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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All this means is that some school districts in Virginia and Maryland are getting some high scores and high graduation rates and all you have to do to find them is follow the money.  It does not mean that school districts in more rural and poor areas have high scores and high graduation rates too.[/quote]

True.

Baltimore and Richmond have real ****-hole neighborhoods with failing public schools (all unionized, BTW), where generation after generation of kids face a doomed future due to lack of education.

But let’s continue to ignore those schools.[/quote]
I don't know about VA, but here in MoCo, the BOE and MCPS tries all kinds of different things for those lower performing schools and closing the achievement gap. Of course, whatever they are doing is barely making a dent, and VL for a year made that gap worse.[/quote]

I’m a teacher at one of these schools. What they won’t do is mandate smaller classes. When I have 30+ kids in one class, many who are several grade levels behind, it is tough to give the kids the attention they need. If I had 20 kids per class, I think it would help a lot[/quote]
In MoCo, Title1 schools in ES have smaller classes, as do Focus schools, but not as small.  It's the upper levels, IMO, that's the issue wrt to large class sizes.

They could hire more teacher aides, but they wouldn't necessarily be able to make smaller class sizes because so many HSs are over crowded as it is. There's no room to make smaller class sizes.[/quote]

Hate to break it to you but there is NO evidence lower class size leads to higher achievement.  In Asia class sizes are capped at 50 kids!  As to MCPS, I think they basically are a jobs program that cares more about the adults and jobs than any ‘equity’ issues.  It’s just the new con to try to fill more positions.  Granted, after COVID that is becoming difficult.[/quote]

Lower class sizes are still better.  Asia can make it work in some countries due to a cultural focus on education that we don't have.  Doesn't make large class sizes better.

However, Title 1 schools have smaller class sizes, and it hasn't proven sufficient to close the achievement gap. [/quote]

This is the problem I have with American educators.  There is no evidence class size makes a difference; you agree and then say it is still better.  It’s like the phonics debate - phonics works yet MCPS has little to no phonics.  Ulrich Boser writes on this in his book Learn Better / until we get smarter people who follow actual empirical evidence in our classrooms I fear we won’t be able to improve our schools.  No wonder MCPS has seen no improvement in the results of their poverty kids.  They follow what they ‘feel’ works.[/quote]

I’m just saying you can’t use Asia as an example. Cram schools are a norm in certain parts of Asia. Those same countries often don’t have compulsory high school. Kids that can’t test into public high school or pay for private high school get left in the dust.

Large class sizes are easier when you take away the lowest achievers from the school system. America is just different.[/quote]

Fine.  Then we can use Europe as an example.  Large class sizes and high achievement there too.  [b]Yes they track but their electrician journeymen would likely crush our Blair Magnet phenoms. [/b] Why?  [/quote]

What makes you say that? US just performs around average with all its heterogeneity on the PISA.  Track our best students, don't include any students with learning disabilities or language learning needs in our states that support education and you end up with similar performance.

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