IUSD does away with traditional math path

eyephone said:
nosuchreality said:
Tustin HS is 71.8% socioeconomically disadvantaged.  It serves the poorest parts of Tustin.

Irvine's Nothwood is 6.4%

Give the Tustin kids as much kumon and tutoring as the irvine kids they'll get the same grades
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I don't think if you give them Kumon and tutoring they will perform the same as Irvine.

Even common core cant help this situation.
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Why not?
 
No one likes changes , it?s all about trust, if you trust the decision makers that their decision was right , that they have a proven record of previous successful changes, that they know what needs to be done and have a good solid plan to execute it with minimizing the risk and the potential impact, then they will get a very high percentage of support.

Saying that others did it, is not enough as it?s all within the details and the timelines, rushing into something usually does not get good results and end up with damage control.

Doing too often changes does not build trust as it just gets the opposite.

One year doing CC, the next year trying something else, feels like an experiment and trying to put this in an unreasonable timeline will end up with lots of issues.
 
Some may move to Irvine because of the scores that are accomplished by the students , this students might be spending more time , effort and money in extra hours to achieve these scores by getting tutors, this is not necessarily can be linked to level of teaching within the schools.
Others may move due to other factors.
 
ri said:
Some may move to Irvine because of the scores that are accomplished by the students , this students might be spending more time , effort and money in extra hours to achieve these scores by getting tutors, this is not necessarily can be linked to level of teaching within the schools.
Others may move due to other factors.
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Wow... so the quality of education in Irvine isn't linked to the teachers or administrators?

Yeah... I'm done, can't debate with that kind of logic.
 
In order to come to a conclusion, it needs to be proven , to prove that the schools here are better with a direct correlation to the level of teachers and administration ...and it is not due to other factors like socioeconomically status.

 
thelandofnoland said:
Let's put it this way... the U.S. is way behind in education.
Math, to me, has always been easy, and considering the pace of other countries, this is how fast the U.S. should be going with math:
7th Grade: Algebra I/Geometry
8th Grade: Algebra II/Precalculus
9th Grade: AP* Calculus-BC (my kid was able to self-study this in two weeks)
10th Grade: Multivariable, Linear Algebra, and Differentials
11th Grade: Abstract Algebra, Real and Complex Analysis
My kid actually experienced 1 year of Common Core in Algebra II before we transferred to another district (not because of CC). Common Core introduced topics in Precalculus early, so that was nice. However, our old district had no textbooks for CC since my kid's school year were guinea pigs. Instead, they used workbooks.
I have nothing bad to say about CC, but both traditional and CC math cover topics from past years too much and need to accelerate. At the school my kid currently goes to, nearly every single 9th grader is taking Algebra II, numerous are taking Precalculus, and some are taking Multivariable/Linear Algebra/Differentials!

On the other hand, Integrated Math has some good and bad things. The only good thing is that you aren't going back and forth between algebra and geometry. The bad things have already been mentioned. I have no faith in Integrated Math.

And honestly, no matter how hard that Algebra placement test could have been last year, check out the AMC 8 and it'll make the test look like a piece of cake.
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Does your kid go to a magnet school?
 
The main issue I see is the Gap between inner city/non performing schools and performing schools.

I think it's a teacher/school training issue.



 
I didn't graduate from a US high school, so my opinion might not be worth that much, but I don't really see why the need to force all students to learn Calculus / complex mathematics at such early age. 

For me, I never learned Calculus until I was in college and that is because I went for an engineering degree.  Never really used my degree so never really used Calculus and have forgotten almost all of it.

For kids interested in doing math-intensive degree or career, by all means allow them to learn it as AP classes, but for the rest, I would rather see students spend time to fully understand and master/comprehend simple mathematics concept that's applicable to daily lives and help them make smart financial decision as an adult than having to learn concepts that they would probably not use at all.  Simple concepts like fractions, percentage, simple algebra etc. 

For example:
1.  What is a better deal -- 30% off, then another 25%, or a straight 50% off ?
2.  If a stock went down 30%, what % does it have to go up to breakeven ?
3.  Which is bigger, 5/8" or 9/16" ?
4.  Anything relating to compounding interest ..
etc...
 
I think that common core, along with integrated or whatever math they are now using, will eventually be forgotten and left in the dust. The reason: NONE OF IT MATTERS. Our kids will still lag behind the rest of the world, because most Americans (sorry) are not that intelligent, and we have a culture that celebrates many wonderful things, such as innovation, creativity, movies, sports, cronuts, etc, but academics...not so much. It's just not our thing. So for the time being, our kids will learn math/English/whatever using the common core standards. The smart kids will get it and it will be easy for them, and the less smart kids will struggle as they always have. And our test scores will still remain low, Koreans and Chinese kids will still wipe the floor with us, and educators will continue to wring their hands in hopelessness, thinking if they could just find the right approach, our kids would start being math and reading whizzes. Not gonna happen. In 20 years, we'll all be like, "Hey, remember that common core nonsense from back in the day?"

 
eyephone said:
The main issue I see is the Gap between inner city/non performing schools and performing schools.

I think it's a teacher/school training issue.
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Do you think that IUSD teachers & staff are trained so well that they can raise the API of an innercity school?  I doubt it.  There are good teachers in all schools, and Irvine isn't special in that regard.  Irvine is only special because Irvine managed to attract all the educational try hards.  (Rich Asian Parents). 
 
Isn't engineering math intensive? if the US is so bad at math, why are the best engineering schools in the US?

It's not adding up (hehe).
 
Hey... we're back to the chicken/egg/parents/teachers paradox.

You can't have involved parents and crappy teachers... they both feed off of each other. So it's not just one or the other, it's both.

Unless you are ri... then it's only the students and parents that matter.
 
The parents are the most important factor in the API score or whether a school district does well or doesn't. 
The teacher/admin are secondary...
Involved parents would cause the bad teacher to up her game...or get a ton of complaints. 
A good school district lives and dies by the parents.
 
qwerty said:
its funny, there is a thread to trash TUSD, but the reality, is that when it comes to actual administration, IUSD and probably all districts are just as bad.  everyone thinks IUSD is great because of the high APIs, but it really comes down to the fact that 50% of the students are asian, whose parents are obsessed with making them get good grades and in general high income folks who produce smart offspring and emphasize education.  if you switch the TUSD with IUSD administration there would be no difference in APIs.
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I was kind of with you until the last sentence and a half. China, Japan, etc. are *conformist societies*. Quite different from us. If a group of Mexican and P.W.T. kids were given free Kumon every day and twice on Sundays, assigned to IUSD schools, etc., I don't think it would actually change much. They and their parents just don't care as much about impressing others with academic achievement and definitions of what "doing well" means are different. Successes are not as strongly celebrated. Failures are not as deeply felt. It just doesn't mean as much all-around. It's just kind of -  meh, whatevs. Just my 2 cents.  :) I'm curious to know your thoughts since you and I have something in common in that we are obviously different from the majority on T.I.
 
I'm sure IUSD & LAUSD have the same educational training, but I refuse to believe that IUSD teachers & admin have some sooper sekret formula that makes them so much better.  So what's the difference?

Teaching the spawn of rich Asians is easier than teaching Jamal from the crips.
 
Your destiny in life is determined by three things:

1.  Genes
2.  Preparation
3.  Luck

Education falls into category 2 - Preparation.

Based on my keen sense of observation over many decades, I give the following weight to the destiny factors:

1.  Genes 10%
2.  Preparation 15%
3.  Luck 75%

So don't sweat the education too much, it won't make that much of a difference in the end.

Frank Grimes did everything right but he could never win because he was unlucky.
Homer Simpson did everything wrong but he is a success because he has better luck.
 
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