SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2023
Not that such facts get reported: What happens in American schools is important.
In part, that's true because of the acquisition of skills and knowledge. It's also true with respect to the personal happiness of the kids who attend our schools.
It's important when higher-performing kids, of whatever description, are bored out of their gourds by the level of instruction.
It's also important when lower-performing kids are overwhelmed by the level of instruction and leave school every day with the sense—in the language of the child—that they must be "stupid."
What happens in school is important. Every so often, when major test scores are released, major newspapers get to make an important choice:
Which parts of the data will they report? Which parts will they disappear?
On December 5, test scores from the 2022 PISA were released worldwide. In the December 6 New York Times, the news report started like this, hard-copy headline included:
American Teens Still Trail Other Countries in Math
The math performance of U.S. teenagers has sharply declined since 2018, with scores lower than 20 years ago, and with American students continuing to trail global competitors, according to the results of a key international exam released on Tuesday.
In the first comparable global results since the coronavirus pandemic, 15-year-olds in the United States scored below students in similar industrialized democracies like the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, and well behind students in the highest-performing countries such as Singapore, South Korea and Estonia—continuing an underperformance in math that predated the pandemic.
The bleak math results were offset by a stronger performance in reading and science, where the United States scored above average internationally.
About 66 percent of U.S. students performed at least at a basic level in math, compared with about 80 percent in reading and science, according to the exam, the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA.
The report was written by Sarah Mervosh, a good, decent person. The focus of the report was on the performance by American students in math.
On balance, the outlook was gloomy.
For the record, "Math Literacy" was the "major domain" in the 2022 testing. That said, the PISA also tested 15-year-old students in "Reading Literacy" and "Science Literacy," as it always does.
We've shown you the way the New York Times' news report started. So far, it's hard to say that anything stated in the report is actually "wrong."
That said, Mervosh continued as shown below. The highlighted statement is quite gloomy, but is that highlighted statement accurate?
At best, we'd call it grossly misleading, though it's also highly familiar:
The exam was last given in 2018 and measures the performance of 15-year-olds around the world, with an emphasis on real-world skills. Typically administered every three years, it was delayed a year during the pandemic. Nearly 700,000 teenagers around the world took the exam in 2022.
The results are the latest indicator of an American education system that struggles to prepare all students from an early age, with proficiency in math dropping the longer students remain in the system. National test results last year also reported greater declines in math compared with reading, a subject that can be more influenced by what happens at home and was less affected by school closures.
Is that an accurate statement? Does the American education system, such as it is, "struggle to prepare all students from an early age?"
At best, we'd call that statement grossly misleading. Once again, and for the last time, we show you some of the basic data from the Reading Literacy test:
Average scores, Reading Literacy, 2022 PISA:
U.S. Asian-American kids: 579
Singapore: 543
U.S. white kids: 537
Japan: 516
Korea: 515
Taiwan: 515
Canada: 507
United States: 504
Australia: 498
U.K.: 494
Germany: 480
France: 474
Spain: 474
Our Asian-American kids vanquished the world. Our "white" kids basically scored off the charts.
When you look at data like those, does it really seem that American schools "struggle to prepare all students from an early age?" Also, does it look that way when you look at some of the basic data from the Science Literacy test?
Average scores, Science Literacy, 2022 PISA:
U.S. Asian-American kids: 578
Singapore: 561
Japan: 547
U.S. white kids: 537
Taiwan: 537
South Korea: 528
Canada: 515
Australia: 507
U.K.: 500
United States: 499
Germany: 492
France: 487
Needless to say, everyone's schools could be better.
That said, when you look at the Science Literacy data, does it look like our American schools "struggle to prepare all students from an early age?" Or does it look like two major groups of American kids are performing at the highest levels recorded around the world?
No international testing program could ever be perfect. Over the past twenty-plus years, the PISA has been one of two such international programs.
(The other is the TIMSS.)
In certain ways, it seems to us that the PISA may have some substantial quirks. But based upon these new data from the PISA, did it really make sense when Times readers were told, in paragraph 6 of a lengthy report, that our stumblebum American schools "struggle to prepare all students from an early age?"
Yes, that claim was highly familiar. But did it really make sense?
A person might claim that Mervosh was only referring to the PISA math scores when she offered that assessment. In our view, that would be an overly generous reading of that gloomy statement.
(For whatever reason, American kids have always performed much less well in that third "domain" when they take the PISA. For whatever reason, American kids score much better in math when they take the more straightforward TIMSS.)
In our view, that would be a generous reading of that gloomy statement by Mervosh. That said, even in Math Literacy, one group of American kids scored near the top of the world on the PISA.
A second group of American kids produced a fully respectable average score. We'll post the data below.
Even in the PISA math test, two major groups of American kids produced average scores which were either decent or quite good! That said, our American schools have tended to struggle with two other groups of our good, decent kids.
That is a problem we still all live with. It's also a problem which newspapers like the New York Times have persistently refused to confront, report or acknowledge.
How strange! At some point in her lengthy report, Mervosh drew almost every possible comparison under the sun, involving all sorts of demographic groups.
She tells us how American boys performed on the PISA as compared to American girls. She tells us how higher-income American kids performed as compared to their lower-income peers.
She tells us what the achievement gaps were like between "the highest and lowest U.S. performers." She describes the performance by "students from disadvantaged backgrounds," without explaining the specific meaning of that fuzzy designation.
The one comparison she never makes—the one set of gaps she never reports—involves the gaps which obtain between our struggling nation's major "racial" / ethnic student groups.
Those achievement gaps were disappeared in the Mervosh report. In a highly familiar editorial judgment, the average scores produced by those four major groups were never mentioned.
At this point, let's state the obvious:
It's painful to look at the very large achievement gaps which obtain between our four major racial / ethnic groups. Those gaps reflect our brutal American history and its continuing fallout.
It's painful to look at the different average scores recorded by those groups of kids. It's painful to look at those average scores. Also, it may seem embarrassing.
Presumably for those reasons, entities like the New York Times and the Washington Post have always chosen to disappear those painful achievement gaps. In the Mervosh report, every other type of comparison is cited. Comparisons between those four major groups simply never appear.
Let's be clear! Many black and Hispanic kids do brilliantly well on tests like the PISA and the TIMSS. Many white and Asian-American kids produce very low scores.
(There's a lot of unhappiness in those low scores, no matter who has produced them.)
That said, very large gaps obtain between the average scores produced by these four major groups. At the New York Times, for reasons only the Times can explain, the struggle involving our good and decent black school kids isn't important enough to be reported, not even every three or four years.
For the record, this is a long-standing editorial decision by the New York Times. Almost surely, Sarah Mervosh, a good decent person, didn't make this decision.
On its face, this is peculiar work. It's also who we actually are, and who we've always been.
How did American kids do in math? Below, you see the relevant scores from the Math Literacy test.
Painful gaps can be seen in those average scores. Those gaps help define one of the major actual ways our schools continue to struggle.
Painful gaps can be seen in these scores. The New York Times disappeared those scores and those gaps, as did the Washington Post:
Average scores, Math Literacy, 2022 PISA:
Singapore 575
Taiwan 547
U.S. Asian kids 543
Japan 536
Korea 527
U.S. white kids 498
Canada 497
U.K. 489
Australia 487
Finland 484
Germany 475
France 474
Spain 473
United States 465
U.S. Hispanic kids 439
U.S. black kids 412
The struggle we all continue to live with is sitting right there in those (average) scores. That's "the problem we all live with"—unless you read the Washington Post or the New York Times.
As noted, and for what it's worth: American kids have always scored much better in math on the more straightforward TIMSS. For Kevin Drum's brief assessment, click here.
We'll note that two groups of American kids outscored press corps darling Finland in math. Even on the PISA!
The main thing kids should learn in school is that Democrats who wanted to preserve slavery started the Civil War to keep Republicans from abolishing it.
ReplyDeleteHere's a math fact for the holy Democratic party:
Delete"As of November 30, voters burdened with student debt under the age of 45 prefer Trump over Biden by 3 percentage points. Voters who do not have student debt choose Biden by 9 points."
And then the Republican party gave up racism forever the end
DeleteI'm ovulating.
ReplyDeleteI called 10:06 “chickenshit” for not using a nym, so he’s retaliating by stealing MY nym.
DeleteI admire the real George and I despise the fake George.
DeleteMy impersonator tries to insult me by saying I’m gay and an ovulating woman, thereby betraying his homophobia and his sexism.
DeletePeople are beginning to extrapolate one thing from the other.
DeleteYour impersonator’s test scores are lower.
DeleteI enjoy entrĂ©e to the hearts of both male and female denizens, my stamping-ground when I surrendered my bisexual body to the feminine side of my dual psyche. They would whisper into my ears their innermost secrets. Those who happened to be Roman Catholics and have doubtless revealed the mysteries of their inner life to their priest in the vaguest terms. But with me, because as a rule ignorant of the confessor’s identity and not likely to meet him in life, the confessions of Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jew, and atheist were detailed and exhaustive.
DeleteFake George, you are islamophobic.
DeleteDG, there’s a way to fix this. Go to Blogger.
DeleteTrolls have done this same thing to mh and of course, Corby. It is antisocial behavior. What Cecelia means is that you can create a profile on blogger so that your nym will appear in green, as hers does. Trolls cannot imitate that and readers will know which is the real you. This does illustrate why some of those commenting here do not want to use any nym.
DeleteFor some reason, Somerby tolerates this stuff. He could stop it if he wanted to.
I am antisocial, I am not green, Bob could ban me, I am Corby.
DeleteEven if she wasn't called Corby, she would still keep all the wonderful qualities that make her who she is, independent of her name. Cecelia, let go of your name, and in exchange for that name which isn't really a part of who you are, take all of me.
DeleteI am scared of the Arabs, Russians, and Persians, and half of the Americans. They had childhood trauma. They are right wingers. They break rules and norms. They are deplorable. Somerby is an ass.
DeleteI am adorable. My finger smells funny.
I am Corby.
I like the real George. I am the nice Corby.
DeleteThe real George is Boris.
DeleteI am Corby.
DG@2:22pm, get thee to a nunnery.
DeleteAnd so, Real Doggy, you maybe get why people don’t use handles ? Feel free to apologize to those you have insulted anytime….
DeleteAnonymouse 6:57pm, what we get is that you want to stay unaccountable for what you say from post to the next, let alone have someone poke fun at you.
DeleteThat’s what we get.
It’s easy to get a verified account and it was even easier to ascertain that DG has an imposter using his nym.
George is a decent person.
DeleteIt's not difficult to recognize the real Corby/Perry/a's posts. Thank God she's been on vacation by the way.
Delete6:57 - I love it. You steal my nym and then tell ME I should apologize!
DeleteI am the real Corby.
DeleteCorby is a fake name. There is no real Corby commenting here.
DeleteI am Cawby, but I comment as Corby.
DeleteReading literacy is the best kind of literacy.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to see the scores for indigenous American kids.
ReplyDeleteRaymond Walburn has died.
ReplyDelete1969.
DeleteHow do Singapore’s scores look if we disaggregate Chinese, Malays, and Indians?
ReplyDeleteIn Taiwan, how do the scores of indigenous kids compare with those of the Han majority?
ReplyDeleteSomerby is upset that Mervosh didn’t bring race into it. But here is what she does say, disappeared by Somerby:
ReplyDelete“Even relatively affluent U.S. students did not score as high in math as the average-performing student in top places like Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.”
“In a surprising result, the PISA test did not find a growing gap in math and reading between the highest and lowest U.S. performers during the pandemic, contrary to some other test results among younger students. (It did find a widened gap in science.)
But few lower-income students are making it to the top, a troubling trend across countries.”
“Unlike some countries that embrace math as a learned skill, the United States tends to treat math as a talent — designating only certain students as “math kids,” she said. That philosophy can especially hurt low-income students.
“When they do get access to high-quality math learning,” she said, “they excel.”
“On other measures, the United States stood out for having more children living with food insecurity (13 percent, compared with an average of 8 percent in other O.E.C.D. countries), more students who are lonely at school (22 percent, versus 16 percent) and more students who do not feel safe at school (13 percent, versus 10 percent).”
In other words, she frequently mentions income/poverty, but Somerby wants it to be about race.
Mervosh is a good decent person. I am Corby.
Delete"She describes the performance by "students from disadvantaged backgrounds," without explaining the specific meaning of that fuzzy designation."
DeleteAnd then Somerby says: "It's painful to look at the very large achievement gaps which obtain between our four major racial / ethnic groups. Those gaps reflect our brutal American history and its continuing fallout."
How is Somerby's clumsy reference to race as "our brutal American history" any more precise or less fuzzy than the term "disadvantaged"?
When you use race or ethnicity to form a comparison group, you are implying that race or ethnicity is the cause of advantage or disadvantage, not the other factors that are known to influence learning. To the extent that poverty is higher among some minorities than others, it will be a confound that prevents observers from identifying what exactly is responsible for the struggles some kids face. Studying poverty makes more sense than studying race. The NY Times has this right and Somerby is wrong when he refuses to talk about racism but insists that scores must be disaggregated by race. What for, if Somerby won't discuss the factors that go along with race such as poor literacy, dangerous neighborhoods, lack of enrichment experiences in early childhood, food and housing insecurity, and so on? But these are things that other races and ethnicities also face. So what is the point of identifying kids by race at all? The point is to identify racism in the allocation of school resources and learning opportunities. And that is what Somerby is trying to resist. He doesn't want anyone to find out that the brutalities of our American racial history are persisting and present in white racist school boards and the decisions them make that favor white, Asian and Jewish kids while holding back the black, Hispanic and American Indian kids. Somerby would like to just declare the struggling kids incapable of learning, but he doesn't have he guts to say it, so he sneaks it in by insisting that we look at how those racial gaps never close. But he can't do that if the NY Times won't aggregate scores by race, so he whines about the meaning of being disadvantaged instead.
Anonymouse 2:35pm, you are a convoluted thug and a bald-faced liar.
DeleteAggregating scores by race is ground zero for the conversation you claim to want.
If Somerby or any poster was ever so disingenuous as to utter the maligned nonsense you’ve spurted out today, you’d be the first to call them a racist.
Maligned nonsense? Did you malign his nonsense? I sure didn’t.
Delete2:35 has a typical “Somerby seems to say X” comment. 2:35 admits that Somerby did NOT say “the struggling kids are incapable of learning”; nevertheless he tells us that that is what “Somerby would like to declare.”
DeleteAnd 2:35 knows this how, exactly?
In a way it’s funny. Over and again Somerby has told us that paraphrasing is hard. His commenters who constantly mis-paraphrase him don’t realize they are proving his point.
DeleteA paraphrase is not an actual paraphrase if it does not capture the meaning of what someone has said previously.
Deleteparaphrase definition -- express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity
Dogface keeps claiming that our so-called paraphrases do not capture Somerby's meaning accurately. That means they are not paraphrases at all.
Dogface insists that if we do not agree about what Somerby has been saying, his interpretation is correct and we are wrong. Yet he offers no evidence to support that. When we supply evidence by quoting what Somerby has said in the past, he insists it doesn't mean what we have attributed to Somerby.
This is game playing. It isn't even the legalistic nit-picking that Somerby engages in. It is just a way to waste everyone's time by simply denying what Somerby has obviously said in the past.
We paraphrase. We smell our fingers. What an asshole Somerby is.
DeleteWe are Corby.
10:43 - I can’t remember you ever quoting what Somerby actually said. Indeed, quotation marks are almost wholly absent from the canon of your comments. Instead, you mis-paraphrase persistently.
DeleteWhat exactly is his point, Dogface? He claims “disadvantaged” is a fuzzy term, one that Mervosh mentions frequently in her article, and he chastises her for not listing out “black” and “Hispanic” scores. Most people agree that income/poverty are drivers of lower test scores, so why does he object that Mervosh doesn’t mention race/ethnicity?
DeleteDogface's complaint that I have not been quoting Somerby and have not used quote marks is incorrect. See @2:35 above. Those are verbatim quotes from Somerby, with quote marks.
DeleteYou’re right about that.
DeleteBirds are flying through the air.
ReplyDeleteBirds are dinosaurs.
DeleteNo, they may or may not have co-evolved from a common ancestor and there may have been prehistoric flying dinosaurs, but birds are not dinosaurs.
DeleteBirds are feathered theropod dinosaurs.
DeleteThe birds are victims of right wing speciesism.
DeleteI am Corby.
Some birds prey on mammals. I am Croby.
DeleteFor every mammal's feeding bird get chicken feed.
DeleteI am Corby.
Nevertheless, birds are dinosaurs. I am Croby.
DeleteWhy don't you go here and talk with others about birds and whether they are dinosaurs:
Deletehttps://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/
Cecelia, I put in a salt lick and some honeysuckle and I noticed that the quills of the hatchlings changed the sheath of their plumage. Just like grouses and their nestlings. So, can a curved billed fledgling use its dipper to sort of gape its gizzard? Or would a chicklet in fact nourish its breastbone during migration, like scrubfowl?
DeleteDG5:01pm, the Butterball company has an 800 number.
DeleteMight there be white kids who aren’t doing well on the test? Or is it just blacks and Hispanics? I am not a crank.
ReplyDeleteThis is answered in the post.
Delete“Prepare all students” is the actual wording.
ReplyDelete"American Teens Still Trail Other Countries in Math"
ReplyDeleteWho cares. How are they doing in Diversity studies?
Better than you, one hopes.
DeleteWe trail in math, we lead in meth.
DeleteDiversity Studies are extremely important for our youth. Diversity Studies is my major strength, second only to Gender Studies.
DeleteI am Corby.
Corby seems to think that diversity and gender are two different subjects, but gender is also a form of diversity. People should take courses in diversity so that they will understand what it is.
DeleteIt’s never too soon to learn about gender.
DeleteI know everything about all The Genders identified by The Science.
DeleteI smell my fingers. I am Corby.
The genders are three— masculine, feminine, neuter— he, she, it. I am Korbi.
Delete"There are many different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these."
DeleteThe word "gender" applied to people means something different than when the word is applied to language itself:
"In some countries the language itself is gendered, with many – such as French – having masculine and feminine nouns. Whilst some words appear to be linked to gender for a discernible reason, it is often an arbitrary association."
English does not have gendered nouns. We don't say la table or el perro. We do have gendered pronouns that are taken from the gender of the person they reference, or neutral when describing an object or non-binary person.
Language changes with the expressive needs of a society. Language is used to communicate. When it fails to do that well, people invent new usages and new words.
That’s all fine and dandy, but refrain from demanding that I misgender folks.
DeleteI will not. I will call people with a penis a male and people with a vagina a female.
You’re so heroic, Cecelia. Doing what the fuck you want to do. Knowing the grand perversion killing our democracy: not extreme income inequality, not autocracy, not corporate greed and exploitation of workers, but transgender people. You’re sick.
DeleteI can chew bubble gum and walk at the same time.
DeleteAnd manage without your orders.
What if a vaginate wants to be called male, or a penite wants to be called female? Won’t you extend them that courtesy?
DeleteNo.
DeleteCruelty is the point for conservatives. Cecelia has probably interacted with trans people already and called them what they wanted because how would she has any idea what else to do?
DeleteHow does she know if they’re male or female, as defined by her? Does she examine their genitalia?
DeleteI don’t ask people to pull up their dress or to pull down their pants before addressing them via what I assume to be their genetics.
DeleteIf I know their genetics, I will use the traditional pronouns that designate that.
That’s not cruelty it’s accuracy that has served us since the dawn of time, even though cross-dressing has always been a thing.
The fact that you’re so concerned as to how I might handle this phenomenon is a testament to the superfluous nature of it.
It will take an enormous amount of tyranny for you to codify this imperative. Not that you don’t have that in you.
How do you know their genetics? Do they give you a DNA sample? What do you call them if they have something other than XX or XY?
DeleteAnonymouse 6:53am, again, I don’t pull down someone’s underwear to check.
DeleteI do not know men from women. I am ZZ. I am a good decent person.
DeleteMy finger smells funny. I am Corby.
Somehow I don’t feel personally offended if a man wants to be a woman or wants to be called “she”, or has taken steps to transition. I try to be accommodating. Why conservatives get apoplectic about it is a mystery.
DeleteI get apoplectic when men are called "he".
DeleteI am accommodating.
I am Corby.
I work out every day. I’m a he-man.
DeleteHe-men are right wingers. They had childhood traumas.
DeleteI am Corby.
Anonymouse 11:22am, that’s not true. You’re personally offended by “wrong” choices all the time.
DeleteIn fact, anonymices are foul-mouthed shrews who demand that others ascribe to their pov lest they be called every evil “ism” in the book.
You are NOT tolerant in the slightest.
I used to think what does it hurt to use whatever pronoun someone desires, but the demand for that got too rancorous and tyrannical. I also had to ascribe other bullshite psychology.
Twitter censored and canceled people for misgendering. Hell- for venturing a then-unsanctioned view on the Covid virus.
It will never stop. You are NOT accommodating. You are self-serving towards your own ideology. You are NOT tolerant. Not even a little.
Oh my, as George Takei would say. Cecelia is triggered.
DeleteI’m not triggered by anything in particular, but I have been unusually grouchy lately.
DeleteToo much merry-making, I suppose.
I’m going to skip it all and go to a beach in Dec. 2024.
Either way, we struggle.
ReplyDeleteSomewhat off topic. A report today on the spread of homeschooling and the absence or weakness of oversight and regulations. That raises questions for me:
ReplyDelete1 What proportion of our students are being home-schooled?
2 Are home-schooled students included in the PISA or not? (I assume not.)
3 Does the absence of home schooled students skew US results at all?
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/tgk/homeschooled-children
Delete"GOP Governor Defends Rejecting Money to Feed Kids
ReplyDeleteDecember 29, 2023 at 9:49 pm EST By Taegan Goddard
“Nebraska’s Republican governor on Friday reiterated his rejection of $18 million in federal funding to help feed children who might otherwise go hungry while school is out,” the AP reports.
Said Gov. Jim Pillen (R): “I don’t believe in welfare.”
If you only consider family income when deciding which kids should get free breakfasts or lunches at school, you ignore the kids who have parents who are neglectful or busy or incompetent and inconsistently manage to provide their kids with breakfast or lunch (or money to buy lunch). You miss the kids with alcoholic parents who are asleep in the morning. You miss the self-involved parents who are too lazy to set an alarm to see their kids off or too depressed or too worried about their own problems to care responsibly for kids. In some families the kids are forced into a pseudo-parental role by sick or mentally ill or drug-addicted parents. Or there may be a harried mom taking care of younger siblings and leaving the older kids to fend for themselves, or perhaps multiple jobs that prevent a parent from being home in time to make lunches and feed kids breakfast given their inflexible work schedules. Unsupervised kids may not select proper nutrition. It isn't always about money.
DeleteHungry children do not learn well. It doesn't as much matter what the reason is for their lack of nutrition, so framing this as welfare of a poverty-level issue obstructs the main goal, which is to attend to the physical needs of children so that their minds can pay attention to their lessons.
The same is true for sleep, another difficult to address need of students of all ages that is under the parents control, not the school. That's why young kids get naps. Teens may need them too but they don't get them. Research shows that many schools maintain schedules that are out of step with the sleeping habits and biorhythms of most teens, leading to kids who are too sleepy in their morning classes to pay attention to material. It would be better if classes were timed to meet student needs, not those of adults around them. Chronic sleep deprivation is a problem for schools.
Someday our decisions will be based on science and research and not on political demagoguing, self-interest and conservative or religious woo.
If I say that a race has a problem, I am not implying that their race is the cause of the problem.
Delete"Confounded" means that you cannot tell whether the race is causing the problem or whether something else going on is causing it. If you don't think race is the cause of a problem, there is no reason to put people into groups by race in order to study that problem (you study it to find a way to address it, fix it).
DeleteSomerby wants people to be grouped by race when the NY Times discusses these test scores. There is no reason to do that, so the NY Times doesn't do it. I think the NY Times is right and Somerby is wrong about this.
Anonymouse 4:09pm, you will certainly see again this tripe you’ve written today.
DeleteOne thing is certain: we will see Somerby’s tripe over and over again. And cecelia’s.
DeleteAs long as there’s a TDH and Bob is tolerant- count on it.
DeleteBob tolerates tripe. I am Quorbie.
Delete"Said Gov. Jim Pillen (R): “I don’t believe in welfare.”
DeleteLike all Republicans, he means he doesn't believe in welfare for people. He has zero problem with welfare for businesses (farmers, etc).
He probably did his own research on the U.S. Constitution, and didn't see anything about "We the people" or about "promoting the general welfare".
ReplyDeleteWater is wet.
Richard Romanus has died.
ReplyDeleteWhosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
ReplyDeleteI am Corby.
Tom Wilkinson has died.
ReplyDeleteEvariste Ndayishimiye knows just what to do:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/world/africa/burundis-president-says-gay-people-should-be-stoned-2023-12-30/
We aren't going to learn anything about the impact of race or ethnicity on educational performance by looking at PISA scores. There is an actual research literature on this subject. Somerby has apparently never read any of it and he never seems to want to discuss how to help children learn.
ReplyDeleteBob is primarily a media critic. Regardless of whether Bob is familiar with the actual research literature on ethic differences in education, our media bend over backwards to ignore it.
DeleteSuppose the media prominently reported these enormous ethnic differences. What would be the result? Here are my guesses:
1. Differences in income, job performance, and educational performance would no longer be wrongly blamed on racism.
2. Democrats, in particular, would have to face the lack of success in their efforts to improve black performance. That might lead to replacing ineffective approaches with more effective ones.
David, how would reporting racial disparity in achievement show that there is no racism in education?
DeleteVery good question, @5:35. Careful detailed reporting is clearly superior to simply blaming racism for any difference. But, how do we know that racism in the schools is the reason why blacks lag behind Asians in the schools?
DeleteOne clue is to look at the difference when the kids first enter school. If Asians enter school years years ahead of blacks (on average), then racism in education was not the reason.
That's not a perfect answer. I think a better answer would analyze all the other factors that cause differences. E.g., I suspect that study habits and academic goals have a bigger effect than racism. If that's so, then one cannot tease out the impact of racism just by looking a the different results.
Racism in society can still be a reason. Failure to close such gaps can also be due to racism in education in your hypothetical situation.
DeleteThey were not raised the same.
DeleteSo it’s raising, not racism.
DeleteToo many things are different for black immigrants compared to native black children in the US.
DeleteBlack immigrants are subject to racism, but they do well in school.
DeleteDystopia, from Kevin:
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/nba-star-speaks-the-truth-only-stephen-king-has-spoken-before/
I was in Las Vegas for a convention, staying a top hotel. I was not happy there. To get the the elevators, one had to walk through the very noisy casino. The entire, frenetic atmosphere was hellish.
DeleteSo, two friends and I rented a car and drove out to a place in the mountains where we could take a quiet hike into a canyon. It was lovely out there.
I got irritable bowel syndrome in Vegas.
DeleteThe Pacers are leading the Knicks.
ReplyDeleteWolfgang Schäuble died a few days ago.
ReplyDeleteOperation 29:
ReplyDeleteReassign agent Fanny Blofart.
If we're going for the hyper real straight dope:
ReplyDelete1. students are not commodities that accrue value with investment, they're PEOPLE
2.describing racism with statistics isn't racist
3. many schools still "teach the test" and do not educate
4. there are huge gaps *within* Asian students that are usually erased
5. it's still wrong to tokenize Asians and that's part of racism now
6. race is a political TOOL desperately trying to look scientific and deserves serious debunking . This blog always fails to do so.
7. epigenetic food scarcity plus intergenerational capital helps intelligence, not essentialized race genetics which are not really a thing in legitimate science
8. Testing changes in high school selection gets more people into colleges not fewer. Simple policy changes can immediately improve a student's ability to get into college that DO show up in test scores but are not universal enough in practice to show up in national averages
10. Organized White Supremacy is funding the right libertarian movement, creating a lot of the HOAX factoids about what taxes do when applied intelligently (they think taxes given to the public in services are morally as bad as being forced to lose a war on slavery with assistance to the CITIZENS OF OTHER RACES recover politically). I'm going to repeat that. Racists are an organized lobby!!!
11. Standardized tests select an elite in middle school by design and do not reflect actual potential to learn later in adolescence
Paula Abdul says a producer groped her.
ReplyDeleteOh my ♥, please come and take me. I will smell your fingers and touch hairs on your legs.
ReplyDeleteI am Corby.
You’re the naughty Corby. I’m the nice Corby, and I don’t want to be seen in public with you.
DeleteIf a significant group of students isn’t doing well, then our school system as a whole isn’t doing well. Separating white and black scores is disingenuous. If you buy into the idea that test scores show this, that is.
ReplyDeleteAll the kids cannot be above average.
DeleteIn Lake Wobegon they are.
Delete“Disadvantaged” is a fuzzy term. Black and Hispanic are not. I am not a crank.
ReplyDeleteAll terms are fuzzy. I am Cordy.
DeleteKevin’s images:
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/top-ten-photos-of-2023/
The real story about education in the US, the way public schools are being undermined and privatized and Christianized by right wingers, including the Moms for Liberty groups whose book banning activities Somerby found time to defend, is completely ignored at this blog. He’d rather reach into his Rolodex and drag out another post about the Pisa test, and how reporters should disaggregate by race/ethnicity rather than talk about income/poverty.
ReplyDeleteRight wingers, being the tolerant group that they are, believe that all liberals are contemptible cancel culture warriors, so Cecelia’s ire is at least understandable as a tribal butthurt response.
ReplyDeleteI know what I see via anonymices.
DeleteI don’t consider you to be the representation of “all liberals”, and “all liberals” don’t want you to consider yourself as being that either.
Yes, all anonymous commenters are exactly the same. I am not a crank.
DeleteI am an anonymouse, and I am the same.
DeleteRight wingers and not nice. They are funded by Russia via Iran and Qatar. I am nice. I smell my fingers.
ReplyDeleteI am Corby.
Some of my best friends are conservatives. I disagree with them, but I respect them. I am Carby.
DeleteI had a woke pebble in my shoe the other day.
ReplyDeleteI was me.
DeleteI am Corby.
Cecelia spells her name with e in the second syllable. I prefer an i there. But, to respect her, I spell her name the way SHE prefers. I am Torby.
ReplyDeleteI want to touch hairs on your wet legs.
DeleteI am Corby.
When people read your comments they get a bad impression of Corbies.
DeleteYou are funded by Russian via Iran and Qatar, Boris.
DeleteI am Corby.
I get my money from Iran, laundered by Russia. Qatar doesn’t help at all. I am Torby.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteVery thoughtful, Anonymouse 2:17pm.
DeleteHe is suggesting that you be similarly thoughtful, Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymous le7:22pm, that would be illogical. Anonymous is not a name.
DeleteTo trans people in real life.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:45pm, I’m not kind to trans people by going against my own sense of reality and pretending that they aren’t suffering from gender dysphoria.
DeleteCourtesy isn’t about you. It is about others.
DeleteAnonymouse 7:58pm, courtesy should go both ways. I don’t demand that anonymices spell my name as I spell it and have never made an issue of anyone substituting an “I” for the “e”.
DeleteOn the other hand, several anonymices have chided ME over the spelling of my name.
Extend to me the courtesy of my own judgments and beliefs. They are nothing new or outlandish.
It’s easy to spell my name as I spell it. No medals should be awarded over that effort. You want to show real tolerance of others. Tolerate someone who doesn’t agree with your outlook.
I’m kind to gay people by pretending they aren’t deviant scumbags destined for hell, even though I know they are.
DeleteCecelia 8:55pm, you’re confusing gay people with trans. Right?
DeleteCecelia finds anything but heterosexual sex abhorrent and evidence of disease.
DeleteCecelia9:00pm, that’s quite an admission. Next thing to work on would be your referencing of yourself in 3rd person.
DeleteI love the green Cecelia. I don’t always agree with her, but she’s genuine. I am Corvy.
DeleteAnonymouse 9:27pm, it’s not easy being green.
DeleteBeing kind or courteous to others is not contingent on others being nice to you. It is not tit-for-tat transactional but a habitual stance you take toward everyone because they are human beings, deserving or not. A shrink would call it unconditional positive regard, someone religious would talk about reflecting God’s love. It isn’t “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, and no rudeness by some rando person in your past justifies abandoning courtesy yourself toward whoever you meet.
DeleteWhy should it be necessary to give you lessons on how to be a decent person?
Anonymouse 10:37pm, it’s necessary for you to give me lessons because you can’t do anything else. You just can’t.
DeleteWho are you kidding, it is utterly tit-for-tat in your book, otherwise you’d move on and not insist that I adopt your view wholeheartedly or else I’m not a decent person.
To be fair, I seriously doubt there are many trans people who are as intolerant and idiotic as you.
“ Next thing to work on would be your referencing of yourself in 3rd person.”
DeleteIronic, since Bob calls himself “we”.
Anonymouse 11:07pm, is Bob simultaneously calling himself Cecelia or Dogface George?
Deleteit is the royal we
DeleteHere is some media analysis (from No More Mister Nice Blog):
ReplyDelete"Did you know about this gas station in Tennessee that hosted a Nazi fight club? Until now, I didn't....
But imagine if the situation were reversed. Imagine if a popular store that posted anti-Trump messages were found to be associated with a hate group that embraces a murderous racist ideology. It would be all over Fox News for weeks. There'd be dozens of stories. The owner would be famous.
But there's no media outlet that will really pound a story like this the way Fox does. No media outlet trusted by liberals makes a habit of highlighting right-wing evildoers, unless those evildoers are part of the political, business, or media elite and the stories can be used to make high-minded points about governance, democracy, foreign policy, or high-level corruption.
This matters because identifying an endless series of low-level enemies is one of the key ways the right-wing media keeps viewers angry at liberals and Democrats, and thus loyal to the Republican Party. Our side's preferred media sources are much too high-minded to do this. And so even when a proudly public Trump supporter identifies himself as a Nazi, it won't become big news, even for a moment. I'm all for serious journalism, but this outrage gap is helping the GOP."
Somerby has pointed out that right wingers hear different information than lefties, but is this what he meant? It is as if Steve M. thinks it would be a good idea for the left to emulate the right and keep its voters in an ongoing fit of outrage, but many of us are feeling major fatigue and would prefer to settle down emotional, especially after the major push to support Palestine brought by the media.
I suspect that pushing the equivalent of such stories on the left would result in a retreat from engagement among Democratic voters. Burnout is real. And if this is what Somerby meant, I think he would have said it as clearly as Steve M. and not pretended to be bringing the political sides together in peace and harmony.
I ♥ word salads. Somerby is no liberal.
DeleteI am Corby.
Here is another New Year's tradition. These are the best blog posts of 2023, chosen by bloggers themselves:
ReplyDeletehttps://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2023/12/jon-swift-roundup-2023.html
Note that Daily Howler is not on the blogroll. Note also that there are many better places to spend your time.
What impresses you about those bloggers?
DeleteAnonymouse 6:08pm, I wish Bob would remove your chains and let you out.
DeleteChosen by bloggers not by me.
DeleteWhat about them and their self-aggrandizing is interesting and important? Why are they worth anyone's time?
Delete6:08 PM - which was your favorite post? Why?
DeleteI like Rude Pundit and Blue Gal (No fair remembering stuff). YMMV
DeleteWhy do you like them? Have you learned something from them that you can't learn on other blogs? If so, what?
DeleteWhat was the most original and important idea you learned from these blogs this year?
I prefer Bob’s self aggrandizing, especially when he tells us we are lizard brains if we disagree. Epic.
DeleteAnonymouse 8:52pm, Bob is not saying that you ARE lizard brains, he’s saying that in particular circumstances, you may be inclined to use a reflexive part of your brain that has been designated as your lizard (primitive) brain in some circles.
DeleteHe’s poking some fun at that. Quit being an overly sensitive putz.
The theory about lizard brain was debunked in the 1970s but Somerby knows nothing about psychology or neuroscience.
DeleteI learn the most from Heather Cox Richardson. Second most from Marcy Wheeler. Third most from Peter Greene. I enjoy Rude Pundit because of his colorful language. Digby is always illuminating, with solid common sense and new info (new to me). I learn nothing from Somerby and his bigotry is distressing to me. He wasn’t always this bad.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:25pm, and you know nothing about irony and humor.
DeleteAnonymouse 10:30pm, but here you are.
DeleteWhat was the most interesting and significant thing you learned from any of them this year?
DeleteOn what issues did any of the bloggers you mention significantly disagree with each other, if at all? Or do all of them basically agree with everything the other one says?
DeleteWhy should Somerby want to be included on the blogroll?
DeleteYou avoided every question I've asked. Why?
It’s crucial to find out, especially on new year’s eve.
DeleteThe blogs all pretty much say the same thing over and over. And no, there is never, ever any disagreement among them. They serve as reinforcement mechanisms for people's preexisting beliefs and biases. That's why the original poster loves them and why they dislike Somerby, who challenges their pre-existing beliefs and biases. The original poster is probably the same demographic as the people that operate these blogs - the last demographic standing that believes the Democratic Party truly represents their best interests: aging white men.
DeleteAging white men lean Republican.
DeleteThe blogs in question facilitate and represent the dysfunction of the Democratic Party by engaging in groupthink and refusing to challenge themselves which led to an illusion of invulnerability literally none of them has even begun to address even at this late date as enormous amounts of demographic constituents leave the party or are vocally disenchanted with it.
DeleteThe blogs in question may as well give the Trump campaign tens of millions of dollars as they all really do nothing but help him get reelected.
The blogs in question are a paean to ignorance and intellectual weakness.
@11:40 went to bed early
DeleteI am deplorable.
ReplyDeleteSchecky Greene has died.
ReplyDeleteI am nice. I am a good decent person. I am Corby.
ReplyDeleteI am programmed to deprogram you all.