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Darwin Award in Education Winner... Alaska

AlaskaBushPilot

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Joined
Nov 6, 2010
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4,341
We are pleased to announce our analysis of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) test scores by state in order to award this prestigious title.

Alaska placed 50th out of 50 states in reading. We placed next to last in math. That put our combined score as last place, edging out New Mexico.

There's a lot to be proud of. Both our math and reading scores fell by more than anyone else.

Massachusetts placed first in both. These are the 4th grade tests. 8th grade looks slightly better, but we want to keep our eye on the fresh crop, and that's the stupidest in the country.

I developed an algorithm to transform a state score into an international standing based on PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tests. Then you can propose the question: if my state were a country, then where would it score internationally?

Ours is tied with Mexico, 19th percentile, but spends 450% more per student. That makes Alaska, objectively, the worst place in the world, the least amount of educational performance per dollar, worldwide. It is going to be by an enormous margin too.

To transform your state scores here is an example to follow. Alaska is 1.5 standard deviations below the national (NAEP) mean in reading. The USA is 23rd on the PISA with a score of 497 in reading, which has a standard deviation of 49. So 1.5 standard deviations is 73.64. So the US Score adjusted downward 1.5 standard deviations is a PISA score of 423.35. Mexico's is 423, and they are 19th percentile on the PISA. This is a first order approximation, our staff is prepared, for any $150 an hour client, to make a closer estimate with either our nine or seven year old math students. Nine year old packages come with more decimal places.



https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/
 
I lived in Juneau for a while and I know those numbers don't tell the whole story.

Alaska, unlike any other state, has large numbers of families that live in the bush. Literally. They live in the bush.

Children from those families tend to test horribly.

There's no fix for that short of removing the children from their parents or forcing the parents to move into town. Good luck with either.
 
Not trying to be rude, but shouldn't Alaska be last of all the states? There's really no excuse for any state having worse infrastructure than Alaska, given that Alaska has unique challenges due to it's remoteness and climate challenges.

To follow up on King's comment above, how do the more urban centers perform? How are the scores in places like Anchorage? Is it just a case of the average being pulled down by the remote areas where poor education is to be expected?
 
There are other social issues at play here that are somewhat unique to Alaska. Alcoholism. Specifically among the indigenous population.

The only real way to determine the % of alcoholics among a given population is to look at those that are diagnosed by a competent professional and then apply some algo to the rest of the population. IOW it's a best guess scenario.

That said, I'd bet every dime I have that on a per capita basis Alaska has the highest number of alcoholics in the nation... by a country mile! What I saw when I lived there made my jaw drop. Purely anecdotal but based on first hand experience.

Now, 4th graders are rarely alcoholics. But if you understand the disease you'll know that having an alcoholic parent can devastate a family.

Additionally, for those that live in the bush, alcoholic or not, teachers only come by every now and then. Weeks and months can pass between visits and then they only stay a short while. A matter of a few days at best. The parents have to do the rest. And they, the parents, were often taught in the same manner. Meaning it's the blind leading the blind.
 
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In Australia the problem of educating a scattered population is addressed by initiatives like http://www.australian-children.com/school_of_the_air.html Is there nothing similar in Alaska?

That's interesting. I don't know for sure if Alaska has something similar but I doubt it. Perhaps for some of the larger villages, but very unlikely for the bush.

Alaska is mountainous very large. That tends to interfere with RF transmissions. Electricity is available only in the cities and larger villages. There is no electricity in the bush.

Also, it's important to remember how, relatively, sparsely populated Alaska is. I live in Fort Worth. It's the 16th largest city in the US and has a population 100k more than the entire state of Alaska.

It's not possible to build an extensive road system in Alaska, due to its size and the permafrost, nor is it possible to 'light' the bush.
 
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