- Posted by David on October 28, 2008
OH, LOOK. THERE'S a new film that portrays American teenagers as distracted slackers who don't stand a chance against the zealous young strivers in China and India. It must be an election year, when American politicians, egged on by corporate leaders, suddenly become indignant about the state of America's public schools. If we don't do something, they thunder, our children will wind up working as bellhops in resorts owned by those Asian go-getters.
The one-hour documentary "Two Million Minutes" was conceived and financed by Robert A. Compton, a high-tech entrepreneur, and can be ordered on DVD from his website, 2mminutes.com. It follows two teenagers in Carmel, Ind., as they sporadically apply themselves to their studies between after-school jobs and sports. The film cuts to similar pairs of high schoolers in India and China who do little but attend classes, labor over homework, and work with their tutors. "Two Million Minutes" has become a key part of the ED in '08 campaign, an effort by Bill Gates and other wealthy worriers to persuade the presidential candidates to get serious about fixing our schools.
The documentary's argument is quite common, verging on a truism. You hear it in Rotary speeches and see it on cable news: Beware, the rising Third World powers are going to eat our lunch. This assumption shapes the American educational debate and feeds popular views (and fears) about our country's place in the world. Its many prominent promoters include former IBM chief Louis V. Gerstner Jr., New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, and former Colorado governor and Los Angeles school superintendent Roy Romer.
I share what I imagine is Bill Gates's distress at seeing Carmel High's Brittany Brechbuhl watching "Grey's Anatomy" on television with her friends while they make halfhearted stabs at their math homework. But the larger truth is that American education is vastly superior to the stunted, impoverished school systems of China and India, which, despite impressive surges of economic growth, are still relatively poor, developing countries. Our best public schools are first-rate, producing more intense, involved, and creative A-plus students than our most prestigious colleges have room for. That is why less-known institutions such as Claremont McKenna, Rhodes, and Hampshire are drawing many freshmen just as smart as the ones at Princeton. The top 70 percent of US public high schools are pretty good, certainly better than they have ever been.
The widespread feeling that our schools are losing out to the rest of the world, that we are not producing enough scientists and engineers, is a misunderstanding fueled by misleading statistics. Reports regularly conclude that the United States is falling behind other countries - in the number of engineers it produces, in the performance of its students in reading or in mathematics. But closer examinations of these reports are showing that they do not always compare comparable students, skewing the results.
For those who look carefully at the performance of our schools, the real problem is not that the United States is falling behind, or that the entire system is failing. It is the sorry shape of the bottom 30 percent of US schools, those in urban and rural communities full of low-income children. We have seen enough successful schools in such areas to know that these children are just as capable of being great scientists, doctors, and executives as suburban children. But most low-income schools in the United States are simply bad.
Not only are we denying the children who attend them the equal education that is their right, but we are squandering almost a third of our intellectual capital. We are beating the world economically, but with one hand tied behind our back.
In 2005, Fortune magazine published a much-cited article that included the claim that China turned out 600,000 engineers in the previous year, India graduated 350,000, and poor, declining America could manage only 70,000. The cover of Fortune showed a buff Chinese beach bully looming over a skinny Uncle Sam. "Is the U.S. a 97-Pound Weakling?" the headline read.
This argument became a favorite target for collectors of bad data, including Carl Bialik, The Wall Street Journal's "Numbers Guy," educational psychologist and author Gerald W. Bracey, and a Duke University research team led by Vivek Wadhwa. The source of the China numbers seemed to be the China Statistical Yearbook, a Chinese government publication, which said that the country produced 644,000 engineering graduates in 2004. But a subsequent McKinsey Global Institute report said that about half of those "engineers" would be no more than technicians in the United States. Bialik could not find a source for the 350,000 Indian engineers, but National Science Foundation officials said the real number was likely much lower. Yet, Bracey found, the discredited numbers have still been presented as fact by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez, and Senator John W. Warner.
The headlines about the United States being behind other countries live on, as other reports come out, and the media report dire news. Yet, in a 2007 report, Jim Hull, a policy analyst at the Center for Public Education, which is affiliated with the National School Boards Association, analyzed four major studies of school achievement around the world. When Hull looked carefully at the numbers, he found that the United States did much better than the headlines suggest. In reading, students in only three countries did significantly better than their US elementary and high school counterparts. "The reading performance of US fourth-graders was particularly strong," Hull said. "They scored above the international level . . . while our 15-year-olds scored slightly above the average." In science, fourth- and eighth-graders were above the international average, and only three countries did significantly better than the United States at the elementary school level. (It is worth noting that the studies Hull examined did not include India and China, in part because schooling is so minimal for so many children in these two countries that their performance isn't comparable.)
Hull also examined the frequent charge that American students fare well in international comparisons at earlier ages but fade as they enter their teen years. Some studies did show US fourth-graders doing relatively well, eighth-graders about average, and high school students below average. But when the American Institutes of Research, a Washington-based think tank, did a more careful comparison, making sure the students were actually at the same grade level, the differences disappeared.
Bracey has detected the precise flaws that warp international comparisons. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) of 1999, for instance, seemed to show that American high school students were far behind in advanced math. But the alarming news accounts that followed the study's release - and the politicians who echoed them - failed to note an important caveat. A significant portion of the US test takers, unlike the overseas students, had not yet gotten beyond precalculus. When the TIMMS experts later reanalyzed the data, comparing overseas students only with American high schoolers who had taken Advanced Placement calculus, the United States did much better. Perhaps more American students should be taking calculus, but when they did, they did well in comparison to foreign calculus students. Bracey found other differences that distorted international comparisons. In Europe, many teenagers who hold jobs are tracked into technical schools, but American youngsters commonly combine traditional school and work. Many of the European students on this track were not tested, but their American counterparts were, warping the comparisons.
There is, in any event, scant evidence that test scores have much to do with national economic performance. Robert J. Samuelson, a columnist for Newsweek and The Washington Post, analyzed the disconnect between test scores and economic growth in a column reprinted in his 2001 book, "Untruth: Why the Conventional Wisdom Is (Almost Always) Wrong." Samuelson told of the computer guru at Newsweek's Washington bureau who had an English degree but found, through a series of jobs that taught him new skills, that he had become a technological expert indispensable to Samuelson and his colleagues. "People don't learn only at school," Samuelson concluded. "What counts - for the economy, at least - is what people do at work. . . . On the job, people learn from supervisors, mentors, co-workers, customers and - most important - experience. One Labor Department study estimates that about 70 percent of training in the workplace is informal. Culturally, this is America's strong suit."
Other countries have job training, too. The Germans are praised for bringing teenagers to a technical level that makes them valuable in the workplace right after high school. But the US system excels above all others in allowing enough freedom for people to flounder and fail and change jobs until they find the niche where their talents are put to best use. It's disorderly and unbusinesslike, but it works.
The notion that the United States is losing the international economic race to China and India is also simply implausible. Those two countries may be growing quickly, but they remain far behind and are weighed down by huge, impoverished rural populations. Both countries will continue to send many of their brightest young people to study at American universities. Stupidly conceived and administered immigration laws give many of these foreign students little choice but to leave once they receive their degrees. Given the chance, many more would likely stay in the United States, where the jobs pay better; creativity in all fields is encouraged; and - another blow to education critics - the colleges their children would attend are far better and more accessible.
American primary and secondary schools have the same ability to innovate on the run, even if not as freely as one might wish, and foreign educators are realizing that they may have something to learn from them. Some US schools now regularly host visiting educators from China, Singapore, and Japan, who want to know how American teachers are able to produce such creative students. The Chinese have been particularly impressed by the fact that every Nobel laureate of Chinese descent was educated outside China.
None of this is to say that American schools don't have many flaws. But their worst failure is how many of America's talented young people they are leaving behind. Our good schools are very good, but our bad schools are truly awful. The politicians and business executives who rail about foreign competition are aware of the needs of America's educationally dispossessed children, but they don't talk about them as much. That wouldn't win them the same attention from the news media, and it wouldn't sell as many books.
We need a "Two Million Minutes" that tells a different story, about students who are striving against the odds to make their way to academic success at charter schools in places such as Harlem, Oakland, and the Anacostia neighborhood in Washington, D.C. That would turn the debate in a more realistic direction and illuminate our real education challenge - not beating economic threats from abroad, but beating our doubts about our ability to help the American children who need it most.
Jay Mathews is the education columnist at The Washington Post. His next book, "Work Hard. Be Nice," about the founders of the KIPP charter schools, will be published Jan. 20. This was adapted from an article in the Spring 2008 issue of the Wilson Quarterly. 
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/10/26/grade_change?mode=PF
- Posted by David on October 24, 2008
| SCHOOL DISTRICT |
AVG RAISE/10 YRS |
| BEXLEY |
8.8 |
| GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS |
8.0 |
| HAMILTON |
8.0 |
| GAHANNA-JEFFERSON |
7.4 |
| HILLIARD |
7.3 |
| DUBLIN |
7.3 |
| WORTHINGTON |
7.2 |
| REYNOLDSBURG |
7.1 |
| WESTERVILLE |
7.0 |
| UPPER ARLINGTON |
7.0 |
| SOUTHWESTERN |
6.4 |
| WHITEHALL |
6.3 |
| NEW ALBANY-PLAIN |
6.2 |
| GROVEPORT |
5.9 |
- Posted by David on October 17, 2008
|
SCHOOL DISTRICT
|
SALARY IN 11TH YEAR
|
| BEXLEY |
63,743 |
| DUBLIN |
60,245 |
| WORTHINGTON |
59,612 |
| GAHANNA-JEFFERSON |
59,311 |
| UPPER ARLINGTON |
58,984 |
| GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS |
58,803 |
| WESTERVILLE |
58,075 |
| COLUMBUS |
58,055 |
| REYNOLDSBURG |
57,576 |
| SOUTH-WESTERN |
57,381 |
| HILLIARD |
56,558 |
| NEW ALBANY - PLAIN |
55,926 |
| GROVEPORT MADISON |
52,663 |
| HAMILTON |
52,429 |
- Posted by David on October 13, 2008
For Gifted Few, Moving Beyond Calculus
It would be hard to find a more advanced math class in public schools than the one Robert Sachs teaches at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
That's because it isn't really high school math.
Complex Variables is usually taught to college juniors and seniors. It is offered at selective Thomas Jefferson in Fairfax County because students demand the challenge.
"This class is pretty difficult," said Bobbie Pelham Webb, 17, a senior. "It is one of the first math classes that is challenging to me. Calculus was easy."
Webb and her classmates inhabit a world of extraordinarily gifted students fluent in the language of mathematics. Sam Rush, 16, a junior, has always loved numbers. In kindergarten, his teacher sent him to learn sixth-grade math. Luke Cheng, 16, a junior, said a great middle-school teacher turned him on to math.
To be sure, Thomas Jefferson draws some of the best students from Northern Virginia. But schools throughout the Washington area are pushing into more advanced math as the high-tech 21st century demands a workforce with a deeper understanding of the subject.
Although educators and employers worry that not enough students have a good grasp of complex math, more kids are taking tough courses. In Fairfax, 12 of 25 high schools teach Multivariable Calculus in the fall and Matrix Algebra (usually called Linear Algebra in college) in the spring.
The College Board reported that thousands of Class of 2007 students in Maryland, Virginia and the District took Advanced Placement tests in Calculus AB, Calculus BC and Statistics.
In 2007, the Education Department reported that the percentage of high school graduates who completed precalculus or calculus rose from 10.7 percent in 1982 to 33 percent in 2004. And although the ceiling was being raised, so was the floor: In 1982, 56 percent of high school graduates finished with Algebra 1 or less as their highest course. That had dropped to 23 percent by 2004 as students began taking more advanced math.
Such advances have been possible, said Thomas Jefferson Math Department Chairman Jennifer Allard, because more students at more schools are being offered algebra in seventh grade. Still, she said, the usual upper-grade math trajectory is Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II, topping out at Calculus.
At Thomas Jefferson, every student takes Calculus. The entry-level math course is called Advanced Geometry with Discrete Mathematics Topics. About half of all graduating seniors take the most advanced courses. What Sachs teaches is one of the three or four most advanced courses. (Sachs is a math professor at George Mason University.)
Assistant Principal Heather Sondel said the brainpower of the students in Sachs's class intimidates others. "The kid who struggles at the Calculus level, they say, 'I wish I was smarter,' " Sondel said. "It's hard for them to sit next to kids who are so gifted at math."
For the most part, high schools teach applied mathematics. That is, math that is used to solve problems in such other disciplines as physics and engineering. It is distinct from pure mathematics, which is pursued not for its application to other things but entirely for its own sake, for its precision and beauty. To those, of course, who understand it.
That includes Rush and Cheng, who are on the extracurricular math team and who spend at least five hours a week -- beyond classes and homework -- doing work for the team. "I just love math," team captain Brian Hamrick said.
To enroll in Sachs's class, students must first take AP Calculus and another year of advanced math. "This course is really above and beyond," Sachs said.
Sit for a few minutes and listen to the discussion between Sachs and his 16 students. If you are a person for whom math is not music, be prepared to understand almost nothing, save the occasional article and preposition.
Last week, a student asked Sachs what would be on the next quiz in regard to what are called Cauchy-Riemann equations. "I could ask you to prove them," he said. "I could ask you to rewrite them in polar form. I could ask you to use them to show some function is differentiable." They nodded.
What fields do these students go into? Some head into science research, computer science or engineering. Others, Sachs said, might "become the math financial people who aren't getting good press these days."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/12/AR2008101201997_pf.html
- Posted by David on October 3, 2008
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
'Jesus was a Palestinian,' claims U.S. history text
Study: American public school books have 'same inaccuracies' as Arab texts
Posted: October 03, 2008
12:40 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
A new study reveals that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to criticize the nation of Israel before the United Nations, he could use American public school textbooks to do so.
"It is shocking to find the kind of misinformation we discovered in American textbooks and supplemental materials being used by schools in every state in the country," said Dr. Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and a co-author of the study.
"Elected officials at every level should investigate how these offensive passages are creeping into our textbooks. Presenting false information in the classroom undermines the very foundation of the American educational system," he said.
Tobin teamed with insititute research associate Dennis Ybarra for the study, titled, "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion." The five-year effort, which looked at 28 prominent history, geography and social studies textbooks, reveals American public school students are being loaded up with indoctrination about Christianity, Judaism, Islam and the Middle East, to the cost of Christianity and Judaism and the benefit of Islam.
The study also supports other assessments of U.S. texts on which WND has reported.
According to an earlier report from the American Textbook Council, history textbooks throughout the U.S. schooling system promote Islam.
The new study by the IJCR found more than 500 erroneous passages in the books, including one textbook that charged that early Jewish civilization contributed little to the arts and sciences.
An excerpt from "World Civilizations," published by Thomson Wadsworth, for example, said, "Excepting the Old Testament's poetry, the Jews produced very little of note in any of the art forms ... There is no record of any important [early] Jewish contributions to the sciences."
The level of outrageousness grew: "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus," claims "The World," published by Scott Foresman.
"The textbooks tend to be critical of Jews and Israel, disrespectful about Christianity, and rather than represent Islam in an objective way, tend to glorify it," said co-author Ybarra. "To teach children, for instance, that Jesus was a Palestinian and de-emphasize his Jewishness does a disservice to Christians and Jews as well as anyone who cares about historical accuracy."
The institute analyzes issues such as racial and religious identity, philanthropy and higher education. Its full report is available at TroubleWithTextbooks.org, where all 28 books that came under its review are listed.
The organization said its study revealed textbooks include routinely negative stereotypes of Jews, Judaism and Israel. For example, Israel is blamed for starting wars in the Middle East and Jews are charged with deicide, and the problems are rife through the three mega-publishers that have deep enough pockets to get approval and publish a textbook in the major states of Texas and California.
"The 'Trouble with Textbooks' is a very important book not only for Jews but for the entire Christian community," said Rev. John J. Keane, ecumenical officer for the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. "This volume is an excellent tool for anyone who is interested in balanced information that is fair and reliable concerning Judaism, Christianity and Islam."
The authors found textbooks that stated or suggested:
- Jesus was a "Palestinian," not a Jew.
- The Arab nations never attacked Israel. Arab-Israeli wars “just broke out,” or Israel started them
- Arabs nations want peace, but Israel does not
- Israel expelled all Palestinian refugees
- Israel put the Palestinians in refugee camps in Arab lands, not Arab governments
- Palestinian terrorism is nonexistent or minimal
- Israel is not a victim of terrorism, or terrorism against Israel is justified
- U.S. support of Israel causes terrorism, including 9/11
- The intifadas were children’s revolts not involving adults or terrorism
They also found that Judaism and Christianity are treated as matters of believing, while Islam is treated as a matter of fact. In the glossary of "World History: Continuity and Change," the Ten Commandments are described as, "Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai." But the same glossary states as fact the Quran is a, "Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God."
The study found, "Islam is treated with a devotional tone in some textbooks, less detached and analytical than it ought to be. Muslim beliefs are described in several instances as fact, without any clear qualifier such as 'Muslims believe. . . .'"
Likewise, the Islamic empire of the Middle Ages was "a time of unqualified glory without blemishes," and Muslims "always tolerated Jews," unlike their Christian counterparts. The texts use terms such as "stories," "legends" and "tales" to talk about Jewish writings.
"If the president of Iran wants to blast Israel at the U.N., he can use American textbooks to do so," Tobin concluded.
The earlier ATC report took two years to study textbooks, and its author, Gilbert T. Sewall, found the problems regarding Islam "are uniquely disturbing."
"History textbooks present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security," the ATC report said."Islamic activists use multiculturalism and ready-made American-made political movements, especially those on campus, to advance and justify the makeover of Islam-related textbook content."
"Particular fault rests with the publishing corporations, boards of directors, and executives who decide what editorial policies their companies will pursue," the report said.
One of the executives for a text critiqued by ATC, Bert Bower, founder of TCI, told WND at the time not only did his company have experts review the book, but the state of California also reviewed it and has approved it for use in public schools.
"Keep in mind when looking at this particular book scholars from all over California (reviewed it)," he said.
One of the experts who contributed to the text, according to the ATC, was Ayad Al-Qazzaz.
"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes," the ATC review said. "Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR's 'Arab World Notebook.' AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76671