Only 17% Of Black Students In Maryland School District Scored Proficient In Math

[daboywonder2002]

They do this in Howard County. They'll identify kids who, while they might not necessarily have the grades that warrant them in Honors or GT classes -they do the work, participate in classes, are none disruptive- and put them in a higher level.

For me personally, I prefer a private or charter school. I just don't like public schools because I feel they put too much emphasis on these exams. I want a more diverse curriculum, not just reading and math. I want my kids learning a foreign language. To me, if you start early, they can become more fluent. Plus in the job market, that's a win if you speak another langauge. I want her to learn science, history, music. Stuff that's gonna make kids more well rounded.

 

[EndDomination]

Another book I would recommend is...

Her argument is that leisure reading is a major factor in academic performance, if children only look at reading as a "job" it serves as a long term disincentive. Sad truth is even a large number of my Black white collar friends admit to not reading for leisure.

This is something I believe wholeheartedly.
As a person that scored high on every standardized test I've ever taken, same for my brothers for the most part and a lot of my friends: we're all casual readers. From Harry Potter to Capitalism and Schizophrenia, to the NYTimes everyday, we devour books.
I've never come across a standardized test problem (outside of some Geometry I hadn't learned at the time) that seemed especially difficult.
When I got to college and even now in law school, the same is true; its always in the text.

That’s the main difference between my son and I. He has came up in this YouTube obsessed generation, and books are definitely looked at as a chore. I read books like there was no tomorrow. I need to be mor strict on his reading time/screen time balance. As of now, he gets 2 hours of screen time a weekday. I’ll check this one out as well.

This is important.
But its not "Youtube," when I was a kid it was "video games," when my dad was a kid it was, "too much rough-housing outside" and so on.
It really is just a need to ensure kids develop a healthy curiosity and want to feed said curiosity.

 

[boskey]

As a person that scored high on every standardized test I've ever taken, same for my brothers for the most part and a lot of my friends: we're all casual readers. From Harry Potter to Capitalism and Schizophrenia, to the NYTimes everyday, we devour books.

Yup. I'm the same way. Kill every standardized test. Curiosity starts very young. I'm not a super big reader as an adult,I might read 2 books a year, but growing up I read whatever I could find and even read the encyclopedia basically every day cuz I wasn't allowed to watch TV until i finished my homework and "studied" for 2 hours.

My brother and my best friend were both terrible students, barely did homework or projects and had to do summer bridge programs and community college before going to 4 year schools. But once they got in they were both average and above average students cuz even tho they hated the "structure" of high school they appreciated learning cuz our parents forced us to read...

 

[Thanos]

Looking back, I definitely hate the structure of the education esp for HS. (excluding state exams)

• The way Magnet/Honors worked here is that rewarded you if you didn't have the magnet work ethic but passed some exam that given in 5th/8th grade. If you were smart and you didn't have the opportunity, you are basically an assistant professor in normal courses.
  
• A lot of courses aren't interactive enough between the students and the professor. I hated listening to long lectures about boring topics, I could just skip to play some soccer. Do not dictate to them, let em participate.
• The busy work didn't help me learn a topic and any more than actual lecture, what got me learning and curious about learning was proper implementation of what I learned.

fukk it, if I get a kid, he's going to be home schooled.

 

[IrateMastermind]

Breh fukk all that "this too long" this type of information is priceless. Actual techniques with the positive results to back it up.

Can you share 2 or 3 of the most influential books you read which led you to try stuff like this with your daughter?

Nassim Nicholas Talebs’s 4 books have shaped my life more than anything else. I found him in 2008 and I reread (now listen) to them annually. I can’t say these books directly lead to me doing any of the parenting things I mentioned but I don’t think I would have gotten to where I am without. I’ll warn you though. His first two books i labored through because a very successful dude recommended them to me. I’m glad I did.

One example that stands out to me is once in a lifetime opportunities. Most people come across them and treat them like they’ll leap at the chance when it’s more convenient. You can ask a lot of old heads about their woulda coulda shoulda moment. If they live with regret they probably passed on a shot that never came back to them.

Uh... “the signal and the noise” is another abstract book that didn’t lead to any one thing but it made me scrutinize information and I’m better able to see what works by narrowing down the cause of things. Again, i wouldn’t consider this a self help book but I’m able to apply what I’ve learned in one domain to another domain.

“How children succeed: grit determination and the hidden power of character” gave me the idea of never telling her she couldn’t. And making sure she wasn’t afraid to speak up. Ever since she was 4 she’s been ordering her own food a restaurants. Most people are afraid to ask for what they need, especially women. I didn’t want that for her. The book beats the concept of try hard to death. It could’ve been much shorter but the author tried to character develop too much.

When it comes to nutrition “the personal paleo code” is a good one. “Grain brain” is another. “Head strong” is good. I had a friend of a friend who would complain about his son always getting into trouble at school. I told him to change his sons breakfast and he reluctantly tried it. It ended up working out for the kid but the dad said he got tired of fighting his son in the morning and caved. Started giving him pancakes and shyt again. The kid went right back to misbehaving. The story ends with the parents putting the kid on Ritalin.

If you have a specific question feel free to ask. I might not have the answer but if I do I’ll share it the way others have for me.

 

[get these nets]

About the leisure reading, I can agree with that. You expand your vocabulary so much. I got so much out of even reading comic books as a kid.....Thor, Dr Strange especially. I was taught to underline word I didn't understand, and to later look it up and put the defintion or synonym in the same line in margin.

The suggestion I make to relatives is to find out what topics interest the child...then go find books/magazines that they will want to read. I've ordered multiple print subscriptions of Sports Illustrated for Kids for young male relatives. for example

Get them a kid's dictionary to look up the words they might not understand.

 

[BuckFilly]

numbers seem iffy if true
wholetime tho, what the hell the schools doing with all the casino money they receiving?

 

[get these nets]

Most scholars have found that when you control for income and wealth, white students still outperform their black peers. If you or anyone else reading this thread has the time, I would recommend giving this a quick read: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/9780815746096_chapter1.pdf.

There are countless explanations for why the test score gap persists even when you account for differences in income, schooling, and wealth, and some of them are very but that's a subject for another day.

Thanks, downloaded this a few days ago and tried reading it twice.
I'm not a fan of smilies, but you used the MJ hitler moustache one correctly here.On the very first page...in the notes

"We have concentrated on the black-white gap because far more is known about test performance among blacks and whites than among other groups. This reflects the fact that white American scholars have traditionally been more concerned about the plight of blacks than about the plight of other minorities,"


What? Both times I tried to read it, I laughed reading that and stopped. Gonna read it because I like to read things that challenge what I already think, though I'm countering everything in my mind as I'm reading it.

 

[Dr. Hibbert's Revenge]

Thanks, downloaded this a few days ago and tried reading it twice.
I'm not a fan of smilies, but you used the MJ hitler moustache one correctly here.On the very first page...in the notes

"We have concentrated on the black-white gap because far more is known about test performance among blacks and whites than among other groups. This reflects the fact that white American scholars have traditionally been more concerned about the plight of blacks than about the plight of other minorities,"


What? Both times I tried to read it, I laughed reading that and stopped. Gonna read it because I like to read things that challenge what I already think, though I'm countering everything in my mind as I'm reading it.

for actually downloading and reading it. the good thing about that chapter is that its authors refuse the heriditarian explanation and are optimistic about the ability of black students to eventually bridge the test score gap, though they warn it will be a long and difficult process.

 

[HabitualChiller]

I was smart enough that I could bullshyt for 95% of the year and still pass. Algebra was a bytch though. I struggled so much at it because I(this is a really dumb reason why, too) didn't like how there were letters AND numbers in problems when I was in the 4th grade so I literally hit the '' and quit.

fukked my dumb ass up for the next 8 years. It wasn't until the 12th grade that I finally started to get it and even then, I found it so goddamn boring that I couldn't find the motivation to try until the last 2 months of the year. I did homework half of the time and even that half was because I would grab answers off of classmates or online.

Geometry, on the other hand, was fun as shyt so I did my work more often and scored better on tests. It turns out that I fukk with shapes a lot more than linear equations.

Edit: I find algebra a lot easier now that I'm 2 years removed from high school.

 

[TheAnointedOne]

disturbing

 

[DEAD7]

"Without mathematics we're lost and subject to the ones that know mathematics." - The Honorable Elijah Muhammad

 

[Deuterion]

Does it take into account that many schools funnel Black students into terrible classes with fewer resources while it funnels whites and asians into better classes via the "honors" and "AP" system? You can literally have a single school and have two different qualities of education being given depending on race. I've seen that shyt first hand...I was in classes that didnt even have enough resources to print copies of homework for us while AP and Honors didnt have that issue.