in the 60’s was the paddle, the office, and parents that supported the school, the principal, and the teacher; if little Johnnie got a spanking at school, he would get another one at home.
Just Asking
March 12th, 2012
7:25 am
@Andy Wilburn… you are fortunate that you have the option of hiring who you want and firing the ones who don’t perform at your expected level. As a school we take all…the prepared…the motivated…the high achievers…the drug dealers and the ones who attend just to eat. I noticed that you are not complaining about the people who can afford to purchase those Subway sandwiches. You do not understand what is expected of today’s teachers…the days of the “Miss Crump” (Andy Griffin Show) classrooms are over.
Chaos
March 12th, 2012
7:27 am
@ Andy Wilburn, you sir, have lost your last mind. Since when is it the teacher’s fault that your employees lack attentiveness, punctuality, or manners? I suppose that you think it is the government’s role to subsidize your business if you don’t make enough sandwiches too?
My children are punctual, mannerly, attentive and are bright. They learned those things from their parents.
PARpat
March 12th, 2012
7:34 am
The disparity in suspensions is easy to fix – obey the rules. The same can be said for the disparity in our prison population – obey the law.
Educational success is more dependent on parental involvement and an attitude that values educational excellence than any artificial fixes (affirmative action programs) created by the system.
Mountain Man
March 12th, 2012
7:50 am
“My children are punctual, mannerly, attentive and are bright. They learned those things from their parents.”
That is what is missing from the low-SES schools – usually one parent who is missing and the other one doesn’t care.
Big Mama
March 12th, 2012
8:09 am
Andy Wilburn, I suggest that it is not the schools who are turning out these employees but instead families that are creating them. Children learn by example and the most powerful example for a child is his own parents. How can schools compete against a home environment that contradicts everything the school is trying to instill in the child?
HS Public Teacher
March 12th, 2012
8:09 am
The question is specifically…. “Is education creating a caste system?”
The answer is no.
That is not to say that a caste system is not being created. However, it is not education that is doing this. It is the lack of parenting by certain groups that is doing this. It is the attitude by some that the school and/or teachers are in charge of raising kids that is doing this.
In some areas, the kids are left to fend for themselves by their parents. Some kids are on the streets doing who-knows-what compared to kids in other areas where the parents insist that their kids are finishing their homework.
What do you expect?
Jimmy62
March 12th, 2012
8:19 am
A lot of the schools that don’t offer it wouldn’t have kids taking it if they did. I think the problem starts a lot lower than high school math. This is like what the government did with the middle class. They saw that people in the middle class have college educations and own their own homes. So they set out to make everyone middle class by getting everyone to college and to own a home. That sure worked out well.
world we live in, in cobb
March 12th, 2012
8:23 am
The disparity starts long before high school. It’s not about the money poured into a system – it starts when these children enter elementary school. There are holes in their home education that show up in kindergarten. Behavior expectations and basic life skills [in many, but not all] are missing. This would account for the difference in suspensions. Thus begins the challenge of plugging these holes while trying to teach a curriculum that is expecting every child to be at the same level when they enter school. The vast majority of those who start “behind” will stay “behind” even with the tremendous interventions that are enacted.
Once these students enter high school the need to survive and have basic needs met overrides [again , for a great number, but not all] the drive to succeed. I don’t know the answers, but I see the problems daily.
bootney farnsworth
March 12th, 2012
8:34 am
our weekly submission on how we’re keepin’ the black man down.
yawn.
carlosgvv
March 12th, 2012
8:38 am
And the social experiments will just keep coming.
Batgirl
March 12th, 2012
9:26 am
@Education Majors can’t do math, a/k/a Good Mother at 5:36 p.m., 3/11–
Years ago I worked in the banking industry and knew several bankers who could not figure 12% of 100 without a calculator. They have gone on to be bank vice presidents. Now, that’s scary and may account for some of the problems in the banking industry!
skipper
March 12th, 2012
9:42 am
“The report speaks urgently of the need to address the chronic suspension of minorities.”
Its called “Behave yourself, respect yourself and others, and value education.” There is no magic bullet. You have seen many reports, since you spend so much time on it Maureen, where a disproportionate amount of problems come from those with bad (or no) family structure. In one of your previous posts countless substitute teachers offered their statistics about the behaviour, ESPECIALLY of many of the minority students. By the way, many of those offering their answers were minorities themselves. Unfortunately, black males make up a ton of the prison population, and the loosing attitude that it is all padded stats is simply wrong; look at carjacking stats, robberies, etc. in and around Atlanta or Macon, and do the math. These young men need help and guidance from their own community, but many of the so-called experts have never been directly involved. I have. I’m sure they just read stats and devise their own ideas. Some behaviours and language that many deem innappropriate aund unnacceptable are actually violent and ghastly! Come to school, stay out of trouble, and amazingly, chances are you will not get kicked out, whether you are black, white, or green!
NONPC
March 12th, 2012
9:43 am
our weekly submission on how we’re keepin’ the black man down.
yawn.
Bingo. I went to a HS that was 60% white/40% black. We had Geometry/Trig/AlgII/Calc offered. Only ONE black student was in my class. This was not a teacher problem… we had a great teacher. This was not a school problem… the courses were offered. This was a home/parent problem. Every black child in our school system had the same opportunity I did. Virtually none took advantage of it.
Until we are able to say loudly and openly what the problem is (culture, parents, family) then crowing on and on about the problem will do no good. But saying loudly and openly what the problem is immediately brands one as “racist”. Thus, like the authors of this study, the elephant in the room (home life, culture, parents) is COMPLETELY ignored. No one single item cited by the study is “parents don’t care, there is peer pressure against academic achievement, students from a young age are never encouraged to excel in order to be prepared for HS mathematics”. Until minority communities are ready to stop blaming whitey and start learning mathematics and embracing academic achievement, nothing will change.
Slade Gilwater
March 12th, 2012
9:59 am
Did you get a personal call from BHO requesting you write this “Class Warfare” column?
Ashley
March 12th, 2012
10:14 am
@NONPC….I must agree with you whole-heartedly, as a minority woman I can’t tell you how many times I was call names for taking rigorous math courses . Starting in the 8th grade with Algebra I , not only was I encourage by my junior-high teacher but, good grades were mandatory in my household. We were products of the civil-rights movement so getting a good education was part of Dr. King legacy. Until the family unit makes education the main goal we will continue to see the erosion of academic achievement. If I had these opportunities in the 70’s there is no reason for 21st century minority students and parent(s) not to embrace these same tools given to me.
Ramm
March 12th, 2012
10:18 am
@Hillbilly D:
I agree, knowledge of electronics is important for mechanics these days. But guess what you need to know in order to understand electronics? Algebra. And trigonometry, and calculus.
3/12: Lost opportunities in education | Atlanta Forward
March 12th, 2012
10:18 am
[...] I write about the survey findings, while a Duke University economist says there may be valid and positive reasons for the racial disparities in school discipline. [...]
old school doc
March 12th, 2012
10:19 am
Clearly there is A LOT of work to be done on behalf of our students: advocacy to address some of the above saddening numbers AND addressing the lack of real interest in education by the Black community, esp. the Black underclass
Jessica
March 12th, 2012
10:24 am
No matter how much money you throw at these schools, they will not get better until the families and communities CHOOSE to value education. They will have push for better schools in their communities, but they will also have to set higher standards of behavior and achievement for their kids. Good schools are useless if the kids enrolled there have been raised to be disruptive, lazy, violent, etc.
Doni
March 12th, 2012
10:30 am
Georgia doesn’t offer the traditional Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II courses anymore. We have an integrated math curriculum. My son is in 10th grade and his coursework includes geometry, algebra II and trig. My daughter is a junior and her coursework includes advanced algebra and pre-calculus, in addition to geometry. Get your facts straight.
Pompano
March 12th, 2012
10:50 am
The issue of Blacks being disciplined at a higher rate in their schools only reflects what is happening in the community as a whole. Just check the demographics of the crime statistics in the area surrounding the school – it also mirrors what’s going on inside.
HS Public Teacher
March 12th, 2012
11:01 am
It seems that most, if not all, agree that….
1. The problem here is not caused by schools.
2. There is little a school can do to help the problem.
If these two things are true, then why does society (especially the politicans) continue to insist that schools are ‘failing’ because of this?
And also, why don’t the politicans do something about the real problem other than harrass schools about it?
AMD
March 12th, 2012
11:03 am
No, no, no!!! Parental involvement is not important at all in education. Every instance of failing to educate a student is exclusively 100% the fault of the teacher plus the educational system. A parent job is to make babies with whoever s/he wants. Kids don’t need to know who his or her father is.
Lori
March 12th, 2012
11:15 am
I don’t think these results can really be accurate. Did they take into account the fact that the students weren’t offered the course vs. those who chose not to take it? For example: A student at a school who doesn’t have Algebra II might perform just fine in college because he has the aptitude to do so. But another student whose school does offer the course but chooses not to take it may not perform well in school because he/she didn’t have the aptitude. If you don’t take the student’s innate ability into account, then the fact that they did or did not complete Algebra II is irrelevant.
zeke
March 12th, 2012
11:15 am
Minorities suspended or expelled at a disproportionate rate?? Have these fools been ignoring the news? Look at news reports! Who is committing the crimes? Enough said!
Old Physics Teacher
March 12th, 2012
11:33 am
How many times can I say, “Correlation does NOT imply causation?” Every “paper” Maureen quotes uses the same old tired statistics. Educational “researchers,” and I use the term very, very loosely, take ONLY ONE COURSE IN STATISTICS. In my required graduate stat course, most of the class just set there lost with glassy eyes (the football coaches drew up plays and balanced their checkbooks), but everyone passed! Don’t make any decision based on their calculations and “assumed” causation. Their samples, sample sizes, and relationships are smoke and mirrors at best, and dumb people doing dumb experiments at worst. When you read one of these research papers, ask yourself: does it pass the “smell test?” If it doesn’t, it’s probably wrong.
Here’s one of mine: Playing football makes you bigger, stronger and faster. You can look it up! All the NFL players are big, strong, and fast. The general public is small, slow, and weak. Therefore playing football makes you big, strong, and fast… and makes as much sense as the drivel being quoted here about taking advanced math courses makes you smarter, more intelligent, and giving you a higher education degree — which always leads to a higher income (wink, wink), right?
According to a noted psychologist (Pintrich — it was in the 90’s I think), some 60% of our population is STILL in the concrete operational stage. Mathematics – at least at the upper algebra stages – is abstract thinking. Manipulation of variables such that one can pick the right set of formulas to apply the variables in such a manner to arrive at the CORRECT ANSWER, is past the concrete operational state. The chances of success there are similar to the people on this site trying out at an NFL camp and getting picked simply because they want a higher income and football players make an above average salary.
As far as the old canard about minorities being in the majority of prison: Remember, the law is equal. It prevents the rich man from sleeping under bridges – just like it does the poor man. Rich men steal banks and stock portfolios. Poor people knock over 7-11’s. Who do you think the cops are going to catch? Sheesh, wake up people.
Hillbilly D
March 12th, 2012
12:31 pm
To those who asked me questions earlier. Yes, I did take Algebra II in high school and some trig, though I never took calculus. Never used any of it in my years in the car business and over half those years were spent in management, by the way.
As for the comments that mechanics aren’t mechanics any more, that’s a misconception. Cars are infinitely more complicated now, than they used to be, and most mechanics are working in shops and dealerships, that simply can’t afford to purchase all the diagnostic equipment. They purchase as much as they can afford, it is after all a business, and do the best they can. Then you have to take into account that most every system in an automobile now involves some degree of electronics. You have systems feeding through other systems and between that and false readings that you often get with the diagnostic equipment, it’s not so simple as looking at a certain fault code and having only one possible problem. It’s like everything else in life, there’s no substitute for experience.
my2cents
March 12th, 2012
1:05 pm
Wow – I find it hard to believe this is still going on. So what about gender differences? As a side note, I attended a private girls school and only had Algebra 1 – then went on to get a Bachelor of Science. I had to work very hard to overcome the math deficiencies from high school – I suspect that as a girl I wasn’t expected to need any more math than how to balance a checkbook. I hate to think that that sort of closed-off thinking is still going on. If I hadn’t been so stubborn about learning algebra, trig, geometry and calculus I wouldn’t have gotten a degree and I sure wouldn’t have the life I have now!
Dr. John Trotter
March 12th, 2012
2:06 pm
I originally posted the subsequent post under the fairly enlightened article about discipline and the achievement gap which was published a couple of days ago, but I just saw it. But, now comes along another one of these bleeding heart articles about a caste system, a caste system brought about not from the lack of Algebra II (good grief, who actually uses Algebra II principles in their real lives? Ha!), but from a lack of structured discipline in these war zone schools. It’s the discipline, stupid! (Maureen, I am not calling you “stupid”; this is a rhetorical “stupid.”) So, below is a post that was originally intended for the earlier article, but is relevant here too.
Maureen, the only problem I have with this article is your assertion that this notion is “counterintuitive.” Isn’t this what I (and others on this blog like Beverly Fraud, Dr. Craig Spinks, and Bootney) have been saying forever? MACE has not changed its mantra since the very first publication in 1995 wherein we stated: You cannot have good learning conditions until you first have good teaching conditions.
The key to good teaching conditions is classroom discipline, and you cannot establish and maintain classroom discipline without the support from the administration (and the students know this). You first have to establish discipline BEFORE (hey, Beverly Fraud, how do you like my caps? Ha!) you can establish academic achievement. I remember helping State Representative Darryl Jordan (an educator) in his campaign for the school board in 1996, a campaign in which he barely was defeated but later decidedly defeated a long-time incumbent in the State House. On his signs (and they were beautiful!), we had this slogan, “Discipline & Achievement!” But, note that discipline came first.
If you make your goal academic achievement without any regard for classroom discipline (as is the case among the educrats today), then you will not achieve academic achievement, unless, of course, you are at a school where the students come from strong, pro-education, pro-support-the-teacher homes. In other words , the students already exhibit self-discipline. But, when you are dealing with students from drug-infested neighborhoods, dysfunctional homes, and surrounded by violence, then these students (and I use “students” loosely) bring to school very little or no motivation to learn and exhibit strong anti-social behaviors which are very disruptive to the learning environment. The first thing that you have to do is get their attention. You have to establish structure and then be consistent and fair. The students have a strong sense of fairness.
I was just thinking this morning (before I saw this thread on a friend’s wall on Facebook) that you can be very strict with children at school as long as they know that you are not a hard a_s. If you have a heart and a sense of humor, they will like you despite you being strict. They will just think that you are “crazy.” They all use to think that I was crazy, but I have never met a student that I couldn’t get along with, even if I had to initially paddle the student, assign him several days of strict Detention Hall (not this social gathering that they have now), place him in In-school Suspension, or send him home for a couple of weeks. I have what I think are some amazing stories about some kids whom I initially had to be very tough on who eventually turned around their lives and came back to tell me that they appreciate how tough I was on them.
I am glad folks may be coming around to the reality that without discipline in place, no academic achievement will occur and, yes, the much-ballyhooed “achievement gap” will get wider and wider. We have indeed been saying this for nearly 35 years, and this concept was one of the bedrock principles when we founded MACE in 1995.
http://www.theteachersadvocate.com
http://www.georgiateachersspeakout.com
Just Sayin'
March 12th, 2012
2:15 pm
Since, for all freshmen entering HS next year, GADOE requires Coordinate Alegebra, Analytic Geometry, and Advanced Algebra plus one other math in order to receive a diploma isn’t this a moot discussion? If you assume Advanced Algebra is the new equivalent of Algebra II ( it is the second algebra in the series after all) then every Georgia HS graduate should be a shoo in for a 4 yr degree. If it’s not equivalent then none of them stand a chance according to the article. By the way one would think that since Advanced Algebra is required in order to graduate then every HS in the state would offer it plus at least one higher level math that all students need to reach 4 units. Is this not the case?
irisheyes
March 12th, 2012
2:29 pm
@GM, now I teach in Georgia. So, logic would assume that I’m one of those “stupid Georgia teachers” you always rail about. Or, I’m not? Please explain your logic to me.
BTW, it’s a furlough day, so I’m posting whenever I feel like it.
Frankie
March 12th, 2012
3:04 pm
We waste alot of money all over this state…not just the inner city schools, hell we are wasting money cleaning grafitti off the walls in Paulding county or aren’t you counting that as wasteful spending….
wa waste money at every level of the school board and school system.
yeah Zeke…look whose spray painting the walls of the school, who skip school whenever…but don’t get punished for it because Biff’s Dad is a lawyer….
Brandy
March 12th, 2012
3:17 pm
Thanks, HillBillyD, I was fairly certain that while Algebra II might be nice for mechanics, it was in no way necessary for the career as stated in the article.
I love how everyone assumes advanced mathematics ability is necessary for a college degree and to be successful in life. Oh, come on! It’s nice, it gives us all skills we may or may not use on a regular basis, but it is not necessary.
I have a learning disability in mathematics that was not diagnosed until I was an adult. My learning disability (discalculia) makes it difficult for me to do computations accurately, consistently, but does not affect my understanding of mathematics concepts or vocabulary. I suffered through 13 years of mathematics at the “honors” or “advanced” level. Generally, with hours (3+) of frustrating, exhausting, and confusing homework every single night, I was able to scrape by in even the higher level classes with a low B or a high C. In high school, I completed Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Algebra 3/Trigonometry. In college, I completed Pre-Calculus and Calculus I for business applications. While I am an educator and have a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins, I do not use any of the mathematics I learned in high school or college. I learned to balance a checkbook in middle school mathematics, to calculate tip and sale percentages in elementary school, and to estimate in elementary school. That is the type of mathematics I use on a regular basis. I have never once sat down and written out a proof or an advanced equation. I am willing to admit that I have forgotten 80-90% of the content of my high school and college level mathematics. I am able to logically think things through and to think critically, skills I feel I learned more from science courses and reading, in addition to a symbolic logic course I was required to take in college.
It is wonderful if you do use your high school or college level mathematics on a regular basis. It is wonderful if you career choice requires you to have those skills. But should you really be judging the self-worth of others not choosing such a career based upon those skills?
Every child should have the opportunity to take as advanced courses, no matter the subject, as they are able and are interested in taking. Children (and adults) who either lack the interest or the ability to succeed in advanced mathematics should not be demonized nor should they be assumed to be abject failures, fit only to sweep up after their “bigger, faster, smarter, better” peers.
An expansion of in-school venues for completing the advanced high school courses offered through the Georgia Virtual School program might help bridge the gap, if interest and skill suggests it.
Brandy
March 12th, 2012
3:29 pm
Thanks, HillbillyD. I was fairly certain that the article incorrectly stated that mechanics must have Algebra II.
It ate my comment. Argh. Well, let me just sum it up.
Not everyone has the ability or the interest in advanced level mathematics. Many (if not most) people rarely use such mathematics in their regular life. I am willing to admit that I, a college graduate with a master’s degree, have forgotten 80-90% of the content of my high school or college mathematics courses (Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Algebra 3/Trigonometry in high school and Pre-Calculus and Calculus I for business applications in college). The things I use mathematics for on a regular basis (balancing a checkbook, calculating tip and sale percentages, and estimating totals) require skills I learned in elementary or middle school level mathematics. I firmly believe that a “real-world” mathematics course is more beneficial to the average high schooler than Algebra II or Calculus.
Every child should have access to as advanced courses as his/her interest and ability allows. Let’s not demonize or demoralize children and adults who either lack the ability or the interest in advanced mathematics (or any other advanced level coursework). I am certain they will be fit for more than sweeping up after their “bigger, faster, smarter, better” peers.
Brandy
March 12th, 2012
3:32 pm
I meant to add that expanding in-school opportunities for students to take advantage of the advanced high school courses offered via the Georgia Virtual School program might help close the gap, if the interest and skill is there.
Digger
March 12th, 2012
3:44 pm
Let’s have a moment of silence for math teachers with these students. How frustrating and maddening it must feel to be absolutely unable to think on the levels required for these math courses. Hence you see levels of anger and disruption unique to math classes. Ever wonder why there is always a math teacher shortage?
Hillbilly D
March 12th, 2012
4:18 pm
Brandy @ 3:29
In my opinion, part of the problem in education is the one size fits all approach. They try to fit round pegs into square holes, so to speak. In real life, there are round pegs, square pegs, triangular pegs and pegs of every description. I’ve long believed if one can read, write and do basic math, they can learn anything else if they have the desire. And some people are just naturally gifted or not-gifted in certain areas. Some people are naturally mechanically inclined, artistically inclined, scientifically inclined, mathematically inclined, etc. Some people are just born with an intuitive ability to do certain things. We need to figure out how to help everybody be prepared for whichever path they choose.
Hillbilly D
March 12th, 2012
4:24 pm
Brandy @ 3:29
The first sentence up there should have been “good point”. My mind it does move faster than my hands at times.
annoyed with GM
March 12th, 2012
4:25 pm
GM, your ignorance is showing again. Do you really actually have children? If you have any at middle school age, you would know that in middle school NOW, they teach what used to be Algebra 1. The math you described is more like elementary school math, not middle school math.
Digger
March 12th, 2012
4:31 pm
GM is a guy with major issues.
Brandy
March 12th, 2012
5:34 pm
So sorry for the double post, especially for any unintentional differences. It seemed as if the first post had been lost.
Brandy
March 12th, 2012
5:35 pm
Thanks, HillbillyD. I completely agree with you on this point.
NONPC
March 12th, 2012
5:56 pm
If these two things are true, then why does society (especially the politicans) continue to insist that schools are ‘failing’ because of this?
And also, why don’t the politicans do something about the real problem other than harrass schools about it?
Because when the fault lies with the culture, it is political suicide to blame the culture and lose those votes.
If you went into minority neighborhoods and said “the reason your kids suck at school is because YOU don’t demand that they excel in their academics, because you won’t make them do homework, and you allow them to hang out with people who think school is a waste of time.”
The same individual who doesn’t want to hear that from politicians and school employees would have to admit to having failed their children. It is easier and more PC to blame the teacher or the school than to admit that little Tyrone should be doing his math rather than playing basketball after school till dark in the ‘hood. They would rather make little Tyrone happy than to be stinking mad because he got a D+ in mathematics. They would rather dumb down the curriculum to spare his ego. And whole community supports this parental activity.
Children of Asian ancestry, also a minority, offer the opposite view. They demand excellence. They demand straight A’s on Sanjay’s report cards. Sanjay’s friends are in constant competition … from grades 1 through 12.. to be the best in school. In his community (that includes whites), this view of school is shared and encouraged.
The two cultures are like night and day. One has failed, the other is climbing the social ladder. Politicians pander to failing cultures. They can offer money, which quickly gets the culture “on the plantation.” But no amount of money will instill the drive for academic success in children. That can ONLY be done by the parents and the community.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 12th, 2012
7:53 pm
@Brandy “My learning disability (discalculia) makes it difficult for me to do computations accurately, consistently, but does not affect my understanding of mathematics concepts or vocabulary.”
Wow! That could have been written by me! I too have dyscalculia, which went undiagnosed for years – so math was always a struggle. I just thought I was stupid at math! It never occurred to me that something wrong! Calculations that took other people 30 minutes took me three hours. I had trouble learning my math facts, even though I studied them over and over. I still have trouble with left and right and telling time. I eventually developed math phobia, with which I still struggle. Rote calculations were the preferred method of teaching arithmetic when I was in school, and caused me many a headache. I did well in my math classes, but it was very difficult and stressful. Actually, if I had not done so well, my parents might have caught on much sooner.
Fortunately, while taking educational courses, I was taught alternative methods for teaching math to students and learned new ways of approaching math. These alternative, hands-on methods opened whole new doors to me, and taught me to love math (even if it didn’t cure the dyscalculia)! Knowing math is my weakest content area, I have chosen to take many additional workshops and training programs designed to strengthen my math teaching skills. As a result, I now know a lot more about math that I ever imagined! I think I am better able to meet the needs of my students because I understand the anxiety that can be caused by working hard in a subject that just does not come easily.
I know this is completely off topic, but I was excited to see someone else post who had the same difficulties as me and also learned how to overcome it.
Brandy
March 12th, 2012
9:22 pm
@I Love Teaching, Wow! You are the first adult I’ve ever heard of who had the same exact experiences as me. Thanks for sharing and I am glad you found my story helpful. It is wonderful that you have been able to overcome your dyscalculia and become an effective educator in mathematics and other subjects. I, too, feel that my struggles to overcome my learning disability and all the coping mechanisms I learned over the years have helped me become a better educator.
N. GA Teacher
March 13th, 2012
12:03 am
The comment by “Gerald” is dead on. Schools cannot undo the pathos of the socioeconomic environments kids come from. Once a kid gets to high school and only reads at a fifth grade level, cannot speak proper English, cannot write a paragraph without a dozen spelling, grammatical, and sentence structure errors, and cannot do fractions or think formally, or refuses to do homework, the teachers and school alone cannot turn the kids around. That is NOT to say that the child cannot be helped; it just takes MORE than school. Those of us that grew up in the underclass of the 1940s or 1950s were poor BUT had hardworking blue collar parents who believed that education was the key to success in the U.S. Our dirt-poor parents, who were lucky to have made it through 8th grade, who were small farmers, miners, cooks and factory workers taught us the proper work ethic and respect for authority, education, and society. And because of THEM we went to college! The “new underclass” that seemed to evolve with public housing, welfare, etc. in the 1960s and 70s and is now in its second or third generation longer seems to hold dear the attributes that made America great (as Charles Murray discusses in “Coming Apart”. ) Also, the major unintended consequence of No Child Left Behind was the passing on of many kids who in no way deserved to, just to make the numbers look good. “Making AYP” became the gold standard for administrators while teachers simmered and kept their mouths shut for fear of losing their jobs. The momentum of NCLB leaves in its wake thousands of kids who have been socially promoted and expect to be enabled though graduation. To the blogger “Wilburn”: I sympathize because you are right in that a lot of the people you hire ARE deficient. The culture they come from is antithetical to what we believe is “right”. What I DO advocate, as a current teacher, is if you want fresh-faced, bright, honest, hardworking employees, do 2 things: call up a high school and ask for recommendations from teachers: they KNOW what you want! Second, pay another dollar or two an hour- believe me, it will pay off for you. Customers ALSO want to patronize businesses with these types of workers. If I go somewhere where the employees are unkempt, slovenly, discourteous or lazy, I will NEVER go back. Last, what used to be Algebra 2, a junior-level college prep course, is now spread throughout Math I and Math II in high school. To pass the four new GPS courses (and REALLY pass, not just be enabled for four years) is much harder than the math we took back in the 1960s.
Real Crimes - not just vandalism
March 13th, 2012
10:35 am
Vandalism is bad. It costs money and ruins the looks of a neighborhood but there are much worse things that are suspiciously absent on the Get Schooled blog — it’s crimes committed by teachers against students.
The AJC wrote a story about a Camp Creek Middle school teacher abusing students in her classroom and about the vandalism by seniors but guess which story made the Get Schooled Blog?
only the story that shows the crime by students and not the crime committed by the teacher. Why is it that Maureen consistentyly chooses to showcase information that shows kids in a bad light and administrators and lawmakers it a bad light but rarely public school teachers in GA? I think it is because public teachers in GA are her main audience and she doesn’t want to lose the money Get Schooled makes by alienating all her public teacher fans.
Money is more important, right?
Here is the story, unless of course, Maureen chooses to block this comment:
COLLEGE PARK — A middle school teacher has been arrested in south Fulton County after police say she abused special needs students.
WSB-TV (http://bit.ly/w6WOdP ) reports that Lavonne Alioth — a teacher at Camp Creek Middle School — has been charged with three felony counts of child cruelty.
Authorities began investigating after the school system received complaints about students being delayed to lunch. An arrest warrant says Alioth deprived a special needs student of adequate food, making him stand in a corner for more than seven hours.
The warrant also claimed that a disabled student was occasionally forced to get into a yoga position and she covered a sheet over another student in a wheelchair for being loud.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Alioth was released on a $24,000 bond.
gm
To annoyed
March 13th, 2012
10:39 am
Annoyed you wrote “If you have any at middle school age, you would know that in middle school NOW, they teach what used to be Algebra 1.”
You’re making my point for me, annoyed. What college graduate is intimidated by teaching algebra 1? Your point seems to be that algebra 1 is so different and much more difficult than middle school math so that of course the education major would be intimidated by teaching algebra 1.
really? If ANY college graduate doesn’t feel walking in to an algebra 1 class and teaching it — they need to turn in their diploma; it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.
GM