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"Scores on the 2015 reading test have dropped five points since 1992, the earliest year with comparable scores, and are unchanged in math during the past decade."
It is obvious we have long passed the point of diminishing returns in education. The next additional $ we spend on will not produce any better outcomes than the last $200 billion or whatever. That dollar could be better spent on road and bridges, on new cell phones, on ice cream.
Paying more for something that could be had for less never increases social welfare. It only reduces it. Although it might increase someones private welfare.
If we want to improve education, reduce taxes so people have to work less. Let them get on with their family lives, which we are always told when kids fail is more important than teaching inputs anyway.
We should recognize that preparing 60% or so of the kid for college is all that can be achieved no matter what we do. We've about run out of potions, spells and incantations. "College material" is just not what most kids are, never were, and never will be.
Do those national assessments include private school test results? I wonder if the private schools are doing a better job at teaching math. I doubt it. There's a problem with how the US teaches math, and I don't know what it is, but throwing money at it isn't going to solve it.
Do those national assessments include private school test results? I wonder if the private schools are doing a better job at teaching math. I doubt it. There's a problem with how the US teaches math, and I don't know what it is, but throwing money at it isn't going to solve it.
I think it depends on where you throw the money. The problem with how the US teaches math is that *most* everyone who is good at teaching math does NOT teach math because they can make 3 times the money doing something else that requires someone to be good at math. If you start throwing money at the math teachers, then the good math teachers will start coming out of the woodwork and quitting their STEM jobs to go teach the kids. As it is, the only really good math teachers out there are the altruists or the folks with well-paid spouses.
Really good math education starts in Preschool and Kindergarten. That's where you lay your foundation for number sense. Do you know of any public preschool or public kindergarten teachers in the US who hold math degrees? Or who feel confident in algebra and beyond? Yeah, me neither. The closest you can get here is Montessori.
Do those national assessments include private school test results? I wonder if the private schools are doing a better job at teaching math. I doubt it. There's a problem with how the US teaches math, and I don't know what it is, but throwing money at it isn't going to solve it.
It includes private schools. Once you reaching a certain point it make no difference how much more money you spend. Money might be allocated better among schools or within schools. Less social studies and more English, say. But even that is unlikely.
It would be better to take the last few billion dollars being spent on education and use them somewhere else. Sewers rebuilding, mosquito spraying, anti-missile defense. The best use would be to reduce taxes so people can get off the treadmill and get on with improving their lives. If anything will improve educational results it is this.
Are we teaching our kids less math than other nations? Whenever a math problem went viral, it was likely beyond American kids ability to solve. Are we teaching shallow, less topics, or both?
I think it depends on where you throw the money. The problem with how the US teaches math is that *most* everyone who is good at teaching math does NOT teach math because they can make 3 times the money doing something else that requires someone to be good at math. If you start throwing money at the math teachers, then the good math teachers will start coming out of the woodwork and quitting their STEM jobs to go teach the kids. As it is, the only really good math teachers out there are the altruists or the folks with well-paid spouses.
Really good math education starts in Preschool and Kindergarten. That's where you lay your foundation for number sense. Do you know of any public preschool or public kindergarten teachers in the US who hold math degrees? Or who feel confident in algebra and beyond? Yeah, me neither. The closest you can get here is Montessori.
Pretty much agree with this, especially the second paragraph.
My kid didn't have a good math teacher until her Junior year in HS. I anticipated this problem and was prepared to augment her education.
Turned out she was naturally strong in this subject and didn't really need my help.
She was also able to recognize the talent, and lack thereof, found in her instructors.
"He loves math, and he's the first math teacher I've had who seems to actually know what he's doing".
I'm curious as to how they obtained results from private schools. This isn't stated on the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) link. Most private schools don't release this information.
They'll do better when schools stop teaching how to enter numbers in a calculator and actually teach the fundamentals.
No, they won't. Kids struggled with math back before calculators were invented. They couldn't get the fundamentals, beyond grade school.
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