Tag: public schools

U.S. students’ math scores plunge in global education assessment

U.S. students lag behind their peers in many industrialized countries when it comes to math, according to the results of a global exam released Tuesday.

Why it matters: U.S. students saw a 13-point drop in their 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) math results when compared to the 2018 exam.

  • The 2022 math score was not only lower than it was in 2012 but it was “among the lowest ever measured by PISA in mathematics” for the U.S., per the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country note.

Zoom in: While the U.S. scored below the OECD average in math, it managed to score above the OECD average in reading and science.

  • The 2022 results found that U.S. students scored one point below their 2018 reading score and three points below their 2018 science score. However, their performances in those areas were higher than in 2012.

The 2018 PISA assessment found that U.S. students straggled behind their peers in East Asia and Europe, per the Washington Post.

What they’re saying: In a statement Tuesday responding to the latest results, Education Sec. Miguel Cardona praised the U.S. for moving up in the world rankings but acknowledged “there’s much work to be done.”

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Senate fails to overturn Biden’s plan to withhold lunch aid from schools that don’t let boys use girls’ bathrooms

School lunches in America are on the chopping block for K-12 schools that don’t enforce gender ideology. In an attempt to comply with Joe Biden’s executive order requiring all agencies to implement equity programs for LGBTQ+ inclusion, the Department of Agriculture decided that it would hold free school lunch aid hostage unless schools allowed boys to use girls’ bathrooms and implemented other actions showing their compliance with the wacky, progressive gender theory that says boys and girls can become girls and boys just by declaring it to be so.

Senate Republicans tried to overturn it in voting against the USDA reinterpretation of Title IX via the Congressional Review Act, but that vote was short at 47 to 50. “Don’t be fooled here, the Biden Administration is the only player in this policy fight that is taking away lunches from children,” said Kansas Senator Roger Marshall. “There is real-world evidence that USDA’s policy has already taken away school lunch funding from low-income children. Weaponizing school lunch money in pursuit of their radical agenda and putting students in the crosshairs is unconscionable, and we will not stand for it.”

That rule, proposed in 2022, blasted by attorneys general and lawmakers across the US, has now gone into effect. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made the proclamation in May 2022, saying that it would “interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972… to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The Department of Agriculture then went on to explain their bizarre reasoning, saying that in light of the Supreme Court decision that allowed a man who claimed to be transgender to appear at work in a funeral home wearing women’s clothing, and to use the women’s restroom at his workplace, they would prevent schools from receiving federal school lunch aid if those schools didn’t allow boys to use girls’ restrooms, locker rooms, or other facilities.

Vilsack said this was a way to “root out discrimination.” His goal in withholding lunch aid from schools that do not put girls at risk of potential male aggression was to “help bring about much-needed change.” It was shortly after this proclamation that it was revealed that a female student in Loudon County, Virginia was raped in a “gender-neutral” school bathroom by a male student who wore women’s clothing.

Biden signed the executive order as soon as he took office on January 20, 2021. It read that “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” It was this that Vilsack was trying to tackle. 

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Wyoming Cop Assaulted a Disabled 8-Year-Old, Then Deleted the Body Camera Footage, Lawsuit Claims

Last spring, a disabled Wyoming 8-year-old was assaulted by a school resource officer, who pinned the boy facedown on the floor of a school conference room seemingly unprovoked. According to a lawsuit filed by the boy’s family last week, after the incident, the resource officer deleted body camera footage showing the most egregious parts of the attack and even accessed the child’s private school records without his parents’ or school administrators’ knowledge.

Last February, an 8-year-old with a “diagnosed neurodivergent disability” was sitting in the principal’s office of Freedom Elementary School in Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the school’s lunch period. The boy, named in the suit as “J.D.,” had been doing this for days, in accordance with his Individualized Education Plan (IEP). The complaint states that Principal Chad Delbridge and another faculty member began to quietly speak to J.D. about comments he made to a school cafeteria cashier and whether he should apologize to the cashier. Deputy Benjamin Jacquot, the school resource officer, was standing nearby during the discussion. J.D. was calm during this period.

According to a report later filed by Delbridge, when J.D. stood up to return to class moments later, Jacquot grabbed J.D.’s arm. Delbridge had not asked for Jacquot’s assistance in any way. 

“J.D. was not a threat to himself or to anyone else. There was no reason at all for Deputy Jacquot to become involved with J.D. during this interaction with Principal Delbridge,” the lawsuit notes. “Deputy Jacquot, nevertheless, forcibly wrestled J.D. into a nearby conference room using an armlock where the assault grew violent.”

The suit claims that Jacquot repeatedly “slammed” J.D.’s face into the conference room floor, causing numerous lacerations and bruises. The undeleted portion of Jacquot’s body camera footage shows the 250-pound Jacquot pinned on top of 68-pound J.D.

“At this point, J.D. is bleeding from wounds on his face, and his smeared blood is visible on the video,” the complaint reads. “As shown on the video, Deputy Jacquot is out of control, pinning J.D. by his arms face down to the ground in a prone restraint position and yelling threats at J.D. J.D., meanwhile, is struggling to breathe, and is coughing.”

According to the suit, Jacquot screamed at J.D.: “Do you understand me! I should be taking you to jail!”

Eventually, Delbridge called J.D.’s father, Ishmael DeJesus, to pick him up. When he arrived, DeJesus asked Jacquot why he grabbed J.D. even though the boy wasn’t causing a disruption. 

“Because, as a law enforcement officer, that’s my primary function,” Jacquot replied.

The complaint further alleges that “immediately after his assault on J.D., Deputy Jacquot went to his vehicle, and, upon information and belief, destroyed evidence by deleting his body cam video which showed the most violent portion of the assault, as well as the footage of his improper intervention into and escalation of this situation.”

Later, Jacquot obtained J.D.’s “private and protected” school records and included excerpts of those records in the police report of the incident. An investigation from the school later concluded that Jacquot had “no need to access these records in his work with this situation.”

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Texas School District Removes Convicted Prostitute From Multiple Roles, Including Sex-Ed

The Godley, Texas, school district removed a woman appointed to assist with deciding things like age-appropriate material for sex education after learning she was a convicted prostitute.

FOX 4 in Dallas reported that the woman, identified as Ashley Ketcherside, also advertises online as an escort, with one site listing one of her personas as active last month.

While the idea of having a convicted prostitute work for a school district may have some scratching their heads, the issue raises concerns for others about background checks in the Godley Independent School District (ISD) and across the state.

“We had no idea what was going on in her personal life. She was always very friendly and personable,” Godley ISD School Board trustee Kayla Lain told the station.

Mary Lowe of the nonprofit group Families Engaged for Effective Education commented on Ketcherside being a convicted prostitute and working on a council that recommends “appropriate grade levels and methods for human sexuality instruction” within the district.

“I don’t see any community wanting that to be the standard for their school district,” she said.

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Football Eye Black Isn’t Blackface

When La Jolla High School played Morse High School under the Friday night lights on October 13, students from the surrounding San Diego area filled the stadium to cheer on their prospective teams. Making posters, dawning face and body paint, yelling chants, and sporting jerseys were all part of the electric football game atmosphere.

J.A., a middle-schooler from Muirlands Middle School, attended the game with another student and that student’s mother. To show support for his team, J.A. let his friend put eye black paint on his face. A security guard even complimented the design. The game was largely uneventful with La Jolla winning handedly (56–6). But almost a week later, J.A. was called into a disciplinary meeting with his parents at Muirlands. 

In that meeting, J.A. was told he would be suspended from school for two days and was no longer allowed to attend future athletic events because he wore “blackface” to the football game. The suspension notice only specified that he was being suspended because he “painted his face black at a football game,” and the alleged offense was marked as “Offensive comment, intent to harm.” J.A.’s father told the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment nonprofit, that no one complained or said anything negative about his son’s eye black while at the game. The school’s principal also failed to specify how they found out about the incident.

As Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at FIRE, notes in a November 8 letter to Muirlands Middle School, “J.A.’s non–disruptive, objectively inoffensive” face paint is absolutely constitutionally protected expression.

In the letter, FIRE reminds school officials that “public school students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.” It argues that “the First Amendment protects J.A.’s non-disruptive expression of team spirit via a style commonly used by athletes and fans.”

Eye black applied under the eyes and even on the cheeks is not blackface, and to suggest as such is a gross mischaracterization. Blackface is dark makeup applied all over the face to mimic, exaggerate, and mock black people. J.A. was simply cheering on his local football team with friends—and there is no reason to punish him for that.

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Pittsburgh public schools approve measure to instruct teachers on ‘White supremacy’ in math classes

The Pittsburgh Public Schools Board has voted to hire a consulting group that educates teachers on how to replace “White supremacy culture practices” in math instruction with methods that center on the “wellness of students of color.”

On October 25, the board approved a measure to give Quetzal Education Consulting $50,000 to dismantle racism in math classes.

As reported by The Center Square, the consulting group states that its workshops teach “antiracist math” and will help equip teachers with tools to “identify, disrupt and replace” practices that perpetuate White supremacy.

Ebony Pugh, the Director of Public Relations and Media Content for Pittsburgh Public Schools, confirmed to Fox News Digital that the Board of Directors of the School District of Pittsburgh authorized its offices to enter a contract with Quetzal.

The move will provide the school with “additional foundational knowledge of antiracist math pedagogy and tangible learning experiences that can be implemented with students.”

Quetzal will provide support through introductory workshops for math teachers and a leadership series for administrators.

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Test Scores Are Plummeting Despite California Spending Wildly on Education

I’ve recently been investing in some long-deferred maintenance at my home and it should be no surprise to anyone that I’ve sought to receive as much quality work done for as little money as possible. When people spend their own hard-earned money on such projects, they measure success by results, such as a sparkling new kitchen. They don’t brag about how much they spent, but how much they got in return.

By contrast, state officials seem to delight in how much money they “invest” in different priorities, without worrying too much about outcomes. Sure, they sometimes pay lip service to results—but they don’t care enough about them to actually change the way they provide public services. (They’re not about to annoy the public-sector unions, which represent the people paid to provide those services.)

I’m not the only one to have noticed. State Sen. Steve Glazer (D–Orinda), in a July column about the $310-billion budget, complained that “we’ve already spent billions of dollars on the same problems—with very little to show for it.” He called on his fellow Democrats to ensure that the spending “actually improving the lives of the people we say we are committed to helping.” What a novel idea.

This dynamic is most pronounced in public education, which consumes more than 40 percent of the state’s general fund budget—plus local bond measures. Although lawmakers slowed education funding increases to close a $32-billion budget deficit this year, as of last year—during an unprecedented $97.5-billion budget surplus—they lavished public schools with money.

“The revised budget directs a total of $128.3 billion to education, lifts up the most critical needs including historic funding for school mental health, recruitment and retention of teachers,” boasted Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, following last year’s budget deal.

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Oregon Is Removing a Requirement for High School Students to Show ‘Essential Skills’ Before Graduating

Last week, the Oregon Department of Education unanimously voted to remove a requirement for Oregon high schoolers to demonstrate basic mastery in reading, writing, and mathematics in order to graduate. The requirement, which was most often met using students’ standardized test results, has been paused since 2020.

According to state documents, the “Assessment of Essential Skills” benchmark is typically met when a student meets a cutoff score in a statewide standardized test, though alternatives can be used for students who opt out of the test, such as samples of classroom work or scores from other tests like the SAT or ACT.

While score cutoffs have been unavailable since the pause in 2020, a state guide from the 2016-2017 school year lists the cutoff for one popular test, the Smarter Balanced test, which student take in their 11th grade year, as a score of 2515 for reading and 2543 for math. Based on score percentile data from 2017-2018, assessments would put those scores roughly in the 25th and 45th percentiles respectively (assuming no major changes in student performance over one year). 

While the math cutoff in particular might seem high, both ranges would barely put test takers just a few points into the “Level 2” range in Smarter Balanced’s 4-level scoring range. Level 2 scores are defined by the testing organization as meaning that a student has a “partial understanding of and ability to apply the knowledge and skills associated with college content readiness,” adding that a student in this level would need “support” to be ready for college.

While not every high school graduate can or should go to college, if a high school student can’t even demonstrate “partial” understanding of the subject matter of their classes, letting them continue on to their senior year and graduate high school without additional intervention is clearly irresponsible.

However, critics have framed the extra remediation many low-performing Oregon students receive as damaging. Department of Education officials opposed the policy in part because “higher rates of students of color, students learning English as a second language and students with disabilities ended up having to take intensive senior-year writing and math classes,” extra remediation that “denied those students the opportunity to take an elective,” according to The Oregonian. 

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NJ father-and-son teachers accused of possessing child sexual abuse material

A father and son, both teachers at a K-8 school in Rochelle Park, N.J., are facing charges for second-degree possession of child pornography.

Jeffrey Grossman, 65, and his son Steven Grossman, 24, are employed at Midland School No. 1. They allegedly viewed, downloaded and possessed images of nude and/or sexually explicit children, PIX11 reported.

Both men live near the school in Tenafly and viewed or downloaded over 1,000 digital files of the explicit material, according to authorities.

“It is a very difficult time for our family,” Jeffrey Grossman’s wife said in a Thursday statement. “Please understand we are trying to manage as best we can. I am happy to say I love my husband, I love my son, and we are going to support one another.”

The men have been released from custody and will be allowed to stay in their home until their trial, despite their release being against the wishes of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

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Organizations Weigh-In on Surveilling Kids at U.S. Schools, Now a $3.1B Industry, and Its Adverse Effects on “especially those who are the most vulnerable”

Technology surveillance companies that sell their products to school administrators are creating a “digital dystopia” for U.S. schoolchildren, a new American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) report concluded.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased school shootings, a $3.1 billion educational technology (EdTech) surveillance industry has scored huge profits based on the claim that its digital tools — including video cameras, facial recognition software, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven behavior detection technology, online and social media monitoring software and more — prevent bullying, self-harm and school violence.

However, the industry failed to back up that claim with evidence and instead used fear as a primary marketing tactic, the ACLU report said.

The ACLU — after conducting its own research and reviewing additional research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice — found a “lack of clear evidence” that the products advertised by EdTech firms keep students safe.

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