10 schools in Baltimore failed to produce ONE student testing proficient in math.

hislegacy said:

I think it might be a math comprehension issue

More Than 10 Baltimore Schools Failed to Produce a Single Student Proficient in Math​

Ten is less than 13. So three of the ten had students who tested proficient.

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Even using your logic that it is mathematically possible it would be 2 schools as to have more than 10 schools that did not have a single student proficient in math would require at least 11 schools.

Maybe instead of math they are being taught what is really important.

Wings like Eagles said:

Maybe instead of math they are being taught what is really important.

Gender Pronouns | LGBTQ+ Resource Center

uwm.edu

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With regards to the lacking educational attainment in poverty districts, that's an issue that predates the kind of thing you're referring to.

With or without pronoun initiatives, they'd be having this problem.

As far as the DEI stuff is concerned, based on the original article as well as Baltimore's policies implemented in 2019, the "D" and the "I" don't seem to be the issue, it's the "E"

The Baltimore City Schools released the following presser in 2019 (pre-pandemic)
Together with a taskforce of community leaders and partners, City Schools has developed an equity policy that was presented to the Board of School Commissioners' Policy Committee on March 19, 2019. It was adopted on June 11, 2019.

When you read the policy, it states the following as one of its bullet points:
City Schools staff will analyze and eliminate policies and practices employed by the district that result in the predictability of inequities

They go on to list the following as things as "predictors of inequity"
- Use of assessments
- Over representation of certain groups in special education
- Under representation of certain groups in advanced academics
- Disproportionality in suspension


So it sounds like it was a combination of bad policies being implemented (that eliminated testing, neglects to address behavioral problems, and was overly-focused on making both special ed and advanced programs "perfectly blended melting pots" rather than what the stated pragmatic purpose is supposed to be for such programs)

...and then a few months later, everyone getting sent home for remote learning...which certainly didn't help matters either.

It's basically the perfect storm for kids who are already behind to fall even further behind.

"There's too many kids of demographic XYZ in special ed, that looks pretty bad on the surface, so let's change the standards so that the end result is a nice even mix of all demographics" might be superficially well-intentioned, but it's certainly not doing any favors for a student who is legitimately struggling in certain subjects, and who is being kept in the regular class to artificially keep things "even steven".


The same is true for the other end of the spectrum. If you're artificially taking certain kids who are average C+/B- minus students in Math, and shoehorning them into the Advanced Trig class in order to keep up appearances, they're not being done any favors either by being tossed in the deep end with material that's way over their head.

Something similar happened with my one younger brother. (it wasn't the school pushing for him to take AP courses, it was my mom because she wanted him to get the GPA boost by taking an advanced class or two). He barely met the requirements, it backfired as he ended up going from getting decent grades in the regular classes, to D's in the AP ones... he would've been better off (GPA wise) with sticking with the better grades in the regular courses.

I'm surprised that nobody out there suggested - alot of kids just don't feel like studying. They would rather socialize and spend their time on social media and gaming and sports. I know a handful of teachers from different states and they say the same thing. Why do we continue to make this a funding problem or a social-economic problem. Kids aren't learning because society isn't making learning a super top priority in America

Suggestion: Do not pass a child to the next grade level, pass them to the next level of a particular type of subject. If the student fails 2nd grade math, make him/her take 2nd grade math until he/she passes it (even if it takes 4 years). Some people need more time on certain subjects than others. Give them the time they need.

I don't say this to be cruel. I say this because every human being should be given the chance to learn. Repetition sometimes is the best way to learn. They shouldn't be passed to the next grade if they can't read well or don't know how to multiply and divide or if their vocabulary is limited to understanding the meaning of 250 words or they don't know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions or know how many degrees are in a circle. We are shortchanging alot of kids and their future.

hislegacy said:

Simple math really

13 schools tested. Ten of which did not have a single student proficient in math.

The remaining three schools had the 400 or so cited.

It has zero to do with logic.

13 minus 10 equals 3

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Do you know what more than means? If there are more than 10 schools then there are at least 11 schools.

I'd bet most of the students who are not proficient in math can still understand that.

seeking.IAM said:

Other possibilities: it might be a bad test or there is a problem with the definition of where they have drawn the line for what "proficient" is.

I wonder if I could pass this test.? It's been decades since I sat in a math class. I stopped after the second year of Algebra. No trig. No calculus. Have forgotten my geometry formulas. Yet, I know my way around a balance sheet, do my own taxes, and dabble a bit in the stock market,. I can calculate a mean, mode, median, and standard deviation and know how to use them. I can work wonders with a calculator and Excel. Still doubtful I can pass this test.

On the other hand, I talk to a lot of kids and like to ask about favorite and worst school subjects. Probably 8 out of 10 say math is their worst subject and lowest grade. When I run into the rare student who likes or excels in math, odds are they are an honor roll student excelling in all their classes. I'm not sure what the take aways are from that, but that is what I hear in my informal poll.

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The woke approach to education is not working in Baltimore. Instead academic achievement needs to be made a priority. A major problem is that the government has been cutting funds for anything relating to school choice. The schools that fail the kids should be closed, not the schools that do well:

Teachers have been raising this alarm....for a looooong while.


Most will say it's an accountability issue with other contributing factors

Valletta said:

The woke approach to education is not working in Baltimore. Instead academic achievement needs to be made a priority. A major problem is that the government has been cutting funds for anything relating to school choice. The schools that fail the kids should be closed, not the schools that do well:

The Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys is in danger of closing following critical review

The charter school fell short of one of its requirements during an annual review by the public school system.

www.cbsnews.com

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The word woke has literally nothing to do with math instruction.
And school choice has NOTHING to do with this issue either.

For the record, I belong to a teacher subreddit and heard stories from a teacher where they had a shooting almost everyday jn a week. Nobody died but do we believe learning is going to happennin an environment like that

Wings like Eagles said:

Maybe instead of math they are being taught what is really important.

Gender Pronouns | LGBTQ+ Resource Center

uwm.edu

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Yeah. There was never a problem with math performance in America until those damed transgender folks eh?

Finger on the pulse. .. . ..

The students enter into a slow death spiral at a young age. It's probably similar for reading too.

What happens when at a young age you start having math problems? You need a little extra help, and you never get it. Since math builds on itself, the problems compound each subsequent year.

The students need a math assessment, and then send them over to the Khan Academy for free courses at their math level.

Khan Academy | Free Online Courses, Lessons & Practice

But now the students have to care and have to do extra work. They probably don't care and don't want to do extra work. So they won't do it. What about the parent(s)? They probably don't care either.

rambot said:

The word woke has literally nothing to do with math instruction.
And school choice has NOTHING to do with this issue either.

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Even a number of math books have gone woke. Wokeness has everything to do with education and the result is lower math and English scores in inner city schools.

Valletta said:

Even a number of math books have gone woke. Wokeness has everything to do with education and the result is lower math and English scores in inner city schools.

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Provide evidence of your claim.
But there is none so maybe that isnt fair.

You should read about Paolo Friere. He was an educational philosopher from brazil who was big into wokeness.

He wrote this book called "The pedagogy of the opress" where he came up with the ground breaking theory that kids whose learning is framed in a way that is relevant to them, their scores improve.


Since helping people who don't look or act like you seems to be antithetical to what you consistently seem to post I'm not sure he would be someone you'd look up to. And that's fine.
BuT his theory has been proven time amd time again and if youre interested in the insidious practice of helping students perform better maybe youd be interested in readinf his work