Posted on 02/23/2007 10:20:28 AM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — High school students nationwide are taking seemingly tougher courses and earning better grades, but their reading skills are not improving through the effort, according to two federal reports released here Thursday that cite grade inflation as a possible explanation.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, an exam commonly known as the nation’s report card, found that the reading skills of 12th graders tested in 2005 were significantly worse than those of students in 1992, when a comparable test was first given, and essentially flat since students previously took the exam in 2002.
The test results also showed that the overwhelming majority of high school seniors have not fully mastered high-school-level math.
At the same time, however, grade-point averages have risen nationwide, according to a separate survey by the National Assessment, of the transcripts of 26,000 students, which compared them with a study of students’ coursework in 1990.
“There’s a disconnect between what we want and expect our 12th graders to know and do, and what our schools are actually delivering through instruction in the classroom,” David W. Gordon, the superintendent of schools in Sacramento, said at a news conference announcing the results.
The reports offered several rationales for the disparity between rising grade-point averages and tougher coursework on the one hand and stagnant reading scores on the other, including “grade inflation, changes in grading standards” or the possibility that student grades were being increasingly affected by things like classroom participation or extra assignments.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress is considered the yardstick for academic performance because it is the only test taken all across the country. The test of 12th-grade achievement was given to a representative sample of 21,000 high school seniors attending 900 public and private schools from January to March 2005.
It showed...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
it's called grade inflation - when the teacher is burned out of being chappenged and hassled everytime a kid doesn't get the grade they want, and begins to yield to pressure.
the classes get easier and easier, kids get high greade yet learn little.
burnout is common due to the nature of the job (doing the same thing over and over again) and I wonder whether teaching ought to NOT be a primary profession.
Maybe if left to short-timers, and retirees, there might be less teacher burnout, more challenge to students, etc..
Did we read this on a thread yesterday? Hard to remember since we don't comprehend what we read.
My kids had good reading skills per their SAT and SAT writing scores, but still lacked the crispness and punch in their writing and the incisiveness in their critical reading skills, that I had and that seemed to me generally expected in college work in the mid-1960s.
As to math, my kids took more advanced math courses, but they did not master the fundamentals in the same way we had to in the '60s.... the facility with manipulating algebraic and trigonometric equations just wasn't there, or even the pure arithmetic skills.
I would be inclined to require that AP classes take the same syllabus and readings as the course at a major university -- for example, the AP European history course should use the standard Western civilization syllabus from the University of California in about 1970 (before the PC crap destroyed the academy).
Used to be the teachers word in the class room was law. If the kid didn't learn the teacher was given the go ahead to make them learn. Now, there may be problems with this system but the present day system where we put the onerus on the teacher and excuse the student is far more destructive. We are a nation of idiots heading toward slavery.
The academic regimen should be more challenging in the lower grades. Once they reach about 15-years-old, a lot of kids are too distracted to study.
"
I want to a publick skool and I kin reed an right just find.
Dis artickle just aint write.
Disagree. In most cases, below the age of 15 or so, kids are not intellectually mature enough to really do college level work. There are exceptions (think of John Stuart Mill teaching himself Greek to please his Father - at the age of 5 or 6) but it's generally true even for kids who have pretty high IQs (130+).
You're right, though, that by 15 a lot of kids are to distracted to study. That's the problem to address.
"We are a nation of idiots heading toward slavery."
and paying for the ride
Much comment:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789872/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789696/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789409/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789362/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789269/posts
(much "spin" too)
Better yet, rather than reading the facts filtered throught he prism of the NY Slimes, go to the NAEP website and see the real figures.
While you might be unsurprised to see that Asians, for example score higher on math than whites, you might also be surprised to see the reverse is true for science scores, or that the true correlation might be with parents' highest educational level rather than for race at all.
What's so special about that?
Thousands of Greek kids do it every day!
What's the NAEP website url?
Much of the social science research from the 1960's on has shown that the best predictor of student success was the socioeconomic status and educational level of the parents.
That's an interesting idea but I'm of the mind that you just can't fight city hall. The problem isn't basically related to teachers IMO (although there are plenty of problems there for another thread). What's really happening is that teachers are no longer allowed to use methods that actually instill knowledge.
Some of those methods, like expecting kids to really do 2 hours of homework a night, are viewed as 'cruel and unusual punishment' by today's embarrassingly low and twisted standards. Teachers in many places are mainly worried about getting through the day without being cut, shot, poisoned, physically assaulted, raped or otherwise abused and intimidated. When our candy-a$$ed culture gets realistic about dealing with the uneducable (and their irresponsible parents!) and starts enforcing real standards (on both teachers and students!), actual learning will resume.
Good teachers aren't quitting just because the money is bad. They're quitting because our system keeps kids there in the classrooms that don't want to be there. I have a 22 year old sister who graduated from college in April 2005 and then immediately started work as a full-time substitute teacher at a middle school in place of one who went on maternity leave. The next year she taught full-time at the high school she graduated from in 2002. After one year of that she had enough and got out. Now she makes less outside of the education field altogether.
Frankly I think that all students in the secondary education system need to view getting an education as a privilege. Maybe those who don't get good citizenship grades need to be put to work in community service until they decide they want to give the taxpayers a ROI. The bathrooms in government buildings (schools, police stations, fire stations, offices) need cleaning. The elementary schools, day care centers and nursing/rehab homes need more volunteers. The streets and parks need cleaning & landscaping. Once the adolescent decides they want to resume their education then they can apply for readmission for whichever grade they were in when they decided to be a citizenship problem at school.
Thanks for the links. The NY Times changed its title again.
the titles and spins on this topic have been "goofy" at best
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