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

[hislegacy]

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

"We acknowledge that some of our high school students continue to experience challenges in math."

ijr.com

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More than 10 schools in Baltimore, Maryland, failed to produce a single student who was proficient in math.​

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Out of 32 high schools that took the Maryland state math exam earlier this year, 13 Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS), or roughly 40%, had no students who were proficient in the subject, according to Fox45 Project Baltimore.​

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“It’s not a funding issue,” said Jason Rodriguez, the deputy director of the non-profit People Empowered by the Struggle. “We’re getting plenty of funding. I don’t think money is the issue. I think accountability is the issue.”​

 

[seeking.IAM]

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.

 

[Mike from NJ]

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 now 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.

With the push to train our kids to be able to get into STEM fields, we can't just dismiss abysmal math knowledge.

Even though the linked story is recent, this has been going on for a while. Here's a story from February where 23 schools in Baltimore had zero students who were proficient in math, and an additional 20 schools that had just one or two students proficient in math. These included not just high schools, but middle and elementary schools. This was a year after Jovani Patterson sued the Baltimore schools for how poorly they were teaching the city's students.

And yes, adults years after leaving school may have trouble on some of the harder test questions, but these kids are taking the test right after having studied it for the previous several months. And as you say you have retain some of those skills. You were proficient as a child, but so many of these students aren't. They're not going to be able to balance a checkbook as an adult if they can't do anything half as hard in school.

 

[keith99]

From the link in the OP

Out of the 13 schools, 1,736 students took part in the test. Of this number, 1,295 students scored a one out of four, with one being the lowest level and signifying not being proficient.

It would seem that 441 students somehow vanished! That or the reporter has a reading comprehension problem.

 

[seeking.IAM]

You were proficient as a child, but so many of these students aren't.

Was I? I stopped with math before Trig and Calculus. Does one have to have advanced math to be "proficient" on said test? Doesn't it all depend upon an arbitrary standards decision about what "proficient" is?

 

[tturt]

Agree with testing problem. No matter which test was utilized .

 

[hislegacy]

From the link in the OP



It would seem that 441 students somehow vanished! That or the reporter has a reading comprehension problem.

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.

 

[hislegacy]

That is still abysmal. How do they compete in a competitive market

 

[ThatRobGuy]

While Baltimore may be a "stand-out" with how stunningly bad they're doing, it's not just an isolated problem.

And clearly this has been going on for a while.

I'll use my neck of the woods (not my actual hometown, but closest major city)

In 2019, they released this report:
CLEVELAND—More than 30 million adults in our country are illiterate and Ohio is no exception.

• 66% of Cleveland residents are functionally illiterate

[studies] estimate that rates of functional illiteracy are around 66% in the city of Cleveland proper, and then in certain neighborhoods, up to 90%.


There's a two-faceted problem happening:
One is a funding issue. The model of "school funding is dictated by local property taxes paid" is a deeply flawed model that all but guarantees that whatever economic you're born into, is extremely likely to be the one you end up in as an adult.

As long as schools in poor neighborhoods are hamstrung by the fact that nobody has houses in their district that yield high property taxes, they're destined to get the cheapest materials as well as a lot of teachers who, let's just be blunt, aren't the "first round draft picks". (that's obviously not every teacher, there are ones who don't care about the money and don't mind mind teaching in a sub-par environment...but for a lot of them, they're teachers that the "nicer" school districts didn't want. I'll see if I can dig it up because I've posted it here before, but there was a local news outlet that reported on the fact that nearly 45% of Cleveland teachers (at the time...not sure if it's changed) were teachers who were let go from other school districts. (although they have a different name for it, something like the districts "opted not to renew them")


The other is an issue of poverty itself and the things that go hand in hand with it. There are high schools that have active gang members going there who are going there to "conduct business", and for the kids who actually want to learn something, that's not exactly a great environment. It'd be kind of hard to focus on a math lesson if you're more worried about potentially getting assaulted by someone because you "disrespected them" by accidentally bumping into them in the hallway.

 

[NxNW]

That is still abysmal. How do they compete in a competitive market

Poorly, I presume.

 

[Mike from NJ]

There's a two-faceted problem happening:
One is a funding issue. The model of "school funding is dictated by local property taxes paid" is a deeply flawed model that all but guarantees that whatever economic you're born into, is extremely likely to be the one you end up in as an adult.

As long as schools in poor neighborhoods are hamstrung by the fact that nobody has houses in their district that yield high property taxes, they're destined to get the cheapest materials as well as a lot of teachers who, let's just be blunt, aren't the "first round draft picks". (that's obviously not every teacher, there are ones who don't care about the money and don't mind mind teaching in a sub-par environment...but for a lot of them, they're teachers that the "nicer" school districts didn't want. I'll see if I can dig it up because I've posted it here before, but there was a local news outlet that reported on the fact that nearly 45% of Cleveland teachers (at the time...not sure if it's changed) were teachers who were let go from other school districts. (although they have a different name for it, something like the districts "opted not to renew them")


The other is an issue of poverty itself and the things that go hand in hand with it. There are high schools that have active gang members going there who are going there to "conduct business", and for the kids who actually want to learn something, that's not exactly a great environment. It'd be kind of hard to focus on a math lesson if you're more worried about potentially getting assaulted by someone because you "disrespected them" by accidentally bumping into them in the hallway.

I would certainly agree with the second facet, though the first facet may not be as straightforward as it may seem on the surface. In my state of New Jersey we have what are known as "Abbot districts" (technically the name got changed a few years ago, but everyone still calls them that). These were targeted as the poorest areas of the state with the worst educational results. Instead of getting their funding from property taxes they get funded by the state at a level equal to the average of a selection of the highest funded areas in the state.

Obviously with this policy having been enacted for decades it's far more complex than how I'm presenting it, and it's more complex than this wiki article summarizes it, though I think it does a fair job doing so. It cites reports and studies from the NJDoE showing that this funding has helped to a certain extent in the lower grades it's been negligible as the students get older. We absolutely should fund students equally, though if the issue persists even when that funding becomes equaled, it's probably best to also consider other factors.

One thing I'd add as to how poverty itself hampers kids from learning is how it can limit parents from helping their children learn. I think the influence parents have sometimes gets neglected when talking about education. Parents in poverty stricken homes are likely working more hours to make ends meet and thus have less time to work with their children or even make sure they are getting a proper education.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

I would certainly agree with the second facet, though the first facet may not be as straightforward as it may seem on the surface. In my state of New Jersey we have what are known as "Abbot districts" (technically the name got changed a few years ago, but everyone still calls them that). These were targeted as the poorest areas of the state with the worst educational results. Instead of getting their funding from property taxes they get funded by the state at a level equal to the average of a selection of the highest funded areas in the state.

Obviously with this policy having been enacted for decades it's far more complex than how I'm presenting it, and it's more complex than this wiki article summarizes it, though I think it does a fair job doing so. It cites reports and studies from the NJDoE showing that this funding has helped to a certain extent in the lower grades it's been negligible as the students get older. We absolutely should fund students equally, though if the issue persists even when that funding becomes equaled, it's probably best to also consider other factors.

One thing I'd add as to how poverty itself hampers kids from learning is how it can limit parents from helping their children learn. I think the influence parents have sometimes gets neglected when talking about education. Parents in poverty stricken homes are likely working more hours to make ends meet and thus have less time to work with their children or even make sure they are getting a proper education.

Obviously there are differences in the educational systems in Ohio and NJ... and what you're saying is true. If household A has a dad that makes enough that his spouse can stay home and help kids with homework, that's more advantageous than a household where the parent is working 2-3 jobs and doesn't have the energy to do anything else when they get home.... and the school funding isn't going to address that part adequately.


The differences were a lot more stark in Ohio. You can literally find a school that's a multi-million dollar facility with "state of the art everything" (I did a thread on this a while back), there's a school that's 15 minutes away from Cleveland that has a coffee shop and bistro in it, meanwhile, there's an inner city school that still has asbestos in it and no air conditioning. That certainly can't help the situation.

I can see where the "effect" of such funding would taper off as people get into older grades. In high crime/high poverty areas, some of the underbelly isn't shown until kids get a little older. For instance, it's not uncommon for a 15-16 year old to join a gang. That's far less common (if it happens at all) with 3rd graders.

 

[RDKirk]

Obviously there are differences in the educational systems in Ohio and NJ... and what you're saying is true. If household A has a dad that makes enough that his spouse can stay home and help kids with homework, that's more advantageous than a household where the parent is working 2-3 jobs and doesn't have the energy to do anything else when they get home.... and the school funding isn't going to address that part adequately.

"Helping kids with homework" is a smokescreen issue. With all the changes that occur regularly in pedagogy, I doubt many parents at any income level are helping their kids with their homework these days. Even professional tutors are having problems with whatever is the latest teaching method de jure. It's like keeping up with the latest programming language.

"I'm going to show you how I learned it."

 

[RDKirk]

Was I? I stopped with math before Trig and Calculus. Does one have to have advanced math to be "proficient" on said test? Doesn't it all depend upon an arbitrary standards decision about what "proficient" is?

That would be an extremely poorly planned standardized test if it cannot distinguish which particular areas where strengths and weaknesses lie across the board.

I was involved in standardized testing for Air Force promotions, and we certainly kept statistical data on specific testing areas and how the bulk of test takers faired in specific areas.

For instance (simplified), airmen in a given Air Force career field may need to know 50 different topics. We have a test that covers all 50 topics. Our statistics for that test over the years will track whether airmen are testing poorly or well in each topic.

We also know what percentages of airmen actually practice the different topics, and the test is slanted to weight the topics according to those percentages...in that way, we can make an assertion that the airmen as a group are or are not sufficiently proficient.

If there is a topic that, for some reason, shows a decline in airman knowledge in a given year, it will show up and we will be able to pinpoint that topic. Then we look at how we're educating them in that topic.

These are not difficult test design concepts to accomplish. They're rather elementary, actually.

 

[Pommer]

The 20th century has jaded us into believing that 90% of the population needs to be “literate”.
This is no longer the case.
Reading will be “needed” less and less as technology begins to do our “learning” for us…we’ll just have to know how to work the electronics.

O, brave new world!

 

[jacks]

Well at least they seem to be improving.. From February article.

23 Baltimore schools have zero students proficient in math, per state test results​

 

[Mike from NJ]

The 20th century has jaded us into believing that 90% of the population needs to be “literate”.
This is no longer the case.
Reading will be “needed” less and less as technology begins to do our “learning” for us…we’ll just have to know how to work the electronics.

O, brave new world!

Would you teach reading to the Gammas, or have them go without like the Deltas and Epsilons?

 

[Aaron112]

Searched poor test score on this forum , here is a result from many years ago >

Actually the solution to poor public schools IS to abandon them. The school system is totalled. It is not possible to FIX it. It must be restarted from scratch.

The public school system is a government sponsored monopoly. It has grown and metastisized until it is now almost all encompasing. In many, (most?), districts you can now have children go to school early, get a free breakfast, waste 3 hours in classes where the teacher spends more time in class management than in teaching, get a free lunch, waste a couple more hours, and then go into an after school program until the parents are home from work.

It won't be long until there will be an option to spend the night at school and just come home on the weekends.

Public school should be a place where children are taught the basics of education. Everything else should drop off.

It is still possible for a child to get a decent education at a public school. But the child needs to be motivated enough to get that education in spite of the surroundings.

In our district in the last 2 years there have been only 4 National Merit Scholars (these are students who score near the top on the PSAT tests usually taken during their junior year). Appoximately 98% of the local juniors attend public schools. Two of those 4 NM scholars had never been in public or private school their whole life. They were homeschooled and learned most of their advanced math and science on their own.

That tells you that if most of the better students just stayed home and studied on their own they would have gotten a better education.

I say, the best thing to do is to abandon the public schools as soon as possible by the most people possible. It needs to be brought to it's knees in order to be re-built correctly.

 

[Pommer]

Would you teach reading to the Gammas, or have them go without like the Deltas and Epsilons?

Only the very, very rich and the very, very poor will “need” to read.

The rest of us will be training our brains to release dopamine when we buy something.

 

[jacks]

The rest of us will be training our brains to release dopamine when we buy something.

Finally, something I'm good at!