- New revelations from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights provide some ominous news for both minority students and STEM enthusiasts. According to OCR’s biannual report, fewer than half the nation’s high schools offer calculus; for those with significant populations of black and Hispanic students, the rate is even lower. Among schools where black and Hispanic students made up three-quarters of the student body, just 33 percent offer calculus (compared to 56 percent of schools where black and Hispanics students made up one-quarter or less of the student body). Worse, transcript data from last year suggest that the proportion of black students taking calculus has actually declined since 2009. We also know that black and Hispanic students lag far behind their white and Asian classmates in earning AP credits. This is pretty simple, and very serious: If we don’t provide rigorous coursework to minority students—starting in middle school if not sooner—we’re limiting their potential, undermining society’s capacity to produce upward mobility, and sandbagging the country’s economic growth.
- There’s a screaming vogue these days for the teaching of so-called “non-cognitive skills”—traits like social awareness, self-control, and resilience (depending on whom you talk to, they can also go by zippy names like “zest” and “grit”), which are surpassingly handy both in the classroom and later in life. In a column this week, David Brooks takes the terminological shine off these attributes and reaches for a much simpler concept, this one sprung from antiquity: love. The learned abilities of playing nicely with others and listening to teachers, though critical, are more foundational than academic skills and best acquired in an environment marked by familial affection. With the depletion of our national stores of “social capital,” however, it’s easy to see why so many kids come to school unable to make the most of their intellectual abilities. Drawing on the observations of Paul Tough, Brooks calls for a renewal of love as the incubator for learning. Let’s hope our educators—and families—pay heed.
- Speaking of folks who probably could have used a few more hugs growing up: Donald Trump is again a hot topic in the education world (which is a bit of a feat, given his evident boredom with the issue and professed love of the poorly educated). The GOP presidential candidate’s education advisors have been sought by the 74 and found not to exist—at least, not on the material plane. The site’s most piquant anecdote comes from a recent meeting of D.C.’s Committee for Education Funding, which hosted representatives Ann O’Leary and Donnie Turner from the Clinton and Sanders campaigns; in the chair reserved for a Trump spokesman, the audience was instead treated to an appearance by Harvey the Rabbit’s understudy. As the Center for American Progress’s Carmel Martin said, “The contrast is really tremendous.” Yup, you could say that.
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