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> In the districts that stayed remote for most of last year, the outcome was as if Black and Hispanic students had lost four to five more weeks of instruction t
by nverno 4y ago
> In the districts that stayed remote for most of last year, the outcome was as if Black and Hispanic students had lost four to five more weeks of instruction than white students had.
Is this referring to differences b/w students in the same schools, but of different ethnicity? I don't really understand the racial implications this article is making.
- taeric 4y agoMy guess would be yes. The implication seems that pushing the school burden home is hardest on the homes that are already heavily burdened, and that that is more true of minority families?
- nverno 4y agoIt just seems lazy, using race as a proxy variable without positing a hypothesis for what it means. It doesn't tell us, as readers, anything about why some kids didn't perform as well as others.
- taeric 4y agoThis variable seems easy to equate to wealth and access to technology, though?
- dymk 4y agoThen equate it to wealth and technology access…
- taeric 4y agoIn this, I think I agree. Picking the proxy of minority is certainly playing to the current atmosphere more than it is helping to make the message. That said, it is the current atmosphere. Hard to have that as a major complaint on this article, and more against the atmosphere. Hate the game, as it were.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoIs that their role? It's very common to see journalist-posited hypotheses used as the justification for dismissing concerns, on HN in particular. I think it's reasonable for them to relay the noticed effect and not try to guess why, if the research they're reporting on hasn't established a link yet. Plus what does it change about our understanding, or responsibility? The effect is there, it's real. What are you hoping for, the reason will turn out to be "minority kids are just naturally dumber?" Something else that makes it not a problem we need to solve?
- nverno 4y agoNo, I'm interested in how people learn successfully, and what scenarios lead to better outcomes. I highly doubt being a minority has anything to do with it, aside from being a confounding variable. It may be the case that people of some ethnic group are more likely to have a home dynamic that made this distance learning situation more difficult, who knows, but that would have been a useful insight the people researching the data could've provided.
- taeric 4y agoGood luck. If anyone actually knew how to make everyone learn effectively, they would be sitting on a gold mine. At large, incentives and feedback loops rule. And poverty robs families of incentives and creates poor feedback loops.