With the school year almost upon us, Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
The new standardized 5th Grade reading test is tougher than the old one. Student scores dropped 20 points from last year.
Statewide, the percentage of White Students deemed to be reading at their grade level dropped from 87% to 65%, Black Students dropped from 57% to 32% (it’s not clear from the article whether White includes Asian and Hispanic as only two categories were given).
In St. Paul, less than half the students were at grade level in math, reading and science.
30% of all state and local spending goes to education but half our kids are below the standards for their grade level. We’re not getting our money’s worth.
Joe Doakes
Education Minnesota is a little like the Samoan Lawyer in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas; to paraphrase, it’s not important that you know what you’re paying for, or if you understand what you’re getting for your money; it’s merely important that you pay promptly and in full.
Speaking as an engineer, part of me wonders about the apparent shift in how the results are evaluated. Was it previously, or now, or both, that the educrats did not know what a 5th grade reading level was, and how to measure it?
And if they don’t know what the criteria for success are, how can they develop a process to achieve it?
It’s also worth noting that since 1950, illiteracy correlates really well with per capita school spending. Spending has quadrupled, and so has functional illiteracy. Spend more on teachers, buildings, and the like, and for whatever reason, it actually seems to impede learning.
Now I’ll grant that there is a gorilla in the room called “family breakdown”, but it’s still impressive that we can spend so much and screw it up so badly.
No one loves to shred the teachers union more than me, and make no mistake, they shoulder more than 1/2 the blame. But you cannot ignore the part the public plays. Saint Paul schools are cesspools built by the complacency and complicity of the stakeholders.
Mitch can attest to the insanity that goes on in board meetings, in full view of a public that just doesn’t care.
Toss in completely dysfunctional, disconnected parents, simmer in a pop culture that lionizes ignorance and immorality and you have the average public school environment.
At this point, the only thing to do is starve that beast and build again on its charred bones.
Mitch can attest to the insanity that goes on in board meetings, in full view of a public that just doesn’t care.
It’s like watching a cult meeting.
At this point, the only thing to do is starve that beast and build again on its charred bones.
Or build a newer, smaller, non-political beast, and move the bones into the “Museum of Statism” that we’ll build after we recover from the crash.
In fairness, with the “mainstreaming” movement, there’s also a lot more low quality raw material entering the pipeline.
Another “education” related topic was reported yesterday. The University of Liberia will apparently not have a very big freshman class this year. It seems that some 25,000 applicants failed their entrance exams. With acknowledgement to the fact that the University of Liberia may not be a well known institution of higher learning, one has to wonder about the questions were on that test and how they derailed so many people in one fell swoop. On the other hand, I believe that we could probably get some good yuks determining how many of those would be students were educated in the U.S. public screwal system.
Boss, I saw that too–but since the failure rate is 100%, call me suspicious for the same reason I’m suspicious about the 20% shift in reading proficiency results. You don’t get 100% failure without either a horrifically bad sample (which you don’t get with people) or (and here is your answer) a huge gauge problem.
In other words, those rejected shouldn’t feel too bad because the school isn’t capable of writing a test correctly.
The Liberian thing sounds like politics. Formerly, you got in if you bribed the right guy, regardless of score. This time, they flunked everybody to send the message that students need to study, not rely on Daddy’s wallet. Decided yesterday they’re still admitting 1,800 students, even though they flunked.