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I realized the bolded may be misinterpreted and wanted to clarify my thoughts.
When I speak in terms of my general observations of phenotypical behaviors within large populations (human, bacteria, etc.), I am speaking of variations within a 'homogenous' group. For example, intrinsic variations within a population of E. coli bacteria, all grown under the exact same environmental conditions, exposed to the exact same external stimuli. Similar variations occur within a group of people too, say, Albanians in Albania who lived under similar environmental and social conditions.
Intra not inter in this context.under similar
And intelligence as defined by cognitive ability in the context of education by a public school. Of course there are more than one type of intelligence, but a public school should, at minimum, strive to educate the kids at the cognitive level. And because it is a public school trying to educate to the mean of a large, general student population, there will always be those who will "fall behind" because, for whatever reason which may be beyond the control of the school and teachers, their specific educational needs may not be adequately met in such a setting.
And if we are to bring race into this mix, my personal experiences with tracking by cognitive ability occurred within a relatively homogeneous population of mostly white, western European, upper-middle class student population. Although the degree of the specific differences may differ, I suspect similar broad observations may be made within large, unselected, groups of any 'race'.
I am not sure where you grew up, but I live in the northeast, and it would be a gross oversimplification to assume that kids in the same schools have the "same environmental conditions" at any level. Even schools that lack racial diversity have diversity in socioeconomic status, family structure, and so many other factors as to make generalizations meaningless.
And why you think this is race based is beyond me. Having taught gifted kids, I am here to tell you they come in all colors and socioeconomic statuses and the most important determining factor in whether or not they "make it" is socioeconomic status, I know we keep track of that one too.
100% of our student go to college but we do both. While we are a magnet school, we are also a vocational school for a specific STEM field first and foremost.
We have longitudinal data for both and much more. We have been around quite a bit longer than the typical magnet school so we have been able to track alumni for quite sometime.
Just because you go to a themed high school doesn't mean you have it "all figured out". In fact one of the best services we provide is that many kids realize that our particular theme is not for them. And while 80% of our kids go onto STEM careers, .... I think that going to a themed magnet is one of the best (and cheapest) ways for a kid to figure out what they want before having to pay for college.
Just curious. Is this a public or private school? Does it take all comers or is there a competition to get in?
The reason I'm asking is it seems the amount of data you track, services you provide, and analytics you have available way exceed what the typical public school has. Heck, my kids HS the way they keep track of most of the graduates is when the teachers run into them at Walmart.
Just curious. Is this a public or private school? Does it take all comers or is there a competition to get in?
Public and yes an admission exam accounts for almost half of admissions criteria.
Quote:
The reason I'm asking is it seems the amount of data you track, services you provide, and analytics you have available way exceed what the typical public school has. Heck, my kids HS the way they keep track of most of the graduates is when the teachers run into them at Walmart.
I suspect it may be a regional issue since I have worked in regular districts locally and we did similar data analysis even then. But the tracking of alumni is certainly something we work at. Public magnets are constantly needing to justify their existence and our district in particular is a target for a variety of reasons. Additionally, most themed schools started in the late 90s, we are quite a bit older than that and my feeling is that since they were such an early magnet there was more of a push to keep track of outcomes.
I am not sure where you grew up, but I live in the northeast, and it would be a gross oversimplification to assume that kids in the same schools have the "same environmental conditions" at any level. Even schools that lack racial diversity have diversity in socioeconomic status, family structure, and so many other factors as to make generalizations meaningless.
And why you think this is race based is beyond me. Having taught gifted kids, I am here to tell you they come in all colors and socioeconomic statuses and the most important determining factor in whether or not they "make it" is socioeconomic status, I know we keep track of that one too.
Sigh. It seems my clarification was indeed, not clear, as I believe you are misinterpreting it.
Per the first point: Perhaps a better example would be two parents having 2 or more biological kids, each raised in the same manner, with the same educational opportunities, yet the outcome is each displays different cognitive abilities (and personalities, drive, etc.) due to innate differences. Within the same genetic family you may have a higher-ability child, an average child, and a lower-ability child, as it relates to their cognitive abilities.
Per the second point: I was actually trying to convey that very message - that this range of cognitive abilities within a set population is independent of race because you will find a range of cognitive abilities within any large, randomly selected populations of the same 'race'.
Given the surge of data driven decision making for the 8 years many districts have incorporated big data in their decision making processes. Many teachers struggle individually with these stats skills as they are not typically part of teacher training programs in the past, but I know multiple districts just in my local area who have admins or others trained specifically to handle data.
As for self-selection, kids in my district, and many in this area, only take AP physics or other related classes by recommendation.
Finally, English, I think it is of note that it was specifically one marking period in sophomore English. It is an over generalization to say English classes are important in STEM. It has been my experience that the majority of English classes and curricula do not teach much that is directly applicable in STEM. For the most part that isn't an issue, but even at our school our students aren't learning any technical writing skills until they get in our classes. For out thesis classes we used to do a cross curricular assessment with the English teachers in our school. Like it or lump it, passive voice/third persion is a skill science students need to learn, at least for the foreseeable future. Our english teachers, through no fault of their own, were constantly telling student to rewrite in the active voice and converting citations to MLA/APA instead of CBE or Chicago. But I do think all students, STEM and otherwise, would do to learn some technical writing skills especially for STEM audiences.
You know, being able to write well is quite important in the STEM field, but the way English was taught to me both in high school and even college was not concentrating on what I actually needed. Poetry and literature is great in it's own way, but what I actually use on the job is being able to write a procedure that someone who has not been shown how to operate equipment can use and get it right the first time, to be able to describe what happened, to be able to "sell" an idea. How to write (and deliver) good effective training courses. And of course how to write a proper technical paper. I got very little of this in school. Some "remedial" training on the job, but in school, not so much.
You know, being able to write well is quite important in the STEM field, but the way English was taught to me both in high school and even college was not concentrating on what I actually needed. Poetry and literature is great in it's own way, but what I actually use on the job is being able to write a procedure that someone who has not been shown how to operate equipment can use and get it right the first time, to be able to describe what happened, to be able to "sell" an idea. How to write (and deliver) good effective training courses. And of course how to write a proper technical paper. I got very little of this in school. Some "remedial" training on the job, but in school, not so much.
Surely you find the part on diagramming sentences to be valuable, though, right?
I mean, what job *doesn't* require you to diagram sentences on a daily basis.
Surely you find the part on diagramming sentences to be valuable, though, right?
I mean, what job *doesn't* require you to diagram sentences on a daily basis.
The above shows a misunderstanding of how students learn. Sentence diagraming (something I was only ever taught in the middle grades) is not meant to be a skill you use daily, but something that allows you to better understand grammar, and then not used again.
When a child is being taught multiplication they are frequently given blocks that snap together so they can learn what 4x5 actually means (I.e. Five groups of four items) which allows those students to visualize what multiplication is, and once grasped, they are not expected to use the blocks anymore. Sentence diagraming helps many students visualize the parts of speech and how they fit together, in order to write more clearly, not to be a job related skill in and of itself.
Many things taught in school are simply done so, so that students understand a concept and can move on to more complicated things.
Surely you find the part on diagramming sentences to be valuable, though, right?
I mean, what job *doesn't* require you to diagram sentences on a daily basis.
Don't you mean what job doesn't require you to communicate effectively in standard English?
The goal of diagramming sentences isn't to be able to diagram sentences. It is to know the rules for standard English in order to speak and write correctly.
Don't you mean what job doesn't require you to communicate effectively in standard English?
The goal of diagramming sentences isn't to be able to diagram sentences. It is to know the rules for standard English in order to speak and write correctly.
The problem is that learning the parts of speech and diagramming sentences do NOT really work to promote good speaking or writing skills.
A century of research shows that traditional grammar lessons—those hours spent diagramming sentences and memorizing parts of speech—don’t help and may even hinder students’ efforts to become better writers. Yes, they need to learn grammar, but the old-fashioned way does not work.
This finding—confirmed in 1984, 2007, and 2012 through reviews of over 250 studies—is consistent among students of all ages, from elementary school through college. For example, one well-regarded study followed three groups of students from 9th to 11th grade where one group had traditional rule-bound lessons, a second received an alternative approach to grammar instruction, and a third received no grammar lessons at all, just more literature and creative writing. The result: No significant differences among the three groups—except that both grammar groups emerged with a strong antipathy to English.
I disagree. It depends on the learner. For me, it was a godsend.
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