First, America ranks 31st out of 79 more advanced countries. Not great.
Pretty cool that Estonia is the top performing European country and it doesn't put a massive emphasis on standardized tests with consequences.
I think those tests often tend to create perverse incentives for politicians, teachers and students.
This seems like a really great approach. The fact that kids pick up a ton of additional life skills and see more value in math are great bonuses.
Teachers and how courses are taught play such a huge role in how kids do. Having teachers who believe in the potential of these kids can help them get much closer to realizing that potential.
Even small changes to how schools structure math can result in big benefits.
A political point here. I think proponents and opponents of changes to how math is taught phrase things too much in terms of "racial equity".
Unfortunately, history shows that those opposed to racial equity will pick up the clue even if not phrased explicitly.
It's better for the entire world when kids learn math, reading and arithmetic and do so well. It's abominable for children to be left behind through political decisions or poor pedagogical decisions.
Ultimately those who care about all children must push through.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Some people instinctively oppose calling out racism because they see being against racism as being woke, and they've decided anything woke is bad.
It's a weird kind of ideological partisanship where people will turn off their critical thinking rather than be seen as endorsing any kind of "wokeness".
A plea to the so-called anti-woke is not to paint yourself into such a corner that your "tribe" is racism, if only the subtle kind.
If you agree with the goal, then use your voice to call out racism.
I wanted to address some of these myths about black advantage because they are frequent refrains.
Black students are underrepresented in college enrollment. This to me reflects all the obstacles they faced to even reach the college gate. I obviously reject ideas of biological or cultural inferiority. Thus, black kids writ large don't have an advantage getting into college.
Scholarship data is hard to find by race. The most recent I could find was over a decade old. Black kids got more needs-based scholarship, but overall, white students got more in scholarship funding than others relative to population. There's no overall white disadvantage.
A black child growing up facing structural and systemic racism reaches college having suffered a massive disadvantage. A school then making adjustments for this reduces the disadvantage.
I get people who think black folks are either biologically or culturally inferior will think that there is no meaningful disadvantage getting to college.
They should at least understand the views of those who reject those premises.
I stand by the position that society owes a debt not just to children facing racism, but all children who grow up with societal adversity. The poor and the marginalized deserve *explicit* steps to help them. That's only a fraction of the weight of the adversity they face.
If someone says they won't sleep with a specific Jewish person, that's perfectly fine. If they don't go out of the way to say anything, that's fine too.
If they explicitly say they won't date *any* Jewish person, yeah, I've got questions.
Now in truth, people are allowed to have their preferences, even if those are not immune from judgement. Most people don't go out of their way to say they wouldn't date a Jewish person. I don't think we should go around checking what's inside people's hearts either.
To go around explicitly stating, in public, that you wouldn't date a person of X identity invites public judgment. Don't misunderstand, that's okay in most cases. It all depends on what society and those around you judge.