Actually, it's not called the "watch list" any longer. Instead, Governor Newsom has a color-coded list, with purple, red, orange, and yellow as the four levels. Purple corresponds roughly to the original "watch list" -- counties must make it to at least red before schools can reopen. The other colors have nothing to do with schools -- they basically determine what other businesses can reopen. Somehow, despite being taken off the list on Sunday, Orange County has been colored purple.
Hmm, now I'm reading that somehow, even though Orange County is purple, schools can still open in the county after Labor Day, including September 21st in my old district, as previously stated. How about this -- instead of trying to explain it to you, I'll just link to the Orange County Department of Education and you can figure it out yourself:
https://newsroom.ocde.us/state-releases-new-color-coded-county-monitoring-system-replacing-the-covid-19-watchlist/
Of course, as of today the schools can open on the specified date, but on Monday, we might suddenly hear "purple = no school, period" and that's it.
(By the way, it's interesting that purple is just above red in this color scheme. It reminds me of Kite's color notation for music, where purple is between red and blue.)
Today I'm posting the Benchmark Tests. There's not much else to say about them, except that they represent our first test posted in the coronavirus era. But since the Opening Benchmarks aren't typically included in letter grades, online cheating isn't an issue here. But with Governor Newsom's stricter reopening standards, there will be several graded tests before the schools finally reopen. We'll find out soon how math teachers plan to deal with tests and grades during distance learning -- where parents, older siblings, or anyone might be taking the tests instead of the actual students.
Here is the Blaugust prompt for today:
Observe yourself! Record your lesson using your phone in your pocket and use it to reflect
Well, you already know that I have very few photos or videos of my classroom to post. And besides, even if I were a regular teacher, what would I do -- use a phone to record myself sitting in front of a computer on Zoom to give the distance lesson? This prompt is clearly inappropriate for the coronavirus era.
Anyway, today's a great day to sit out Blaugust anyway. Today is a test day, which makes this our first traditionalists' post of the new school year. It's been about a month since our main traditionalists (Barry Garelick and SteveH) have posted. (Most Blaugust posters aren't traditionalists, and most traditionalists aren't Blaugust posters. Indeed, math teacher bloggers like to post new ways of teaching math -- and that's the opposite of traditionalism.)
Actually, Garelick has posted this month after all, but there's been very little discussion. For example, on Sunday he made the following post:
https://traditionalmath.wordpress.com/2020/08/23/a-must-read-by-a-former-math-teacher/
Ted Nutting wrote this piece, which is worth reading, remembering, and passing around the internet:
And the commenter Keith Clevinger had only five words to say:In the one year that I taught a course for which there was a state end-of-course test (Algebra 1 in the 2011-2012 school year), my students scored better than those from any other teacher in the district. I have the data to prove all this. Why did this happen? I broke the rules and taught real math. In calculus, I used a textbook more aligned with real teaching than the book I was supposed to be using. In algebra, not having an alternative textbook, I made up my own worksheets to accompany the lessons I gave. I actually taught. I presented the material, asking questions frequently to keep students’ attention, and I gave difficult quizzes and tests. I demanded good performance — and the results were excellent.
Keith Clevinger:
Because you know what works.
Well, I know that traditionalism works -- provided, as usual, that the students actually do the math rather than leave the assignments blank.
For example, Ted Nutting is the traditionalist teacher who wrote the original article. When he teaches his traditionalist lessons, have his students ever complained, "When will we use this" (factoring, say) "in real life?" He also writes that his quizzes and tests are difficult. Have any of his students ever complained, "This test is too hard"?
And as usual, it's not the complaining that matters, but whether the complaining students leave their assignments blank or not. Nutting tells us that his traditionalist method is successful because his students did well on the state test. But how well did the complaining students who left their assignments blank do on the state test?
We seek alternatives to traditionalist assignments because we want assignments that students are less likely to leave blank. And students who do their non-traditionalist assignments will score higher on the state test than those who leave their traditionalist assignments blank.
OK, so we're done with Garelick for today. I did say that during the school closure, the traditionalist we'll focus on the most is Darren Miller, of Right(-wing) on the Left Coast. He's been very outspoken about the closures. He lives in Northern California, most likely in a purple county -- and I can't see him being very happy with his county color if that's indeed the case.
But so far, he hasn't written about that yet. His most recent post that involves lockdowns is here:
https://rightontheleftcoast.blogspot.com/2020/08/lockdowns-are-probably-permanent.html
We've long since left the real of science! and are operating purely in the realm of politics and "doing something". The lockdowns have been "overly blunt and costly".
And he quotes an article that states:
Five months later, the evidence suggests lockdowns were an overly blunt and economically costly tool. They are politically difficult to keep in place for long enough to stamp out the virus. The evidence also points to alternative strategies that could slow the spread of the epidemic at much less cost. As cases flare up throughout the U.S., some experts are urging policy makers to pursue these more targeted restrictions and interventions rather than another crippling round of lockdowns.
But it's never stated what these "alternative strategies" are (and the original article is behind a paywall, so I can't see it). All we know is that these "alternative strategies" don't include masks, since Miller opposes them.
Once again, I partly agree with Miller, to the extent that I want the lockdowns (especially the school closures) to end soon. It's stated that five months was much too long and I agree, but I'm not sure what the proper length of the closures should have been.
The one comment here, by Pseudotsuga, attempts to tie the length of the lockdown to politics -- and that's the part that I don't agree with here. We know that the President is of one political party and our state's Governor is of the opposing party. The usual claim is that an earlier opening benefits the President and his party, while a later opening benefits the opposition. Thus Pseudotsuga claims that our state wants to keep schools closed until after Election Day in order to avoid helping the incumbent President.
Of course, it's possible for the opposition to make a symmetrical claim -- the incumbent party wants to keep schools open until Election Day, then close the schools to keep students safe only after the party has been re-elected. I've seen both sides of this argument given by various commenters.
Miller's website is openly political as it mentions a political learning right in its title. I, meanwhile, will avoid agreeing with either side's conspiracy theory. I will avoid agreeing with any connection between reopening schools and Election Day.
Since this is a traditionalists-labeled post, it's OK for me to discuss race and the Jacob Blake incident on the blog today. Indeed, Nutting mentions race in the article I linked to above:
I’m a retired Seattle mathematics teacher. I’m alarmed by the proposals to address racial bias in our schools by doubling down on “inquiry-based learning” and by doing away with standardized tests. These proposals are offered in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement, but hard-won experience in our schools shows they don’t help Black students. The method harms students of all races.
Now it is claimed that we need to teach this way in order to help Black students, as if they learned differently from others. Baloney! Here in the Seattle area we have lots of evidence in high-minority schools that real math teaching, in which the teacher actually teaches, gives far better results. Mercer, Denny, and Aki Kurose Middle Schools in Seattle have fared very well on state math tests after being taught this way. A 2017 Seattle School District study, “Middle Schools that Narrow the Opportunity Gap in Math,” confirmed this.
Yes, let’s help Black students learn mathematics. But results won’t improve if we keep doing things that don’t work. Let’s not destroy our few recent gains and continue to inflict on them the “inquiry-based” method that has been such a disaster for an entire generation.
Usually when a traditionalist mentions race, it's in order to discuss tracking. However, Nutting's mention of "Seattle" here gives away what's going on here.
It's time for me to bring up my analogy of the red button once again. Say there are two groups, A and B, and a wage gap -- members of Group A tend to make more money than those in Group B. Now
suppose that there is a magic red button that, if pressed, will double the purchasing power of Group B members, but triple the purchasing power of Group A members. Notice that the gap between Groups A and B is even wider after the red button is pressed than before, yet everyone -- even Group B members -- are better off after the button is pressed. The question is, should you press the red button?
It's just an analogy -- the magic red button isn't real. But there are real-world actions that supposedly have the same effect as pressing the red button -- and here, Nutting suggests that traditionalist teaching is like pressing the red button.
According to some traditionalists, tracking is like pressing the red button. Yes, some races are likely than others to wind up on the lower track with tracking, but their claim is that even members of those races are better off with tracking than without it.
While tracking is ultimately related to race, traditionalist vs. non-traditionalist ("inquiry-based") learning usually isn't. But in Seattle, pedagogy is indeed related to race -- a declared goal of the district in the Emerald City is to narrow the achievement gap, and it's suggested that inquiry-based learning will do just that.
Obviously, "Group B" corresponds to blacks in the above analogy. "Group A" could be whites -- or if you prefer that the group actually starts with the letter "A," use Asians instead.
Thus Nutting's claim becomes the following: with traditionalist teaching (the red button), there are wide gaps between Asians and blacks, yet blacks taught traditionally do better on the state test than those who aren't taught that way. If we don't teach traditionally (avoid the red button), the gap may be narrower, but it's still there -- it just shows up later. Nutting writes:
Scrapping the tests will only hide problems. Classroom grades are not a substitute. For many years I saw students move on each year with little understanding of the material. Their grades were O.K., but their teachers had graded them too easily. The result has been astonishing percentages of students having to take remedial math in college.
And presumably that's where the gap shows up -- on the college placement exams instead of the traditionalist tests.
My response to this traditionalist claim is the same as always -- students who leave the traditionalist assignments aren't going to succeed, no matter what their race is.
Are members of one race more likely to leave assignments blank than another? We know that when it comes to tracking, blacks are more likely to land on the lower track. Black parents complain that their children are being placed on the lower track -- and they may pull their children out of the schools that seek to place their kids there. If the students are being pulled out of a school, then they obviously aren't doing the assignments there -- so in a way, they are indeed leaving those assignments blank.
And so the same can be said for traditionalist assignments. Students who score low on traditionalist tests are likely to complain about these traditionalist lessons, ask "When will we have to use this in real life?" and leave the assignments blank. If this includes black students, then so be it. And this is why Seattle ties non-traditionalist inquiry learning to narrowing the achievement gap.
The big discussion regarding the Jacob Blake paralysis isn't about tracking or traditionalist math, but about policing. Even in a designated political post like this one, I don't feel comfortable discussing the police per se, but perhaps I can limit it to school police to get this back to education.
This is what Carl Oliver, a New York math teacher/assistant principal, writes about in his most recent post -- school police. He's listed on Shelli's blog but this post was written in June, so we can't count him as a Blaugust poster. He writes about the role of school police after the passing of George Floyd:
https://www.coast2coast.me/carl/2020/06/07/the-kind-of-policing-we-need-given-this-moment/
“I guess that’s another thing that cops do now…” I immediately thought, making another entry in the list of things that to fear in case I have interactions with police on the street, at the train station, and in my school.
But Oliver tells us that he isn't completely against school police:
Let me start by saying I am a huge fan of the officers in our building. Some students have better relationships with the officers than anyone on our staff. When incidents happen, they can de-escalate students, and manage the crowd, and collaborate with our Restorative Justice coordinator. I’ve worked with great youth officers and community engagement officers for our local precinct as well. We are lucky to have these awesome people. The only downside with them is that they all have to operate within the larger NYPD culture where people often act like di… for now let’s call them ‘jerks’.
Since I already mentioned the red button analogy, I wonder whether there's a red button for police -- that is, are blacks better off (safer) with more police, even though they are more likely to have negative interactions with them, as Jacob Blake did? There's an often-cited Gallup poll in which the majority of blacks supported maintaining the current level of police presence, with slightly more supporting increasing the number of cops than decreasing it.
Then again, these button scenarios are not exactly alike. There's a difference between making more money (albeit less than members of another race) and getting shot seven times in the back. So someone might be willing to press the red button for traditionalism or tracking, but not the blue button for more cops.
My opinion is that more school police is, in the end, just like traditionalism in that it all goes back to
blank papers. If black students leave their assignments blank because they're too worried about what the school police might do to them to concentrate on their work, then that's too much school police.
Even though my old charter school had a black majority (with the rest mostly Hispanic), school police was never a factor because it was a K-8 school (co-located with a district elementary school), and police on elementary campuses is nonexistent. Had my school been even a pure middle school (much more a high school), there likely would have been campus police there. Now that my students are in high school, they must deal with school police (at least until the coronavirus closure).
In professional sports, today is the final day of protest in the NBA, with the playoffs tomorrow. Only two teams voted not to continue the postseason -- though I can't help but notice that it was the two Southern California teams who wanted to stop playing.
In baseball, many teams that played Wednesday protested on Thursday. The Angels, who were off on the protest days due to the Houston hurricane, are playing tonight -- but then again, today has been declared Jackie Robinson Day in lieu of April 15th. (Three-quarters of a century ago today was the day that Robinson met with Branch Rickey to discuss playing for the Dodgers.) It might have been awkward for the Angels to protest for blacks on the day that celebrates the first black player. (Though I heard that the Astros -- the other team affected by the hurricane -- protested today by walking on the field with the #42 Robinson jerseys and then walking off the field without playing.)
By the way, I own a copy of the movie 42 on Blu-Ray, and it's one of the movies that I watch again every year. This year, I watched 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, April 15th, but I wasn't sure whether I'd watch it again today. I've decided that I will indeed watch it tonight, not just to honor Robinson, but to mourn the loss of Chadwick Boseman -- the actor who played the baseball star. He passed away of colon cancer at the age of 42 plus one.
The only Blaugust participant who posts today is Denise Gaskins, who writes about the Japanese mathematical game of KenKen:
https://denisegaskins.com/2020/08/28/kenken-is-mathematical-play/
OK, let's finally post the Benchmark Tests. These are based on old finals posted to the blog. I admit that the tricky thing about Benchmark Tests in Geometry is that the students are coming off of a year of Algebra I, when they've thought little about Geometry at all. This is different from Benchmark Tests in middle school or Integrated Math, where there should be some continuity from year to year.
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