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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (78691)	3/28/2000 9:47:00 AM
From: pater tenebrarum	Respond to of 132070

erosion thereof, according to the article...no problem, just import the brains from abroad...

To: Les H who wrote (78691)	3/28/2000 10:38:00 AM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

There are many reasons for this so-called decline in "educational productivity." Notice that it is measured by declining SAT scores. The decline is not so much due to a decline in education as it is to the fact that many more students are taking SATs in hopes of attending college than there were 40 years ago. If you only measured the top percentiles of those taking tests (40 years ago about 10% of the college-age population was in college), the story would be quite different. Sending all these additional students, who are not very industrious or not very bright, on to college certainly does pull down the average level of education. Also, the students are taught by faculty whose careers depend in large part on what students say about them in anonymous evaluations. A faculty member with high standards may be rated well by the best students, but their votes do not count any more than those of students who resent being given low grades. As a result, many faculty teach in such a way as to receive the largest percentage of positive evaluations. They try to make their students feel good about themselves, they give a lot of A's, and they teach material that is easy to understand. This can happen at the best universities. I know of one instance at Stanford University where the professor simply gave everyone in the class an A. The entire football team would take his courses. His career did not suffer. Indeed, he is a very famous person (I won't name him). I see no way out of this situation, especially in state universities. In state systems, the legislature will make noises about improving teaching, the administrations will try to implement it, and the end result is an erosion of standards and the famous "grade inflation." A tenured professor can impose higher standards, but will not receive raises equal to those rated highly in evaluations. There are no measurements of "outcome."

To: Les H who wrote (78691)	3/28/2000 10:42:00 AM
From: Don Lloyd	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Les - home.att.net "...JOKE # 2 - QUESTION: Why today's high school math exams are tougher? A History of Teaching Math - found in alt.politics newsgroup 1. Teaching Math in the 1950s: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? 2. Teaching Math in the 1960s: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit? 3. Teaching Math in the 1970s: A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make100 dots representing the elements of the set "M". The set "C", the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set "M". Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" of profits? 4. Teaching Math in the 1980s: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20. 5. Teaching Math in the 1990s: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers. 6. Teaching Math in the 2000s: your call. Bottom-line: if things get too serious in life, just be happy that our kids are becoming better in math than ever before - therefore, we can ignore the fact other nations score higher on international math tests...." Regards, Don