This is a fantastic article on math education.

A thread with some of my thoughts.

usatoday.com/story/news/edu…
First, America ranks 31st out of 79 more advanced countries. Not great. America ranks 31st out of 79 advanced countries in terms of
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. Kids pick up programming and data analysis of real world dat
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. When teachers believe in kids and resist views of biological
Even small changes to how schools structure math can result in big benefits. Allowing students to choose their path in schools provide beMinority kids do better depending on how classes are structu
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
 

Keep Current with Dr. Mansa Keita

Dr. Mansa Keita Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @rasmansa

21 Nov
My son and I made a Python script to measure Twitter readability scores using the Flesch reading-ease test (higher means more accessible language)

Some folks on here:

Noah Smith: 83.8
Mansa: 78.5
Rod Graham: 74.315
ShimminyKricket: 73.88
Wes Yang: 65.7
Conor: 63.23
Some more folks

Kareem: 72.78
Katja: 72.5
Deonteleologist: 68.2
Epoe: 67
Matt Yglesias: 63.6
May end up putting this on a webserver somewhere. It gives multiple readability scores.

If someone has a webserver and wants to host, would be happy to give the code.
Read 5 tweets
1 Nov
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.
Read 6 tweets
1 Nov
When people mention race as about ancestry, it's a good idea to inform them that Obama's mother is a descendant of an enslaved African-American.

The "one-drop" rule isn't as clean as people think. Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham
A very famous American-American journalist has a "white" parent and like most ADOS, "complex" ancestry.

They are called the n-word rather regularly.
Race is and always has been a social and political label that says much less about a person's genetic or genealogical ancestry than people think.
Read 4 tweets
31 Oct
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. Scholarship funding by race
Read 8 tweets
30 Oct
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.

There's still a net 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.
Read 4 tweets
29 Oct
I want to take up this example.

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. Discussion with Jesse Singal on anti-Semitism and transphobi
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.

I do think it's worth a person reflecting on.
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(