Mansnerus, Laura. "Why the Heartland Has Math
Smarts. " New York Times [New York,
N.Y.] 5 Apr. 1992, Late Edition (East
Coast): A.26. New York
Times.
"The work ethic has to be at the front," he said. "When you’re
asked to do a job out here, and that includes going to school, you
figure you have to get out there and do it." He went on: "You just
wouldn’t think of leaving school here, and if you did you’d have to
explain it to a lot of people. It’s parental involvement, but it’s
community involvement, too. The community feels they own all their
youngsters. If you’re standing on a street corner in any town in
North Dakota, people are going to come up and want to know what
you’re doing there." Also, he added, "It’s no picnic standing out
on a street corner here in the winter. You’d rather be in a
building."
Nancy Keenan, Montana’s Superintendent of Schools, struck a
similar note. Montana students read a lot, she said, partly
"because there’s nothing else to do." She noted, too, that except
on Indian reservations, where family groups tend to be more mobile,
people do not move or change schools much in Montana. That makes it
easier for teachers to keep track of each student, relentlessly. "I
have classrooms with seven kids," Ms. Keenan said. "Those kids get
individual attention." ‘I Have Six Reasons’
There are strong correlations, however, between high math scores
and factors largely beyond the schools’ control. Scores show a high
correlation with race, though this does not always supersede
regional patterns. West Virginia, for example, did poorly although
90 percent of students taking the test were white: Their scores
were equaled or exceeded by Hispanic students in Montana and Iowa.
The high-performing states also had the lowest percentages of
students reporting that they watch television six or more hours a
day. "It’s obviously a surrogate for something else," said Ina V.
S. Mullis of E.T.S., the project’s deputy executive director,
referring to that finding. "We know that if we banned TV watching,
we wouldn’t all turn into Einsteins."
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