The US Education Thread

[ursus arctos]

The US Education Thread

I believe that she does. The family is not observant.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The US Education Thread

Very good.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The US Education Thread

Interesting. Though doing well under NAEP in general, Nebraska has very large racial achievement gaps.

http://www.omaha.com/news/education/nebraska-students-buck-rare-national-drop-in-math-test-scores/article_6f3fbdfc-fd82-56db-b753-029f1fe1f8cc.html

One of the things said about charter schools by their admirers is that they boost ethnic minority performance. Some do, very clearly, but unless you're in charge of a whole area, I'm sceptical about them as a system.

Certainly work for Nebraska to do, within its charter-free system.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The US Education Thread

What's the deal with NAEP saying the average American kid is way off being "proficient", and always has been?

[Incandenza]

The US Education Thread

A lot of attention today on the Success Academy, a network of charter schools in New York. The NY Times has a video of one of their "model teachers" ripping up a first grader's paper and shaming her in front of the class, while close to yelling at the class. It doesn't seem to be out of line with their normal approach:

Indeed, several of the current and former staff members interviewed said that the network’s culture encouraged teachers to make students fear them in order to motivate them. Carly Ginsberg, 22, who taught for about six months last year at Success Academy Prospect Heights, said teachers ripped up the papers of children as young as kindergarten as the principal or assistant principal watched. She once witnessed a girl’s humiliation as the principal mocked her low test score to another adult in front of the child.

In one instance, the lead kindergarten teacher in her classroom made a girl who had stumbled reciting a math problem cry so hard that she vomited. Ms. Ginsberg resigned in December because she was so uncomfortable with the school’s approach. “It felt like I was witnessing child abuse,” she said.

The school is often held up as a model of good charter schools.

The school has also gotten attention recently for having a "got to go" list of students school leaders wanted to kick out at one of their campuses. It's been alleged that the students on the list have learning disabilities, and the school didn't want to deal with them because it would drive their success rate down.