Philippine Basic Education

The current Hunter Mill District Fairfax County School Board Member Pat Hynes, while sharing the previous post on this blog, Advanced Academic Programs Hurt Basic Education , wrote: If some kids are always reading below grade level, maybe that’s because we never hold them accountable for more. Labeling, sorting, and separating kids fosters a fixed mindset in teachers about their kids and, tragically, in kids’ own self awareness. With Pat Hynes not seeking reelection, Hunter Mill now has a choice between two candidates. No longer having Hynes on the school board can easily mean losing an individual on the board who recognizes and understands the scourge of inequity in basic education. Standing up for equity in our schools is clearly not a glamorous task. In Fairfax county, for instance, one can win the ire of its Chinese American Parent Association: Above copied from Chinese American Parent Association of Fairfax County Unfortunately, one of the candidates vying for Hynes

The Nation's Report Card actually provides strong evidence against advanced academic programs. In a post on this blog a year ago, " Gaps Are Increasing in the Nation's Report Card ", a troubling trend has become evident, low achieving students are scoring even lower over the years. Well, the 2019 results are now available and the scores are sadly continuing with this trend. And the reason behind this trend maybe simple: Schools are providing two different curricula - and the instruction depends on whether the student is deemed low-achieving or high-achieving. This outcome should not come as a surprise since this is what happens with ability-grouping in basic education. It benefits no one but harms students who are struggling. Above copied from The Nation's Report Card (NAEP 8th Grade Reading Scores) This time, I will not be citing a cartoon nor a comic strip, but a study done by the National Center for Education Statistics. Above copied from Educati

It has been three decades since Robert Slavin at Johns Hopkins University told us in " Achievement Effects of Ability Grouping in Secondary Schools: A Best-Evidence Synthesis " that there is no educational benefit in grouping students according to what we perceive as their academic abilities. On the other hand, there is a clear drawback: Inequity in basic education. Receiving responses that are sometimes quite virulent on posts where I call for removal of advanced academic programs makes me realize that some parents actually fear public school education. Basically, parents fear that the curriculum provided to the students not deemed advanced is bad. This is the same reason why bringing equity to education is sometimes viewed as catering to the lowest common denominator. I guess I would be equally concerned if my child not deemed advanced is then asked to go through the word "the" as practice for sight reading over and over. Is this fear grounded on reality? Sadly, i

School districts in the United States provide a different academic track for students deemed advanced compared to their peers. The notion that there are children especially endowed with superior intellect is widely accepted as truth. Yet, as Wendy Berliner and Deborah Eyre say in " Great Minds and How to Grow Them ", most children are capable of high academic performance. Even "Big Nate" of Lincoln Peirce claims that it is all a matter of wanting to become one. Above copied from Comics! Roo's Comics The fact that enrollment in advanced academic programs throughout the United States can be easily traced to parents providing excellent opportunities and preparation for academics to their children strongly supports the idea that academic performance can be nurtured. Schools therefore should be able to do so much more than what parents could. Sadly, schools tend to marginally add to what parents have done already. As a result, academic achievement gaps only i

"If you are in the Mason District of Fairfax County please vote for Ricardy Josma Anderson! She is a former principal who will advocate for All children not just certain children!" - Brian Butler I also strongly endorse Ricardy Anderson for the Mason District seat of our School Board. Vote on November 5. Please vote for the future of our children.

My son is taking algebra in middle school. A lot of schools across the United States provide an opportunity for students who have demonstrated good performance in elementary mathematics to enroll in an algebra course in their middle school years. These students can furnish a good set of data to evaluate what teacher characteristics correlate with student performance in algebra. A study with this goal has been recently published by Marzano Research in conjunction with the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. The study looks at all middle school students who have taken algebra in the year 2015 in the state of Missouri. The data surprisingly include a substantial number of underrepresented groups as well as economically disadvantaged students. And across all students, there is one characteristic of a teacher that correlates with strong student performance in algebra. Here is the shocker: It is how much algebra a teacher knows. It is not the level of certifica

Members of the House of Representatives in the Philippines are apparently eager to review the country's K to 12 basic education program. The Department of Education (DepEd) recently issued a statement saying it is willing to work with legislators on a "dedicated review session" that "will provide an appropriate venue to comprehensively discuss concerns about the program and plot out corresponding solutions". The statement also mentions an additional P650 million in the proposed DepEd budget to improve DepEd's K to 12. It is simply amazing that in the Philippines, an executive branch can do a review of its own program with legislators without an independent expert review. This is not evidence-based research and to place billions of pesos on a program that has not been adequately vetted is purely irresponsible. Not only does the K-12 program use most of the national budget, its effectiveness or lack thereof can have a profound impact on the future lives of a

Adam Alter's response to the question, "What's in a name?", is "Everything". We can pass judgment based simply on a person's name. Alter's article talks more about how names given to hurricanes influence donations. Apparently, if a hurricane shares the same initial as a person's name, that person is more likely to help the victims. Our biases toward names, however, can have a much more nefarious root. For instance, we can compare the two names, Greg and Darnell. Greg is typically a White name while Darnell is typically Black. Attach either one of these names in a teacher referral for discipline to a principal and one can find that the punishment is influenced by the name. The name Darnell gets the shorter end of the stick. This is precisely what researchers in Berkeley have recently found in a study of how middle and high school principals in a school district in the Southeastern United States make disciplinary decisions. Above copied from

My son was laughing so hard yesterday afternoon. He was watching this comedy show from Netflix called "Mr. Iglesias". Iglesias was a social studies teacher and the first scene had him summarizing American History in a a few minutes, pointing out that the first few presidents of the United States wore powdered wigs, a tradition that stopped with Monroe, but reincarnated recently with a wig dipped in 'cheetos' dust. My son thought that was really funny. With all the humor aside, the show actually deals with issues affecting basic education. Kathryn Milschewski of Carthage College writes , "Overall, “Mr. Iglesias” highlights important educational issues and helps viewers to see education through a new lens. Though, at times, the characters might seem over the top and unrealistic, this is a comedy show at heart. Viewers are supposed to laugh at the characters and have fun while watching each episode, while still learning important lessons." Above copied from

The devil is in the details. There is the long standing argument that enrichment programs in basic education are intended for children who show great promise in academics. A new study now shows that such programs actually favor wealth over abilities. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), Jason A. Grissom and Joshua F. Bleiberg from Vanderbilt University, and Christopher Redding from the University of Florida find that socio-economic gaps in enrollment in gifted programs persist even after considering a student's achievement levels. With equivalents scores in reading and mathematics, children from wealthy families are much more likely to receive gifted services than children from poor households do. Above copied from Money over Merit? Socioeconomic Gaps in Receipt of Gifted Services  What comes as a surprise in this new study is that the socioeconomic gaps are in fact bigger with White and Asian American children. Above co

I thought the recommendations made by New York City's School Diversity Advisory Group are clear: "Because we believe all students deserve to be challenged, we recommend that the Department of Education resource community school districts to pilot creative, equitable enrichment alternatives to Gifted &Talented, resource community engagement and implementation appropriately and measure, track and publicize impacts; discontinue the use of the Gifted & Talented admissions test; and institute a moratorium on new Gifted & Talented programs, while phasing out existing programs." Even Andy Smarick at the Atlantic  correctly gets the message, "The panel would instead prioritize schoolwide enrichment programs so a diverse student body could learn together under one roof." Yet, Smarick still makes the claim that equity contradicts excellence. It only seems a contradiction if we keep thinking that public basic education is a "zero-sum game". Education

Paul Muschick at the Morning Call made it clear, " Partisan politics is a disease that shouldn't be spread to Pennsylvania school boards. " Here, in Fairfax county, the election for school board is non-partisan but there is a growing concern that a candidate's party affiliation needs to be identified. Democrats, for instance, are worried that a minority candidate maybe mistakenly construed as a Democrat simply because the candidate is not a White American. Nonetheless, partisan politics should be quite obvious with just a little bit of attention. Down-ballot candidates receive endorsements from top ticket politicians (Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, State Legislators) while campaigning at the same time for the party. The patronage politics is actually quite clear. Muschick thinks partisan politics is a disease in school boards because board members will no longer be elected for who they are but for what their party believes in. And that is tragic. I

Growing up, I briefly experienced daylight-saving time (DST) in 1978 when it was enforced by the Marcos administration. Here in the DC area, we continue to observe daylight-saving time. This year, it runs from March 10 to November 3. This means, we lose one hour of sleep sometime in March and regain that hour some time in November. Our candidate for representative to the school board, Ricardy Anderson, includes in her platform, school start times for middle school. Recommendations made by health professionals are clear with respect to aligning school schedules to a child's biological clock. Fairfax county uses a staggered schedule for its elementary, middle and high schools to meet school bus resources. Apparently absent in these considerations is the fact that we in fact enforce on all children an hour disruption every year in March. Schools clearly start one hour earlier sometime in March when daylight-saving time begins. Moving the clock an hour ahead, which happens in the