Posted on 10/07/2018 3:21:24 AM PDT by EinNYC
An alarming number of NYC students have scored three or more “zeroes” for their writing answers on the statewide English exams, a new study reveals.
On the English Language Arts exams between 2013 and 2016, in addition to multiple-choice questions, students had to read nine or 10 short stories or texts, then write responses aimed at showing their ability to think critically and cite evidence to support their answers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Kids are no longer taught spelling, finer points of grammar, etc. in English classes. You'll notice that blacks and Hispanics scored the worst, especially English Language Learners. Those kids are not raised, for the most part, in homes where learning is encouraged or facilitated by parents supplying educational books and games in the home. Nor is education highly valued. So children from those homes do not come to school hungry to learn. If they exhibit eagerness to learn, they are quickly ridiculed by classmates as "acting white".
It is also true that many teachers do not give tests which require written answers, only multiple choice answers. There are several reasons for this. First, you can have the kids fill out Scantron forms for multiple choice tests, quickly run those through a reader machine and bingo, your tests are graded. Secondly, since written exams require the students to write out answers, their glaring lack of writing skills (as plainly shown in the example of a completed test question) will be readily discerned, and that could make the teacher look bad. With the current draconian "Gotcha!" system of teacher evaluations going on, few teachers would willingly supply such a handle to observers. Third, the ever-present excuse "You racist!" would surely be put into use when the scores of written exams are analyzed, and black and Hispanic students are found to have much lower scores. So, since you have a 25% chance of GUESSING the right answer on a multiple choice test with answers A-D to choose from, they make both students and teachers look better. Never mind that in the long run, students are not being diagnosed as needing significant drilling with writing and spelling skills--just push 'em through and move 'em on. Social promotion is very much alive and well, to the detriment of students truly attaining a mastery of essential communication skills. Teachers are under the gun to pass just about anyone who can fog up a mirror. And these same students will have the right to vote, not even being able to extract the information about candidates and issues accurately due to their pidgin English level of reading and writing.
They lack language skills and the (interwoven) critical thinking skills.
An answer such as "Evidence? What evidence! I feel that she is credible because she is a woman and women deserve our compassion and to be believed..." just doesn't cut the mustard.
Regards,
The solution is simple: separation of school and state. If parents had to pay for education they would naturally want their kids to work at learning. ‘Free Stuff’ is naturally going to be treated with contempt.
Shouldn't that be, "for their WRITTEN answers"?
That’s ok, it only happens in ‘those’ schools. My WONDERFUL public school would NEVER allow students to perform so badly.
...by the way, anyone have a copy of Mrs. Dolce’s 3rd Grade Sight Words? My kid needs to memorize them in order to read.
No, the best solution is to have the ‘big’ exam at the end of the 8th grade. If that kid isn’t capable of high school work...stop his path there, and send to a craftsman shop that requires just 6th-grade reading skills and apprentice-train the kid from that point on. If he doesn’t show up or show any attention...drop him off at the state unemployment office for placement at Burger King/McDonalds at the age of fourteen. You don’t need to waste time or money on the kid.
Publik skrewls are state sanctioned child abuse.
Public education is a kludge. You can keep on trying to tweek it and micro-manage it but it will always suffer the same basic problem : it’s paid with other people’s money for other people’s kids . It will always move to Soviet style antics as long as it is paid for by the state . To see the real difference state control causes check out your local supermarket verses what they had in the USSR.
Shouldn’t that be, “for their WRITTEN answers”?
I bet they know more genders than letters.
It’s also pretty tough to develop critical thinking when you’re raised to believe the nonsense logic of things like the dangers of second hand smoke and global warming.
Public schools weren’t always bad. The ones I went to were good back in the 50s and 60s. The three main reasons they are bad now are teachers unions, teaching degrees, and a culture created by the welfare state that rejects education and work in general.
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I think it’s practically impossible to write well if you don’t read. A lot. The weird social media and texting method of writing is about all these kids see.
They never will write well.
Hmmm. I wonder how the home-schooled kids did on these tests.
Don’t understand what the fuss is about.
Critical thinking? Evidence? Those are white, imperialist constructs designed to maintain the white patriarchy. Emotions, feelings, understanding your inner being - that’s the scene today. Get with it, NYPost.
Agreed. My great-uncle (the older brother of my dad’s father) who lived from 1891 to 1984 (so as a kid I got to know him fairly well) got up to the eighth grade and then spent the rest of his life working on the family farmstead. And he was very likely that more thoughtful and literate even with that level of formal education he had than what you probably get with many high school kids in New York or Chicago or other Democrat plantations and their union shops these days.
Hear! Hear!
MayflowerMadam nails it! No pun intended...
And they need to be read to at an early age so they develop the ability to “picture” what they read. Now that process is done for them by electronics.
The solution is to get rid of the test.
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