LeBron James' STEM-Based School Is Showing Promise (goodnewsnetwork.org) 102
Last year, NBA superstar LeBron James opened an experimental school that focuses on teaching a STEM curriculum to students who have a higher probability of failing academically or dropping out of school. The New York Times is now reporting that "the inaugural classes of third and fourth graders at [the I PROMISE School] posted extraordinary results in their first set of district assessments. Ninety percent met or exceeded individual growth goals in reading and math (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source), outpacing their peers across the district." From the report: The students' scores reflect their performance on the Measures of Academic Progress assessment, a nationally recognized test administered by NWEA, an evaluation association. In reading, where both classes had scored in the lowest, or first, percentile, third graders moved to the ninth percentile, and fourth graders to the 16th. In math, third graders jumped from the lowest percentile to the 18th, while fourth graders moved from the second percentile to the 30th.
The 90 percent of I Promise students who met their goals exceeded the 70 percent of students districtwide, and scored in the 99th growth percentile of the evaluation association's school norms, which the district said showed that students' test scores increased at a higher rate than 99 out of 100 schools nationally. The students have a long way to go to even join the middle of the pack. And time will tell whether the gains are sustainable and how they stack up against rigorous state standardized tests at the end of the year. To some extent, the excitement surrounding the students' progress illustrates a somber reality in urban education, where big hopes hinge on small victories.
The 90 percent of I Promise students who met their goals exceeded the 70 percent of students districtwide, and scored in the 99th growth percentile of the evaluation association's school norms, which the district said showed that students' test scores increased at a higher rate than 99 out of 100 schools nationally. The students have a long way to go to even join the middle of the pack. And time will tell whether the gains are sustainable and how they stack up against rigorous state standardized tests at the end of the year. To some extent, the excitement surrounding the students' progress illustrates a somber reality in urban education, where big hopes hinge on small victories.
Good, because (Score:1)
...his ball team isn't.
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angry anti-science racist Conservative talking points
As a conservative, I am fine with schools teaching STEM. If anything, they should teach more. What they should stop teaching is partisan ideology.
Re: In before... (Score:5, Funny)
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What has Trump done to earn my respect? He has consistently said and done things that in my core find cruel and evil. This is with growing up in a Conservative Household, and having many of my values based on Conservative values.
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After handing out the biggest corporate tax cut / windfall in history, of course the economy is doing well. But the flip-flopping foreign policies, trade wars, war on immigration, threatening to withdraw from NATO, handing Ukraine to Russia - all of that must be giving corporations pause about investing, especially internationally.
Shit, with that corporate tax cut alone - if everything else was stable, the DOW would be at 30K by now. But everything is unstable (from the top down). So yes, I agree, the ec
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So, what specifically has he actually said - in context - that you find "cruel"? Go ahead. Taking out-of-context quotes from left-wing web sites doesn't count.
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Respect is earned. Not enforced.
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the heritability of intelligence,
I think most liberals are able to believe that g factor is 40-80 heritable and that g factor accounts for like 50% of intelligence; While still not drawing a bunch of racist conclusions about race and intelligence.
Even if somehow we discovered that genetics are entirely responsible for racial differences in IQ, it shouldn't matter so much to people. How useful would that information be to 99% of the people constantly talking about it on the internet?
Right now you can pick a random american and know ther
GMO... (Score:2)
... currently being tested on humans.
Re: In before... (Score:2)
Try to have a rational discussion with a liberal about GMO, the heritability of intelligence
Well, as a biology-challenged conservative, you obviously can't do anyway, so...
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Economics is not really science. Science is something developed by scientists, and scientists usually try their shit on lab rats first.
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When you call somebody a fake Conservative you have to capitalize the 'C'.
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"What they should stop teaching is partisan ideology." If you are going to define partisan ideology as anything you don't agree with, then yes they'll continue to teach it. Everything is not politics no matter how many strawmen you construct doing it.
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There are lots of examples of faulty scientific "conclusions" being taught as fact. Primordial soup is still being taught as the origins of life despite being wholly rejected by the scientific community for many reasons. The same principles which were rightfully used to discredit intelligent design as pseudo science are not being applied to Primordial Soup.
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OK: I literally walked into a classroom where the young teacher was telling the students: "The Democrats wanted slaves during the civil war. In today's world, it's flipped, now the Republicans want black people to be slaves again."
that's a direct quote. That's teaching ideology.
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The problem is Science in particular became a partisan ideology. Because many of the scientific studies show results that may conflict with the effectiveness of the steps taken to follow an ideology.
Conservatives who's core base are Religious and the Wealthy Class. Will reject science that goes against the words in the bible, or what will make it harder to run a business as usual. Normally they reject science that says "This is bad"
Liberals who's core base are Academics and Working Class. Will reject sci
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For example. [bbc.com]
FD: Not an LBJ fan, but: (Score:4, Interesting)
The numbers aren't staggering, but often the exponential growth from last to bottom tenth, sixth, or third is a more important improvement threshold than the move from 70 t0 80, or, 80 t0 90 percentile.
The radicle [wikipedia.org] comes before the tree.
Re:FD: Not an LBJ fan, but: (Score:5, Insightful)
The numbers aren't staggering, but often the exponential growth from last to bottom tenth, sixth, or third is a more important improvement threshold than the move from 70 t0 80, or, 80 t0 90 percentile.
It is indeed considerably more important. According to the site [nationsreportcard.gov] that tracks these things, the fourth graders who managed to climb to the 30th percentile can now be considered functionally literate. They were illiterate before. That's a major qualitative difference. Fourth grade is pretty late for learning how to read, but better late than never.
Calling it a "STEM-based school" is a joke in poor taste though. This is remedial instruction of the most fundamental kind, and a damning indictment of the previous three to five years of schooling. A school that can't teach a child to read is not a school—it is a kid warehouse. And these kids can learn to read, as they have now demonstrated.
If LeBron James lending his name is what it takes to break through, more power to him. Unfortunately, as InterGuru points out below, that's not scalable or sustainable. There's only one LeBron James, and once his name is lent out too much, it's diluted and doesn't mean anything anymore. And it ages fast. How many of GenZ even knows Michael Jordan's name?
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Though he marketed his name and fame for personal business advantage, MJ never much attempted good works to elevate his connate citizens above their station(s).
Hope is sometimes little more than nothing at all, but if you try sometimes, it's just what you need.
Re:FD: Not an LBJ fan, but: (Score:5, Interesting)
"This is remedial instruction of the most fundamental kind, and a damning indictment of the previous three to five years of schooling"
This. The thing is: effective schooling requires (a) commitment from the families and (b) discipline within the school. If you have families who don't care that their kids aren't learning, who don't care that their kids disrupt school for everyone else, you're screwed. If you have a school that tolerates disruptive behavior, that moves kids to the next grade despite failing grades, you're screwed.
The progress in a school like this comes entirely from the fact that you've solved the two problems above. The disruptive kids from don't-care families are mostly elsewhere. The question will truly be: can they sustain this progress against the cultural pressures the kids are under? And they are under pressure, from a self-destructive black subculture that says studying and learning is "acting white".
This school will help some individual kids, but that cultural problem is the real problem, and someday it is going to have to be addressed.
It requires money. (Score:1)
And since these are black people, whitey doesn't WANT to pay for THEIR children to be educated, so you retain the MORONIC stance of local house prices defining the school budget. This keeps the poor illiterate and powerless. Since the systemic problems that kept going even into the 21st century ensured that blacks were more likely to be poor, and the massive inertia to removing poverty from your family if you don't have an education FIRST, this is not just a black problem, but it DOES massively disproportio
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In this day and age, access to information couldn't be easier. Greater knowledge can be obtained by anyone with a little motivation, some curiosity, and a can-do attitude.
Yes, it's not easy. Yes, it takes dedication and hard work.
No, it's not something that other people can do for you.
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The thing is: effective schooling requires (a) commitment from the families and (b) discipline within the school. If you have families who don't care that their kids aren't learning, who don't care that their kids disrupt school for everyone else, you're screwed. If you have a school that tolerates disruptive behavior...
That all sounds so reasonable, and got you a +5 to boot, but while part a) is fine, part b) is a disaster. Schools all over the country have tried that. Zero Tolerance is an unmitigated disaster. It is NOT working. I would bet a nickel that a good many of the kids in the LeBron James school were "zero toleranced" out of their regular school. You don't get to be 2nd percentile by accident.
Some of this is personal observation, but most of it I got from my mother, who was a high school English teacher off
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Is it LeBron's name that caused the improvements, or the style of teaching and the environment? The latter can be replicated.
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Most importantly it gives them a chance at a normal life. When your kid scores in the bottom percentiles a proactive parent begins to investigate medical reasons such as dyslexia, ambliopia, etc. there is often something cognitive at play. Just sticking a kid in front of PBS would get them to 20% if there was not a cognitive factor. A less engaged parent, either by selfish choice or merely working 3 jobs as a single parent, will put these same kids in a situation where its just daycare. They grow up to be f
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Also, if the jump were much larger, it suggests an almost too good to be true situation. There was a case some years ago in Atlanta where test scores in some of the worst districts started shooting up in what seemed lik
Another successful program doomed to be forgotten. (Score:5, Insightful)
There are many examples of schools that succeed with low-income students. The problem is they are neither scalable nor sustainable. They are not scalable because they require talented teachers and principals. There are not enough of them to go around.
They not sustainable because the teachers burn out.
The late teacher's union leader, Al Shanker said it best: "programs that are doomed to succeed and be forgotten."
Re:Another successful program doomed to be forgott (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: Another successful program doomed to be forgot (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Another successful program doomed to be forgot (Score:1)
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That's how the school system works. Students also spend 90% of their time on the 10% of subjects they're bad at, while the workplace reality would require you to do the opposite. Nobody wants to hire someone that's mediocre at everything, what I want is someone who excels at the one thing I need him for, while I don't give a shit about how he fares in the things I'm not interested in.
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I went looking for that quote and could not find it. Can you point me to your source?
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I'm embarrassed. I got the quote from a friend (now deceased) and now can't find it also.
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The biggest obstacle for low income, inner-city students, whom are cognitively capable, is that they enter the school system at 5 or 6 not even knowing their alphabet, or how to tie their shoes. The parents will often drop their kids off and if the kid is sick you can’t even find the parents. They deliberately give bullshit contact phone numbers because “that’s their free time“. They don’t give two shits about that kid except for the first and the 15th of the month. The sch
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The biggest obstacle for low income, inner-city students, whom are cognitively capable, is that they enter the school system at 5 or 6 not even knowing their alphabet, or how to tie their shoes.
How is that a problem? It is normal here (not US) for kids to enter school with widely different skills and maturity.
But if they are "cognitively capable", they soon catch up to their ability level. Something else is going on.
From observation, I don't believe it makes much difference whether the parents have the time or will to help them at home. Correlation, not causation.
Some combination of nature and the culture of the broader community, not just parents.
Sad to see "inner-city" used as a euphemism. Here
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inner-city is not a euphamism for race. there are equal number of white/black in the inner-city schools. Inner-city schools are people that live in areas that are mostly zoned industrial. This means the housing is fairly inexpensive. Why its inexpensive is because its not exactly the nicests areas. Crime is fairly high and safety is a serious concern. The areas are usually dilapidated / run down. What they have in common is that the kids are disadvantaged, but its not always because they just drew the short
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btw how the hell can you claim austrailia doesnt have race problems. I was in perth on a port visit on the USS Abraham lincoln. While in port I had a cabbie get out of his car and chase an aborigonie (spelling) out of the park where he was sleeping. He yelled 'get the hell out of here blackie!'. That doesnt exactly scream no race problem.
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Re: Come on... (Score:1)
Re: Come on... (Score:1)
I am an Akron resident. Lebron does dozens of good works for this city and shys away from publicity and credit for most. His foundation is a source of good for the children of this city an example is him gifting the all the elementary aged children in the city a christmas gift so that they all have something to open on christmas. Does this make the news? No... he does this because the man genuinelly wants to help and elevate the children of this city....another example gives the all the students in aps a f
STEM (Score:2)
A Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope school?
From someone that lives in Cleveland (Score:3)
The point being though, he did not start this school. It is a public school. He is helping to support and promote it.
No surprise there (Score:1)
And in Other News (Score:2)
Celebrity Physicist Michio Kaku is opening a string of basketball camps.
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Womens Studies? Is that the new politically correct term for the courses where you learn how to be a good homemaker?