AVERAGE IQ BY COUNTRY 2012
Posted on 10/02/2015 7:10:59 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
California Sen. Holly Mitchell (D) connects the lack of racial diversity in Silicon Valley with racially motivated “math misplacement.”
She claims middle-school algebra teachers are holding back black and Latino kids from advancing to ninth-grade geometry, even though they are doing just as well as white kids who are getting a grade of “B” or better, and are meeting or exceeding state standard assessments.
However, the study that Mitchell and others supporting her effort cite as proof of their position also shows the real problem is actually with middle-school algebra teachers. Many of them just aren’t very good at their jobs.
The study also shows teachers’ judgment could be affected by a ferocious academic debate over whether algebra should even be taught in middle schools.
Legislation authored by Sen. Mitchell, which is intended to protect black and Latino students from being pushed to the back of the mathematics classroom bus, has received bipartisan support.
Senate Bill 359 was recently passed out of the California Assembly on a 77-0 vote. It awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown (D).
The bill requires public school districts to develop and adhere to performance and assessment-based standards for assigning students to math courses.
Isn’t that what always happens, especially in math courses? If the numbers add up, students advance, right?
Wrong, according to Mitchell. She pointed to a 2010 Noyce Foundation Pathways [1]study that Mitchell said found that African-American and Latino students, in particular, were improperly held back in nine Bay Area school districts despite having demonstrated proficiency on state standardized math tests.
More simply put, Mitchell said white kids were moved into advanced classes while black and Latino kids with the same or sometimes better scores were held back.
“Kids deserve the best shot we can give them at success,” said Sen. Mitchell. “Yet too many students who are working hard to build the skills they need to be successful in our economy are being prevented from doing so.”
Whatever the cause of the problem, there is no doubt the Silicon Valley tech community has been criticized for its lack of racial and gender diversity.
A 2014 Brookings Institution report showed African-Americans and Latinos hold fewer than four percent of the jobs at the six largest Silicon Valley tech companies.
Given that nearly 60 percent of California’s children belong to those ethnic groups, while technology jobs are projected to grow by 22 percent in the state over the next five years, advocates of SB 359 said opening a career pipeline for children of color into STEM careers is crucial for both them and the state.
“California and its economy can no longer afford to allow successful students, particularly those of color, to be unnecessarily held back in math due to a lack of fair, transparent and objective math placement policies in school districts,” said Dr. Emmett Carson, CEO and president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Alice Huffman, the president of the California State Conference of the NAACP, and Andrea Deveau, the California executive director of TechNet, a bipartisan network of innovation economy executives, expressed support for Sen. Mitchell’s proposal in an op-ed column they co-authored for the Sacramento Bee.
“The number of minority applicants for jobs in tech and other STEM industries is not keeping pace with the overall diversity of the workforce. Latinos and African Americans combined make up 58 percent of California’s children and future workforce. With statewide STEM jobs expected to grow by 22 percent over the next five years, we should be removing obstacles that prevent students from advancing in math,” Deveau and Huffman wrote.
“There is a clear connection between the math misplacement problem and the lack of diversity in STEM. If kids fall behind in math in the ninth grade or sooner, they won’t have enough time to take courses that colleges require a math or science major to have taken,” they added.
Alicia Berhow, the vice president of Workforce Development and Advocacy for the Orange County Business Council, also endorsed SB 359 in an op-ed for Fox & Hounds.
“With a large population of minority, particularly young Latino students, representing the future workforce of the Los Angeles and Orange County region,” she wrote, “we cannot allow mistakes in math placement to result in students being unfairly held back in math and thrown off a STEM career trajectory.”
However, Steve Waterman, the author of the Noyce Foundation Pathways study, wrote, “There is no evidence that any district set out to hold back any students of color or to advance one ethnic group rather than others.”
“Rather, the movement to Algebra in eighth grade seems to have run into a series of unwritten beliefs and rules,” Waterman added in the introduction of his report.
He wrote the real problem is what teachers believe about the ways “students prove they understand math, the ways students demonstrate they have the ‘right stuff’ to advance in math, how much math is needed, when topics should be introduced, whether mathematics is linear, how important homework is, how much a teacher should reach down, and what a teacher should do when a student fails to understand a concept.”
Waterman stressed it is this confusion on the part of teachers that really impacts lower-income students because they rely on teachers for classroom help more than middle- and upper-middle income students, who are more often helped by their parents.
He also wrote that blaming “math misplacement” on racism could also exacerbate the problem, because no one wants to talk about the real causes.
“Unfortunately, belief systems are intractable precisely because they are rarely expressed.”
It’s a worldwide issue
The teachers in mostly minority schools are horrible and math is one of their major weaknesses. So it’s not surprising.
The other thing is that having good language skills is essential to understanding math concepts. Hispanics come out of a foreign language background and have not received good English instruction for the most part. Blacks come out of a culture that speaks a completely non-standard English that can’t even accommodate mathematical concepts. So they need to learn English too.
RE: It’s a worldwide issue
SEE POST #23
I know orientals are holding us all down now
Quite a change since the Sandpiper
Wrong, Mitchell.
The study did not find that at all. It found that "placement decisions are correlated to ethnicity and parent education, but not gender", but as to the crucial question of whether successful Latino and African-American students test-takers were held back despite their good test scores, the study had this to say:
"However, even among the “successful” eighth grade Algebra students, placement in ninth grade varied – with Asian students showing the highest percentages in Geometry or Advanced Geometry (77%) and Filipino students with the lowest (40%), while Latino and white students were approximately equally successful at about 66% enrolled in Geometry. Other ethnic groups samples were too small for inclusion. "
“Are we EVER going to run out of excuses for the enduring social pathogies of minorities?”
Nope. Math requires self-discipline, which too many of them lack.
I take it you've not examined very many college major courses of study recently. Colleges of business, science, agriculture, and engineering at my alma mater have a calculus requirement in most majors by the sophomore year. Introductory Physics courses are delineated as requiring or not requiring Calculus. Engineering majors of most every stripe will not be admitted into the professional courses (junior-level and above) without calculus as it forms the basis of classes like thermodynamics.
From what I have personally observed, it is no surprise to me that black kids are apparently lagging behind in math achievement or any other sort of academic achievement. And it is no surprise to me that some libtard is attempting to make excuses for their behavior and deflect the finger of blame on people who are not responsible for their failure. The subways keep on rolling for everybody; they just didn't get on the train.
There was a post where someone pointed out all of the inbreeding in muslim countries and how that diminished intelligence.
Who ruined Israel’s curve?
RE: Who ruined Israel’s curve?
Israel is a country that accepts Jews from all over the world.
Remember Operation Solomon?
That was a covert Israeli military operation to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1991. Non-stop flights of 35 Israeli aircraft, including Israeli Air Force C-130s and El Al Boeing 747s, transported 14,325 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 36 hours.
Just for your consideration.
What I discovered in my travels is that not all students who take Algebra 1 in grade 8 go beyond Geometry and Algebra 2 in high school math. Ironically, by not taking a math course Senior year of high school they suffer a disadvantage when they have to get back to it in college. Some find their way around that college math requirement by taking a watered down "Advanced Algebra" course or whatever.
Meanwhile, many others who take their Calculus in college find themselves with a course outline that is in sync with what the college expects.
Unce tice fee times a madey.
That was a covert Israeli military operation to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1991. Non-stop flights of 35 Israeli aircraft, including Israeli Air Force C-130s and El Al Boeing 747s, transported 14,325 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 36 hours.
Interesting, thanks.
OK, sorry for not following on the fact you were talking about HS. I agree about those not getting any math as seniors are handicapped when they have to jump back into it in college. The college-prep sequence my 2 kids experienced was Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Calculus/Trig. Some advanced students got to start Algebra I in the 8th grade.
Teachers dont hold back students, thats up to counseling and admin.
Math report card grades aren’t subjective like English grades. Either the answer is right or it’s wrong and you fail. If you don’t turn in your homework, it’s a 0. No matter how well one does on a state test, it doesn’t make up for not turning in homework. Schools have assignment grades online these days. There is no excuse for a parent not to know that all of little Latishia’s zeros for no homework are going to fail her.
1. If you are getting “B's” in the regular math class in 8th Grade, you don't belong in an advanced class.
2. Most schools have the test tools and curriculum to determine who goes to the advanced math classes much earlier than 8th grade, usually around 4th grade. If you didn't get selected for the advanced math program by 6th grade, the bus has passed you by.
3. If you are getting B's in the regular math class in 8th grade, the only job you're getting in Silicon Valley is 3rd shift assistant men's room attendant.
No, because nobody in power is able to face the truth: IQ matters. Even major conservatives will not speak the truth for fear of being called racists.
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