Proficiency of black students lower than expected

My daughter went to a private Christian school for about 3 years - we put her in public for high school as the Christian school did not have a real high school - it was learn on your own. We knew or daughter needed more structure than that. That would have worked wonders with our two oldest, but children are different.

The principal of the school had taught them math and he taught them old math. She got into public school and worked her algebra problems and got the correct answer. The teacher kept marking them wrong. She isn't one to take that quietly so she argued. The teacher called her and her friend who had attended the same school, to the desk and whispered. 'Please don't tell these kids there is another way to do this.'

So the math teacher tutored them on his own time to get them into 'new math'.

But boy, my son, who competed in mathematics in school, tells me there is a 'new-new' math now and he has a hard time grasping it.

Our DS is about to encounter the 'new math'. 3rd grade.
I told him he will learn both but train on the old school type. If he gets the correct answers I will fight the school and let him take a test in front of anyone that needs to argue his results!

New math has damaged our DD almost to the point (almost but she is figuring OUR/OLD math now, with extra help by her math teacher everyday, 2-3 hours a week after school sometimes) to the point we worried she would loose her scholarship to this school. We told both of them after this,
'We don't care how you get there, as long as it is right'!
DD got a 87% on her report card for math this period, same for Geography... learning the capitals of those little Ukraine states seems to be holding her back also,haha
93.27 GPA so far.

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I really don't understand the point of New Math. I think it makes people less capable of really understanding the really complex scientifically based math later. Once past the basic calculus it seems to be a detriment..in particular in learned partial derivations and integrations. Non boundary equations too. It just makes the rules less clear to me.

Anyone else have any thoughts on that? I really don't know how people coming up now will do those kinds of courses or become really proficient physicists...or anything that relies on physics.

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

ROFL! That sounds like my dad's upbringing. He emerged a competent atheist. :P

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

Another problem is the proficiency tests. If you don't "solve" the problem correctly your answer is wrong, even if the answer is correct. I would have failed math if I had to do it the "new" way.

There is no lee-way for different learning styles. If you don't learn the way the teacher is teaching you don't learn. I worked for 2 weeks to get the metric system through to dd. Once we found what clicked she understood it all. Unfortunately her class kept moving on. By the time she clicked they were past metrics.

Hope everyone reads this twice!
We holler a lot about it just being the parents' responsibility. But there's good AND bad teachers too.
Good for you MC-from your posts, most can see you're hard working, have little free time, etc. Yet you're able to give your kids what they need.

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Thanks, TG!

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My latest novels:
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People always talk about lack of parental involvement as being the problem.

From my experience, 20 years of having children in school. I fought many battles - and one thing I totally believe - the last thing schools really want is parent involvement - true involvement. The kind that has opinions and sees when things need changing and goes about changing them.

I was told several times that 'we don't need/want parents in the school'. There was a real push to keep parents out and give total responsibility to the school. Now they have what they wanted and it isn't the best thing.

It takes both, parents and schools, who are interested in the children - each doing what they need to do with the children.

Trixie, that's a lot of what we got from the schools too. They want the parents to do the kid's homework and raise money for whatever but actual involvement with the day to day operations and classroom assistance? NEVER! Now parents aren't even allowed in the child's classroom during the school day. I can understand the need for security (we have a lot of bomb threats here, almost a daily thing) but to refuse to allow the parent into the classrooms for any reason just sems wrong.

Theres probably alot of factors, but I feel the biggest by far is the lack of a central family unit and fatherhood. Not saying a single parent can't do a good job as I was raised by a single mother myself, but I do feel a postive male roll model is important and somehow seems overlooked these days.

While in an ideal world maybe that is true, there is another thread on this forum currently going about a kid with a nuclear family and they are completely messed up asking if that kids will "be fine".

Seriously, we get a huge emphasis on this magic key of Mommy and Daddy being in the house to make good kids. That is like other myths in that it isn't true and just changes the numbers, not the outcome. Dysfunctional people will raise dysfunctional kids more often than not.

And the myth of the nuclear family is just that; a myth.

Children have been raised, throughout almost all of human history, by many people in the family not just Mom and Dad. Living multi-generationally is what makes for a greater chance of well balanced children. The more the merrier.

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

I was raised by parents who worked as a teacher/principle so I pretty much grew up seeing things from that persepective. Teachers have a really tough time nowadays. The classrooms are overcrowded, and parents really do pose a huge problem.

Teachers are stuck in a no-win situation with behaviour disorder children being integrated into normal classrooms where they disrupt learning. Children are assigned adult "shadows" who must follow them to class. Tons of kids are being raised by unstable parents nowadays, and their kids are filling the classrooms making teaching very difficult. I cannot believe the amount of kids diagnosed with every brain disorder under the sun - they have to be drugged up on brain meds every day. ADHD, autism, you name it.

The problem is that parents do not want their children to be seperated from normal classrooms despite issues a child may have. Like it or not, these kids do make it very difficult for other children in the class, and teachers. Overbearing parents are a constant issue with teachers.

Many of my family members are teachers and the stories I have heard make me sick. Abused children, drug addict parents, parent screaming racial slurs at teachers when they try to hold a child accountable for his/her conduct.

Some teachers are now required to provide their phone number and email to all parents so they can be contacted day or night, 24/7, when they are not at work. Imagine having 30+ students in this situation. Now imagine being a teacher that works with multiple classrooms throught the district with over 600 students with their parents emailing you and calling you at home.

We have a district near here that is no longer allowed to use red pens to mark wrong answers on papers because it is "detrimental to a child's self esteem!" Teachers must circle all wrong answers with blue pen and leave a positive remark next to each wrong answer...Amazing...

10 years ago I dated a guy from Europe and he was amazed how lenient schools were here. He said that in his country you could not screw around in class or not do your homework. Every student had to stand up in front of the class and recite their homework to everyone.

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Haven, the total lack of home discipline, the increase in disregard for authority and the restrictions placed on teachers has made the job next to impossible. But there are situations in which a little parental involvement is essential. I don't expect any teacher to know the best way to help every child. And there is no reason a teacher should be subjected to abusive parents being in the classroom. The problems I saw were when my child was having difficulty coping with an ongoing situation and the teacher admitted to me that they didn't know how to handle it. My children rarely had problems with their teachers. But when they did have problems they were major situations which were made more difficult by a teacher who refused to allow the parents any insight into the classroom situation. Parents weren't even allowed to sit in the hallway and listen to what was happening in the classroom. When your child's teacher tells you to your face that you should not be involved in what happens at school it should raise more than a few red flags.