Posted on 12/07/2023 8:46:41 AM PST by Kaiser8408a
This is the anthesis of JFK’s book “Profiles In Courage.” This is about how The Teachers’ Union and Randi Weingarten are fascilitating a collapse in math scores in US schools. Weingarten, who was instrumental in shutting down schools during the Covid epidemic, and the national Teachers’ Union are the existential threat to democracy, not global warming. Why? Randi and The Teachers’ Union have led America down the drain in the area of mathematics, an important subject in the global economy.
American students scored an all-time low in math on a major international exam, which provided the first comparison of global achievement since the pandemic radically changed education around the world.
According to data released Tuesday, American 15-year-olds had a 13 point plunge out of 1000 on the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) exam, which was given last year to 620,000 students in 81 countries worldwide.
“These results are another piece of evidence showing the crisis in mathematics achievement,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, in a statement to WaPo. “Only now can we see that it is a global concern.“
“These results put U.S. achievement in an international context at a very important time in our history.”
According to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the rising relative ranking comes “at an extremely tough time in education,” but that “these results also show that we can’t be satisfied with the status quo in education.” He also called for higher-level math classes, teacher training, strategies to close learning gaps, STEM initiatives, and other efforts to address this critical issue.
Here I am at a university faculty meeting.
Randi Weingarten, the Queen of Low Education Standards and failed Federal policies.
(Excerpt) Read more at confoundedinterest.net ...
Could it be that the country is now so diverse and trying to accommodate illiterate third-worlders at the expense of American children?
An office which should not exist, overseeing a department which should not exist.
Jimmy Carter created this abomination; no President since has had the guts to disband it.
I have mentioned this previously. Teacher unions are hopelessly corrupt. And I would know, as I was an involuntary member of one for decades.
But they have nothing to do with setting educational standards. Sure, the unions can huff and puff. And they can issue all sorts of woke position papers. But it’s the local school boards and the state who set the standards.
I taught at an urban high school. We had discipline problems. Academic standards were set low. And we were forced to teach nonsensical curricula. It was very frustrating. Oh, the stories I could tell you. But the union caused none of these problems. The author is aiming at the wrong target.
All of these problems came from decisions made at either the school board or state level.
No offense, but that’s a lot of baloney. Teachers unions are among the most powerful lobbying groups in just about any given state. If you have crappy educational standards in your state, it’s because your teachers union is 100% behind it.
> Teachers unions are among the most powerful lobbying groups in just about any given state. <
No argument there. But just because a union whines about something doesn’t mean an elected official has to listen. The root problem is not with the spoiled child. The root problem is with anyone who listens to the spoiled child.
I could give you 100 examples of what’s wrong with urban public education. Here’s just one. In my school district, 50% was the minimum score on any test. That was official school board policy. So if a student put his name on a test, then went to sleep, he got 50 points.
Students quickly learned how to game the system. Do well on a few early tests, then stop studying. Go to sleep. You’ll have enough points to pass.
This had nothing to do with the unions. Nothing. It had everything to do with public relations. School boards like brag about high graduation rates. So they set the standards low.
And many states mistakenly try to protect students by eliminating attendance standards. And they’ve made it very difficult to suspend a disruptive student. So in many classes, a teacher spent more time on classroom management than on actual teaching.
None of this has anything to do with unions. I watched my union carefully. They never lobbied for any of that.
Yes. Absolutely. Unequivocally.
They need to redo the test based on demographics like race, gender, and national origin.
Imagine what it would be without all the Asian students.
Math is hard. It’s so white nationalist.
> Imagine what it would be without all the Asian students. <
I taught for many years in an urban school district. About 5% of the students were Asian. They were amazing, every last one of them.
Side story: One of my Asian students was a day late turning in a lab report. No big deal. It’s only a 10% penalty. So instead of getting his usual 100%, he got 90%. Still an A.
But I was curious. He had never turned a report in late before. Why now? As it turned out, his Asian family had a policy. Older students like him had to help younger siblings with their homework before starting their own. And his younger brother was having a lot of math trouble that day.
So my student just didn’t have the time to do his own homework that evening.
(Yes, I did feel a little guilty having to subtract that 10%.)
Math is like most things.
If you master the basics the rest follows with little effort to the point of being a true master.
The failing of schools today is that they do not enforce the mastery of the basics.
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