If This Is How Your Schools Teach Math, You May Want to Work on That First

[rowyn]

From an article on the New Mexico school system

The [education] department evaluated the schools in a number of areas, including academic growth, attendance rates and graduation rates, then graded them on a curve.

In other words, while a total of 100 points was possible, the department gave “As” to the top 10 percent of schools in the state.

...

“Our bar is the top 10 percent,” Skandera said. “That’s how we’re measuring success. I think that’s an excellent starting point for asking, ‘How are we doing?’ And let’s benchmark against that and go forward and aspire that every single one of our schools is in the top 10 percent [emphasis mine].”

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maaaybe they mean that every school does as well as last year's 10%?

I can hope, right?

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Or they want to be Lake Wobegon, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average."

[rowyn]

Hee!

[rowyn]

In that case, perhaps they just need to work on those communication skills. }:)

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I don't see the problem. If each teacher and student gives a hundred and ten percent ...

(*runs*) :)

[rowyn]

*thwaps* Don't encourage them!

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

That *smack**thud* was my palm hitting my face, and my face hitting my desk. If I ever have kids, they're being homeschooled.

[rowyn]

Maybe I should root for the reporter having misquoted, or taken it out of context. n.n

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's some fallacious thinking there, unless it's implicit that they want their schools to be in top 10% of the United States!

[rowyn]

I think Terry's hope that they were hoping to raise all schools to the level of the current top 10% is probably more likely. The article is clearly talking about a statewide rating comparing schools within the state to each other, not nationwide. :/

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was the gist of the article, and I agree that Terry's interpretation is likely as well!

[kelloggs2066.livejournal.com]

Sigh.

I miss the days when people understood math.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

When was that, exactly? As far as I can tell, math literacy has never been higher than it is now - which is really, really pathetic, considering how poor it is in the general population.

[dajagr.livejournal.com]

Somehow, I'm reminded of a Dilbert strip (http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-04-09/)...

[detroitfather.livejournal.com]

Wow ... that is just stunning.