High school

Chris Christie January 9:

Let me just clear something up, O.K., about my childhood friend David Wildstein. It is true that I met David in 1977, in high school. He’s a year older than me. David and I were not friends in high school. We were not even acquaintances in high school…. We didn't travel in the same circles in high school. You know, I was the class president and athlete. I don’t know what David was doing during that period of time…. So we went twenty-three years without seeing each other, and in the years we did see each other, we passed in the hallways. So I want to clear that up. It doesn’t make a difference, except that I think some of the stories that’ve been written implied, like, an emotional relationship and closeness between me and David that doesn’t exist. I know David and, you know, I knew that Bill Baroni wanted to hire David to come to the Port Authority, and I gave my permission for him to do it, but that was Bill’s hire. He asked for permission, I gave my permission for him to hire David. But let’s be clear about the relationship, O.K.?

JANUARY 11, 2014 | GOOD SHOW, BUT THIS BRIDGE GOES NOWHERE | POSTED BY HENDRIK HERTZBERG

Apparently Christie has now proposed lengthening the school year and the school day.

Which makes sense because teens need a lot more exposure to the I'm-class-president-and-you're-not peer culture high schools have to offer.

[pause]

Last fall, when the Christie administration closed the lanes, traffic was backed up all the way to Rye. It caused quite a stir. I remember, shortly after the excitement began, ping-ponging back and forth re: Andrew's oxytocin, which comes from a pharmacy in Rye and has to be kept refrigerated.

A: I was glad the pharmacy was delivering as opposed to me driving cross-county to pick it up, but then again B: that didn't solve the problem of a fantastically expensive hormone requiring refrigeration stuck in traffic for 4 hours, which led to C: idle musing about just how long the refrigerated silicon thingies they put inside the mailer stay cold….and as I made the circuit from A to B to C and back again the "backed up all the way to Rye" refrain continued to sound in my kitchen, sparking query D: what did backed-up all the way to Rye, which I figured meant all the North-South corridors here in Westchester County had to be a nightmare, mean for driving East-to-West?

East-to-West in Westchester County is a losing proposition under the best of circumstances; when it comes to driving across the county, as opposed to up and down the county, no roads lead to Rome.

So, with traffic backed up all the way to Rye, what did that mean for Rye to me and me to Rye?

Or me to anywhere, for that matter.

My Bronx semester wasn't starting for a couple of weeks. There wasn't any place I absolutely had to go.

The news stories kept coming; the traffic kept being inexplicably and catastrophically backed-up-to-Rye. The mental imagery was oppressive, and as the days wore on I began to feel like the best course of action was to stay inside my house.

Maybe inside my bedroom.

Possibly forever.

I should probably file a class action suit against the state of New Jersey on behalf of all the people who almost became agoraphobic as a direct result of the Fort Lee lane closings.

the press conference

The Daily has a really bad idea

I love The Daily. Love, love, love. Read it every day.

That said, today's issue has an op-ed on the high cost of college that proposes, as a solution:

"Why not reduce undergraduate education to three years, while tacking an extra year onto high school?"^*
Josh Barro

Good God Almighty, as my father would have said.

Five years of public high school?

FIVE YEARS of Hunger Games in English and Core-Plus in math?

And here I was thinking everyone should skip senior year and go re-take algebra and English at their local community college instead.

(Is high school cheaper than community college? High school teachers here earn a great deal more than instructors in community colleges, but I don't know whether that's the case elsewhere.)

and see:
the founder, chairman, and CEO of Netflix has a really bad idea
Larry Summers has a really bad idea
David Brooks has a really bad idea
David Brooks has a really bad idea, part 2
All is forgiven.

^* That's the pull. Full passage: Why not adopt the Quebec model and reduce undergraduate education to three years, while tacking an extra year onto high school? 

Andrew Gelman wants to know what to cut from h.s. math

Deadwood in the math curriculum

He doesn't seem to know about any of the changes to K-8 math in the past 20 years, and the blogger he quotes, Mark Palko, explicitly rejects the math wars as a "clever narrative" that does not explain high school math curricula.

It's tough fighting a math war nobody knows about.

In any event, some of you should probably weigh in on which topics to include in a sound high school math curriculum.

CT's Education Budget Crisis

Last year, in an effort to win Race to the Top money, Connecticut passed a flurry of new laws affecting education. One of these added new high school graduation requirements. Now, having failed to snag any of those federal dollars, CT faces the difficult prospect of paying for the reforms they committed to. One idea is to make them voluntary and allow towns to vote with their feet on implementation. Read the blog post here:

New High School Graduation Requirements -- Should they be Voluntary?

mom of 4 on high school & college admissions

The other issue to check is whether the school/district uses a weighted grading scheme. If honors and/or AP courses are weighted, then they have a big impact on class rank and that is important. Some of my kids attended schools where a 3.0 average (with no honors or APs) was in the lower half of the class because the top kids took ALL academic classes at honors level or better. The guidance counselors told incoming freshmen that no one took more than one or two honors classes at a time, which was blatantly false. The very top also took 8-10 AP classes (all of which had honors prerequisites), so they affected the junior GPA. Also, if the school profile (which is sent to colleges with all transcripts, which include GPA and class rank) indicates that APs are offered, not taking them usually hurts. I'd say to take every possible period of REAL classes unless there's a real need for a study hall (like a swimmer/gymnast etc who trains 5 hours a day).

It is also a plus to have significant extracurriculars, especially with leadership. One or two serious commitments with leadership is better than light involvement with a long list of things, in my experience. A lot depends on the high school/community - how big, how competitive, urban/rural/suburban, etc. Of course, what kind of college is planned has a huge impact. I remember an info session (many years ago) for out-of-staters at UNC Chapel Hill where a National Merit Semi-finalist with a 4.0 GPA was told (publicly, no less) that she had no chance of admittance because she had no APs. The various college guides can be very helpful in identifying characteristics of admits.

My kids attended 4 very competitive to highly competitive high schools in three states and their experience leads me to recommend that the guidance counselor is useless until proven otherwise (see comment above). I have never met one that seemed to have much interest in or knowledge of academics; their interests were all social/emotional.

If your block schedule means that a year's course is done in one semester (with double periods), the issue of forgetting previous material can be an issue, especially in math and foreign languages. He also did extra reading in history because he didn't think they really covered a full year. Fortunately, we moved after two years.

Also, it is not necessary to take and AP course in order to take the test; just get a study guide and whatever other materials look helpful.

A parent discovers what passes for education in her daughter's HS.

Alaskan Blogger Michelle Mitchell of Scribbit wrote about a conversation between herself & her daughter: No Child Left Behind. Because They ALL Need to be Watching Television at School.

"How many movies do you watch a week?"

She thought a bit, counting up on her fingers and trying to remember. "Oh--I don't know--five or six, maybe more. We watch t.v. pretty much every day in at least one class and any time we have a sub they put in movies or something. We watch stuff like Mythbusters a lot and call it chemistry."

I checked with my son, the IB freshman. He claims to watch "3 movies or tv videos a week, max".

The comments are pretty interesting, from teachers who agree & homeschool their OWN children to teachers who take Mitchell to task for implying they have a "cake" job.

Here's hoping that revolt against lousy instruction goes viral for all subjects.

advertisements for myself

from a longtime member of ktm, whose high school is as good as its ranking in U.S. News:

X. and I just returned from our local Barnes and Noble. Under a sign labeled "Required School Reading" were several copies of Animals in Translation. Other books on the table included For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Great Gatsby, Blink, Night, The Cannery, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, Romeo and Juliet (and lots more). We decided it was quite an honor to have one's book included with such famous titles.

I am thrilled!

High School Quest

In a comment somewhere, Catherine asked for an update about our high school quest.
My son has chosen the Middle Years IB program in the district. His classes will include:

• Intro to Literature
• Geometry
• World Geography/History
• Spanish 1 (He chose this, he's had 2 yrs of Latin)
  
• Biology
• Health/PE combined-semestertotal

He also chose:

• Theater (instead of art or music) -semester
  
• Geospace (Astronomy & Geology)
• Team PE -semester
• Business Economics - semester
  

No study hall. (unless you count the PE classes)

I've had to put aside John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction, to read Robert Fried's The Game of School. Somebody tell me these books have a happy ending!

Instead of homeschooling the boy, we're providing value-added instruction. Last night we watched Religulous and that provided plenty of opportunity for discussion.


An update on our charter school's expansion into high school:

A final proposal was submitted to the school board and they agreed to send it on to the district. The original goal was to give the school a science/math focus.

There was an interesting discussion at the Information Night or "reveal" night for parents. The proposed coursework for 9th - 12th grade would require:

• 4 yrs math
• 4 yrs science
• 3 years foreign language

In the local district, students are required to take 2 years of each. Some parents at the "reveal" night thought that the curriculum would be too boring and rigorous. I pointed out that the local colleges: CSU, UNC & CU Boulder required 3 years of each subject to be admitted (UNC only requires 2 yrs of a language), and ivy league schools were in line with what the charter school would be requiring, hence the name "Liberty Preparatory Academy".

The budget proposes offering 40 new courses with only 8 new teachers. Here's how the math track would look... Currently students take the following math courses:

• Pre-algebra (may test out) 7th grade
• Algebra 7th or 8th And a few 9th graders)
• Geometry 8th or 9th
• Algebra 2 9th

Proposed courses beyond 9th grade are:

• Pre-Calculus
• AP Calculus
• Discrete Math -semester
• Personal Finance -semester
• Discrete Math -semester

Taking my younger son as an example, here is what his math options would look like:

• 7th grade - Algebra
• 8th grade - Geometry
• 9th grade - Algebra 2
• 10th grade - Pre-Calculus
• 11th grade - AP Calculus
• 12th grade - 2 semester courses. of course he can always take these in 11th grade as electives. To continue in math, he'd have to go to the local community college.

Also at the Information Night, the social committee presented how fun the new high school was going to be. "I mean, we all loved high school because it was so much fun!" she gushed. I'm not exaggerating when I say she used the word"fun" 13 times in her presentation. There was also concern and discussion about the Character Foundation Stones, the hoity-toity name of the school and the dress code.

Overall, there was a lot of interest in the proposal with close to 200 families asking for more information.

It's too late for my 14 year old.

I'm only 43 pages into Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto and the anguish is overwhelming at times. I read passage after passage aloud to my husband, because I just can't keep it to myself. Last night, after a particularly insightful bit, I looked at my son and said: "Would you like to teach yourself high school?"

"How?"
"With books and investigation, " I said, pointing to The Three Musketeers, he is reading & enjoying for school. "That's how Jefferson, Washington & Lincoln did it. I'll help"
"He stared at me in disbelief" I thought he was contemplating the freeing possibilities.
"Nah," he said, "I'd probably be too lazy."

strong high school curriculum trumps SAT scores

The findings of this study demonstrated a consistent advantage experienced by students who completed rigorous high school curricula, and to a lesser extent by those completing mid-level curricula, over their peers completing core curricula or lower.

However, the level of high school curricula students reported completing also was related to their family background characteristics and indicators of socioeconomic status, including family income, parents’ education, race/ethnicity, and the economic status of their high school’s student body. All of these factors relate to whether or not students have the opportunities to participate in and complete rigorous curricula. Moreover, students’ success in staying in college was also related to where they first enrolled and how well they did in their first year. Yet, even when all these factors were taken into consideration, the advantage of completing a rigorous high school academic curriculum remained.

The same was not observed for levels of SAT scores. Similar to the findings for curriculum levels, SAT scores were related to persistence when first-year college GPA was not included in the regression. However, after GPA was added, high school curriculum remained a significant factor, but SAT scores did not. These findings are consistent with recent research based on high school transcripts for a cohort of 1980 high school sophomores (Adelman 1999); this study demonstrated that high school curriculum was a stronger predictor of bachelor’s degree attainment than standardized test scores or other measures of high school academic performance.

High School Academic Curriculum and and the Persistence Path Through College

That explains why college admissions officers tell parents they're looking for "challenging" courses on high school transcripts.

High school kids who've taken serious courses are more likely to make it through all 4 years of college.

more on the US News rankings: top 1942 high schools

The new rankings aren't just about the top 200 high schools, according to Standard and Poor's. The entire list is a pick of the top 1942 schools out of 21,069 evaluated:

100 gold
504 silver
1321 bronze
17 honorable mention
1942 total

We analyzed 21,069 public high schools in 48 states using data from the 2006-2007 school year. This is the total number of public high schools in each state that had grade-12 enrollment and sufficient data to analyze primarily for the 2006-2007 school year. A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the measuring benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.

The first step determined whether each school's students were performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state. We started by looking at reading and math results for all students on each state's high school test. We then factored in the percentage of economically disadvantaged students (who tend to score lower) enrolled at the school to find which schools were performing better than their statistical expectations.

For those schools that made it past this first step, the second step determined whether the school's least-advantaged students (black, Hispanic, and low income) were performing better than average for similar students in the state. We compared each school's math and reading proficiency rates for disadvantaged students with the statewide results for these disadvantaged student groups and then selected schools that were performing better than this state average.

Schools that made it through the first two steps became eligible to be judged nationally on the final step, college-readiness performance, using Advanced Placement and/or International Baccalaureate test data as the benchmarks for success. (AP is a College Board program that offers college-level courses at high schools across the country.) This third step measured which schools produced the best college-level achievement for the highest percentages of their students. This was done by computing a "college readiness index" based on the weighted average of the AP and/or IB participation rate (the number of 12th-grade students who took at least one AP and/or IB test before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders) along with how well the students did on those tests. The latter part, called quality-adjusted AP and/or IB participation, is the number of 12th-grade students who took and passed (received an AP score of 3 or higher or an IB score of 4 or higher) at least one of the tests before or during their senior year, divided by the number of 12th graders at that school. For the college readiness index, the quality-adjusted participation rate was weighted 75 percent in the calculation, and 25 percent of the weight was placed on the simple AP and/or IB participation rate. Only schools that had values greater than 20 in their college readiness index scored high enough to meet this criterion for gold and silver medal selection. The minimum of 20 was used because it represents what it would take to have a "critical mass" of students gaining access to college-level coursework.

Top 100
Methodology
NY schools (110 altogether)
Westchester County

Bloomington High School
US New Ranking (ktm post)

US News Best High Schools 2008

Top 100

state by state statistics

states (find your school here) & best high school search page

New York & New York search

methodology

A three-step process determined the best high schools. The first two steps ensured that the schools serve all their students well, using state proficiency standards as the measuring benchmarks. For those schools that made it past the first two steps, a third step assessed the degree to which schools prepare students for college-level work.

Note: college-level work.

Not 21st century skills.


Westchester County:

Blind Brook High School - Gold #87 of 100
Rye Brook, NY

Bronxville High School - Honorable Mention
Bronxville, NY

Byram Hills High School - Silver
Armonk, NY

Edgemont Junior-Senior High School - Gold #51 of 100
Scarsdale, NY

Hastings High School - Honorable Mention
Hastings-on-Hudson, NY

Horace Greeley High School - Gold #46 of 100
Chappaqua, NY

Rye High School - Honorable Mention
Rye, NY

Saunders Trade & Technical High School - Bronze
Yonkers, NY

Scarsdale Senior High School - Gold #92
Scarsdale, NY

Yonkers High School - Gold #37 of 100
Yonkers, NY

a high school we know and love

Congratulations Bloomington High School!

Goldin and Katz have this to say of the schools of the Midwest in The Race between Education and Technology:

From 1910 to 1940 secondary schools mushroomed all over the nation and youths began to go to high school in ever-increasing numbers fo learn skills for life, not necessarily just for college. Certain parts of the nation experienced the high school movement earlier than others and were educational leaders. The state in the West North Central portion of the United States were among the leaders and one of them--Iowa--figures prominently in our analysis.
p. 72

and:

[T]here has been remarkable persistence in the leading and lagging states from the end of the high school movement until today...The persistence of educational excellence is demonstrated by graphing the high school graduation rate by state in 1938 against n index of educational performance by state in the 1990s, where the index incorporates high school graduation rates and various achievement test scores. The raw correlation of the two variables by state for 1938 and the 1990s is 0.72.
p. 343

Path dependency. The Midwest started out ahead and they're still ahead today.

Unlike the country's education system as a whole, which started out miles ahead of the rest of the world and has now fallen behind.


update 12.8.2008

from a parent whose kids have attended Bloomington High School (& long-time ktm commenter & member):

I haven't had a chance to review the report at length, but my preliminary read is that it seems to mean that our district has taken to heart the challenge/mandate to leave no child behind. Thirty percent of our district's student population is African American or Hispanic; forty percent qualify as disadvantaged. What I think the bronze medal status means is that our district is making strides in educating "harder to educate" populations. The data comports with what my own sense of what has been happening in our district in recent years.

I have not seen a corresponding decrease in the quality of education for students at the higher end of the spectrum. This is not to suggest that all is perfect (far from it); but good news is always welcome, and this recognition was most definitely good news.

Here is a link to the full report

Our high school hosted a speech tournament yesterday, and we took a turn at concessions (which is our speech team's primary fundraiser). There was a positive buzz about the ranking amongst the parents who were volunteering.

Congratulations, Bloomington High.


Steve Levitt summarizes The Race in 2 sentences
Jimmy graduates

The anemic response of skill investment to skill premium growth
The declining American high school graduation rate: Evidence, sources, and consequences
Pushy parents raise more successful kids

The Race Between Education and Technology book review
The Race Between Ed & Tech: excerpt & TOC & SAT scores & public loss of confidence in the schools
The Race Between Ed & Tech: the Great Compression
the Great Compression, part 2
ED in '08: America's schools
comments on Knowledge Schools
the future
the stick kids from mud island
educated workers and technology diffusion
declining value of college degree
Goldin, Katz and fans
best article thus far: Chronicle of Higher Education on The Race
Tyler Cowan on The Race (NY Times)
happiness inequality down...
an example of lagging technology diffusion in the U.S.
the Times reviews The Race, finally
IQ, college, and 2008 election
Bloomington High School & "path dependency"
the election debate that should have been

High School Quest Continues

Just a quick recap. The local school district is moving 9th grade to the high schools next year. Local schools are hosting "parent information" nights this month. My sons attend a very highly rated charter school in town that has a 9th grade and is investigating an extension to the charter to include high school. Here's a report on visit #2 on our HS odyssey. (Visit #1 is here.)


What a difference attitude makes. A week or so ago, husband, 8th grade son and I attended a parent night at another high school in Fort Collins. This principal and his team of 5 counselors spent almost 45 minutes on the academics at the school, then invited everyone to go on a tour hosted by senior year peer counselors.
We learned about:

• AP classes available to incoming freshman and sophomores,
  
• how many credits are required to graduate,
  
• how rigorous the curriculum is,
• how many AP tests taken resulted in scores of 4 or 5,
  
• how the school ranked in Newsweek's annual ratings (top 5%).
  

The principal was humorous, concerned, and confident. (And very tall!) He acknowledged that the school didn't have all the transition logistics completely worked out, but felt they were working towards a strong plan.


Now I realize that AP courses can be controversial (not necessarily rigorous, poor college prep, etc.); however, hearing a principal encourage every student to take at least one class in their school career is pretty powerful. I'm a parent and a teacher. I know the statistics of the general population. In the district, under 70% will continue their education after high school, 40% at a 4 year school.

The slide show consisted of 6 or 7 slides that covered the core courses required at 9th & 10th grades, important dates in the registration process and a "brag" slide about the school awards, rankings, athletics teams.


Clubs were mentioned. The school won 8 of 10 awards for having the most involved student body in the state. (They weren't eligible one year and after 7 consecutive wins, Wells Fargo quit giving out the award.) The principal even mentioned "Lambkin Pride". Yes, the mascot is a lamb. This school is sending counselors to the local jr. highs to discuss student options (as opposed to students) and they have one heck of a prep rally in April that 9th & 10th graders are given special t-shirts for and invited to attend.


I did find it interesting that one counselor who spoke told the audience of 400 that they didn't have time to meet with all incoming 2009-10 students and their parents individually, then the principal promised 20 minutes to anyone who wanted to learn more about the school. (It would help if you came in groups, he quipped.)


When the principal was done, we headed out to find a peer counselor. On our tour around the campus (1/4 mile from gym to theater) we learned that there are 3 main wings, grouped by subject, and each has a computer lab for teachers to use. Not everyone gets a locker. Hardly anyone uses them. The school has sand volleyball pits outside the cafeteria. The main gym holds 2522 people, and so on. My son had no questions. (We were embarrassing him!) One other boy asked if he could wear his baseball hat in classes. (Yes, but some teachers make you remove them.)


We were the last group touring with our peer counselor, Ryan, and he volunteered that he had been a graduate of the same charter jr. high that my son currently attends. He really felt prepared when he came to this school and has whizzed through several AP courses.


I had to ask..."Did you take AP psychology?"
"Next semester, he answered, "It's supposed to be the easiest AP course you can take."


BTW- My son loved this school.

Enlightening Parent Night at Local H.S.

My son is in the 8th grade at a rigorous k-9 charter school. (I posted about our high school expansion quest here.) Next year all 9th grade students in the district are shifting from jr. high to the high schools. We want him to stay at the charter school for 9th grade. My son, of course, wants to move to a district school, so we're checking them out.

My husband and I left our neighborhood high school (Rocky Mt.) info night for 8th graders & parents in disbelief. In one hour of presentation by the principal, 4 vice principals and several counselors (not all 7 were in attendance), almost no time was devoted to academics. Here's the gist of that 2 minutes and 27 seconds:

"We have a lot of AP classes."

This is the actual list of concerns of the school represented on a powerpoint slide, my thoughts in parentheses:

• Safety (how will the parking lot work, traffic, what is an open campus)
• Student differentiation (There's a club for everyone)
• Capacity (We aren't a school of choice because we're over capacity and we aren't adding buildings because they are too expensive)
• School choice (You can't opt in at this school, see above)
• The Lobo Way (Not too sure on this one, they expect the kids to behave?)

The principal went on to state that the school had 3 specific goals:

1. Meet AYP

2. Prepare children for transitions: from 8th to high school & from high school to post-secondary school

3. He didn't give a third, but mentioned prepping kids for post-secondary education again, then said those were the school's 3 goals.

The bulk of the hour discussed:

• lunches (6 stations next year)
• beakfasts offered (They set a record for milk consumption last year!)
• clubs (If kids aren't involved, they aren't successful students)
• busses
• the school's internet powerschool-type program
• traffic patterns (9th grade gets dropped off with the handicapped kids)
• how the Spanish teacher had students learning videography by performing and recording a cooking show (in Spanish)
• assemblies (We're taking students to the local jr. highs and shooting off t-shirts to get them excited for next year!)
• Lobo 101 (mandatory "how to study & how to use their media center" class)
• late start one day a week for staff meetings (Bummer - it moves from Monday to Wednesday next year.)
• did I mention clubs?

I know what you're thinking..."How did they fit all this content into 1 hour?"

SO... we went up to 2 of the vice principals at the end and asked specifically 2 questions: "What differentiates you from the other district high schools?" and "What about the academics?"

Their answer to the first: "Well, we have block scheduling, Collins (Fort Collins HS) has a traditional schedule and Poudre has a mix of schedules."

Their answer to the second after we clarified that we were interested in math and science: "We're the only HS to offer Calculus 3 in the district, so you'd be well served here." (I didn't ask what textbook they were using or what the teacher's qualifications were.) At this point one of the principals fled the auditorium. (This is not an exaggeration.)

In all fairness, half the auditorium had students already in attendance at the school and were probably more interested in traffic, late start and lunches than we were. The night was advertised as "for all parents & students of incoming 9th graders" and the principal did acknowledge that many of us might be new to the school.

On the way home, I thought my husband and I did a great job keeping our bias to ourselves and asked #1 son what he thought of the school.

He liked the block schedule and the late start.

I'm going back today and re-reading all posts on KTMII tagged "high school". I have a lot of research to do before choice applications are due.

Next week my husband will be handling Poudre & Fort Collins H.S.

I'll be at the Core Knowledge conference - stop by & say "hi".

Designing a High School

A parent group at the charter school my children attend in Colorado is investigating adding 10-12th grades. I volunteered to work on the curriculum committee even though I doubt my middle school sons will attend. In order to be approved by the district to extend the charter, the school must provide an education not available at other local schools so they are looking at a math & science focus.

State and district standards in math and science are pretty basic, trig concepts, bio, chem and physics. The high school would be added to a k-8 school with a core knowledge curriculum that also teaches Singapore Math and Latin. An overwhelming majority of the students are in Algebra by 8th grade. My 7th grader is in Algebra and there is at least one 8th grader taking differential equations at the community college. (FYI- This school uses New Elementary Math as a pre-algebra course)

The committee is set on requiring math through Calculus and the basics in science. We're wondering about what to add as required: engineering courses, advanced biological science courses or physical science courses?

Suppose you were given the opportunity to devise a math & science high school. What type of coursework would you require?

college readiness Class of 2007

Percent of [ACT-Tested] Students Meeting College Benchmarks

Number of students tested: 1,300,599

English 69%

Mathematics 43%

Reading 53%

Science 28%

Meeting All Four 23%

Half are ready to do college-level reading ----



by Race/Ethnicity: Number Tested, % of Test-taking Population, Average Score

African American/Black - 152,412 / 12% / 17.0
American Indian/Alaska Native - 14,044 / 1% / 18.9
Caucasian American/White - 779,147 / 60% / 22.1
Hispanic - 93,137 / 7% / 18.7
Asian American/Pacific Islander - 42,257 / 3% / 22.6
Other/No Response 219,602 / 17% / 21.6

source:
ACT HIGH SCHOOL PROFILE: SECTION I, EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PAGE 5 (pdf file)
HS Graduating Class of 2007
National Report National
Total Students in Report: 1,300,599


I love those 219,602 ACT test takers who are Other or No Response --- !

been there, done that

Abstract

Economists have identified a substantial adult wage premium attached to high school leadership activity. Unresolved is the extent to which it constitutes human capital acquisition or proxies for an ‘‘innate’’ unobserved skill. We document a determinant of high school leadership activity that is associated purely with school structure, rather than genetics or family background – a student’s relative age. State-specific school entry cut-offs induce systematic within grade variation in student maturity, which in turn generates differences in leadership activity. We find that the relatively oldest students are 4–11 percent more likely to be high school leaders.

What makes a leader? Relative age and high school leadership (pdf file)
Elizabeth Dhueya, , Stephen Lipscombb
Economics of Education Review 27 (2008) 173–183

I've seen this over and over and over and over ........ again.


relative age effect
high school leadership, wages, and relative age
redshirting kids
redshirting & tournament settings

truc

Fonts can shape reality in intangible ways, as Phil Renaud, a graphic designer from Phoenix, discovered when he studied the relationship between his grades and the fonts he used for his college papers. Papers set in Georgia, a less common font with serifs, generally received A’s while those rendered in Times Roman averaged B’s.

While he acknowledges that his study was very unscientific, he wanted to remind all high school graduates heading for college that an element of surprise is important. “You don’t want to fall into the same pattern that the professor sees on every new paper,” he said.

When Comic Sans Isn't Enough, Sites Help Create Custom Fonts
by Peter Wayner
NY Times June 26, 2008

I have no idea what to make of this. I've always liked the Georgia font, though.


Quirky serifs aside, Georgia fonts win on the Web

be afraid

The film depicts the Indian and Chinese students as well-rounded and having much more parental support than the Americans. For example, Rohit sings in an American-style rock band, and Hu is learning the violin. Rohit's parents and sister routinely help him with his physics homework....

U.S. Schools: Not That Bad
by Vivek Wadhwa
Business Week May 28, 2008

Next fall, or a year after that at the latest, is the point where I get knocked out of the rink.

Until now I could figure out how to teach my kid what he wasn't learning in school. Which I have done. I've spent the past several years teaching myself math so I could re-teach math to C.

I can't do the same with high school chemistry and physics. Well, I could, but not in the time I've got.

A friend of ours, a physician, spent this year reteaching h.s. chemistry to his kid. Each and every night, he sat and taught chemistry. Worked all day, taught Honors chemistry all night.

I can't do that, and neither can Ed.

The homework gap is part of the achievement gap; at least, it is in my school district. Our family is about to experience the homework gap between us and the rest of the world.

How many families in this country have mothers and sisters who can help with physics homework? I don't know a single one.

bonus thought for the day: US Schools: Not That Bad doesn't cut it. Good enough isn't good enough. Not for a half trillion dollars a year.

The article is worth reading, btw. The author takes issue with Compton on a number of points. Comments are interesting, too.