Posted on 11/01/2011 6:48:25 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
On the nation's report card, California schools have advanced from failing to -- failing a teensy bit less.
Despite posting minute gains this year, California students scored at nearly the bottom of the nation in reading and math, test results show. In reading, California performed worse than all other states and only outscored Washington, D.C. In math, state fourth-graders ranked above only D.C. and Mississippi; eighth-graders did a notch better, also outscoring Alabama.
The National Assessment of Education Progress is administered every other year to a sampling of students across the country. It is the only nationally standardized test for public schools. California students have typically performed poorly, both overall and in comparison to other children.
Education reformers reacted with dismay.
"Slow, incremental improvement is not enough for our kids," said Arun Ramanathan, executive director of the Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based advocacy group. Further, he said, "These results show just how far out of the mainstream, of the national education reform conversation, that California is right now."
Other large diverse states, like Texas, Florida and New York, performed better.
California schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson gave a more nuanced reaction. "Asked to do more with less, students, teachers, school employees and administrators have delivered. Imagine how much more they could accomplish," he said in a prepared statement, "with the resources they deserve."
For several years, California has steadily cut public education budgets and laid off teachers.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Agree that IQ doesn’t guarantee success. Lots of high IQ folks are failures. Damn few low IQ people are a stunning success. It takes both IQ and self discipline to succeed. The latter is a trainable skill.
The “incentive” of college should be based on merit/effort as you said. Just because some kid can fog a mirror doesn’t mean they “deserve” anything, let alone $100k in taxpayer dollars to go party at a college. EARN IT!
But of course, that mentality is contrary to the liberal agenda.
The colleges here in the US are raping the taxpayers via student loans/grants for tuition on those who shouldn’t have gone past the 8th or 9th grade. It’s a freakin’ scam.
I was looking at the CA API results and the scores drop dramatically from 8th grade on. Not one “subgroup” saw an increase in scores after the 8th, they ALL dropped.
Yet, little Juan and Suzy “deserve” to go to college.
My point still stands. There is not a genetic reason that blacks can’t be successful professionals or technicians. Sure there are plenty of non-academic “dumb” blacks, but there are many “dumb” whites, hispanics and asians as well. US Asians score well because their parents are demanding. It is not as if they have some superior genetic makeup.
US Blacks do not have some inferior genetic makeup, they just generally have a terrible cultural atmosphere. Generally their parents don’t value education or don’t demand hard work and lengthy study from their children.
I can guarantee you that if 1000 Asian couples adopted only black infant children, most of those children would go on to college and be successful.
If you don’t believe it, well OK.
My point was, immigrant blacks don’t have any different genetic makeup from the US blacks whose great grandfathers were slaves and distant relatives to the immigrant blacks’s great-grandfathers. I’m sure their genetic makeup is similar. That said, the immigrants don’t have the cultural hatred and defeatism and apathy. They come here and work and study and learn and succeed.
That’s really the only difference.
The Bell Curve substantiates my position with respect to average IQ of various groups. It is true that first generation Asian immigrants to the US brought high standards of performance to the school work of their children. My 3 sons were raised in a primarily Asian community. It was a definite plus. That level of dedication is not being maintained by subsequent generations. As I noted in a prior post, it takes both IQ and dedicated effort to succeed. I’ve seen a few white couples who are fostering or adopting black children in Pocatello. I wish them success. Perhaps they will grow up as successful as the black engineers at my office. It won’t be for lack of opportunity.
OK, you might have a valid point there.
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