Spending and grade point averages are up, so why are the test scores down?

Goldwater Institute ^

[Reagan Fellow]

The U.S. Department of Education released 12th grade NAEP scores last week and the results are discouraging.

Reading scores of 12th grade students have declined significantly since 1992. The percentage of high school seniors scoring “below basic” in reading increased from 20 to 27 percent between 1992 and 2005. During the same period, high school seniors scoring “proficient” in reading dropped 14 percent.

Separately, the Department released a study showing that since 1990, high school grade point averages are up across the country. Also, the percentage of students taking “college-prep” classes climbed from 40 to 68 percent. In addition, 12th graders in 2005 averaged 360 more hours of classroom instruction than their 1990 counterparts.

Despite all of that, the Class of 2005 performed worse on the NAEP than students in the early ‘90s. I’d like to remind you that Bill and Ted were students during that time…

Although the Department of Education did not mention it, inflation adjusted per pupil spending increased more than 20 percent between 1990 and 2002. It has increased even further since then.

As another famous Bill once said, it’s time for a change.

[gcruse]

Thanks for that Youtube link. What a horror. Did we learn nothing from the New Match debacle? Is there something wrong with teaching the simplest, most direct way of problem solving? Is that what PoMo math looks like? The incredible thing is that test scores haven't gone through the floor. At best, we're creating a generation of math-phobes.

[too much time]

Educational fads such as the "whole language" approach and (sigh, again....) a lack of emphasis on phonics is probably more to blame for the decline in reading scores. "Reform math" is the educational fad ruining math skills. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (for what they are worth) stated at their meeting last fall that they were wrong back in 1989 for suggesting "constructivist" or "reform math."

[Niteranger68]

When GPA is up and test scores are down, it means more parents are doing their children’s homework for them. But unfortunately, they can take the test for them.

[Domicile of Doom]

Maybe Businesses can sue the schools for turning out poor quality employees. A Sector could agree to a set of standards all employees must meet for their given discipline. Instead of firing employees for poor performance, maybe they could sue the colleges and universities for a loss of productivity etc. Then fire the poor performing employee, and that ex-employee in turn sues the same school for creating the problem.

[gcruse]

Here's the kind of thinking that got us into the 'reform math' morass.

As a student, I used a slide rule to do some computations; today, I use a calculator. I also spent endless hours doing computations and rarely learning to estimate. Now I rarely do any tedious computations but regularly call upon estimation to decide if a calculator result is reasonable.

• Robert Reys, a former high school mathematics teacher, is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

[too much time]

Thanks for that Youtube link. What a horror. Did we learn nothing from the New Match debacle? Is there something wrong with teaching the simplest, most direct way of problem solving? Is that what PoMo math looks like? The incredible thing is that test scores haven't gone through the floor. At best, we're creating a generation of math-phobes.
Yep. The educrats enjoy the process more than anything else. Enabling the underprivileged to break out of a welfare cycle? - "No thanks - we have a new innovative approach that will garner us recognition by the newspapers!"

[Tribune7]

ping

[N. Theknow]

I recently hung a picture on my office wall.

It was of my Dad and the MP's he commanded that were assigned to SHAEF.

My step-granddaughter saw it and asked what it was. As she is an 11th grade student I figured she would not know the term SHAEF, so I explained that it was my Dad and all the MP's assigned to Eisenhower's command in World War II.

Her reply: "Who was Eisenhower?"

In addition to her grammar, we are now also working on her knowledge of American History.

[too much time]

My son's gifted math teacher (primary school) stated to us that "by the time these kids are grown, they will have disposable calculators - they don't need to memorize math facts."

My gifted (in math) 8th grader could not do a long division problem the other day, because she can't remember what goes where and how to pull down the number - then, to make matters worse, she couldn't remember all of her multiplication facts, so struggled to find the right answer. SHE IS CALCULATOR DEPENDENT!!

[OCCASparky]

Hmmm...anyone here familiar with the concept of grade inflation? Nah, teachers would NEVER do that.../sarc

[ModelBreaker]

The current emphasis on "testing" is a crock, foisted on us by idiots who want to pretend they're doing something about education.

If you don't like testing, then come up with an alternative. Just letting the teachers go on the way they are is not an acceptable alternative.

When a system is failing year in and year out to produce what it promises and when it's only proposed fix is "give us more money," then the rubes putting up the money have the right, no, the duty, to question the experts who aren't delivering results. Testing is one obvious, maybe not the best, way to start trying to figure out what is broken.

And Education is broken in this country. As long as we keep shoveling money down the hole, the educators have no apparent interest in making the system any better, except to increase the number of teachers in the union and what they get paid. The teachers and the administrators ARE the problem.

I personally would shut down every public school, ban anyone who has taught there from being employed again as a teacher in the new system, and ban anyone with an education degree from being a teacher in the new system. Vouchers for everyone and let the chips fall where they may. There would be a few years of chaos and then we would have an education system that outperforms the current one at half the cost.

[3niner]

Spending and grade point averages are up, so why are the test scores down?

Because it's harder to get standardized tests to lie about how much kids have been taught.

[OCCASparky]

Worse--if you give Johnny or Jane a bad grade, they'll feel bad and mommy and daddy will have to come defend their underachieving little booger-eaters.

[r9etb]

Reform math" is the educational fad ruining math skills. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (for what they are worth) stated at their meeting last fall that they were wrong back in 1989 for suggesting "constructivist" or "reform math."

Agreed. The math curricula I've seen have been really wretched. My kids happen to have good math teachers at present, which is their only saving grace.

[goodnesswins]

MONEY is required for THOSE "educational fads"....

[r9etb]

If you don't like testing, then come up with an alternative.

Ah, I see. So something that's demonstrably unhelpful must remain in place until I come up with the alternative?

How ... stupid. And how very like the educational problem you purport to want to fix.

The alternative is actually very straightforward.

First, require teachers to get a real college degree, rather than an "education" degree. Then require a teaching certificate, which would consist of an additional year of classes which comprise the small set of classes which are actually useful.

"Specialty" teachers can take additional classes, and get additional certification.

THEN ... get good curricula, the characteristics of which are known, because they've passed the test of time.

THEN -- and only then -- does "testing" make sense, but only as an instructional tool, and not some idiocy designed to promote "competition" between schools.

[Izzy Dunne]

Then fire the poor performing employee, and that ex-employee in turn sues the same school for creating the problem.

The trouble with that is that it'll clog the courts and encourage the lawyers.

The REAL problem is that an education is not really prized. Oh, everybody knows that more education = more $$$ in a vague sense, but in fact, especially in minority communities, education is seen as "acting white" and is shunned.

A kid should be responsible for his own education after a certain point, but if all your friends discourage you, are you gonna get new friends, or go along?

[ex-snook]

" And since there's monetary impact to the test scores, -- big, gasping surprise -- the schools have taken to teaching to the tests. The current emphasis on "testing" is a crock, foisted on us by idiots who want to pretend they're doing something about education."

Not doing a very good job of teaching to tests are they?

Maybe there are too many tests. When I was in HS in NYC [a long time ago], the State Board gave 'Regents' tests which the teachers taught to and did a very good job. Tests were in English, History and Economics. Diplomas were with or without Regents credit. I believe this single test helped teachers, students, and schools.

Tests provide measure in health, sports or learning. Tests are for admission to professions. Knowing the 'score' is how the game is played.

[r9etb]

Not doing a very good job of teaching to tests are they?

It depends on the school, of course.

If "they" happen to be a school filled with well-off kids from two-parent families, they generally do great on the tests.

And if "they" happen to be a school filled with poor kids from a place near the street named for MLK, they'll almost always do poorly.

Testing can't deal with that kind of difference.

[SoftballMominVA]

First, require teachers to get a real college degree, rather than an "education" degree.

You are correct and indeed that is what is happening now. Many colleges are requiring subject areas for middle and high school teachers. The hold-outs are the elementary education majors. The trend now is to earn a degree in a subject area, then the masters in education, spend a semester student teaching, complete comps and/or thesis and ready to rock and roll in the real world.