How Can We Make American Students Smarter?

[ebarker]

Chinese proverb, “Teachers open the doors, but you must enter yourself.” -

The OP had a set of metrics, SAT, ACT, etc scores to kick off the discussion.

Something to consider is the testing methodology and population. For example, here is Georgia it is common to use the comparison of Georgia SAT scores to other states to beat up political opponents. Georgia ranks near the bottom in SAT rankings.

A few years ago the president of SAT sent a well known famous letter (at least in Georgia) to the Governor or Superintendent of Education addressing this issue. Compared to other states, a relatively large percentage of students take the SAT. In some states only the "best and brightest" take the SAT and other areas a much larger and general population take it. This is a form of self-selection that causes distortions in ranking tables, and makes Georgia look comparatively bad.

Why low scores. Socioeconomic ? yes Ability and attitude of teachers ? yes performance management issues at the school district level ? yes parental and home issues ? yes cultural attitudes toward learning ? yes ( STEM and non-stem ) racial and demographic cultural attitudes ? yes

Every summer I have to stop and think about (a) why I participate in FIRST ?and (b) what is a metric of an acceptable outcome ? But, here is a small partial answer.

From an aggregate viewpoint, our team has regularly taken students with decent enough to pretty good 'overall backgrounds' and given them an opportunity to become engaged in something important, and then go to the next step, make really good career choices going into college, make really good decisions about how they view their future. We help students move from a very foggy view of their future into something defined, structured, tangible, exciting.

Our students had a meeting / briefing with the President of Georgia Tech and we were presenting our 'conversion' numbers to him. According to our math, if we could get the same 'conversion' rate in every school in Georgia, Georgia Tech would have to grow by 40 % or more. That is a huge growth number. Nationally the same would hold true for all high schools / universities.

Even then we are talking about harvesting a student population of 1 or 2 % of graduating seniors annually. What about the other 98 %

Get the students really excited about something (doesn't have to be STEM), reach out to the parent, to the community and get them involved, and we can make progress. The student/parent/community has to be a partner in education, not a passive recipient.

In about 1950 the average educational level of U.S. adults was about 8th grade. College graduates were very small portion of the population until after WW2 and the GI bill. 'Book' learning and college didn't happen for masses until the 2nd half of the 20th century.

National dropout rate are declining, but still way too high.

Cultural attitudes toward 'book' learning and STEM are improving ever so slightly.

Fix the culture - that helps the school move from being a day care / social welfare agency to a place of learning.

[Cuog]

Originally Posted by sikander

Stop them from using calculators before college .

While that may improve basic math capabilities, I don't see it helping to teach critical thinking, or encourage students to want to learn. Its a small drop in the bucket compared to the issues currently facing the educational system.

[Mark McLeod]

Reported.

There hasn't been a team 23 since 1999 when they left for Battlebots.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by sikander

Stop them from using calculators before college .

While this is probably not a legit post, I feel the need to comment anyhow.

On the contrary, I think we should be teaching students HOW to use calculators before they enter college. We've had them since the 1970s. It's fine to learn the fundamentals of arithmetic at an early age, but beyond that, it's useless to sit and do things manually when calculators are so readily available. I think people should be able to do simple computations and estimations in their heads, but there's no need to be doing long division on paper.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

While this is probably not a legit post, I feel the need to comment anyhow.

On the contrary, I think we should be teaching students HOW to use calculators before they enter college. We've had them since the 1970s. It's fine to learn the fundamentals of arithmetic at an early age, but beyond that, it's useless to sit and do things manually when calculators are so readily available. I think people should be able to do simple computations and estimations in their heads, but there's no need to be doing long division on paper.

I look at simple calculations as mental warmups. If your doing basic algebra, you should not be using a calculator. If your doing trig, you need a calculator. My main problem with calculators today is people's reliance on them. Sure, use them as a tool...but just as a tool. Not as a substitute. When it comes to tests, I use calculators for everything I can. When it comes to homework, I use calculators as little as I can. That is what I suggest to anyone that asks.(and some who don't). It just keeps your mind healthy and generally helps me work faster when it comes time for the test.

Jason

Note: Lets not turn this thread into a discussion of calculators. I'll be happy to have an in-depth discussion via PM to anyone that is interested.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I have said this before but here goes... Calculators are just a tool. Tools make the work go faster so using calculators leaves you more time for studying other things. What we really need to do is find a good way to give students a reason to study and do well in school. Most of them have no inkling. I was an average student through high school, right in the middle of my graduating class. It wasn't until I was in college and paying most of my own way did I see a need to get what I paying for. When I realized two simple things, my grades shot up. 1. If I was paying out big bucks for school it was a wasted investment if I didn't try harder and do more and better studying. 2. If I was learning something I liked, I better do well at it or I wouldn't be able to do it everyday for the rest of my life. All during grade school and high school, I had no clue why I was being forced to study algebra, the French Revolution or English literature. At best I thought I would do well if I ever was on a game show.
However, I do know this. What worked for me, may not work for someone else. It might get the student thinking about what else might trigger him or her to study better, ignore the 'friend' who wants to lead them somewhere else, or piddle away the hours playing Warcraft or posting on Facebook. They need to learn that play can be a reward for working hard. While First does instill these ideals, it only hits a small audience. It does hit that group very effectively considering the high percentage of our students that are going off to higher education. I would guess that as many as half of our students enter the program with no thought of life after high school and end up excelling at university. We have to teach students that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and then turn it on for them. If there is one thing I have learned, there is relatively little difference in intelligence. The difference lies in some people being able to focus their energy in one direction at a time while the others focus in every direction or no direction.

[skimoose]

How can we make American students smarter? Make American students want to be smarter.

Isn't that why we're involved in FIRST?

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by skimoose

How can we make American students smarter? Make American students want to be smarter.

Isn't that why we're involved in FIRST?

Just like the old saying goes: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

I am not trying to discriminate anyone, but I believe we American students are spoiled. We live in the only super power left in this world. There are people out there that will literally KILL to get the opportunities we have in the States. Foreigners know how to pursue education like it's their only option. To most, it really is. Most of American students take it for granted, they see it as a right, not a privilege. Education should not be seen as a stepping stone to riches, but more as the liberation from ignorance.

[Akash Rastogi]

David I think I found a video that you would like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUMf7...ayer_embedded#!

There's a part in the beginning that shows how far the US fell in educational standings.

[J.Warsoff]

Kids need to realize how technology affects everything in their own lives. If they see that progress in technology can make the world a better place for them to live,they may find a personal connection with the science world. Show them how technology improves things they use everyday, like video games, cars,computers, phones, ect. And also, we need to promote the same ideas that FIRST is trying to promote; the fact the science and technology IS fun.

[Cuog]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

To most, it really is. Most of American students take it for granted, they see it as a right, not a privilege.

In the US education isn't a right or a privilege. It's mandatory.

One reason it seems that foreigners all take advantage, is because you don't see the others. Those that don't care stay home and no one notices or cares.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Cuog

In the US education isn't a right or a privilege. It's mandatory.

One reason it seems that foreigners all take advantage, is because you don't see the others. Those that don't care stay home and no one notices or cares.

What I mean by privilege is the fact that the student was fortunate enough to be born in a nation with free accessible public education. There are too many that do not have that privilege. While it is true that some might be too lazy to go to school, but did you consider the fact that many who want to get an education can not. Many have to stay home and help. That is how my mom was, she could not get an education above high school because in a family of 7, to sustain, she had to work. And this was in Korea, a developing country. Imagine the undeveloped countries, they can't even THINK about going to school because it is not accessible.

My dad had to jump through many hurdles to even go to school. The nearest school near where my dad used to grow up is miles away and they lived on a farm in Korea. In Korea, the farms are not like farms here either; farmers are one of the poorest people in Korea. Yet, my dad managed to get a masters and start working toward a higher degree, but the degrees don't matter here in the States. He works in construction now, to pay for my education. I myself have to jump many hurdles to get an education here in the states. The tuition here is ridiculous, I have to get a job to even afford a public state school's tuition.

This is why I am so critical about education. A lot of people I know do not understand education. They see it as this thing that you "have" to go get. But like I said, education is liberation from ignorance. And I can't believe this nation is even functioning. 55% of Engineering PhDs are from abroad, 45% of all PhDs are from abroad. The lower and secondary education system here is ridiculous; it is terrible. To have a democracy, you need an educated population. Most of the population gobbles up the propaganda that the media and the politicians put up. I mean LOOK! There is an educated man running for president who is very rational. Ron Paul gets less media attention than Donald Trump or Sarah Palin gets. It is propaganda, he challenges the status quo.


I am very sorry for the long, somewhat offensive to some, rant. But this is how I feel. If we do not get this country running straight, I don't know what would happen.