re: The US is Neglecting its Smartest Kids (NPR Article)

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Finn is a fan of the Common Core State Standards,

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cc; dr

actually, you know that isn't true because that's in item 10 of 10. Me no outsmart.

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Japan groups their classes by ability. That comes with other problems though.

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That would never work with Americans

this is a really interesting topic and thread. thanks for posting, Slow.

IMO, there's a lot of credibility to what the article talks about. much of my experience is anecdotal. but it's a question of how do you solve it? you can't leave the slackers behind at the expense of those who can already make it on their own. but how do you get those gifted kids involved?

it takes more than just book smarts to be able to succeed. being gifted doesn't mean you will make it. i know a lot of people who were gifted and now work in restaurants back home. they didn't have any common sense/street smarts. i think gifted kids can learn from those who are struggling by perhaps helping them learn. setting up an in class system to have students help each other. it also teaches real world skills in the process. just my opinion and it's not well formulated, but it's a start.

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i think gifted kids can learn from those who are struggling by perhaps helping them learn. setting up an in class system to have students help each other. it also teaches real world skills in the process. just my opinion and it's not well formulated, but it's a start.

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That sounds like a good idea. Scruffy would support it.

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you can't leave the slackers behind

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The issue, ISO, isn't about leaving the slackers behind. What we need is a system which gives them more direction.

Hell, college does a terrible job with that as well. We really do have a horrible system of explaining what jobs are out there.

We also need to change our idea of what makes a person qualified for many jobs. We need to move passed this belief that everyone should go to college.

I looked at the grades on some tests of an elementary teacher I know recently. She had some students getting 100s, some getting 50 %, and too many getting less than 25%. She said it's that way because the kids getting 100s are being tethered to the low performers, they should be working on much more advanced material. The middle range is mostly kids trying who aren't good at that subject (math) or have some disability. The low range is kids who don't care and don't try, that would probably be low performers even if they did try

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The issue, ISO,

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this gave me a good chuckle

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Hell, college does a terrible job with that as well. We really do have a horrible system of explaining what jobs are out there.

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there's a strong lack of real world skills being taught in high school and college. it should be mandatory for seniors in high school to learn how to do taxes, balance a checkbook (not as much necessary anymore), etc. etc. i know there are econ classes for some of this stuff in college, but why not make that a mandatory class instead of some stupid art history bullshite?

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We also need to change our idea of what makes a person qualified for many jobs. We need to move passed this belief that everyone should go to college.

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totally agree and have been saying the same thing for years now. you know what's a great job right now? plumber. it's not for everyone, but it requires far less money to be trained correctly than going to college for 4 years, and there's a lot of money to be made. and it's a field that isn't going to go away to robots anytime soon. things like that and welding, etc. a college degree isn't worth what it was in the the 70s and 80s.

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I looked at the grades on some tests of an elementary teacher I know recently. She had some students getting 100s, some getting 50 %, and too many getting less than 25%. She said it's that way because the kids getting 100s are being tethered to the low performers, they should be working on much more advanced material. The middle range is mostly kids trying who aren't good at that subject (math) or have some disability. The low range is kids who don't care and don't try, that would probably be low performers even if they did try

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i think part of the problem is that teachers are far too often not as smart as their students, especially in high school. need to start finding a way to attract better teachers (AKA more $$$)

While I agree, there are SO MANY FACTORS involved in this that highlighting it down to a few is nearly impossible. Parents, kids, schools, districts, states, demographics, and on and on and on.

Change one thing, how much do the rest change?

For instance, I've been an instructor/faculty in college off and on for years now (always on the side as an adjunct, never as my career. I'm in EdTech). I've worked in Community College writing programs before and I'll get a class with students that range from "Shouldn't have graduated 6th-grade writing" to "Could write an Undergrad thesis, no problem," as freshman. And neither of those are exaggerations.

My one goal as an instructor in a class like that was to make sure that every kid improved, regardless of where they were, and improved as much as 4 month would allow. And, not to trumpet my own skills, I could do it. Every single semester. It's all about course design, how you manage your collective skills in the class, how you delegate, create opportunity, etc.

Yes that was at a more mature level than the students we're mostly talking about, but lots of things at all levels get in the way of teachers doing their job well. Not only that, there are A LOT of bad teachers out there. A lot. That's why I'll get a freshman in college who has apparently never written a complete sentence before.

tl;dr It's more than one thing. And I have no idea what the total solution is, I just know it can be done, even in a climate without homogeneity or more freedom in what is taught.

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so probably got watered down for inclusion purposes over the years.

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EBRP's Desegregation Plan. If any policy affected me as a kid, it was that giant of piece of crap. Everyone involved in that plan should be rounded up and segregated from society. Forever.

I am a teacher and have two kids.

One is in the gifted program.
One is special education.

The system is failing both of them. You know what happens to all of that special education money? It doesn't go to the SPED kids (our county had an audit confirming that). The system consistently fails both the highest and the lowest performers.

And like someone mentioned before, the terms aren't mutually exclusive. Many gifted kids are special education, and many systems code their gifted kids as SPED.