<p>I posted something similar in a different thread, and got a few PMs regarding posting YouTube videos. I am reposting this here for two reasons:</p>
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<li>I think it is a great story and one for which CNN should be applauded. </li>
<li>It may alert others that YouTube videos are no longer prohibited on CC</li>
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<p>Here's my original post:</p>
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<p>Although it is a bit unrelated in a discussion about legacies, I highly encourage you to watch this series of videos. The original show was aired a few days ago on CNN and was styled "Education in America: Don't Fail Me."</p>
<p>It shows accounts from Phoenix, from the deep South, and from an East Coast high middle class NJ city. It is fascinating. Put yourself in the shoes of an adcom, and decide which one you would accept at one of our top schools? </p>
<p>Compared to my school, the schools in this program were quite disappointing. I’m not trying to bash the kids, but it’s sad seeing how unmotivated the general student bodies were in taking classes like Calculus and Physics.
You are laughed at in my school if you don’t get into at least Calculus AB.</p>
<p>Although, I respect the students portrayed for their dedication and willingness to succeed.</p>
<p>JoJo, the underlying message is about how different the opportunities are for students. It is hard to be motivated to take classes that are not offered. Even in schools that offer a plethora of AP classes, the culture might be that popular kids better avoid them. </p>
<p>Look at the southern boy … his school did not offer a single AP. Look at the parental support for Maria in Phoenix. </p>
<p>And, this is still a far cry from what happens in downtown Detroit or in most large urban centers in the country. The kids in this story are still lucky!</p>
<p>Reaching calculus in high school requires being a year ahead of the normal sequence in math starting in 8th grade. Depending on math placement policies and opportunities in junior high school, it is quite possible that many students who are otherwise capable of handling calculus in 12th grade may not have been placed ahead in math in 8th grade.</p>
<p>That said, there seems to be a trend to putting students two grade levels ahead in math (calculus in 11th grade) even though they may not be ready for it. Based on comments on these forums, a lot of schools seem to require students who are two years ahead to take a full year of calculus AB in 11th grade before taking another full year of calculus BC in 12th grade. When I was in high school, the rare student who was two years ahead was assumed to be a top student in math and fully capable of taking a year long calculus BC course right after precalculus (at the time, there was only one section of calculus, which followed the BC syllabus in one year, which included the one year ahead students who made up around 8% of the seniors and the rare two year ahead students taking it as juniors).</p>
<p>The documentary is being shown again on May 21 at 8 p.m. ET on CNN. </p>
<p>I personally was both inspired and angry over the documentary. I read more about it and learned that the angle the point they were trying to make is that there are many students out there who want to learn but don’t have the sources available to them. </p>
<p>Since I don’t want to spoil it for others I have other points to make but will do so after May 21.</p>
<p>The documentary confirmed our recent decision to pull our daughter out of her all girls Catholic high school and send her to a high school that encourages science and robotics. Our DD loves science and robotics yet her current school does’t offer them to the students frieshman year. The final straw was career day last week. Out of the 15 total careers offered to the girls their choices included “flight attendant; hair stylist; interior decorator; cosmetologitst” and my personal favorite “Model”!! For a school that bills itself as college prep (and costs a pretty penny) I thought it was ridiculous that those were the choices for the girls. </p>
<p>See “Don’t Fail Me” to me made it clear that as parents we have to encourage and sometimes push our children in math and science. The subjects might be tough but students if encouraged can learn them. </p>
<p>As to the poster above consider yourself lucky; my DD’s current school does not offer Calculus AB.</p>
<p>My son is heavily involved in the FIRST Robotics program, so I watched with interest. CNN did a great job of following these students during the entire competition season and weaving a discussion on STEM into the story. For any who are not familiar with this program it does a magnificent job inspiring the students to become really passionate about using math and science in a team effort. The incredible amount of hours the kids (and mentors) put in practically year round is amazing.</p>
<p>I will be competing against Maria next year to go to Stanford (my dream school since I was in 5th grade) and am also from AZ; however, my school is one of the better schools in the state. I was going to post a lengthy response but what it comes down to it, I just wanted to say that I really hope Maria is accepted to Stanford next year (hopefully we can be classmates). She definitely deserves it and it seems like she will take advantage of all their programs. It would be interesting to learn if she is accepted.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that this was held in Manchester, NH (I’m about ten miles away). I did recall a lot of emails from one of my homeschool listservers on it but I don’t read most of the messages from those listservers anymore.</p>
<p>The differences in educational opportunities by district are quite amazing in the US.</p>
<p>Maria was on a web chat podcast hosted by a group on Chief Delphi (if you are into robotics, it is THE site for discussing anything FIRST related). It was broadcast right after the show aired on CNN. She said that CNN will be doing a follow-up with the featured students to see how they do in the future. I am also hoping she (and the others) do well. It will be nice to see an “after” update.</p>
<p>My son has been heavily involved in his FIRST robotics team in HS and we were quite excited to see a glimpse of his team during this program! I thought it was a well done program. I found the course offerings quite interesting in the different schools.</p>
<p>It was also interesting to noet that in the schools (in this case the NJ one) where there were options available, the most difficult math and science classes were not so popular among non-Asian kids.</p>
<p>I have two impressions from watching the entire series. First, we must do a better job of educating students in our public schools. It is outrageous that the Governor of Tennessee had to lie about their test scores to maintain their federal funding. The Secretary of Education admitting that most states have been dumbing down their tests to improve their scores was shocking. Our educational system badly needs to be reformed, but I will leave that for another discussion. Second, we have many immigrants in this country who are not receiving an adequate education. I live in California where the immigrant population is approaching 40% of the state. Many of these people are very poor and have not graduated high school. The parents do not prioritize education and do not stress it in their homes. In my community, the majority of students in public schools are Hispanic. Most educators in these schools will freely admit that the students aren’t motivated and the parents do not seem to care if their children are receiving a good education. Schools that rely upon parents’ volunteers are also suffering from the lack of parental involvement. </p>
<p>So I watched this documentary and it reinforced my view that if we don’t treat this problem as a national emergency, our country will be no better than a third world country in the not-too-distant future.</p>
<p>I’ve anyone has read the NCLB Act, you’re familiar with the fact that states are permitted to determine some particular standards, so of course some states have played fast and loose with the statistics/results they published.
As for the fine CNN documentary, was anyone really surprised at the state of affairs at the affluent suburban New Jersey high school?</p>
