Reply to What did the top 10% of students do differently?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m a teacher in a Title I school. The teachers in my school work hard and many kids work hard and their scores don’t reflect the hard work. I do think IQ is genetic and I also think that environmental influences greatly impact memory and learning. So my students who were born from a mom who couldn’t afford good prenatal care into a family where the parents have to work two jobs and the kids  are cared for by an older sibling, who have poor nutrition because they can’t afford better, who don’t sleep well because there are 4 families living loudly in one apartment…well all the odds are stacked against them. [/quote]

100%

It is why the kids who come from that environment and do amazing are such wonderful stories, they really defied the odds. The reality is, most of the kids coming from that environment are not going to be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

I don't like state testing because we are not comparing apples to apples, we are compaing apples to organges, bananas and a host of other different varities of lives. We should be looking at schools for growth and improvement not for reaching a standard that is not attainable for many kids. Not because they are not capable or even brilliant but because the environments they are coming out of do not nurture their native abilities.

Hard work does matter even if it doesn't turn into an A. Kids who learn to make their best effort and work hard might not turn into academic rock stars but, hopefully, they learn enough of the material to be able to graduate and move onto something that will help them be productive adults. That could mean that they find a job in retail that pays the bills and raise a family. It oculd mean attending community college and earning a professional certificate that helps them find a good job. It could be that they end up in a trade that provides a good job. It could be that they find their way to college and earn a BA or a BS and find a good job.

Because that person who worked hard and went on to be an electrician or a para legal or a manager at a retail store will raise their kids in a better enviornment and put their kid in a position to do more then their parent did.

But we are so focused on kids having to be on a college track to succeed that we lose track of the fact that success does not equate with college and that growth might be generational.

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