Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings

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Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by SMAZ on Fri Mar 18 01:08:52 2011 edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d no shit --------------- Teaching Seen As Crucial In Topping Ed Rankings by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Countries that outpace the U.S. in education employ many different strategies to help their students excel. They do, however, share one: They set high requirements to become a teacher, hold those who become one in high esteem and offer the instructors plenty of support. On Wednesday and Thursday, education leaders, including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the nation's largest teacher unions, and officials from the highest scoring countries, are meeting in New York to identify the best teaching practices. The meeting comes after the recently released results of the Programme for International Student Assessment exam of 15-year-olds alarmed U.S. educators. Out of 34 countries, it ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math. "On the one hand, the United States has a very expensive education system in international standards," said Andreas Schleicher, who directs the exam. "On the other hand, it's one of the systems where teachers get the lowest salaries. "Then you ask yourself, how do you square those things?" Schleicher co-authored a report released Wednesday in conjunction with the conference which concluded that for the U.S. to remain competitive, it must raise the status of the teaching profession. An additional report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, as well as the PISA exam, identified several effective practices observed in the top performing regions and countries: — They draw teachers from the same pool of applicants as those from other selective professional careers. Aspiring teachers in Singapore, for example, are selected from the top one-third of secondary school graduating classes. They are given a monthly stipend while in schools and starting salaries are competitive with other professional jobs. In Finland, there were 6,600 applicants for 660 openings in primary school preparation programs in 2010. — Higher teacher salaries — rather than smaller class sizes — were a better indicator of student performance. At the same time, it wasn't an exclusive means of attracting the best into the profession and must be accompanied by support from school leaders and a work environment that values professional judgment rather than formulas. "They want to do knowledge work, not work in a prescriptive environment," Schleicher said. — Teachers are continually being trained and developing their skills as instructors. In Shanghai, teachers are expected to participate in 240 hours of professional development within five years. Singapore teachers are entitled to 100 hours of training per year "to keep up with the rapid changes in the world." — Instructors are held accountable for student performance, but test results would be just one of a number of measures to determine student outcomes. Teachers welcome effective appraisal systems. — In many cases, countries with the highest student performance also had strong teacher unions. The unions also developed their research capacities, with international links and connections to ministries and universities. In the U.S., part of the reason why the standards to enter teaching are not higher stems from lingering fears over teacher shortages, like those seen during the 1950s when baby boomers were students and what may happen as they are retiring. Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the Washington-based National Council on Teacher Quality, said the higher standards to enter the profession are critical to later success. "Everything else is sort of a ripple effect," she said. Jacobs noted that there is evidence from other countries that raising the bar would add prestige to the profession and allow schools to attract a new set of teaching candidates. There is also significant variation among states in standards for entry, licensure, training and development, noted Joseph Agueberre, president of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Students in one place, for example, might be required to put in more hours in the classroom. "All of that variability is problematic, because what it does is lead to the fact that we have schools with teachers who are differentially prepared," Agueberre said. "It's a little bit of luck of the draw what kind of teacher a child will get." Adeline Rodriguez, a third-grade math teacher at a school north of Miami, said that when she was studying to become a teacher, just two of her college classes and an internship involved visits to schools. Most of the focus of her bachelor's degree program, she said, was on book work. "It's almost like learning it all anew because it's no longer out of a textbook where you're given a scenario," Rodriguez said. "You are living the scenario." Mary Osteen, who teaches English and drama at a middle school in Sacramento, Calif., transitioned into teaching after working many years as a paralegal. She said the clinical practice, from professors who were still working in the teaching field, was crucial. She entered the school where she presently teaches alongside many who had gone through more traditional routes to teaching. "Within a short period of time, those people were clamoring to us because their programs gave them no support once in the classroom," Osteen said. Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan's School of Education, said teachers in the United States are also at a disadvantage because they are prepared without knowing what they will teach. Prospective teachers in countries that outperformed the U.S. on the PISA exam also frequently have the advantage of learning how to teach a curriculum they themselves followed as young students. "They're learning to unpack it, help kids learn it, they've seen those books, they've seen that curriculum, they've been part of the system that is stable," Ball said. Another key difference lies in how much time that students aspiring to become teachers are required to work with students. "Student success is key in becoming a teacher from day one," Schleicher said.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by N6 Limited* on Fri Mar 18 02:06:41 2011, in response to Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by SMAZ on Fri Mar 18 01:08:52 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Very interesting
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by JayMan* on Fri Mar 18 10:45:43 2011, in response to Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by SMAZ on Fri Mar 18 01:08:52 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Here is the fundamental problem with all this debate. One very big thing is missing: IQ The meeting comes after the recently released results of the Programme for International Student Assessment exam of 15-year-olds alarmed U.S. educators. Out of 34 countries, it ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math. First of all, the U.S. IS NOT DOING POORLY INTERNATIONALLY. Here's what that very same PISA test shows when you break down the results by race: (from http://www.vdare.com/sailer/101219_pisa.htm) White Americans outperform students in almost every European country. Asian Americans outperform most in East Asia (this is likely due to selective immigration however). The government and commentators will cache this in terms of "poverty", correctly noting that if you control for poverty the results improve. This ignores the fact that poverty is also correlated with IQ -- on the individual level, the county level, and the national level. Schleicher co-authored a report released Wednesday in conjunction with the conference which concluded that for the U.S. to remain competitive, it must raise the status of the teaching profession. An additional report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, as well as the PISA exam, identified several effective practices observed in the top performing regions and countries: Secondly, it's not that simple to compare teaching practices from one country to the next -- even one district to the next in some cases, because again of IQ. Higher IQ students (in places like Singapore, Shanghai -- the financial capital of China, or Finland) demand more rigorous curricula, and require more competent teachers to deliver it. And because of the higher IQ of the populations in these areas, more competent teachers are available, because teachers themselves have higher IQ's. In fact, this push to copy the educational practices of high-IQ areas, without appreciating the factor underlying it all (IQ) only does more harm than good. An article in the latest Christian Science Monitor details this painful and torturous process -- the "shock therapy" used in some of the "chronically underperforming" (read: black) schools in the country, that often eliminates the bulk of the teaching staff (who are mostly black) and replaces them with new teachers (mostly white), yet -- naturally (to anyone who understands IQ) -- produces meager results. This will lead to teacher shortages, and much worse, because of the laws of supply and demand. Even if the pay was raised to accommodate it, the inevitable failure of better teachers to improve scores in the black and brown populations in the states will grind away at the teacher base, not to mention greatly wear down morale... The time will come soon when discussion of cognitive ability -- and the racial differences therein -- become no longer taboo in the national conversation, particularly in education where it is clearly relevant, due to the sheer weight of the evidence, particularly in the face of all the efforts over the past century, some admirable, many -- especially the recent ones -- hair-brained, that failed to put a dent in the achievement gap.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by Fred G* on Fri Mar 18 13:09:13 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by JayMan on Fri Mar 18 10:45:43 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d That chart has some lean to it. your pal, Fred
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by cortelyounext* on Fri Mar 18 13:40:34 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by JayMan on Fri Mar 18 10:45:43 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d That whole standard deviation thing? I just don't get it and I never will. Then again, my aptitude for such things is limited. I'm more knowledged up on whether or not Akron will come out of its collapsing 1-3-1 matchup zone and go instead with "man principles" once Notre Dame starts raining 3s down on their ass. That is all I want to say about that. Enjoy your weekend and remember it is never a good option to set foot on any airplane at any time for any reason unless as a last resort and then for only as long as is absolutely necessary. I read that whole Syracuse thread and I was like what is going on here?
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by Olog-hai* on Fri Mar 18 16:15:07 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by cortelyounext on Fri Mar 18 13:40:34 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d That whole standard deviation thing? I just don't get it and I never will Meh, that's not as hard as vector math.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by Olog-hai* on Fri Mar 18 16:16:33 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by Fred G on Fri Mar 18 13:09:13 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Doesn't it just.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by JayMan* on Sat Mar 19 11:26:53 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by cortelyounext on Fri Mar 18 13:40:34 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d The standard deviation is a measure of the variability of whatever you're dealing with. It's basically how spread out your data points are. It's expressed in the units of what you're measuring. Data with a low standard deviation tend to be tightly clustered around the mean (the average), whereas those with a higher standard deviation are all over the place. The standard deviation of height, for example, is much lower on a basketball team (where most of the players are tall) than it is in the general population. When things are normally distributed (i.e., a bell curve), the mean and the standard deviation define the size and shape of the curve: Each standard deviation (σ) is marked. When it comes to IQ, IQ tests are scored such that the mean of the score is set to 100 and the standard deviation is 15 (among whites, at least). As such, a person with an IQ of 115 is 1σ above the mean, and outscores 84% of the (white) population. A person with an IQ of 145 (3σ), outscores 99.9% of the (white) population. As we seen, different racial groups have different means, but some groups may even have different standard deviations: India for example has a mean IQ of about 87, (not much different from the black American mean), but we all know a lot of smart Indians -- it is possible that standard deviation of India is much higher than most places, owing to centuries of invasions and migration and endogamous mating (i.e., partial inbreeding) in some places.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by AlM* on Sat Mar 19 11:41:58 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by JayMan on Fri Mar 18 10:45:43 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Remember also that IQ doesn't faithfully measure pure intelligence. It partly measures exposure to ways of thinking as well as general knowledge. I remember taking an IQ test when I was a kid where one of the questions was "What continent is Egypt in." I was indignant. The explanation I got is that knowledge is correlated to intelligence. But even when an IQ test poses a problem that you have to work out (which you'd think would measure intelligence), it's much easier to solve the problem if you've been exposed to similar problems many times before.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by Easy* on Sat Mar 19 11:48:53 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by N6 Limited on Fri Mar 18 02:06:41 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d It's BS.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by JayMan* on Sat Mar 19 14:41:46 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by AlM on Sat Mar 19 11:41:58 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Remember also that IQ doesn't faithfully measure pure intelligence. Yes, I'll return to that in a second. It partly measures exposure to ways of thinking as well as general knowledge. That depends on the IQ test. The less "g"-loaded ones like the Stanford-Binet and others like verbal tests do measure culture-dependent knowledge. More g-loaded tests like the Raven's Progressive Matrices measure reasoning ability more purely. I remember taking an IQ test when I was a kid where one of the questions was "What continent is Egypt in." I was indignant. The explanation I got is that knowledge is correlated to intelligence. It is, but needless to say, that is far more dependent on external factors. Someone who was never exposed to books and modern technology might score more poorly on such tests despite having a high level of g. But even when an IQ test poses a problem that you have to work out (which you'd think would measure intelligence), it's much easier to solve the problem if you've been exposed to similar problems many times before. Yes, that's why familiarity with the test lowers their g-loading. The most relevant factor underlying IQ tests is the "g"-factor -- or general intelligence. g is the correlation between seemingly unrelated mental abilities, like mathematic or verbal reasoning. All different mental abilities, as measured by IQ tests, are correlated with each other. An analogy is a decathlon. While different athletes will specialize more on some sports and perform better on those than others, an athlete's overall fitness will affect his performance, to some degree, on all the component events. g is like this fitness. The more g-loaded a test is, the better it predicts real world outcomes like grades or earnings, and g is the most heritable aspect of IQ. That being said, even with the same (or different) g, different individuals and groups can specialize on different things. For example, g doesn't measure creativity, which is distinct from intelligence to many degrees. Indeed, different races seems to have different strengths -- for example, blacks, despite having low g, have better short term memory and are more creative than other groups -- which might explain why blacks exceed at sports and music (think about how many black musicians there are, a great many of which come from impoverished areas). E. Asians have excellent mathematical reasoning but somewhat poorer verbal reasoning (fitting the stereotype). Inuits (Eskimos), who have the proportionally largest brains, excel at spatial reasoning despite having a low mean IQ (91). Ashkenazi Jews excel at both math and verbal reasoning, but suck at spatial reasoning. As well, there are pronounced gender differences -- men tend to be better at spatial reasoning, while women are better at verbal fluency, among other differences between men and women (men have a larger standard deviation in IQ and a 5 point mean advantage).
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by RockParkMan* on Thu May 26 19:07:44 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by JayMan on Fri Mar 18 10:45:43 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Remember, China is socialist.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by Stephen Bauman* on Thu May 26 20:25:11 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by JayMan on Sat Mar 19 11:26:53 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d India for example has a mean IQ of about 87, (not much different from the black American mean), but we all know a lot of smart Indians - I know quite a few smart black Americans.
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Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings
Posted by JayMan* on Thu May 26 21:53:30 2011, in response to Re: Teaching Seen as Crucial in Topping Education Rankings, posted by Stephen Bauman on Thu May 26 20:25:11 2011.* edf40wrjww2msgDetailOT:detailStr fiogf49gjkf0d Yep, me too. Especially since I'm one of them...
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