Posted on 02/22/2007 1:23:15 PM PST by Sopater
WASHINGTON — High school students are getting better grades and taking more challenging courses, but that apparent progress is not showing up on national math and reading tests.
"The reality is that the results don't square," said Darvin Winick, chair of the independent National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the tests. Scores were released Thursday.
Nearly 40 percent of high school seniors scored below the basic level on the math test. More than a quarter of seniors failed to reach the basic level on the reading test. Most educators think students ought to be able to work at the basic level.
"I think that we are sleeping through a crisis," said Massachusetts Commissioner of Education David Driscoll, a governing board member. He said the low test scores should push lawmakers and educators to enact school reforms.
The new reading scores show no change since 2002, the last time the test was given.
"We should be getting better. There's nothing good about a flat score," Winick said.
The government said it could not compare the math results with the previous scores because the latest test was significantly different.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The average grade for today's teens is a B. Used to be a C. But the dirty little secret is that few teachers want to face parents at school conferences and tell then that their child is average, let alone, below average.
So like Garrison Keillor's hometown, ALL the children are above average.
It is all grade inflation.
Easy. They are just not being held to the course material for their grades.
We can't make anyone feel bad by giving them poor or failing grades now, can we? There must be some kind of "hate-grade" legislation out there already.
Maybe they are just bad "test takers".
Fixed it!
But it doesn't matter. They may be stupid, but they feeeeeel better about themselves, and their self-esteeeeeeeeeeem is what really counts, right?
I just read "Freak-enomics" where studies show how teachers got caught cheating for the students on tests to improve their test scores to get bonuses. Interesting study on how they did it.
"few teachers want to face parents at school conferences and tell then that their child is average"
The teachers I know face the parents with the facts regularly. Then the parents run to the "politicians". Excuse me the "school board".
Many students don't do well on standardized tests. It's just like white coat syndrome. But my experience comes from a district where the teachers actually have to teach.
Thankfully, I haven't encountered one of those teachers yet.
My daughter's best friend is the epitome of the perfect angel in school, but her grades are abysmmal, my daughter is the exact opposite. Both the other girl's mother and I know this because the teachers keep up informed. Of course the fact we EXPECT to be kept informed probably has a bearing on that.
I know of a few parents like that. I wound up going to the school board because of them, but when I went to the board I had the full backing of the teachers and principal. I lost that particular battle, but in the end I did win the war.
It was the opposite with us. My special needs daughter with brain damage does very well on multiple choice tests. She gets advanced on math and language arts. Therefore, according to the schools she doesn't have a problem.
Math is always consistent no matter what kind of test you give her. She shows her work. She can tell you from her head. She is great at math.
Reading/Writing is another story. Her reading fluency was very poor. She was a very slow reader. We had an independent evaluator tell us that she also does not know how to decode words well or tell the difference in the way words sound. She has memorized lots of words, but as she is getting older (10) she needs to know how to decode words.
Her writing was/is worse. She gets stuck on what to say. She has speech problems and one of her speech problems is word finding, so the writing just mirrors the speech problems.
If she sees a word, she can tell if it is spelled correctly. However, if she has to come up with the spelling herself, she doesn't do as well.
The district didn't want to provide any extra help (except minimal speech), even though a neuropsychologist, learning specialist, and a speech therapist recommended resource help.
We finally put her in private school with a multi-sensory reading program where she is learning how to decode words and learning phonics basics. After 6 months, she is reading so much faster and is reading age appropriate books. Her comprehension has always been good, so we are just making great strides in this area (no thanks to public school).
Her resource teacher isn't sure how to help her with her writing, but she knows she needs help. She does not say my daughter is okay. She is trying to figure out ways to help her. My daughter got a B- on language arts because her spelling and writing were poor. It makes me search out ways to help my daughter, instead of just pretending she is okay. In the long run, it's better to know there's a problem and try to help my daughter deal with the situation.
A friend recently gave a quiz to a freshman Calculus I class at a fairly well-known private college. Over half of the students flubbed a question involving fractions because they didn't know how to find a common denominator.
Not surprised. We are uniters not dividers on this forum.
Sorry. Misread your post. Thought you took the test.
In some cases the "more challenging courses" may actually be the same old courses, but renamed and only taken by the top students, with the rest taking a dumbed down version of the older course matterial. However that's not what I see. I see truly more challenging courses being taken by the top students. I say that as a person who took the only advanced (smart kids section) courses (various math courses) offerred by our fairly large high school... way back in the dark ages, before the first moon landings.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.