Not sure how it’s possible you can go 3+years and nobody passes 8th grade math ? Not a single student ? Truly sad for the local kids who depend on the school MSN.
Supposedly they do take the most troubled/disadvantaged, but sounds like the kids might be taking advantage? Can’t fault Lebron for his philanthropy, but the school itself needs a major overhaul otherwise it’s a waste of time and $$$ for all involved. I would wonder if he put professionals in charge of administrating, or made it a local Akron thing or something run by his entourage?
They’ve had 5 different principals since 2018. Sounds like a lack of stability. They take students who are at least 2 years behind their grade level. However, similar students who attend the normal Akron public schools instead of this one perform better in math.
Not everyone can be Lawrence Wright, but "Wright Track" was a tested model that helped a lot of kids. It seems like they tried too hard to reinvent the wheel here.
Wake up people. This goes to show you that you can’t fix the issues with educating economically disadvantaged kids with economics. This school wanted for nothing! The reason a 10 year old can’t tell you the sum of 15 and 8 is not because of low resources in education. It is because the child lacks the values necessary to appreciate education, effort and success. Those values come from home and society. From role models. From community organizations like churches, YMCAs, Big Brothers. I would love to see the data showing the correlation of poor academic performance and single parent households. I know it exists. I think as painful as this sounds, schools like Lebron’s should be merit based only. There are more than enough kids in Akron who have the drive and values to succeed. Let those kids rise to the top and be a beacon for the parents/kids to strive for. As a society we are just going to have to accept some kids are just going to be left behind. I have no viable way to implement this, but it seems we need to (1) really incentivize 2 parent households and (2) figure out how to get families (kids) out of urban areas where crime is acceptable. I commend Lebron for trying.
Good post, especially the part commending Lebron James for trying to make a difference in his community. Lebron does so much for others and to me, that will be his legacy even over being a great basketball player. That said, too many kids in this country don’t who don’t have the the structure and support of the their parents when it comes to education. Teachers can’t be expected to do it all and without the parental involvement and encouragement necessary, these kids basically have little chance to ever thrive in school.
If true, it begs the question why there aren't any male role models? (btw, I believe the school is coed)
You’re not very good at playing chess. You’re not going to walk me down the road to support your notion that racism is the cause of all evils. It is not. In reality, there are many reasons for this, but I believe the primary reason is since the mid-1960s the federal and state governments have been disincentivizing marriage, capitalism, family, morals and meritocracy. As a result, men have been devalued literally and most importantly psychologically. Society tells men they don’t have to be responsible for fathering children because the government will provide for them. The welfare state, nobly designed to help people, has had the unintended consequences of destroying families. The government doesn’t do anything well, especially raise children.
60-80% of the variation in student achievement comes from factors outside the school. About two-thirds of the variation related to factors inside the school are peer effects rather than anything the school is purposefully doing. It is really hard for a school to outperform its demographics.
Partly because they are in jail and unavailable, or they have been in jail and can't get hired to jobs that will let them support their families. Another factor is the way our safety nets are set up, it is easier for a single mom to get help than a married couple, and even if a married couple is able to get help, the system won't let the dad be involved. A lot of perverse incentives that push fathers away from being dads.
Every time you lead in with snark, it doesn't help. Anyway, no, I wasn't trying to lead it to racism, which is to say your ability to correctly assume what my motivations are is wrong. There's a name for that fallacy too. What I was going for and what is behind all these problems is poverty itself. Actually trying to understand the plight of folks living in poverty and understanding the disadvantages inherent in not having enough money to live normally, and the many problems that accumulate over time from it. Easy to say "values" and "lack of role models" and even if there might be a kernel of truth to them, they don't suffice as explanations as to why kids might fail a standardized test.
Details are pretty scarce so far so I dont know how one can make an informed opinion. Seems high risk kids who, going in, 84% were failing 3rd grade math and then they were hit with Covid interruptions. Outside of that there’s just enough info for conservatives to blame the code word “culture” so far.
