teachers are overpaid baby sitters. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout...hbHN8dGhldGlja2V0BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQ--;_ylv=3. Even rich school districts do poorly on international math tests By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout â 5 hrs ago tweet5Share Email Print (Thinkstock) Only 6 percent of all school districts in the United States significantly outperform students in the developed world on math tests, according to "When the Best Is Mediocre," a new report from the journal Education Next. Even students who attend ritzy school districts that are considered high-performing wouldn't pass muster in a global mathalon, the report found. Students in Beverly Hills--where the average household income is more than $100,000--score at about the 50th percentile internationally. "If Beverly Hills were relocated to Canada, it would be at the 46th percentile in math achievement, a below-average district," the authors write. "If the city were in Singapore, the average student in Beverly Hills would only be at the 34th percentile in math performance." The authors say that the global comparison is important because Americans are increasingly competing for jobs with workers from all around the world. "If Beverly Hills graduates are to have the kinds of jobs and lifestyles that their parents hope for them, they will have to compete with students from Canada, Singapore, and everywhere else," they write. The report also calls out Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Fairfax, Virginia, for performing in the middle of the international pack in math. In all, about 68 percent of American school districts perform below the international average in math. A handful of districts--many of them in college towns--do well compared to the global competition. The average student in Pelham, Massachusetts, performs better than 95 percent of students in the developed world. Pelham is a small district and home to Amherst College. Spring Lake, New Jersey, and the Waconda school district in central Kansas were not far behind in math achievement. Many of the highest performing districts were individual charter schools, which some states treat as separate districts. In new york city they are retiring with $80000 + pensions exempt from state and local taxes.
Government schools are what suck & they will continue to suck as long as they are local monopolies who don't have to compete. Complete privatization of schools, or at least some type of voucher system where every school has to compete for students to stay open, would be an improvement.
teachers are overpaid baby sitters. ----------------- This is all they are allowed to do. Cracks me up, every other day in NY there's an article about cheating on tests. Back in the day, we worried about kids cheating, It's the frigging teachers who are changing test scores of their failing students. ALBANY -- Bishop Maginn High School's June 2010 Regents trigonometry tests were investigated for cheating after an analysis determine the erasures of answers deviated from the norm, according to the state Education Department. Maginn was one of six schools statewide identified with a high number of changes to answers believed to have been done by teachers or administrators erasing wrong answers and entering the correct responses. Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Maginn-probed-as-test-cheat-2187503.php#ixzz1ZJ5SLa8C
Teachers are overpaid babysitters, I agree, however say that to a teacher and they will scream to you that they have one of the hardest jobs, I laugh all the time when I hear that. I know teachers who put in maybe 3-4 hours a day and get paid over $100,000 a year. Its a complete joke how much these teachers get paid, I know a teacher who has been teaching almost 6 or 7 years now and is already close to making $100,000 a year, no matter what they get their pay increase every year and if they dont, what do they do, they go out and start striking. Oh and starting today teachers are enjoying a 4 day weekend, must be nice to work 180 days a year and get paid a 6 figure salary.
Let me introduce a concept... The brain may have specialized regions for various processes. If the brain have specialized regions for various processes then perhaps some people have under developed specialized processing regions. Why they have underdeveloped brains is uncertain but it could occur very early in life... perhaps even before age 6 ---------------------- I think this is likely the case because I've been rather poor at math. Yes, I could make A's in college but it wasn't easy, and I was way,way smarter then all the other students. I think that mathematics aptitude is therefore a localized brain process. It may be genetic or a combination of behavior//genetics. Our colleges and universities are great but my elementary education experience was poor.
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I guess I'm confused here. Why would anyone expect them to outperform students in other developed nations on math tests? Should growing up in the United States necessarily turn a person into a math whiz? I was looking to see if the article reported what the average percentile score was for all students in the U.S. taking the test. I did not find that score. That might be a useful number assuming that a wide enough sample of students in all developed countries, including the U.S., took this test. I don't think highlighting scores in a few selected districts is of much value in assessing math achievement overall. And too there was no information regarding the scope of the test. My impression is that U.S. students are, on average, no better at math than students in other countries, and may even be not quite as good, but there is no way to know from the information presented in the article.
Math is logic, it's a system of operations. I think those who don't do well don't have the patience. This appears to be another pro charter school crap thread. Good lawd, you people need to stop cherry picking the data.
americans might be poor students but they are top grade in research, innovations and creativity. i can live with that!