Posted on 05/12/2005 12:52:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HISD may alter math-science requirement
Students may cut high school load with early credits; experts fear plan is 'a step backward'
Houston ISD students could earn high school diplomas without taking a single math or science class after their sophomore year under a proposal that is drawing criticism from some national education experts.
Critics say the change will leave students unprepared for college and the workplace.
"I'm surprised they would be considering this move," said Anne Tweed, president of the 55,000-member National Science Teachers Association. "That's a step backward."
Superintendent Abe Saavedra wants to do away with a policy that mandates three years of math and science courses for all high school students. Instead, students who pass high school-level courses in the eighth grade would get credit toward a diploma. State law requires three math and science credits to graduate.
Saavedra's proposal, which is expected to win school board approval today, runs counter to a national trend of school systems requiring students to spend more time in math and science classes before they graduate. The decision is even more curious, some education experts said, given the fact that more than two-thirds of HISD's 2004 graduates who enrolled in local community colleges last fall were required to take remedial courses.
"That policy will result in more youngsters having to take remedial math when they go on for further study," said Gene Bottoms, senior vice president of the Southern Regional Education Board and director of the High Schools that Work program. "It will also mean more students will not be able to pass employer exams that have a math component."
Focusing less on TAKS Saavedra told school board trustees earlier this week that the three-year requirement is unnecessary. It was adopted in 2001, he said, because trustees wanted high school juniors taking math and science classes at the same time they take the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam, which students must pass to graduate.
The current policy is based more on improving test performance than on academic quality, Saavedra said. What matters, he said, is that students take the necessary courses. "We absolutely are not lowering the standard," Saavedra said.
Still, Saavedra acknowledged that having high school students take more math and science classes would better prepare them for college. "If we required four years of math, it would work toward reducing the remedial requirement," he said. "I'm not telling you I won't come back with that kind of recommendation (in the future)."
Without the change, 38 HISD seniors will miss out on graduation ceremonies this year, Saavedra said. HISD typically graduates about 8,000 students a year.
Most trustees, including board President Dianne Johnson, have said they support Saavedra's proposal.
"It's still the same three classes," she said.
That's not necessarily so, said Brett Moulding, curriculum director for the Utah State Office of Education and a former president of the Council of State Science Supervisors.
"In eighth grade, the level of sophistication of science instruction is very different from the level that can occur in high school," Moulding said. "The students' ability to understand that information in the context of more advanced concepts is limited."
HISD trustee Greg Meyers said he hasn't decided how he'll vote.
"My concern is to make sure we keep our high achievement levels in place and I definitely would not stand for any lowering of the standards," he said. "We need to focus on college readiness and if that means they need three years of math and science in high school, then we need to make sure we have that."
Georgia's DeKalb County Public Schools decided this year to require all eighth-graders to take Algebra I. High school students in that predominantly minority and low-income school system of 100,000 students near Atlanta must take math and science from their freshman through senior years.
"The colleges and universities are saying you shouldn't have students sitting out one year, much less two years," said Wanda Gilliard, a former HISD middle school math teacher who is now DeKalb County's executive director for curriculum and instruction. "We want them exposed to that rigor before they get into a college setting."
Rules vary across the state Graduation requirements vary in Texas. Dallas requires three years of science and math in high school. Cy-Fair requires three years of high school math, but allows students to earn science credit in middle school. Austin school officials are thinking of changing their policy that now allows students to graduate with just two years of math and science in high school.
The Houston school board meets at HISD headquarters, 3830 Richmond, at 3 p.m. today.
jason.spencer@chron.com
Why should those students be accepted into college to begin with?
Bump!
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
If you read the article, it says that graduates are taking remedial classes in junior college.
A good number of very smart non-traditional students need the remedial classes, particularly in math, in order to get up to speed before being flung into College Algebra. The non-trad population at the 4-year state university I attended was running at something around 20% of the enrollment when I went back to school in the late 90's.
Well .. they won't ever get any smarter if you don't challenge them to believe they are capable of doing better.
This is just more of the "you're too stupid and you need the govt to take care of you" attitude which the democrats love - BECAUSE IT GIVES THEM POWER.
If teachers really love children - they want the children to learn and achieve - not be shoved off in a corner and told they are too stupid to do that kind of job - or too stupid to study that subject.
School is not about education, it's about "seat-time."
The parents are mostly to blame.
This is really nothing new. I graduated five years ago and my high school only required 2 math and 2 science credits.
"Teachers unions recoil from accountability and resent evidence that all is not well, or that whatever is wrong cannot be cured by increased funding."
Here in CA - before NCLB - we passed an initiative DEMANDING that all children be taught in English. This came about because we suddenly became aware that we had practically a whole generation of Hispanic children WHO COULD NOT SPEAK ENGLISH - and couldn't get jobs or couldn't read entrance exams to get into colleges.
Even after passing the initiative - some teachers - especially those in large Hispanic areas - were totally against the change. Some of them even went against the law and tried to continue the "bi-lingual" education classes. They were quickly stopped - funding was withdrawn - and suddenly they changed their minds and decided to teach only English.
Today .. we have a whole new generation who are excelling at English - going on to college - and those teachers who thought the kids could not learn if they were taught in English - have had to eat their words.
What brought this about .. Hispanic families began complaining that their children couldn't read or speak English.
"Fifty years ago a high school diploma was quite respectable without more than...say Algebra and Geomotry. You didn't have to take Calculus to graduate"
You don't have to take Calculus to get a diploma now either. Fifty years ago kids were taught the math in grade school that we now learn in High school and in some places college. When I was in the Calif. Community college system about 5 or 6 years ago my grandma saw my algebra book and she looked thru it. She remembered doing those problems in 6th grade.
Great news!!!
I believe most students are capable of doing much harder work THAN THEY THINK THEY CAN.
If the material is presented correctly - even those children who struggle with some things can be challenged to work harder.
I believe both groups [high/low] deserve additional attention. Sometimes, I've seen smarter students in the class used as tutors for others who are struggling. It's not a "you're smarter/dumber than me" issue .. what it did was help the kids who were struggling to see that if they were just willing to put forth more effort - their grades would improve. It's a great program - if it's done right.
The kids who were struggling didn't necessarily rise to the level of the tutors - but their self-esteem was raised by the fact that they now felt they could accomplish more and get better grades. My middle son probably would have quit school if not for this program. His tutor came to our home (I met his parents) and the boys would spend 2-3 hours a week working on areas where my son was struggling.
Part of the problem is that some of the smarter kids make fun of the slower kids - but if you get some of the smarter ones involved in helping others .. then both groups respond .. it's an amazing thing to watch.
I'm so glad that I never took the coaching job in Seattle.
I'd probably be in prison for child abuse, As in yelling at
their pampered faces and doling out the swats with holed paddles..
And why should those students that are accepted waste time for 2 years with General Ed classes (stuff they should have before they get to college), where they get more liberalism shoved down their throats?
Check out how much of that goes to providing pensions and lifelong medical care to the teachers families.
It is not the non tradis who need remediation. They often have solid, if rusty skills. It is kids right out of HS who should have learned skills in grade school. It is a form of featherbedding that expands the education industry all the while giving us less for out money.
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