A Misunderstanding of the Problem

Yesterday I wrote about the drop in both NAEP and ACT scores, and I dinged teachers for inflating student grades and GPA's while objective performance slips.  Grades are entirely within the purview of the teacher.

The drop in performance, though, isn't entirely the responsibility of teachers:

Johnny can't read, or write, do math, or think. But teachers are demanding more and more money and resources that strapped school districts around the country can't pay.

The question is why. Recent standardized test scores not only don't show any improvement, they show kids are regressing. And with recent strikes in Denver, West Virginia, and the ongoing strike in Chicago, that question takes on a new urgency.

Why should teachers get more money with scores like this?

I assert that very little of that drop in student performance is the responsibility of the teachers.  Yes, some teachers do some very dumb things, and yes, some teachers learn some very dumb things in ed school (and hopefully unlearn some of them when reality hits them in the classroom).  However--and some of you aren't going to like this--the largest reason student performance is dropping is because of parents.

Teachers are people, too.  We respond both to incentives and disincentives.  There are some very bad disincentives out in the world, and while I like to choose the harder right over the easier wrong, not everyone does.  Teachers who give out lots of high grades are popular with both students and parents.  If Tough Teacher holds the line, it's the parents who try to get their children into Easy Teacher's class.  It's the parents who harangue the principal.  It's the parents who want to penalize Tough Teacher for holding high standards.  It's the parents who try to lay a guilt trip that Baby will no longer be able to get into Stanford--all because of Tough Teacher!  It's the parents who try to convince the school board to order Baby's grade changed because Tough Teacher is just a meanie and doesn't have children's best interests at heart and probably isn't competent anyway and...well, you get the idea.  It's the parents who bring their attorneys to conferences to intimidate, and threaten lawsuits when they don't get their way--when a teacher insists on rigorous and defensible standards.

It's the parents who buy their kids smart phones instead of simple communication devices.  It's the parents who don't ensure their children get enough sleep--and in bed with the phone within reach doesn't count.  It's the parents who overschedule their children, or, as the children get older, allow the children to overschedule themselves.  It's the parents who put athletics and other extracurricular activities higher in the pecking order than academics--and expect teachers to accommodate that by making the courses easier.  It's the parents who seek out 504 Plans specifically so their children can get extra time on college entrance exams.  It's the parents who ratchet up this academic arms race.

I'll agree that, with very few exceptions, if Baby can't multiply by the time he/she gets to high school, there is a systemic issue involved--and teachers are a part of that problematic system.  But that isn't the majority of the drop in student performance.  Honestly, that drop in student performance comes from a lack of emphasis.  How long do students spend on assignments?  What fraction of assignments are never completed or turned in?  What excuses are offered?

It's the parents (and the rest of the community) that elect the school board that tells teachers what they're supposed to do.  Yes, school boards adopt horrible curricula and require teachers to do some things that are blatantly insane (Seattle's recent "math is racist" framework comes to mind).  I'd swear that each textbook adoption we go through in my district, both the process and the textbooks get worse and worse.  That's definitely a part of the issue.  But once the (crappy) curriculum is decided upon, teachers should teach and students should learn.  Grades and GPA's aren't going up because teachers think students are better and better prepared as the years go by, they go up because of the pressure parents put on schools--pressure to make Baby look better, not be better. 

And don't even get me started on Special Education, wherein teachers are required to give passing grades to students in some classes.  It's not because teachers want to give out grades like candy.

Sometimes the problems are bigger than the teacher, bigger than the parents, bigger than the school, bigger than the district:

For the third time in a row since Common Core was fully phased in nationwide, U.S. student test scores on the nation’s broadest and most respected test have dropped, a reversal of an upward trend between 1990 and 2015. Further, the class of 2019, the first to experience all four high school years under Common Core, is the worst-prepared for college in 15 years, according to a new report.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is a federally mandated test given every other year in reading and mathematics to students in grades four and eight. (Periodically it also tests other subjects and grade levels.) In the latest results, released Wednesday, American students slid yet again on nearly every measure.

The author of the first linked article suggests teachers don't deserve pay raises because student performance on standardized tests is dropping.  I'd suggest that the author is misunderstanding the problem, BIG TIME.

(P.S.  No, nothing happened today at school to set me off on this rant.  I merely saw the comment about pay and student performance and it hit a raw nerve.  Nothing more.)
(P.P.S.  If you're a parent and this post doesn't describe you, then don't take it personally--it's not directed to you.  If you see yourself in this post, though, perhaps you'll be open-minded enough to consider what I've said.)

Dumbing Down

While GPA's go up, performance goes down:

The nation’s high school students continue to struggle in the subject areas that are deemed essential for later success, according to the latest ACT results, which show another decline in performance across the four subjects tested, as well as a shrinking proportion of test-takers demonstrating they are prepared for college-level coursework.

The national average scores on the subject area sections of the ACT—math, English, reading, and science—as well as the composite score, all dropped slightly, along with the percentage of students hitting college- and career-ready benchmarks.

It's not just the ACT:

The latest results of the tests known as the Nation's Report Card offer a mostly grim view of academic progress in U.S. schools.

"Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest-performing students are doing worse," said Peggy Carr, the associate commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP. "In fact, over the long term in reading, the lowest-performing students—those readers who struggle the most—have made no progress from the first NAEP administration almost 30 years ago."

Scores are going down, but universities will still admit unqualified candidates and programs will be impacted.  And some Democrats want to make college free.

Go figure.

Is This Really Bullying?

So many times on this blog I've blasted schools and districts for what is, IMNSHO, inappropriate disciplinary action against students.  Some of those stories involved conduct that was off-campus, others involved conduct that was either on-campus or at a school-sanctioned event.

This story involves on-campus behavior and unproven allegations of sexual assault:

Aela Mansmann was careful not to name any names. "There's a rapist in our school and you know who it is," she wrote on yellow sticky notes, leaving them on bathroom walls at her coastal Maine high school. The 15-year-old felt that administrators hadn't been doing enough to respond to allegations of sexual assault, and she hoped her small act of protest would start a conversation.

Instead, her school suspended her, saying that the anonymous notes amounted to bullying...

Though school officials say they are merely abiding by their own anti-bullying policies, Mansmann and her parents have argued that the suspension is a violation of the teenager's right to free speech. The students who gathered outside the high school on Monday agreed, questioning how a note that didn't include any names or identifying details could be considered bullying. Holding signs that read "I choose to believe survivors" and "Rape culture has got to go," they said they wanted Mansmann and two other students who were suspended for helping to post the sticky notes to have their records expunged.

There's no such thing as "rape culture" in the United States; if you want to know what a true rape culture is, ask the Swedes. As for believing "survivors", how does one know if the person in question is, in fact, a survivor, and not a liar? The difference is quite important.

But I expect teenagers to carry stupid signs.  They hear one side of an issue, are told it's the only side, and their penchant for drama kicks into overdrive.  Hopefully they grow out of it.

I'm not convinced that Mansmann's conduct rises to the level of bullying.  One could argue that her conduct is akin to littering, but we don't usually suspend students for littering (in California we don't suspend students for anything short of murder).

The public high school, which has roughly 600 students and is located just south of Portland, Maine, conducted seven investigations into allegations of sexual harassment or assault during the previous school year, the paper reported. In four of those cases, officials concluded that it was "more likely than not" that a violation of Title IX occurred, and took action. But in recent months, some students have said that they feel administrators brushed their concerns under the rug.

On Sept. 16, she and several other students decorated two girls' bathrooms with handwritten sticky notes, warning of a rapist on campus. Mansmann has said that the intention was to draw attention to several different incidents where students were allegedly sexual assaulted, though it's not clear if the notes were intended to call out one specific perpetrator. (Officials deny that there is a rapist enrolled at the school.)

Maybe the school officials know more than the girl does?  It's possible.

Cape Elizabeth Schools define bullying broadly, noting that it can include a range of behaviors such as "creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment" and "interfering with the student's academic performance." A Friday statement from the school district said that officials "have never disciplined a student for advocating for their peers or their views on cultural, social and political matters," but are legally obligated to take action "when a student's speech bullies another student [ ...] even if that same student has also spoken out on a matter of public concern."

Though barred from commenting on Mansmann's case due to privacy laws, school officials "are confident that the matter was exhaustively investigated and that we took the action that law and policy required," the statement concluded.

This is a very interesting situation.  I haven't yet made up my mind which side, if either, is in the right.  It's entirely possible they've both screwed up.

Update, 10/16/19:  Since "everyone" knows who the girl is accusing, I'm leaning more towards the bullying angle. After all, what if the boy in question is innocent?  He's being slandered.  The ACLU doesn't see it that way, though:

The Maine chapter of the ACLU filed a motion in federal court Sunday asking for a temporary restraining order against the district.

The high school has agreed to delay Mansmann's suspension until a hearing on Oct. 21.

For those who don't agree, what if the sticky notes were referring to a particular slut.

Again, interesting legalities here.

Update, 10/29/19:  The story continues :

A Maine school district ran into skepticism from a federal judge about its decision to suspend a female student who posted a note about an unidentified “rapist” at her high school.

Aela Mansmann “has shown a fair likelihood of success on the merits” of her First Amendment lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker wrote in an order last week, issuing a preliminary injunction...

That means the Cape Elizabeth School District can’t suspend the 15-year-old, identified in the suit as “A.M.,” for the duration of her lawsuit against the district, superintendent and Cape Elizabeth High School leaders.

The school charged Mansmann (above) with “bullying” because it construed her message, posted in a girls’ bathroom, as an attack on a specific student who was a subject of “rapist” rumors. His family said he missed eight days of school out of fear of the rumors.

This post was originally published on October 8th but I've bumped it to today because of the updates.

The 1st Amendment Is First For A Reason

A small 1st Amendment win today:

The University of Michigan settled a free speech lawsuit filed by First Amendment watchdog Speech First. The settlement ends a near 18-month legal battle over the school’s Bias Response Team and its definitions of “bullying” and “harassment” in the student code of conduct.

Per the settlement, UMich will keep its new definitions of “bullying” and “harassment,” which Speech First and UMich agree are acceptable. UMich will also replace its Bias Response Team with Campus Climate Support (CCS). The Bias Response Team will not be reinstated, and the CCS “cannot impose discipline” on students.

The Department of Justice also filed a Statement of Interest in the case, specifically criticizing the Bias Response Team.

How Can This Be?

Universities are so involved with government, and many of them are run by governments.  How can tuition possibly be rising so fast, lefties?

Return of the Jedi

After the (Washington Post) Empire struck back, Lord Vader had a change of heart (and hopefully will throw the Emperor down a deep shaft):

THIS JUST IN: U.S. Judge William Bertelsman today reversed course and ruled that attorneys for Nick Sandmann could start discovery for a portion of their lawsuit against the Washington Post over its coverage of the so-called Cov Cath incident. It turns out that on reconsideration, the Court found that at least three of the sued-upon statements were both defamatory and the complaint was plausible enough to warrant discovery...

Seems to me the Post has three options: 1) continue to publicly slime the teen; 2) admit they were in a rush to publish and took the word of a less-than trustworthy source (shades of Rolling Stone’s “Jackie”!) or 3) fight in court till the last dog is hanged and try to grind them down to settlement by attrition and financial exhaustion.

I'm rooting for Sandmann on this one.

Least-worst Decision

Joanne has a post about a school district that is using "virtual teachers" via video conference, with the classroom supervised by an "educational assistant", because the district cannot recruit and retain enough teachers to fill their classrooms.  Long-term substitutes fill in but often aren't much more than babysitters.  I'm a big fan of remote teaching under certain circumstances, but this seems like a band-aid for a gaping chest wound. 

Here's the crux of the matter:  "Who’s likely to be more effective: An American sub, who may not know the subject, or a Filipino teacher, who knows the subject not American culture, or a qualified American who’s not actually there?"

Joanne goes on to point out how states are lowering standards in order to qualify more teachers.  Because that's what kids deserve, lower quality teachers, right?

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Another study about so-called implicit bias bites the dust:

One of the best-known scientific studies to posit that implicit bias—the idea that all people are unconsciously racist, sexist, etc.—can be counteracted via strategic effort is taking a well-deserved beating. It now appears that the findings were significantly overstated...

My point is that the in an area of research fraught with replicability problems, the orchestra study was supposed to be one of the good ones.

Well, so much for that. In May, Columbia University statistician Andrew Gelman took a deep dive into the study. He described them as "not very impressive at all," and had great difficulty trying to locate the 50 percent statistic within the modest findings...

Blind interviews and auditions may be preferable for other reasons. They may even reduce implicit bias in some situations. But as is so often the case, the sweeping claims of social scientists do not seem to survive scrutiny.

Lefties and their fake "science".

Grading and Literacy

Does anyone really believe this, or do they say such things only for attention?

Ball State University recently hosted a presentation to “engage with the question of how English language practices in college classrooms contribute to white supremacy"...

“This is because white supremacist systems like all systems reproduce themselves as a matter of course,” he said. “This includes reproduction of dominant, white, middle-class, monolingual standards for literacy and communication.”

President Bush talked about the "soft bigotry of low expectations."  Schools and universities should promote academic excellence and self-reliance, not excuses and self-pity.

It's the same view I hold regarding Seattle's proposed ethnic math standards.

Update, 10/28/19:  It's not always about your so-called social justice:

BUT OF COURSE: Social Justice Activist Gets Kicked Out Of Fellowship For Constant Complaints, Claims Racism. “The student, Julia Feliz, uses the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them,’ and, according to other students in the program, would constantly tie every classroom issue to social justice issues. This took time away from science, and frustrated other fellows.”

I think she should have been booted for anti-immigrant prejudice:

A student from Nigeria said “the fellowship was an inappropriate forum for Feliz to make comments on social justice.” A student from Kenya said Feliz “was an activist in sessions” and that the activism “came out in every single session that we had.”

Feliz called these statements “NeoColonialism in real time.”

What an annoying twit.

This Swedish Girl Makes More Sense Than Greta Thunberg

Water Is Wet, and the Sky Is Blue

Only someone in higher education would need a study to convince themselves of this truth:

Students of color are suspended at disproportionately higher rates than white students and, on average, perform more poorly on standardized tests. But no peer-reviewed nationwide research has documented a link between the two disparities—until now.

A new Stanford-led study finds that an increase in either the discipline gap or the academic achievement gap between black and white students in the United States predicts a jump in the other. Similarly, as one gap narrows, so does the other.

“Prior research has suggested that achievement gaps and discipline gaps may be two sides of the same coin,” said Francis Pearman, an assistant professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education and lead author of the study. “This is the first study to document this relationship at the national level.”

So, as the achievement gap narrows, teachers get less raaaaaaacist? Is that how I should interpret this?

Here's another stake in the heart of the "racist teachers" argument:

The researchers also saw a significant association between the Hispanic-white achievement and discipline gaps. But they were surprised to discover that other factors—such as local poverty and education levels—accounted for the relationship. Once they controlled for these differences at the community level, the relationship between the two gaps disappeared. 

Hm.  You don't say.

Then the authors go off the rails:

For instance, educators might adopt ethnic studies programs and culturally relevant teaching to alleviate achievement disparities—efforts that could address the racial discipline gap as well. Using non-punitive discipline practices such as positive behavior interventions and supports, instead of practices that exclude students from school, could also help raise the academic achievement of racial and ethnic minority students.

Whenever I read something like this, I always ask, "why does this help only ethnic minority students?"  Do white students not benefit from non-punitive discipline practices?  (Next question:  does the school as a whole benefit from non-punitive discipline practices?  Ask teachers and well-behaving students if they want undisciplined students in the classroom.  Ask them if having them there adversely affects the learning of everyone else in the class.)

Anyway, I'm not at all surprised there's a relationship between the two areas.  No matter what ethnicities or races are involved, you'll always have fewer and less severe discipline problems in a calculus class than in a high school elementary arithmetic class.

An Army of Straw Man

Seattle's schools are looking at infusing anti-white racism into their math curriculum.  Doing so doesn't make any sense, and neither do some of their justifications:

If a student got the right answer, we should celebrate that ingenuity and intelligence instead of telling them there is only one way to get to that right answer.

Anyone who teaches that there is only one way to get a correct answer is probably either hidebound or incompetent, neither of which has anything to do with mathematics.

When too many black and Latino students see no place for themselves in math and science, Castro-Gill said, it’s important to be explicit about how their own cultures contribute to math and how they can use it to make their communities, and the world, better.

Modern black and Latino culture doesn't contribute to today's math.  Neither does modern white and/or American culture.  Castro-Gill, "Seattle’s ethnic studies director", is an idiot.

“What they’re doing follows the line of work we hope we can move forward as we think about the history of math and who contributes to that, and also about deepening students’ connection with identity and agency.”

What say that, instead, we work on deepening students' understanding of mathematics?  That's what you'd do if you really wanted to help them, truly wanted to give them a better-than-average chance in the adult world.  "Agency"?  I do not think that means what you think it means.

Ethnomathematics, which studies the intersection of math and culture, took shape in the late 1970s, introduced by Brazilian math professor Ubiratàn D’Ambrosio. Leading thinkers in the field now include Linda Furuto at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa and Filiberto Barajas-López at the University of Washington’s school of education in Seattle.

More recently, some scholars, most prominently Rochelle Gutiérrez at the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, have begun advocating for a “rehumanizing” of mathematics, which places dynamics such as race and oppression at the center of conversations about math and culture.

I've argued many times against so-called ethnomathematics, especially the views of Paolo Friere.  (What is it with those Brazilians, anyway?)   The argument is always the same--math is a tool.  It's neither good nor bad.  It can be put to use for good or for evil.  If you're not good at using that tool, it's not the tool's fault.  There's no race and oppression going on here except in the feeble minds of people who look for it where it doesn't exist.  Orwell taught us that 2+2=4, and from that all other freedoms flow.  Such a view is oppressive only to those who choose to believe it so.

“Math education has been very focused on access and closing the achievement gap, around grit and growth mindset. Those ideas are centered around individuals, and ways of thinking they need to adopt. We haven’t focused enough on identity or systems of power,” Gutiérrez said. 

It should be focused on adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, fractions, decimals, and percents.  Those who master those simple topics will have the world at their door.  Those who don't will complain that people aren't knocking on their door--why, because everyone else is racist, or something?

Starting the conversation with a sigh, he said it’s too bad that Seattle blended important ideas with highly controversial ones.

“We all want students of color to be included, believe they can learn math, and see themselves as mathematicians,” he said. “It’s important for them to learn about great contributions to mathematics from all cultures—Indian and Chinese and Babylonian.

“But you don’t need to talk about liberation and oppression and how Western mathematics has somehow taken over. It just turns people off and makes the goal of being inclusive that much tougher.”

Very little of our mathematics focuses on where on the planet our current conceptions derive from.  I'm not interested in teaching social studies, although some of the history is very interesting.  I'm interested in teaching mathematics, not social studies, not social justice, not politics and oppression.  Save that stuff for the race hustlers.

By the way, I'll bet today's Indians and Chinese--not to mention the Koreans and the Singaporeans and even the vaunted (in the education world) Finns--are shaking their heads at such silliness coming out of the United States.

Hiatus

Family issues. *sigh*

I'm going to take a few days off blogging. Please check back this upcoming weekend.

Third World For Another Decade

Electricity delivery in much of Northern California will have third-world-reliability for the foreseeable future:

The CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. told California energy regulators that the state will likely see blackouts for another 10 years like the one imposed last week that left as many as 800,000 customers without power.

The revelation by corporation CEO Bill Johnson came Friday at a California Public Utilities Commission meeting at which he said his company is trying to reduce the chances of wildfires by trimming more trees and using technology to target smaller areas of the grid when fire dangers require power outages.

But Johnson said it could take 10 years before such outages are "really ratcheted down significantly."

I'm Old Enough To Remember When Paper Grocery Bags Were Bad, And Plastic Bags Were The Improvement

This video from BBC is very elucidating.  If you consider the entire life cycle of paper, cotton, and plastic bags, how many times would you have to use paper or cotton bags before the environmental impact (water, electricity, etc) is the same as that of a plastic bag?  I find the information exceedingly interesting.

Instead of banning plastic bags, why not just promote recycling them?  Is it because liberals always resort to compulsion to achieve their means?  (Ans:  yes.)

Camping in National Parks

Now that I'm older and like (and can afford) a few more amenities, I wouldn't mind this at all:

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Food trucks. Wi-Fi. Hot showers.

Those campground upgrades could be coming to a national park near you.

The Interior Department is reviewing recommendations to modernize campgrounds at national parks. The recommendations posted online this week come from an advisory committee created under former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that has been looking at ways for private businesses to operate on public lands.

Ethics and the Partisan Divide

This article is as important as Haidt's book The Righteous Mind:

What Teaching Ethics in Appalachia Taught Me About Bridging America’s Partisan Divide

If It Weren't For Double Standards...

If it weren't for double standards, the left (and their press toadies) would have no standards at all:

‘SUCH HYPOCRITES!’: FORMER GOV. JAN BREWER (R-AZ) SLAMS MEDIA RESPONSE TO PELOSI FINGER-WAGGING.

Brewer was photographed poking her finger in President Barack Obama’s face when he visited Arizona in January 2012. She claimed that after giving him a written invitation to inspect the crisis on the Arizona border, the two engaged in a heated discussion about a passage in her book, Scorpions for Breakfast, which depicted Obama as condescending and dismissive.

Brewer took flak for her finger-pointing from both the media and the public, who accused her of disrespecting the presidency. More than 12,000 letters flooded her office in the ensuing days, most of which condemned her, calling her “trashy” and “tasteless.” Likening the act to belching at the president, a writer for the Washington Post scolded her, “If a thing is frowned upon in general, it’s even worse to do it to the president in particular.”

By contrast, Pelosi has met with adulation and gratitude from liberals after President Trump tweeted an image of her standing up during a meeting and wagging her finger at him.

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines (and DNC talking points) and it all makes sense.

Shamelessly lifted in its entirety from Instapundit.

I Can't Believe It's Been 20 Years

Galaxy Quest came out 20 years ago.  I'm not convinced it was the best Star Trek movie ever made, but it was certainly up there! 

And if you've never seen Free Enterprise, in which Shatner stars as himself, do yourself a favor.  It would help if you were familiar with some classic Sci Fi movies, especially Logan's Run, or you'll miss half the jokes.

Never give up, never surrender!

30 Years Ago Tonight

I was a lieutenant in the army, stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado. I was the executive officer, the 2nd in command, of my Air Defense Artillery battery. We had a good commander, good officers, good NCOs, and good soldiers. I was enjoying life then.

My commander and I were working late. Officer stuff. Planning and organizing. Coordinating. Whatever it was, it must've been important--he had a beautiful wife and two kids he could have been home with, but instead he was working with me. Late at the office. It was dark when we left the S&A (supply and admin building, what anyone anywhere else would call our Battery HQ).

The BC (battery commander) and I, along with the First Sergeant, had identified parking spots directly in front of our S&A. He backed out first, then I did, then we both headed down the one-way parking lot towards the street. He stopped and came running back to my pickup.

He knew I was from Northern California. "There was an earthquake. San Francisco has been destroyed!" There was still a song playing on my radio station, but I found news soon enough. I lived only 5-10 minutes away, in an apartment just outside of post. I turned on the tv as soon as I got home.  It was continuous coverage, we were watching feeds from the local San Francisco stations. Which streets were blocked, and what detours were available, were of no use to me, but they kept showing the worst of the pictures--Candlestick Park rocking during the Battle of the Bay World Series, the Marina District, the Bay Bridge.

I had relatives in San Jose, in the South Bay. Knowing that I shouldn't call them, that I shouldn't tie up even one phone line during such an emergency, I called my mother in the Sacramento area. We feel earthquakes in Sacramento sometimes, but they're always far away. Sacramento doesn't get earthquakes, I knew it would be OK to call there. I did, and learned my family had already called from San Jose and they were fine.

I watched the news for awhile, and when I didn't learn anything new, I went to bed. That was 30 years ago tonight.