Md test scores - English competency defeats 60% of students - Half fail algebra and biology

Baltimore Sun ^ | January 3, 2004 | Mike Bowler

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Maryland students scored poorly on the new high school competency examinations again last year, and officials said they expect no improvement until passing the tests is required for graduation.

About half of 65,000 students failed the 2003 algebra and biology tests, about the same rate as 2002. Four in 10 failed government, and six in 10 failed English, including a large majority of poor and minority students and those with disabilities.

The results were posted without notice on the state Education Department's Web site Christmas week, just as students and teachers were headed home for the holidays. But Gary Heath, the state testing chief, said there was no effort to hide the dismal results.

[ml/nj]

I think such reports are overly pessimistic. I sit in on 10 to 20 classes a year at two different major universities. I'm not sure I can recall a single student whom I felt did not belong over the half dozen years I have been doing this. Sure, not all the kids or even a majority open their mouths in any given class but the ones that do would not have any trouble with any sort of basic skills test.

ML/NJ

[SoftballMominVA]

The NEA controls who can teach in public schools by getting legislatures to require teaching certification not of proficiency in subject matter but methods.

I can only speak for my state--Virginia--but here we are only required to have a very few courses in "theory" or "methods." Most of my hours are directly course related.

One BIG "method" or "theory" course required is Behavior Management--or "How to control the child that needed a good whupping when he was little and now is way too old for it but still has parents who think he is above any rule." Fun class. Doesn't help, but fun class.

[SoftballMominVA]

My daughter will be taking most of those classes next year--in 9th grade--at her local public school.

Yes, she will be taking AlgII/Trig (taught as one class in one block sememster) and the Calc the next semester. Okay, in all fairness, she will take Physics in 10th grade. You got me there.

Is it the school that is doing Soooooooo well with her? yes and no. It is her mom and dad who have supervised her since preschool and provided support, quiet time to study, and discipline. The school only has her for about 7 hours a day. We have her more.

She also plays the french horn, softball, and will play the mellophone in the marching band.

Wow a public school child who does well. It can happen.

[FITZ]

Many adults are incapable of intellectual abstraction, not because their education was deficient, but because they are stupid.

That's a very good point. People forget there is an IQ range --- not that the IQ tests are completely right --- but they try to measure something that does exist. Not everyone is given the same intelligence and ability to learn at birth. Some people can't learn math well --- but they can learn subjects that require memorization like spelling well.

[MarkL]

I was so dumbfounded that I offered to take the test myself. Made a 14.

Is there any chance that you could post the questions here? I'm always curious to see how I would stand up to kids who should be familiar with the material. I don't think that I've used "real" math since 1988.

I was shocked when I scored a 19 out of 20 on an American history sample test that a local TV station posted. I couldn't believe how easy it was. And most highschool seniors got fewer than 10 right.

Mark

[tgslTakoma]

the education philosophy there was to teach a few subjects to extreme depth with constant testing.

Well, there's the problem (one of them, anyway)! Tests are unfair to kids who would fail them. It would hurt their self-image.
(sarcasm off)

With each passing year I am ever more grateful to my parents for sacrificing the new cars and the bigger house and the expensive vacations - to send me and my sibs to catholic school.

[MarkL]

Schools are bristling at the prospect of spending their scarce dollars for private companies such as Sylvan Education Solutions, one of those hoping to be approved in Florida.***

When a significant number of students are not able to pass basic competency tests, then there is a problem with the teachers. I find it funny, in a tragic way, that the schools have to hire tutors to teach the kids what they should have learned in school, after hours! Maybe the teachers need to go to the tutors.

Mark

[FITZ]

You put the finger on the REAL problem: demographics.

A lot of it is --- someone here who was a school nurse was telling me of things she saw --- kids from some of the upper or middle classes growing up with every educational toy, two parents with college degrees and good jobs, those families tend to travel fairly often and the kids have seen many states first hand. Then there are kids where there are no crayons, no books --- but a TV of course, an illiterate mother who never finished school, never held a job, a series of boyfriends in and out of the house, 7 kids with different fathers, no one speaks a word of English. You can't force equality.

[bvw]

I'll vouch for that, historically speaking. I'll go out on a limb even ... in my *feeling*, the IQ of the general american popoulation has gone up maybe 10-15 points since 1940. And the IQ of the negro population has gone up even more than that -- maybe 20-25 points.

I would attribute it to cars and mass media, TV.

Still doesn't change that the high schools are doing a poor job in basics such as math, grammar, science, literacy, geography and history. In fact, if it is as I say -- that native IQ's are higher, then our high schoolers should be doing much much better than 1940's, and it is even more of a hit on the education system that they are not.

[umgud]

While there are many problems with the state of education, such as inadequate teachers, unmotivated students, etc., does anybody else notice that poor school performance statistics seem to mirror the blue sectors of the country (remember the 2000 red/blue electoral map). As a matter of fact, most of society's negative statistics (crime, poverty, etc.) are magnified in the blue liberal controlled areas of our country. Libearalism and socialism are the root problem. All these negative statistics are the symptoms.

[cynicom]

Throw more money into the education system as Bush has done, surely that will cure the problem. Teachers making $100,000 a year would turn out out smarter students, right?

[MissAmericanPie]

The socialist school system spends twelve years instilling unmerited self esteem in children and you post an article like this. You trying to ruin everything?;o)

[PattonReincarnated]

>> The point of all this is to ask: have they lowered what the standards of what is taught in college math classes or is College Algebra basically a review of Alg II?

My wife and I home school as well ... we both have degrees in mathematics and computer science, thus we stress math and science in our household. Personally I have done significant research in math curricula and I am currently developing one from scratch. The short answer to your question is many colleges have lowered the standards of what is taught in college math classes. They have also lowered the standards of what is expected of students entering science and engineering majors. This varies from college to college. MIT for instance requires students to take calculus or place out of calculus their first freshman term. However, most colleges have general math and algebra courses. Anyone with average intelligence, motivation, and a good teacher can master algebra by their early high school years.

[JasonC]

Oh horsefeathers. Foreign countries that use rigorous tracking routinely provide a decent education to 80-90% of their population. It is the public school system that is falling, not the raw material.

[Faraday]

The English exam, on reading, writing and grammar, was the most troublesome in the 2003 testing. "From our preliminary look at the numbers, English is the hardest test for students with limited English proficiency, special-ed children and poor children," said Heath.

What would we do without educational experts?

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

The NEA represents its clients - the teachers

Yes....on paper.

But in reality the NEA collects dues from a teacher population that is about 60% Dem & 40% Rep.

They then use all the money to promote only their radical socialist agenda.

Republican NEA members are unrepresented.