Re: [Phys-L] Economist Hirschman's Argument Against Private Schools and Vouchers

[Bruce Sherwood <Bruce_Sherwood@ncsu.edu>]

In March Jane Jackson posted this information about the careful studies
Michael Marder at UT Austin has done concerning the dominant role of
poverty in conditioning education today.

Bruce

From: "Jane Jackson" <jane.jackson@asu.edu>
Date: Mar 8, 2013 3:43 PM
Subject: The Overriding Influence of Poverty ... Michael Marder's
enlightening visualizations of data
To: <PHYSLRNR-LIST@listserv.buffalo.edu>
Cc:

On 3/5/13, Richard Hake wrote:

> 5. "Failure of U.S. Public Secondary Schools in Mathematics" [Marder
> (2012)] at <http://bit.ly/KPitWM> (scroll down);

In this reference, he quoted physics professor Michael Marder (in Hake's
original post on March 4 to the AERA listserv):
...

> *Marder, M. 2012. "Failure of U.S. Public Secondary Schools in
> Mathematics," Journal of Scholarship and Practice 9(1): 8-25; the entire
> issue is online as a 2.7 MB pdf at <http://bit.ly/KPitWM>, scroll down to
> page 8. Marder wrote: "The collection of nationwide data do point to a
> primary cause of school failure, but it is poverty, not teacher quality. As
> the concentration of low-income children increases in a school, the
> challenges to teachers and administrators increase so that ultimately the
> educational quality of the school suffers. Challenges include students
> moving from one school to another within the school year, frequency of
> illness, lack of stable supportive homes with quiet places to study,
> concentration of students who are angry or disobedient, probability of
> students disappearing from school altogether, and difficulty of attracting
> and retaining strong teachers. Most people who see the connection between
> poverty and educational outcomes are confident that low-income students in
> a sufficiently supportive environment will learn as much in a school year
> as students in well-off communities."

I thank Richard Hake for this!

Please look at Michael Marder's visualizations of world, US, and US
state-level educational data, exploring the connection between poverty and
educational outcomes.  At
   http://prezi.com/kt0epjkao24q/**poverty-and-public-education-**
feb-12-2013/<http://prezi.com/kt0epjkao24q/poverty-and-public-education-feb-12-2013/>

Also, look at more of his data at http://bit.ly/MarderEVP

If you want to explore deeply, visit his UTeach web page on visualizations:
  http://uteachweb.cns.utexas.**edu/Marder/Visualizations<http://uteachweb.cns.utexas.edu/Marder/Visualizations>

[I quote him:]
"Poverty is no excuse for low educational achievement.  But there are
almost no exceptions to the rule that academic outcomes depend upon poverty
concentration, and high poverty schools provide poor odds of academic
success."

Michael Marder's visualizations are powerful evidence for this, and his
presentations at http://prezi.com are excellent for educating the public.
 He deserves a much wider public exposure.


Regarding Michael Marder's last sentence in the first quote above: Modeling
Instruction succeeds in high-poverty schools. Evidence of success in 8th
grade math and in 9th grade physics/algebra are at
  http://modeling.asu.edu/**SuccessStories_MI.htm<http://modeling.asu.edu/SuccessStories_MI.htm>


-- 
cheers,
Jane
Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program
Box 871504, Dept.of Physics, ASU, Tempe, AZ 85287
480-965-8438/fax:965-7565 http://modeling.asu.edu
Jane.Jackson@asu.edu
   For 22 years, the Modeling Instruction Program has
helped teachers attain knowledge and skills needed
to benefit their students. Modeling Instruction is
designated as an Exemplary K-12 science program
by the U.S. Department of Education.
   The American Modeling Teachers Assn (AMTA) is expanding the work:
http://modelinginstruction.org