Category Archives: creativity

Poverty and school performance

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Diane Ravitch mentions a link to Noel Hammitt’s blog on the correlation between poverty and how well a student does in school.  She taught Noel as a student undergrad.

Note:  Noel Hammitt has copyrighted this material, but kindly allows liberal use of it as long as copyright is noted.

The first chart is stunning in how the “F” grade corresponds with the kids in poverty.  Again–they are trying to blame teachers for something that is out of their control–and the biggest factor in how well a child does in school….poverty.

From this chart it appears that there is a powerful pattern in the relationship between the concentrations of poverty in schools and the assigned letter grades for schools. However, we should note that for four years Louisiana put out a report that highlighted High-Poverty High Performing Schools, which suggested that there are, perhaps, many schools that defy this pattern. After carefully examining the lists, which reported higher numbers of schools each succeeding year, with 56 schools in the 2011 release, we noted that many of the schools actually had a lower percentage of students qualifying for free meals than the state average. In addition, most of the schools were magnet schools or schools where Gifted/Talented programs were masking lower test scores for other groups of students in the schools.  Finally, there were schools like Lake Forest Elementary, in New Orleans, that had extensive application and testing procedures that eliminated low-scoring students from the schools.  We also noted that there were no schools that had been on the list every year. Not one school out of over 1300 schools in the state that had overcome the challenges of poverty every year.

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We note that although the private schools seem to have an advantage on the scores, they enroll very few special education students, and they get to select their students.

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NAEP scores can be useful checks against a natural tendency of states, districts, and schools to focus on teaching to the test, because NAEP assessments are much more difficult to game or teach to than state level tests. An example of this can be found in states where 90 percent or more of students receive passing scores in their state at the basic level, when only 20 or 30 percent of their students are passing NAEP at the Basic Level.

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I think this last quote is really important for the non-teacher to understand what is going on with testing.  As we have learned, tests can be manipulated in that the teacher is forced to teach so the children can pass the test so the schools will not be penalized either by closing them or denying them their federal tax dollars through programs such as Race to the Bottom…er, I mean, Top….so the assessment is muddied.  The national assessment appears to circumvent that and gives a true picture of how the children are doing.

Noel notes that a child in poverty can also make high grades–he emphasizes that one should understand this and not have low expectations of these children.  I agree.  The problem isn’t that the child is not capable….but they have so many obstacles to overcome every day that get in the way.

Finally, the biggest point of the paper is that just because a school is called “failing” doesn’t necessarily mean that the kids and teachers are stoopid.  Again, parents and the public need to  ask how that school was assessed, is poverty  a huge problem with the students?

Behind the science

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I found the comments in this post intriguing.   I’m like the others with the post itself, however, not too happy with it.

I didn’t know what STEM stood for, so I looked it up:  Science Technology Engineering Math.

I don’t know why education has to be divided into either/or with Math/Science and the Arts.  They both benefit from the other.  I would say Science benefits more from the arts than the other way around, but that’s just my take on it.

The comment on Darwin’s theory being used to justify power over others is spot on.  I don’t think Darwin meant for it to be interpreted that way.  Robert Shepherd asserts that Darwin saw all of us as interconnected, rather than adversaries as the social darwinists would have you believe.  I believe it, too.  That is one reason I became a vegetarian.  I only went back to eating meat because I had gotten sick and was advised that i should eat meat.  I think that we owe it to the animals who give their lives  for us some respect.  Factory farms do not do that.   Once again, it’s following the golden rule of doing unto others as we would have done to us.

Another comment was striking:

Sharon

September 14, 2013 at 7:22 pm

I think STEM is being oversold and that some skepticism is in order. Here is one personal story on top of those articles and the information provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

My daughter was very strong in math and ended up majoring in chemistry at a top-20 school. After college she was selected to be a paid intern in the research division of a successful pharmaceutical company. One year later she started in the PhD program for organic chemistry at a top University of California system school. STEM-speaking, this would all seem to paint a rosy picture for her future because she’s done everything right. Right?

But what she learned from working at the pharmaceutical company and from talking with other organic chemistry graduate students, was that much of the R&D in that particular STEM field is being increasingly outsourced to Asian countries. Not only that, but the pharmaceutical company was inclined to fill its labs with a large number of imported scientists (to save money). Some people have theorized that the reason for the current STEM push is to saturate the market with extremely educated scientists who then get stuck having to accept lower and lower wages.

In the STEM field of chemistry, American PhD graduates, even those from top universities, are not having an easy time finding work. These are people in their 20s who have been very, very self-disciplined about their schoolwork from the time they were in grade school. So, as far as our children’s futures go, pursuing any old STEM field does not guarantee success. But that is NOT what Arne Duncan or President Obama would have us all believe.

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Okay….here is someone who did everything right….and look what has happened to her.   (working for Big Pharma aside….)

Note the comment on Boeing wanting people getting a well-rounded education so they can “think outside the box”.  If it’s for airplanes, I don’t have a problem with it, but there’s just something wrong with teaching children better arts skills so they can find more creative ways….to kill people.

From the commenter Democracy:

The Sandia Report (Journal of Educational Research, May/June, 1993), published in the wake of A Nation at Risk, examined carefully its specific claims. The Sandia researchers concluded that:

* “..on nearly every measure we found steady or slightly improving trends.”

* “youth today [the 1980s] are choosing natural science and engineering degrees at a higher rate than their peers of the 1960s.”

“average performance of ‘traditional’ test takes on the SAT has actually improved over 30 points since 1975…”

* “Although it is true that the average SAT score has been declining since the sixties, the reason for the decline is not decreasing student performance. We found that the decline arises from the fact that more students in the bottom half of the class are taking the SAT than in years past…More people in America are aspiring to achieve a college education…so the national SAT average is lowered as more students in the 3rd and 4th quartiles of their high school classes take the test. This phenomenon, known as Simpson’s paradox, sows that an average can change in a direction opposite from all subgroups if the proportion of the total represented by the subgroups changes.”

* “business leaders surveyed are generally satisfied with the skill levels of their employees, and the problems that do exist do not appear to point to the k-12 education system as a root cause.”

“The student performance data clearly indicate that today’s youth are achieving levels of education at least as high as any previous generation.”

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He/She goes on to mention an article in Columbia Journalism Review by Beryl Lieff Benderly.    It’s really eye-opening to the myth of scarcity of math;/science majors.  It’s not hard to question who is putting this myth out there and why….especially when they are bringing in foreign workers who will work for lower pay.  Is the myth being created so that they can justify bringing in the foreign workers?  It would appear that way.

From the article:

It is a narrative that has been skillfully packaged and promoted by well-funded advocacy groups as essential to the national interest, but in reality it reflects the economic interests of tech companies and universities.

High-tech titans like Bill Gates, Steve Case, and Mark Zuckerberg are repeatedly quoted proclaiming a dearth of talent that imperils the nation’s future. 

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“When the companies say they can’t hire anyone, they mean that they can’t hire anyone at the wage they want to pay,” said Jennifer Hunt, a Rutgers University labor economist, at last year’s Mortimer Caplin Conference on the World Economy.

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And this, which alludes to the point I was making yesterday on the ageism in the corporate world:

For instance, tech companies that import temporary workers, mainly recent graduates from India, commonly discard more expensive, experienced employees in their late 30s or early 40s, often forcing them, as Ron Hira and other labor-force researchers note, to train their replacements as they exit. Age discrimination, Hira says, is “an open secret” in the tech world.

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I saw yet another blip the other day on the nooz of how many tech jobs are going unfilled because “there aren’t enough tech grads out there”….so now, after reading all of this, I realize they’re actually saying “there aren’t enough tech grads willing to work for minimum wage”.

And the whole debate on Science vs. Arts fails to include the argument for being well-rounded citizens who can think critically, analytically, with creativity of arts’ mindset.  I think art that is unscripted allows one freedom of expression that translates into, for want of a better word, “looseness”.  I think science is rigid where art is not (or shouldn’t be), and that translates into humanity’s acceptance of differences.  Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but there you go…

 

 

 

A Year at Mission Hill

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Here are a couple of videos highlighting a school that adapts to the students’ needs rather than rigidity.  I would liken No Child Left a Mind to rigidity without creative expression of arts and music.

Chapter 7: Behind the Scenes

This video tells of the struggles of staff to help a student cope with emotional as well as intellectual stuff:

http://www.ayearatmissionhill.com/index.php/chapter7

 

The next one, the world of work, I think is wonderful in that it gives the kids hands-on experience.  I would applaud that kind of learning with books.  I think it takes both to really reach potential.

http://www.ayearatmissionhill.com/index.php/chapter8

 

Slave life in Stagville

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Michael Twitty has a link up to epicurean’s post on the slaves and their food preparation and diet.   I love learning the stuff outside of the “normal” history (wars, wars, land grabs, oil, wars).

It’s interesting the note on slaves using herbs for medicinal purposes because they had no medical care..  I think perhaps that was the best medicine…if you compare it to the number of staggering deaths related to pharmaceuticals.

I was hoping that Michael was going to tell us that Paula Deen took him up on his offer to come visit and begin the conversation and healing…but alas…

North Carolina memory hole on voting rights

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Well, if there was any doubt that repubs are trying to interfere with voting rights….this should pretty much take away that doubt.

How is this not a violation of civil rights?  As Rachel brings up—this is why we need newspapers and the media.   Granted, they’ve not done the best job of keeping people informed, but it’s never been more clear that they are just as important as ever.

If you don’t have a newspaper that does its job, then take it upon yourself to record public meetings as was done here.   If you’re not available for all public meetings, then form a co-op of news where a group of folks take turns recording public meetings.  Of course, you need reliable folks who are dedicated to get to the truth, no matter what, and will stick to the facts.  They can write their own opinion about the facts, in an editorial,  but the facts need to be put out there for everyone to draw their own conclusions.

What if someone had not recorded this meeting?  What is happening to other states where the meetings are not being recorded and there is no proof of these crooks?  This goes back to the damage Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton caused with consolidating media and removing the Fairness Doctrine.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Earthships rising…

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..ha ha.    Sorry, couldn’t avoid the pun.  But, yeah, they’ve raised about another $16,000 towards the goal of $68k for the Malawi construction.

Woot!

You may note that they also have projects in other places--Haiti being one.  They are also close to goal with this one, too.

Here’s to sustainability and artsy fartsy creativity, too. 🙂

 

Lies Rahm told us…

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Fred Klonsky has a post up on a building that Chicago Public Schools had previously designated for destruction.

The public protested.

They promised it would not be torn down, and would be converted to a library.

Bulldozers have arrived on the scene.

So much for promises…

If you read the comment, it brought to mind the movie “The Monuments Men” by George Clooney and Grant Heslov….in it, he states the Nazis wanted to destroy the artwork and other stuff to destroy the culture…as if it never existed.  I gotta say, it rings true for what is happening now….

love the lyrics of Bob Dylan)

Earthships in Malawi **edited

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Michael Reynolds’ Earthships has a post up on their project in Malawi.  They are asking for donations for the $50,000 tuition.  I’m a little late to the party, but if you scroll down, you will see a benefit to help–$100 donation for a lunch and 1 beer. 🙂

Please donate if you are able.

I would go in a heartbeat if I could.

I love earthships’ philosophy–use local materials, build with sustainability in mind, and once folks are taught how to build, get out of the way.  I also love the artsy designs–the use of the glass bottles behind Phil Baseheart are awesome!

**edited to correctly identify Phil Baseheart.  Argh…stupid ADD.