OT--More "Thank God for Mississippi"

It is always reassuring when Mississippi decides to go out on a limb with groundbreaking legislation.  This time, it's this:
news.yahoo.com/mississippi-decide-fertilized-egg-human-being -135417042.html

Probably fueled by the fact that Mississippi has nothing else to worry about...as is shown here:
aip.org/press_release/state_outcomes_math_science_education_ reveal_big_disparities.html


Maybe it's because they do such a great job with the ACTUAL HUMAN LIVING kids they already have?
www.statehealthfacts.org/comparemaptable.jsp


Yeah...I know Oxford is an exception and Oprah and Elvis started life there...but so did Britney Spears and that seals that deal.  Point being...if Mississippi were paying attention, it would take care of the REAL problems it has now instead of inventing new bull**** to deal with.  And for those of you young enough...don't have a period while in Mississippi...someone may accuse you of murder.

Sorry dear but, while we do have similar viewpoints, this isn't the place to express them. Please,
I don't want to have to hear from the "other side" of the view on this. Sorry, that's my take on the best use of this board.

But apparently, we have different opinions on expressing opinions, don't we? 

The board is slow and I'm MOST fascinated by legal stuff.  Casey Anthony trial, Conrad Murry trial and Mississippi making stupid laws because everything else in their state is SO squared away.

I'll probably keep making those comments.

I disagree. She clearly labeled the thread as OT (Off Topic). There are several threads that I don't particularly want to read so I just skip over them.

The well being of children in the state of Mississippi is a travesty, and with a legislature as backwards as that, it will stay that way.

Now, in regard to the math/science education outcomes....it stands to reason that the children of the poorest state in the nation aren't going to rank on tests as high as the kids of one of the higher income states in the nation.     Come on - these are the kids of MIT and Harvard professors....lots of high tech professionals, etc. in Mass, etc.   It's just so hard to compare when you're looking at the kids of rocket scientists vs. kids of at risk teenaged mothers, who are quite possibly not even high school graduates themselves,  with no prenatal care.   

I teach in the lowest income district in Michigan and our test scores rank way down there too.  It's so tough to defend ourselves against the higher and higher standardized test score requirements being placed on our students.   I can personally attest to the fact that the dedication of my school's teachers is probaby the highest in the state.   I cannot begin to tell you the amount of money I spend every year buying personal items for my students (including sanitary pads, bras, mittons, etc.) for my students because they do not have them.    However, when my students are coming to me with IQ's of SEVENTY (and not even placed in a special ed situation), we're not dealing with the same raw material as those rocket scientist's kids in Mass. Heck, my kids are all born to 14-year-olds, and a lot of them don't even have a stable home, let alone a kitchen table to do their physics and calculus homework on.   My kindergartners come to me not knowing their colors, shapes, alphabet or numbers.    It's so freaking sad.   The dull look in their eyes is the saddest thing of all.

Also, the average teacher salary in Mass is about 56 k, vs. approximately 39 k in Miss, so again, what kind of teacher are you going to attract?   It's kind of a sad spiral.   When I graduated, I wanted to teach in a high risk district.    I'd raised my kids in the most affluent district in Michigan, and felt that I wanted to "give back" by teaching kids who might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn what I felt I could teach them.     I think I'm kind of the exception though.   I went to a teaching job fair just before graduating, and all of the high income districts with openings had lines of prospective teachers all the way out the door.    The low income districts?  Empty lines.  I applied at those.  I didn't want to stand in line all day, LOL.     I got four job offers.   I know people who graduated with me (six years ago) STILL looking for a job in those high-rent districts!    Sorry, the long-winded side of me is coming out.  I'll shut up now!!!

You left out the OTHER changing demographic. Here on the left coast, close to the southern border, thirty years ago, our kid's elementary school had three third grades and one of them was half-Spanish speaking.  The teacher, bless his heart, thought that putting the non-English speakers in the same classroom with the GATE (gifted) kids would benefit everyone.  It just reinforced the walls between them.  They "had to" sit next to each other, but that was the ONLY contact.

The GATE kids didn't learn Spanish and the Spanish-speakers didn't learn English.  So that teacher's "performance" scores on standardized tests reflected that he was pretty much a failure.

That migration has continued north and east over the years and now the rest of the country is trying to figure out what to do with a perfectly intelligent 14 year old, "ready" by US standards (which are nil except for age), for 9th grade in a 4-year HS in a state which MANDATES that he get one hour per day (more or less) of classroom instruction in various subjects ALMOST ALL OF WHICH assume the comprehension of English as a given. 

In one situation where I went with the family to the school, I had neighbors who wanted their kid--totally dyslexic but age 16--to have READING classes.  But HS does not have nor does the academic day allow for a period of READING instruction.  Meanwhile, one of his asshole teachers (he had two who were ******** and so wias the bilingual counselor) kept giving him Bs and Cs when he KNEW the kid could not read the tests he was passing!  This was some of the proof offered to the family that their kid didn't NEED any "special" class in reading.  I wanted to blow up the school by the time we left.

But yeah...states that have lower scores SEEM to also have lower teacher pay.  And, generally, they attract those who can't get hired elsewhere..or a few...you know..do gooders...ahem...lol  And the non-English-speaking aspect is more and more problematic as it continues to spread across the country.

BTW, we also have those problems with native kids who are children of totally legal citizen parents.  The lack of education and the poverty and despair don't much care about national origin.  But the lack of English language skills just makes things worse.


Let me make this even longer...our kid just left  job where whe hung with movie stars and millionires and big big shots and now she hangs with ex-cons and ex-********ers and calls to tell me she had lunch with a guy who was a convicted murderer.  She was "complaining" to me about the multiple names and nicknames...said it was hard to know who the players were because they had their birth names and nicknmes and gang names and sometimes a different prison name.  She said it was like trying to figure out the characters in a Russian novel.  I told her that my cop friends who were themselves from the ghetto NEVER asked "What's your name?" or "What's your address."  It was always, "What did we book you under last time?" and "Who you stayin' with?"  You just have to learn the jargon.  (So, the good news(?) is that some make it out of the poverty and despair, some don't and several,like those cops and the social workers and others, will end up living their lives on the line between those two worlds.)

 Yup - non English speaking students is not quite as much of a problem in my district, but in just the next county over, it's an incredibly significant issue, as that's where our region's agricultural belt begins.   VERY significant.

I'm not sure if you ever have read any of her work, but since you're sitting on your ass doing nothing google Ruby Payne.   I could not be the teacher I am without her expertise in the area of intergenerational poverty.     I can't tell a student I'm calling their mom or dad.   I have to ask them first who they stay with, THEN tell them I'm calling granny/auntie/foster mom, etc.

Yup.

At my daughter's HS, the bilingual aid for the racist ESL teacher was absent and I was visiting the VP and we walked by and the teacher asked if I would help translate the assignment...write a paragraph (in English) on "Taking a Friend out to Lunch."

I told the teacher that while I could translate the WORDS, it wouldn't make any sense to the kids because "going out" to any meal was not something any of them had experienced.  She said, "Well tell them to write it as if money were no object."  I said, "If money were no object, they'd buy the BIG bags of rice and beans."  She kept trying, "Well, they're not always HOME.  What if they are out longer than they thought and didn't bring a lunch...what do they do THEN?"  I stared for a while and said, "THEN, they don't eat until they get home.  I'll translate it for you, but you may not see a lot of comprehension here."

The VP "got it" that this woman had the credential but nothing NEAR the level of understanding.

(Later, she handed out 10 or 15% off coupons for a fabric store to kids in her sewing class.  Nobody even took them.  She was pissed.  I told her that they don't GO to fabric stores...they buy fabric at the swap meet.  She was indignant because THAT fabric was "seconds."  Go figure.)

 My carpool mates and I were just talking about this yesterday - from time to time our Intermediate School District (kind of like the county-wide school authority) sends in some hot shot to talk to us about stupid **** like formative and summative assessment, and global curriculum standards.     They have NO idea what we are dealing with here.   No perspective, no concept, no inkling.  They just leave me feeling angry and defeated.   When Ruby Payne's people came to do our inservice they gave me more knowledge and workable tools in thirty minutes than I've received in years of the other stuff.    

A few months ago, three of my students, after months of fighting with our CPS, were finally placed into foster care with a wonderful family.  They desperately needed clothes, so they took them up to Traverse City, about an hour away, to the mall to shop.   They came back all excited, with their new clothes, and described their shopping experience....."Mrs. S. ....we were at this place, it's called a mall....and it's a big long hallway with ALL kinds of stores going off the sides of it......"     When you live down a two track somewhere in the middle of the Manistee National Forest, don't own a vehicle, and don't even have the money for gas to put in that vehicle, you may as well be a million miles, instead of an hour, from a mall.    When we have conferences and open houses at our school, we know two sure ways to get families to show up 1)  Feed them and 2)  Give out gas cards.      

By the way, these three little boys were just placed in their "forever home" last week.   We were so excited for them, but it sure was a teary-eyed day for us teachers.    

 Sue Sue- I don't mind your OT threads as they do state that they are OT.  Personally, I feel this is another tactic of Congress that has become so typical: a deflection from real problems while manifesting what they (or those putting money in their coffers) consider to be "real problems".  Smoke and damn mirrors to keep the people distracted from truth.  Sorry, bad mood so I had to post my opinion.