Why not close the achievement gap from the top down?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is what the current push for equity is doing. Much easier to dumb down the high achievers.

So kids at the bottom aren't helped at all, but they can claim progress by neglecting the kids at the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with education in the US is the problem with many things in the US versus other countries. We don’t value cooperation, community, and family. Sure politicians say they value this, but the greatest amount of money and time is not actually spent to protect, support, or advance this.

It’s why is 2023 paid sick leave is not covered for everyone. It why there is still debate about maternity and paternity leave. It’s why mothers receive little support after the birth of a child. It’s why community development initiatives rarely spend time in community engagement and include people from the actual type of community but instead people who THINK they know what’s best. It why we can’t accept a national curriculum and then add on specific regional/local things. It why we say we value data but then don’t actively use if it doesn’t meet indivdual opinion.

+1

This obsession with rugged individualism will be the collective death for all of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our society is already so lopsided as far as the top 1% owning practically everything.

And I’m sorry but no kid needs advanced calculus in high school.

Why not narrow the achievement gap by finding ways to lower the test results for the top performers?

Idiots like you kill school systems. God help us.

[Anonymous]

I thought FCPS was already implementing OP's idea.

[Anonymous]

How many parents of low performing students, if polled, what actually support lowering standards or knee-capping high-performing students? I venture to say very view. They may not care either way, but who apart from the progressive Ed establishment is advocating a lowering of standards?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many parents of low performing students, if polled, what actually support lowering standards or knee-capping high-performing students? I venture to say very view. They may not care either way, but who apart from the progressive Ed establishment is advocating a lowering of standards?

That's not really it. They're lowering standards because there's no other way to close the gap. Nothing else works because the problem isn't something any county can address with any amount of money.

[Anonymous]

If being from a low socioeconomic family was universally a barrier to high educational attainment, why do we import some of our highest level professionals from developing countries?

How did all those high quality Indian and Nigerian doctors and engineers that work all over the US get where they are? By having a strong family expectation for education achievement, that’s how. I know a Sri Lankan doctor who told me that when growing up school was shut for most of the spring and summer since children where expected to be labourers on farms but his mother MADE him and his brother study 8 hours a day to make up for that time. He supported that method because he hated being poor and wanted to go to university to get a good job.

So all this “ it’s too expensive to educate the poors” is bull. Reach out and engage the parents, show them that if their kids do A then B will be the outcome and they will get a better quality of life as adults. Cultivate a culture of high expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If being from a low socioeconomic family was universally a barrier to high educational attainment, why do we import some of our highest level professionals from developing countries?

How did all those high quality Indian and Nigerian doctors and engineers that work all over the US get where they are? By having a strong family expectation for education achievement, that’s how. I know a Sri Lankan doctor who told me that when growing up school was shut for most of the spring and summer since children where expected to be labourers on farms but his mother MADE him and his brother study 8 hours a day to make up for that time. He supported that method because he hated being poor and wanted to go to university to get a good job.

So all this “ it’s too expensive to educate the poors” is bull. Reach out and engage the parents, show them that if their kids do A then B will be the outcome and they will get a better quality of life as adults. Cultivate a culture of high expectations.

+1,000,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one would care about the "achievement gap" if low "achievers" were given decent jobs for decent pay.

This, but also, let's stop pushing kids into college and even into high school. We have so many schools in EU where kids can get a trade and a high school diploma in 4 years. Those have an extra year to mature and they still have an opportunity to continue on to college. Not sure where those schools are here.
Instead of high school math, why not teach adulting (is that a word? me foreigner) and math combined with personal finance.
I have been a low income earner since I moved here ca 25 years ago. If I hadn't made some of the financial mistake and had better understanding how money works here, I'd be a millionaire. I was extremely careful building my credit and never paying anything late but even I got taken to the cleaners a few times for not knowing any better.
Everything here is set up to fail the poorest and least educated when they start their grown-up lives. The worst culprits are the creditors and anyone selling anything.
Building wealth on low income is possible, but there's also a lot of wage theft. I did not get paid in one job by employer (just tips), two paid me when they felt like it and still owe me , and two cost me more to go to work than to stay home. I worked myself sick twelve hour shifts making $40-80 a day.
It is close to impossible to come out all this in en expensive city like DC. Add a few economic downturns, 1-2 kids, and why shouldn't poor people have kids, few health problems, friends and family who need help, and one can never come out of it.
Poor people also have this distrust of the rich and I don't blame them. Every small business owner who hired me, worked me to death and I didn't want to come across as a bad worker. No break in twelve hours. Imagine that. Sent me to ER several times. I did not know there were rules and law to protect me.
I have zeros in my SS statement for two years and I know I was working full time and where.
The same person didn't pay for a week of training. As I remember, the law didn't require him to do so.
Low income people are the ones who work jobs without contract and get screwed. I have never had a 401k offered at work or any other benefit except food, and even that not always. It is not always a new iPhone that makes us poor, but the money we don't even get for the work we did.
I still work work in the same industry, but finally for a person who doesn't cheat his employees.
I came out it and my net worth is closing on seven figures soon, but I don't know anyone else who did it on low income. I don't blame the income even as I can still cut back and make it. I blame not getting paid or being robbed of my wages that made it more difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you study the achievement gap, you’ll know that high school isn’t the issue. Neither is calculus. Neither is TJ (although whether we should have public, selective high schools and what their admission process should be is a separate and valid issue). The problem is in the early grades.

Plus nobody believes advanced calculus is the ticket to great wealth.

Looks like they are pushing hard to close the gap from the top down - even in elementary school:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1164811.page

They (the democrats) are watering-down the elementary accelerated math and English classes in Fairfax public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean isn't this what schools are already doing!? They ignore top performers and have the top performers help the other kids.

What school does that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our society is already so lopsided as far as the top 1% owning practically everything.

And I’m sorry but no kid needs advanced calculus in high school.

Why not narrow the achievement gap by finding ways to lower the test results for the top performers?

Troll
They already do that too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean isn't this what schools are already doing!? They ignore top performers and have the top performers help the other kids.

What school does that?

All schools do this, if they use the “cooperative learning” model:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_learning

The gist: eliminate the accelerated learning or gifted & talented class, and use those kids as un-paid tutors to help the slower kids in the group.

This model has the benefit of slowing down the accelerated-learning kids, while bringing up the slowest kids, so - on paper- the “group median” test scores go up.

But - the top kids lose in this model. They soon stop being accelerated, and the whole group is lowered to general-Ed level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If being from a low socioeconomic family was universally a barrier to high educational attainment, why do we import some of our highest level professionals from developing countries?

How did all those high quality Indian and Nigerian doctors and engineers that work all over the US get where they are? By having a strong family expectation for education achievement, that’s how. I know a Sri Lankan doctor who told me that when growing up school was shut for most of the spring and summer since children where expected to be labourers on farms but his mother MADE him and his brother study 8 hours a day to make up for that time. He supported that method because he hated being poor and wanted to go to university to get a good job.

So all this “ it’s too expensive to educate the poors” is bull. Reach out and engage the parents, show them that if their kids do A then B will be the outcome and they will get a better quality of life as adults. Cultivate a culture of high expectations.

+1,000,000

Agree, but it is beating a dead horse. You aren’t going to change the culture and parenting of those born into generational poverty in the US. Education isn’t and won’t be a priority, no matter how much money you put into the school, extra programs, etc.

[Anonymous]

School achievement is mostly a genetic issue. Once we allow people to choose the embryo with the best genetic potential, or provide free sperm/eggs of good genetic potential, the percentage of kids with low iq and major behavior problems will go down a lot.