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South Dakota earned an A for access, largely because its schools have an average of 2 students per computer, far ahead of the national norm of 3.8 students per instructional computer. The state also averages 1.9 students per high-speed Internet-connected computer, compared to 3.7 students per computer across the country [AP, "Access to Technology in Schools Among Tops in Nation," Sioux City Journal, 2008.03.26].
Only Virginia scored better; we tied Georgia. Not bad!
The only dings we got -- the reasons for that minus instead of the full A -- were the following:
- The state doesn't test students on their tech skills (only five states do)
- We don't include tech requirements in our teacher and administrator recertification requirements (ten states do that to teachers; six do it to administrators)
But there is an understory here. Well, click on the below chart to see Ed Week's breakdown of South Dakota's performance on "STEM" subjects: science, tech, engineering, and math:
Our achievement levels for 4th and 8th graders are all above average and we have less of a pooverty gap in math achievement among our 8th graders -- hoorah! But our achievement gains in math are slower than the national average, and the numbers of students scoring in the "excellent" range on math and science tests is decidedly mixed.Not enough data to say computers aren't delivering the bang for the buck, but certainly reason to wonder what else we need to do to translate great tech into top-of-the-nation academic performance.
One idea is to hire teachers who are first and foremost teachers of science and math, not coaches first and teachers second. This has been the case in MHS in the past.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, a winning sports team gets more attention and high fives than a winning math or science clss.
That's one of the reasons I think sports should be outside of high school. Then teachers could devote all their attention to teaching. Not gonna happen, I know, but it's an idea.
While the NAEP tests 4th and 8th graders, most of the technology (i.e. computers) referred to are placed in the high schools. I'm not sure that this is a fair conclusion to draw or infer.
ReplyDeleteActually, the Technology Counts 2008 report looks at access to computers in 4th and 8th grade (see page 2 of the PDF file).
ReplyDeleteThe thought that MHS hired coaches first and teachers second in the past is absurd, except for maybe one case.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:28 needs look no further than Jerome Garry, who people say was the closest hint of a hiring an O'Gorman football coach who could teach Chemistry.
I don't know enough about sports to know how his records were, but I don't recall playing in the Dome.
Spectator sports will always outshine academic achievement because of the nature of the beast, but anyone with a brain knows that brains will beat brawn in the battle of lifetime income.
I didn't mean that teachers were hired on the basis of their coaching ability. But once hired, some teachers' priorities are the sports they coach, not the classes they teach. And the students thus suffer academically.
ReplyDelete