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Redefining intelligence

May 23, 2008 By

Yale psychologists are trying to develop new tests of intelligence that measure “practical, creative, and analytical skills,” reports Education Week. One goal is to identify more black and Hispanic children as “gifted.”

In its entirety, Aurora is a comprehensive battery that includes a group-administered paper-and-pencil test, a parent interview, a scale for teacher rating of students, and some observation items. The paper-and-pencil test gauges creativity, for instance, by asking students to imagine what objects might say to one another if they could talk, or to generate a story plot to fit an abstract illustration on a children’s-book cover.

A question assessing students’ practical skills with numbers directs test-takers to draw a line mapping the shortest route between a friend’s house and a movie theater.

Some children test “high on analytical skills and low on creative or practical,” a researcher says.

Traditional intelligence tests, these researchers say, measure only a narrow subset: memory and analytical skills. Also known as “g” for general intellectual ability, those skills come in handy for comparing and contrasting, analyzing, judging, and classifying, and they are the kinds of abilities that teachers tend to value and emphasize in the classroom.

Brains aren’t everything. In life, common sense gets you a long way. But, a school’s gifted program is supposed to serve students who need more intellectual challenge than mainstream classes can provide. If it’s a good program for average-smart kids with common sense or creativity, is it still good for the super-smart?

Go to the link and check out the “high-scoring responses” to the question about why the four and the seven don’t get along. I don’t see the next Spielberg there.

For those who can’t access Education Week, the creative question is:

Number 7 and Number 4 are playing at school, but then they get in a fight. Why aren’t 7 and 4 getting along?

High scoring response:

They are not the same. One is even, the other odd. 7 doesn’t like 4 because two 4’s are 8 and 8 is 7’s evil brother! 4 doesn’t like 7 because 7 is a prime number.

The notes for a speech on measuring “sensible intelligence” are here.

Filed Under: Intelligence

Nebraska boy wins geography bee

May 22, 2008 By

An 11-year-old boy from Nebraska won the National Geographic Bee by answering the question: Cochabamba is the third-largest conurbation in what country?

Akshay Rajagopal answered “Bolivia” to clinch the bee.

Askhay, a sixth-grader at Lux Middle School in Lincoln, Nebraska, answered every question correctly to win a $25,000 scholarship.

Along the way, Akshay answered questions that included the westernmost Asian national capital (Ankara in Turkey), the country where Makossa is a popular type of music (Cameroon), and the location of Tillya Tepe (it’s in Afghanistan).

I know where Nebraska is.

Filed Under: Education

Dark writings, nervous academics

May 22, 2008 By

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, committed by a student who fantasized about death in his short stories, university professors are reporting “dark writing,” reports the Wall Street Journal. But it’s very difficult to tell who’s really a threat.

. . . some experts worry that these measures pose legal or ethical risks. Psychologists caution that it is nearly impossible to predict future violence. Professors are being asked to do something for which they are untrained — assess a work for signs of a troubled psyche.

At the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, creative-writing student Steven Barber wrote a first-person story about a creative-writing student contemplating murder or suicide. Instructor Christopher Scalia, alarmed that the story’s instructor was named Mr. Christopher, called the administration. (The instructor is Justice Scalia’s son.) A search of Barber’s car found three guns; the Navy vet has a concealed carry permit, but the college bans guns on campus. Barber was committed to a psychiatric institution for a weekend, where psychiatrists concluded he was sane and posed no threat. A few days later, he was expelled.

At Valdosta State in Georgia, T. Hayden Barnes created a collage that he posted on his Facebook page protesting plans to build what he called the “Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage.”

On May 7, 2007, Mr. Barnes, then a junior, found a letter from President Zaccari under his dorm-room door saying that Mr. Barnes presented “a clear and present danger” and that he had been expelled. Attached was a copy of his collage.

In order to apply for readmission, the letter said, Mr. Barnes would need to present correspondence from a psychiatrist indicating that he wasn’t a danger to himself or others, as well as documentation proving he would receive therapy during his tenure at school.

Barnes appealed the expulsion and was reinstated without explanation.

Barber, a 3.9 student at Wise, also appealed his expulsion but was turned down. At his next college, he plans to write about rainbows and puppies.

Filed Under: College, Violence

Politicians back homeschoolers

May 22, 2008 By

As I predicted, California’s political leaders are supporting parents’ right to teach their children at home. Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former Democratic governor, and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the 2nd District Court of Appeal to reconsider a ruling that parents must hold teaching credentials to homeschool their children.

Filed Under: Education

Top schools for high achievers

May 21, 2008 By

BASIS Charter in Tucson, a very rigorous school started by Soviet refugees, is America’s top public high school, according to Newsweek, which ranks based on the percentage of graduating seniors who take Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests. An equity index shows what percentage of students take at least one advanced class.

Most of the top-ranked schools are magnets that draw gifted students. Charter high schools also were well represented: In addition to BASIS at number one, the charter list includes Preuss UCSD (6) in San Diego County, Pacific Collegiate (13) in Santa Cruz, Boston’s MATCH (25) and Raleigh Charter (27). Preuss and MATCH stand out because most of their students come from low-income black or Hispanic families.

Filed Under: Education

Carnival of Education

May 21, 2008 By

The Carnival of Education, hosted this week by Teacher in a Strange Land, features a post by NYC Educator on Steve, who thinks he should be forgiven all his sins (doing no work until now) if he repents in the last month of school.

. . . whenever I go to check his work, he hasn’t done anything. And when I collect work, including tests, his papers are notoriously absent. A few days ago, he asked, “Mr. Educator, if I show up every day and do all the rest of the work, can I pass this class?”

. . . “It’s the third marking period. This is the one that counts.”

I don’t know exactly where kids get the idea that two thirds of the semester is just for practice, and that teachers will forget about it in the end. But it’s a very common belief. In meetings, we’re encouraged to pass kids who’ve failed most of the term if they catch up in the end.

NYC Educator hasn’t seen anyone blow off most of the year and catch up in the last month. But if Steve could do it, should he pass?

Filed Under: Blogging

Failing upward in Tucson

May 21, 2008 By

Social promotion policies enable Tucson students to get through school without the skills they’ll need to qualify for a job or pass a community college course, concludes a 10-month investigation by the Arizona Daily Star. One third of middle and high school students fail a core academic class; 90 percent were promoted to the next grade.

Furthermore, some of the students who pass may not be competent, thanks to grade inflation, especially in middle schools.

At Naylor Middle School, for example, about 9 percent of eighth-graders failed English courses last year. Meanwhile, 59 percent failed the AIMS reading test and 40 percent failed the writing component.

By the time Tucson students get to the local community college, 79 percent must take remedial math, 48 percent take remedial writing and 32 percent are placed in remedial reading.

Filed Under: Education

States face balloon payment on NCLB

May 21, 2008 By

At first, your mortgage payments are small. Then the balloon payment kicks in and you can’t handle it. That’s how many states have set proficiency goals to meet No Child Left Behind, says a Center on Education Policy study. In the early years, goals are small and achievable. In later years, student achievement is supposed to soar to reach 100 percent proficiency in 2013-14. To switch metaphors; I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. From Education Week:

The center found that 23 states have, in its words, “backloaded” their student trajectories by calling for smaller gains early on, but planning for jumps of up to 10 percentage points in proficiency beginning with the 2010-11 or 2011-12 school years.

. . . In establishing its annual measurable objectives, (California) estimated a 24.4 percent proficiency rate by the end of the 2006-07 school year in language arts for students in elementary and middle schools. However, the state is expecting a jump to 35.2 percent in 2007-08, to 46 percent for 2008-09, and to 56.8 percent for 2009-10.

California’s definition of “proficiency” is a lot higher than in most other states.

Everyone expects the feds to give up on 100 percent proficiency, because it’s not going to happen, however low the standards go. So it makes sense to set easy targets in the early years and wait for the 100 percent goal to be modified or abandoned.

I wonder what would be realistic. How about 10 percent advanced, 40 percent proficient (really proficient), 40 percent basic and 10 percent rated creative?

Filed Under: Education

AAUW: 'Boy crisis' is a myth

May 20, 2008 By

The “boy crisis” in schools is a myth, concludes a study by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which argued in the ’90s that girls needed more attention. Grades and test scores for boys have remained the same or improved, the AAUW says, even if girls have made larger gains. The real crisis is low performance by low-income, black and Hispanic students, the report argues.

All this echoes a 2006 Education Sector report.

It’s fair to argue that girls’ academic gains haven’t come at the expense of boys, but it’s troubling to see a widening achievement gap. Girls earn higher grades in high school. Overall, 57 percent of college graduates are female.

Black girls are doing much, much better in school than black boys; Hispanic girls also outperform Hispanic boys. There really is a black-Hispanic boy crisis.

Focusing more on the learning needs of boys isn’t necessarily bad for girls.

Update: Inside Higher Ed has more on reaction to the AAUW report.

Filed Under: Education

Carnival of Homeschooling

May 20, 2008 By

Po Moyemu (In My Opinion) is hosting this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling.

Filed Under: Blogging
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