From the "Country Note" for the United States from PISA:
Students in the United States have particular weaknesses in performing mathematics tasks with higher cognitive demands, such as taking real-world situations, translating them into mathematical terms, and interpreting mathematical aspects in real-world problems. An alignment study between the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and PISA suggests that a successful implementation of the Common Core Standards would yield significant performance gains also in PISA.
The key phrase there is "a successful implementation."
One more PISA post, Steve, and you can replace your pic with the Leaning Tower.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely satisfying to see. The progressive model of education has raged on about their "critical thinking" and touted its effectiveness on its useful application in real-life situations in stark contrast to the "old inflexible traditional schools" and their "rote" memorization in many areas. Well, there you have it. I need to say no more.
ReplyDelete"a successful implementation" = Ah yes, and there's the rub. What is to be done, what is to be done with those who well....aren't on the correct side of bell curve?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the PISA released results is like manna from heaven for you, its like an additional holiday present you didn't expect so soon.
A thought i just had based on this comment from another thread
ReplyDelete"As another anecdote, it is a pretty common stereotype to portray African Americans as having "big lips," a la the black shrimp guy in Forrest Gump.
My father once commented that you used to see black people with this sort of look, back in the 30's, 40's, and 50's. He said it baffled him as to why he turned around one day and didn't see it anymore."
If you have a 10% admixed population where some of that 10% is more adaptive then might it not become 20% over time?
@anonymous 10:27. I think your father is on to something. I've always thought the notion of White men raping their black slaves wasn't as widespread as it is made out to be in the popular culture. If you look at the pic of Blacks circa the Civil War, the vast majority are not only quite dark but have overt Negroid features. You simply don't see these features today that much even among dark skinned African Americans.
DeleteThis is actually an excellent idea since the purpose of education is to increase nationally averaged PISA scores.
ReplyDeleteYes, right -- circular logic, a tautology. Because how do you know it was successful? Answer: if the Pisa scores go up.
ReplyDeleteThey're good at social media, tho, so the future is bright. (sarcasm)
ReplyDelete...such as taking real-world situations, translating them into mathematical terms, and interpreting mathematical aspects in real-world problems.
ReplyDeleteWord problems - the bane of many first year algebra students.
A successful implementation of Commune Core would make us all geniuses.
ReplyDeleteIn related news, I'm paying off all my debts with the gold coins I found in a pot at the end of the rainbow.
Ed
ReplyDeleteJust to be clear the quote was from commenter sunbeam's dad but yes it's an interesting thought - related to the idea that we may have retained some neanderthal dna because it was useful in some way.
"I've always thought the notion of White men raping their black slaves wasn't as widespread as it is made out to be in the popular culture."
No doubt it did happen some of the time but i think most of it would be the product of socio-economics - the same reason white maids got pregnant from their white employers over the centuries.
More like "Americans have trouble with HONEST cognitive demands"
ReplyDeleteI mean did whites who don't like Stevie Wonder destroy the motor city? Did Dallas kill Kennedy?
"Commune Core"
ReplyDeleteBottom Bore
The PISA folks are lucky they don't hold office hours of publish the email addresses of the scorers.
ReplyDelete"I mean, I seriously feel like the answer should be 5."
"I don't understand why my son missed that question -- I seriously feel like the answer should be 5."
Commented this on another thread, but it seems more apropos on this one. Apologies to those for whom it is a repeat.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting take on the PISA results from Mark Schneider.
He looks at the number of top scorers, and on that metric the US is a laggard. He blames our political fixation on Teh Gap. I agree.
Further when you look at economic and scientific progress, it very disproportionately comes from heavy-lifters at the top. If we are not creating future heavy-lifters while also importing an ever larger underclass, it will be a double-whammy to our nation's future. This is the aspect I find most concerning about PISA.
"critical thinking" when used by an academic means Marxist thinking.
ReplyDeleteThat is, challenging the power structure (but not the current one, the Tom Buchanan one in place prior to the FDR administration).
Challenging the current power structure is hate speech.
If you have a 10% admixed population where some of that 10% is more adaptive then might it not become 20% over time?
ReplyDeleteAdaptive evolution of smaller lips doesn't seem too likely, but if this is real it could be that (in order of IMO, likeliness)
1) White admixture has been getting more spread out among Blacks, so all Blacks tend more towards being medium toned and medium lipped, than high yalla and dark and thin lipped and full lipped.
2) Full lips demand a lot of collagen and the African American carboholic, sugarholic diabesity epidemic done f**ked up their lips.
3) White admixed Black people are advantaged in terms of fertility, so the Blacks are whitening allover. Lips go along for the ride.
More likely to be a combination of 1) and 2) than 3), I'd say.
"Adaptive evolution of smaller lips doesn't seem too likely"
ReplyDeleteYes i was thinking more that if some of the 10% was more adaptive then over time the people with that 10% might have better reproduction so over time the 10% turns into 20%.
The lips thing - if it exists - might be a side-effect of something else or possibly might be a direct result of large lips being seen as less attractive.
I wonder if there is any indirect way of measuring any change like medical conditions that specifically effect those kind of features?