A Beautiful Mind: Math and Education
Class, let's start with a word problem:Thirty-three percent of the students in a school district's secondary schools drop out. (So says an article in the Daily News about the LAUSD, based on state statistics.)
Of the students who make it through the twelfth grade, 14% fail the exit exam.
What percentage of the students in the secondary schools make it out with a diploma?
Anyone? Anyone?
The correct answer is "57.62%."
[Here's the math: (1 - .33) x (1 - .14) = .67 x .86 = .5762 .]
Posted by Walter Moore @ 6/02/2006 04:35:00 PM
32 Comments:
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What more can you expect from a country run by a 'C' student whose father paid his way into Yale?
I can only hope that I'm in that 57.62%.
Oh, he can do simple algebraic expression. This in addition to running a mayoral campaign where he failed to gain ZERO airtime (right-wing AM stations are not legitimate broadcasters).
"Bitter, party of one. Your table's ready."
The formula is incorrect.
Check the math, dum dums.
There is just one quibble I have with this:
Exit exams exclude kids who didn't pass this year, and this year alone, right?
If a kid didn't pass the exit exam, then they still could get a diploma in the years that these numbers (wherever they came from) were generated in.
Ooh. There is one more thing: significant figures. I would round up to the nearest two-digit number. Afterall, you started with numbers that had only had two significant figures (.33 and .14)
So, the ratio of kids graduating from high school, compared to those who entered high school in the 9th grade, is 58% (according to the numbers provided).
That sucks.
De minimis non curat lex. Neither do I. Forest, people, forest, not trees: the press gives you an 86% figure and the real one is closer to 58%.
To: "thethinker" - youstinker
You forgot, and a CITY - and maybe someday soon the city SCHOOLS - run by 'D' and 'F' student, who slimed HIS own father's reputation during elections -- just to get the "look what he's overcome" sympathy votes.
(And, don't most people still pay to go to Yale? It's not a state college now, is it?)
Who Are You Calling An Immigrant?
by Tom Hayden; May 04, 2006
I wore the multicolored Aymaran flag of Bolivia to the May Day march in Los Angeles, the same day that Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, nationalized the oil and gas fields. It seemed right to recognize the reappearance of the indigenous in the Americas. I gazed at Marcos Aguilar, one of the UCLA hunger strikers for Chicano studies in 1993. Now he stood bare-skinned and feathered, leading a traditional dance below the edifice of the Los Angeles Times. Rather than becoming assimilated into gringotopia, he was forcing the reverse, the assimilation of the Machiavellians into the new reality of L.A. Another hunger striker from those days, Cindy Montanez, was chairing the state Assembly’s rules committee. Another UCLA student, a beneficiary of ’60s outreach programs, was mayor of the city.
Contrary to most mainstream commentary, these protests were part of a continuous social movement going back many decades, even centuries. And yet the commentators, especially on the national level, once again summoned the stereotype of the lazy Mexican, the sleeping giant awakening. For years it was convenient to blame apathy and low participation rates on the Mexican-Americans and other Latinos, ignoring the racial exclusion that prevailed east of the Los Angeles River. In 1994, the same “sleeping giant” arose against Pete Wilson’s Proposition 187. It previously awoke in the 1968 high school “blowouts,” the 1968-69 Chicano moratorium and the farmworker boycotts, which were the largest in history, and, in an earlier generation, the giant awoke in the “Zoot Suit Riots” and Ed Roybal’s winning campaign for City Council. The giant never had time to sleep at all.
In the Great Depression, in the lifetimes of the parents and grandparents of today’s students, up to 600,000 Mexicans, one-third of the entire U.S. Mexican population, many of them born in the United States, were deported with their children back to Mexico, their labor no longer needed.
Mexico's Zapatistas Sponsor Referendum
Mexicans voted yesterday in a non-binding referendum on Indian rights, hoping their voices would break an impasse between the government and Zapatista rebels. The Zapatistas undertook a massive nationwide effort to publicize the referendum, and even met with several top business executives at an exclusive club in Mexico City.
The ballot contained four questions including: whether indigenous people should share in the wealth and construction of the country; whether they should enjoy special constitutional rights as negotiated by Zapatistas in the now-stalled peace talks; and whether people want a demilitarization of Chiapas to foment peace talks. Votes could also be cast through the Internet by Mexican-Americans in the United States.
The Zapatista National Liberation Army staged a brief uprising in 1994 in the southern Chiapas state in the name of greater rights for indigenous people. Peace talks have been at a stalemate since a partial accord was signed in 1996, and the Zapatistas accuse the Mexican government of failing to implement the accord's provisions. Many participants in the referendum criticized the government for not doing enough to resolve the conflict.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government has responded with its own press campaign in which President Ernesto Zedillo is blaming the Zapatistas for holding up the peace talks.
Guests:
Marcos Aguilar, volunteer organizer for the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico.
Mariana Mora, from the group "Kinal Antzepik," which in the Mayan language means "Land of Women." She is part of the Chiapas State Coordinating Committee for the consult. Speaking from San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas.
Related link:
Pacifica Network News - 3/19/99 - Zapatistas Move Across Mexico
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here for our new online ordering or call 1 (888) 999-3877.
A hunger satisfiedPAST STRIKE PARTICIPANTS WELCOME UCLA’S NEW CHICANA/O DEPARTMENT
By Shaudee NavidDAILY BRUIN REPORTERsnavid@media.ucla.edu
Over a decade ago, Schoenberg quad was thestage for one of UCLA's most enduringdisplays of student activism – thestudent-initiated hunger strike of 1993.Lining the quad with a procession of tents,five students, a professor, two communityleaders and a high school student willinglyput their lives in danger as they refused to eatuntil their demands of having a Chicana/ostudies department were met.Surviving on only water, determination andsupport from the community, students andadministration came to an agreement after 14days with the establishment of the César E.Chávez Center for InterdisciplinaryInstruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies.And just a few weeks ago, the initial demandsof the hunger strikers were finally fulfilled asa Chicana/o Studies Department wasapproved alongside the César E. ChávezCenter...
..."(There was a) raw energy – it was amazing.A powerful force of people who weredetermined (and) so persistent," said Veres,who is currently the district director forassemblywoman Cindy Montañez, D-SanFernando, another student striker at the time.Witnessing the protests firsthand, when Vereslearned of the new department, he said it wasnothing short of "rewarding and comforting."Other strikers, who sacrificed their health fora promising education, didn't stop theircommunity activism at the college level, asthey have left influential marks around thecommunity.Along with Montañez, Marcos Aguilar, afourth-year student striker at the time of theprotests, is responsible for the establishmentof a school in East Los Angeles – AcademiaSemillas del Pueblo Charter School, whichfocuses on educating children of immigrantfamilies through their own culture.Those who were involved in the strike,whether they refused to eat or were presentfor support, all refer to the historical twoweeks as "a valuable experience.""This is something I will always think aboutfor the rest of my life. Any injustice thathappens even in my community, I will fight forit," Collazo said. "It taught me how to be aleader."
Speaking of mathematical formulas and Marcos "our priority is the children" Aguilar, I wonder what his school's math scores are.
The student radicals were emboldened by their successes in trashing the school with impunity, but still smarting from the rejection by Young. On May 25, 1993, a group of nine Chicanos (including seven students) initiated what would eventually be a 14-day hunger strike. Two UCLA students, Marcos Aguilar and Balvina Collazo, and one high school student, Norma Montanez, adopted Azteco-babble names; respectively, Huitzilixtlitiu, Chitlichicoshayotl, and Ixtlapapayotl. The nine, which included an assistant professor from the medical school, rallied to their cause nearly every Chicano-interest activist and politician. Then-State Senator Art Torres (later to become chair of the California Democratic Party) threatened to withhold state funding unless demands were met. Cesar Chavez’s son Fernando led a rally of Chicano students on June 3, 1993 supporting the hunger strikers. And in an evolution that would have warmed Tony Villar’s radical heart, UCLA MEChista Gil Cedillo, and Chicano radicals Vivien Bonzo and Juan Jose Gutierrez, came together to lead a “United Community and Labor Alliance,” that agitated for departmental status. Even old-time white radical Tom Hayden, then a State Senator from Santa Monica, threw his lot in with the mob.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - Enabler of Illegal Alien Invasion With His Chief Right-hand Avisor . . The Catholic Church
Who Are You Calling An Immigrant?
“I wore the multicolored Aymaran flag of Bolivia to the May Day march in Los Angeles, the same day that Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, nationalized the oil and gas fields. It seemed right to recognize the reappearance of the indigenous in the Americas. I gazed at Marcos Aguilar, one of the UCLA hunger strikers for Chicano studies in 1993. Now he stood bare-skinned and feathered, leading a traditional dance below the edifice of the Los Angeles Times. Rather than becoming assimilated into gringotopia, he was forcing the reverse, the assimilation of the Machiavellians into the new reality of L.A. Another hunger striker from those days, Cindy Montanez, was chairing the state Assembly’s rules committee. Another UCLA student, a beneficiary of ’60s outreach programs, was mayor of the city. “
FRIENDS OF MARCOS AGUILAR
ARROYO SECO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Hermon
Local Issues Committee
MEETING NOTES
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Monterey Adult Day Care Center
Hermon
Hermon Local Issues meeting notes 2/16/05
In attendance:
Maggie Barto, Hermon ASNC Rep
John Acosta, Hermon ASNC Rep
Alison Morgan, Hermon Neighborhood Assoc.
Anne Ferree, Hermon Neighborhood Assoc.
Ida Simms, Monterey Hills ASNC Rep.
Patrick Botz-Forbes, Monterey Hills ASNC Rep.
Don Tidwell, Monterey Hills Federation
Pat Griffith, ASNC President
David Brunk, ASNC Faith-based Rep.
Scott Folsom, ASNC Education Rep.
Krista Kline, Planning Deputy, CD14
Marcos Aguilar, Principal, Academia Semillas del Pueblo
Centrex representative
Bill Murray, ASNC Webmaster
parents and students of Academia Semillas
Hermon neighbors
Monterey Hills neighbors
""""Marcos Aguilar spoke about Semillas' work to put together a bid for the property, the school's mission and plans for establishing a permanent Charter school, and their contacts with other groups that would want to jointly bid on the property. He stated that they had also contacted Trust for Public Land, but they had not yet expressed interest.
Scott Folsom spoke about contacts with other Charter schools, and their joint decision to support Semillas's bid. He also spoke about contacts with LAUSD and the unlikelihood that they would bid, given the short time period, and given that the property was small by LAUSD middle school standards.""""
At a previous ASNC meeting in August Of 2004, the School Board Of Directors assured the ASNC, locals, and students past and present, that the last thing they wanted was an expensive housing development in its place.
So it came as a surprise to everyone when the property appeared on the market touting itself as an "opportunity to develop housing community." The area was described as "a quiet residential community."
Did they stop to think that it won't be so quiet if dozens of new houses fill in the space?
Time is running out.
As it stands there are offers from Academia Semillas Del Pueblo, a California Charter School. Their principal and Secretary of the Council of Trustees, Marcos Aguilar, spoke at the meeting.
He would like to move his unique K- 8 school to the space, or at least part of the space. "It's the ideal property...minus the price tag," he stated. The price tag probably won't be a issue for Syntex Homes, a main bidder. They also had a representative there who mainly pleaded innocence.
As a whole, the community would like to see a school remain at this location. Especially since as it stands, were it to be used for housing, the size and zoning of the land would probably dictate larger, expensive houses.
Marcos Aguilar was born in Mexicali, Mexico. He graduated from UCLA in 1994. Marcos Aguilar participated in the student movement at UCLA helping to organize the United Community and Labor Alliance, an Education Committee Coordinator in MEChA from 1989-1991. Marcos participated as a danzante in Danza Mexica Cuauhtemoc-West Los Angeles. Marcos was arrested in the Faculty Lounge student take-over. Marcos was a hunger striker in the movement which followed. He has done extensive research on the history of the Mexican people and is an intense student of contemporary Mexican politics and culture. He is active on several transborder civic projects. He is a teacher at a local high school.
CINDY MONTANEZ AND MARCOS AGUILAR GOOD BUDDIES???
HOW FAR BACK IS THE ALLIANCE?
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos (allegedly born June 19, 1957 in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico) describes himself as the spokesperson for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) but, since he is so prominent a figure, he is considered by many to be one of its main leaders
Marcos Aguilar is a communist, pure and simple.
Every time somebody uses the words “imperialist (in all its forms), neo liberal or neo liberalism” is a give-away of their political belief being even more extreme than simple liberalism.
Keep working on telling the parents of the potential students about these beliefs. Hopefully a few of them do want to join this great nation.
I’m glad I did.
They are pretty damn good at selling Chicklet and cigarillos.
That’s abouts it……OH also at polluting our entire ecosystem
I have been told by a relyable Mexican source that the Mexican government educates their people to about the sixth grade level because most jobs there require no more education than that. They don’t want to over educate their people because it will lead to political unrest.
What it realy leads to is no middle class. Is that what La Raza wants here?
im sure not surprised!!!
my only question is why this is allowed!
imagine a white principal saying what aquilar stated.
see how this sounds:
in order to integrate america into the socialist system
they need to do two things:
a) ruin the middle class
b) kill nationalism(the greatest threat to socialist)
if people can not see that both of these are being attacked
daily then there is nothing i can say.
the illegals are wanted to help the drive to socialism.
didnt fox state on his latest trip: there needs to be an united north america!.
but wait:they have their own agenda, to take control of the american southwest through the vote(united you stand divided you fall)
its time to retake control of the american govt
and return to the america that our founding fathers started
i belive they even put a little provision(when the govt no longer represent the will of the people…)sound famillar.
make no mistake about it!
“this is a fight for America”
LET'S DO DNA TESTS DETERMINE WHO BELONGS TO WHO ONCE AND FOR ALL.
SOMEOFYOU ARE MUTS-BIG PROBLEM.
Don't misrepresent the words immigrants with ill-legal immigrants. No one cares where anyone's heritage is from, they only care if they are here in the US legally or ill-legally. You continue to think if you say it enough we will believe it and think they are, and they are not.I have to laugh, it's like a child telling a lie, if they say it enough times they even believe it.
Dummying down is when the class is held back due to those students who cannot, for whatever reason, is below grade level and therefore the teachers teach to the mean of the class. As for those who are wondering why so many students drop out, well, it's obvious neither they or the family cares about their education and is expecting the teachers to do all the work. If students don't have caring parents who are involved in their lives, follow thru and focus on their children's education then chances are great they will fail.
Re-writing history taught at these charter schools and teaching lies in hopes students will do better is a myth and waste of tax dollars.
We are America, the melting pot. Start melting.
Well I ahve been told that by the 6th grade these kids know algebra .
Yeah, well I've been told they are being taught to be "haters".
My child is in 5th grade and knows algebra.
Attends LAUSD school too!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe we should test these kids to see if they can spell the word algebra?
FYI
CST Math 2005
Grade 5:
Advanced.........3%
Proficient.......3%
Basic...........20%
Below Basic.....47%
Far Below Basic.27%
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