I remember how it was -- JR
Jobs not jail: Bring back vocational education
After a two-year pandemic hiatus, classrooms are finally headed back to normalcy. While it’s a relief for parents, it’s going to take decades to absorb the brutal consequences of COVID on our nation’s kids.
Back in the 1990s, I was listening to a presentation by an official who ran a for-profit prison. During the Q&A, an audience member asked: “How do you know how many beds you need to build?” Without hesitation, the official said: “We extrapolate from the number of children that fail the NAEP’s fourth-grade reading exam.” The room went silent.
Conducted every four years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress is a longitudinal snapshot of student attainment at fourth, eighth and 12th grades and proficiency in reading and math. It was last conducted in 2019 — pre-shutdown, giving us a baseline that abuts COVID. The 2019 NAEP showed 34% of fourth-grade students unable to read at grade level — up 3% from 2015. My bet is the next measure is going to be much bigger.
How much bigger? The Brookings Institution gauges COVID’s impact on reading at 15%. With 2023 right around the corner, we might be looking at a NAEP non-proficiency number around 50%. And if you are looking for evidence of disparate impact, NAEP failure and COVID-related failure are not colorblind.
The good news is the educational establishment knows it has a huge problem on its hands — and it has $22 billion looking for “evidence-based interventions” to address the COVID-aggravated drop in learning.
Unfortunately, the thinking on this front is neither inspired nor up to the challenge. Educators intend to open the funding spigots to pay for measures that depend for their success on high-quality teachers — teachers who don’t exist in the current labor pool.
What would up-to-the-challenge thinking look like?
First, a budget for big thinking. The money is there. The Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund is $200 billion, including $20 billion dedicated to closing the COVID gap for at-risk students. The problem is the default thinking that helped get us into this spot: It won’t get us out, even with this bankroll.
We know who fails these NAEP exams. Instead of watching them drown again, let’s develop an educational approach that works for them specifically and at scale.
We know what works: clarity and achievable standards for both academic and personal comportment, scrupulously enforced.
We need to go in with our eyes open. These kids have obvious problems outside the classroom holding them back academically. Clarity is key. This isn’t jail — this is an alternative to jail. Education is your child’s best chance for a good life.
These kids need a culture of learning designed to push back against the problems that exist at home or on the street. The NAEP test is made to be passed. Closing the NAEP gap ought to take priority — not a new teachers’ contract or more identity politics or a lowering of standards to satisfy woke directives.
Look behind the curtain of successful charter and Catholic schools in poor communities. You’ll find a culture of personal responsibility, tied to respect for one’s peers, teachers and the community. Lorraine Monroe made it her calling to save at-risk kids; her mantra is “The Street Stops Here.” There is too much street in our schools and in these kids’ homes. They need loving discipline and structure.
Last, make it practical, hands-on and engaging. If we want to create functional citizens from dysfunctional circumstances, meet them where they are and give them the tools and encouragement they need to rise above their circumstances.
And make it relevant to them. Communicate the immediate benefit and practical value of learning. Build lessons and classroom activities around the demonstration of an education’s real-world value. Unleash and exercise students’ common sense.
This failure at the bottom comes from our middle-class fixation on college as the only path to productive citizenship and living — even though only 40% of high-school graduates have the needed aptitude for college-level work.
The solution to the problem of at-risk kids — most of them minority males — is public trade schools. Teaching trades was once a component of public education, and some high schools were solely dedicated to grooming human capital in the practical arts and sciences. These schools and programs have all but vanished now. They need to be revived.
With all this money sitting idle, let’s invest it in building flagship vocational schools and programs within regular high schools — programs consciously designed to close the NAEP proficiency gap and prepare at-risk kids to fill those millions of unfilled, high-paying, skills-based jobs.
The choice before us is simple: a middle-class job or a prison bed. It shouldn’t be a hard call to make.
https://nypost.com/2022/08/31/jobs-not-jail-bring-back-vocational-education/
************************************************Oberlin College Gets Just Deserts for Smearing Bakery. Appeal fails
Update: Legal Insurrection reported Aug. 30 that the Ohio Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Oberlin College meaning that the Gibson Family Bakery is now entitled to collect approximately $36 million in punitive damages. While Oberlin College may appeal to have their appeal heard in federal court, William Jacobson says that strategy is unlikely to succeed.
In 2016, clerks at Gibson’s Bakery in Oberlin, Ohio, stopped several shoplifters from stealing from their store. They didn’t realize at the time that their action would set them on a six-year legal struggle.
Social justice warriors accused the tiny, family-owned bakery of racial profiling for confronting the shoplifters, who were black. That accusation prompted students and faculty at nearby Oberlin College to engage in a smear campaign to shut down Gibson’s Bakery.
Fortunately, a libel case filed by the bakery owners recently concluded with their victory. This didn’t stopped the college from continuing to accuse the shop of being racist.
“They have been completely unapologetic. They have been very aggressive towards this bakery,” says Bill Jacobson, a Cornell Law professor and founder of the Legal Insurrection Foundation. “They continue to make their false accusations of racism against the bakery. They show no remorse whatsoever.”
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/05/05/oberlin-college-gets-just-deserts-for-smearing-bakery/
*******************************************A professor lectures to an empty room as all students work from home
I agree that this is not good. I always took questions from students during and after a lecture and that was a helpful part of the process
A university professor has cried out for help after he gave a lecture to a completely empty hall - as students watch remotely from home rather than come to campus.
Jan Slapeta, a Professor of Veterinary and Molecular Parasitology at Sydney University, posted an image of his deserted lecture theatre on Monday as all students were dialling in.
The work-from-home habits adopted during Covid lockdowns have lingered long after most isolation measures for the virus had been abandoned.
Prof. Slapeta said students as a result are missing out not only on collaborative learning but the social life that had always been a major part of the student experience.
'Should I be shocked again? 1 pm lecture - no one! I lectured empty chairs,' he posted to social media.
Professor Slapeta tagged Sydney University in the post, asking for answers after the only student he encountered was one who turned up early for the next class.
'10 min in a student that was early for 2 pm lecture showed up (completely unrelated subject, different degree).
'We had a great discussion, and I had one keen student learning,' he wrote, before asking the uni: 'Where from now? Help @Sydney Uni'
The veterinary professor told Daily Mail Australia it was an issue that 'required deep thought', as lecture attendance had been 'declining for several years' - even before the pandemic - as the university allowed students to log in remotely.
Peter Black, a senior law lecturer at Queensland University of Technology, revealed he often hosts digital lectures to students with cameras turned off.
'This was almost just as depressing, teaching to unresponsive blank screens on Zoom,' he replied to Professor Slapeta's post.
The response to the image was mixed, with some suggesting universities and lecturers will have to adapt to the results of modern technology, while others lamented the isolating effect.
'As someone who taught for over 25 years (high school and undergrad) I can honestly say I find this really upsetting. Teaching is social, and there is nothing like building knowledge together with students in a room,' another professor at QUT replied.
'We are in a global pandemic. Why is it surprising to anyone that people don't want to risk serious illness to do something that can be done remotely?' astrophysicist Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith said.
Dr Sophie Loy-Wilson, a Senior Lecturer in Australian History at Sydney University, thought the picture showed the problems with modern learning. 'This shows that the current way of approaching hybrid teaching isn't working. We need a rethink,' she said. 'Lectures are a vital part of university life and can provide transformative moments in students' education. We need to value them. The current model does not.'
A PhD student claimed the lecture dynamic was wrong and the lack of discussion and debate was also a factor causing lack of attendance.
'Lecture theatre design is outdated! Look how the space is arranged. It implies that only you have something worthwhile to say.
'In my opinion, the design of learning spaces impacts on how we view them. Students will show up not to be talked AT but to be in conversation WITH,' she replied.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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