[milan]

I have one for you. I grade and provide reports on college placement exams for a University here in Southern Georgia. Specifically, I wrote the program that grades and reports on the math placement exam. 2/3 of all incoming freshman (about 1500 new students every semester) get a 50% or below. There is nothing on the test higher than Algebra. 20 questions. We have at least 1 person get a zero every other semster!

Anyways, not only do 2/3 get 50% or lower, but out of that 1/3 that is left, only about 40-50 (of 300+ taking it) actually pass the test. This pattern repeats itself as it has for the past 2 years. I was so dumbfounded that I offered to take the test myself. Made a 14. No genius, but I had not seen algebra in over 3 years. These high schoolers should have just seen it and also been preparing for the test...

I honestly have to go grade one of these tomorrow. We know my program is working when 2/3 fail. Seriously. If the statistics don't change, we know there weren't any problems with the program. Isn't that sad?

[GeronL]

there are 20 questions? 300 test takers? and you need a computer to do the testing?

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Man, that's a far cry from the school system I had. I lived in Australia for a time and the education philosophy there was to teach a few subjects to extreme depth with constant testing. At the state run school that I was at (standard for my grade, no special classes), 14 year olds were mastering calculus.

[dawn53]

I homeschooled my son using Saxon Math. We went through Alg II with Saxon and then when he was 15 he took the College Placement (because our county has a program called dual enrollment and a High School student can take college classes and get credit, tuition is free.)

Anyway, when he came out from the test they told me his math scores had placed him in College Alg. which he took this past semester and he pulled an A.

Everything in College Alg. seemed to be a review of what he had covered in Alg. II.

The point of all this is to ask: have they lowered what the standards of what is taught in college math classes or is College Algebra basically a review of Alg II?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Isn't that sad?

It's fraud. Close to half of all states' budgets go to fund education.

[hershey]

We have the NEA to thank for this. Okay, and taking God and a sense of morality out of schools.

[MarkL]

I was so dumbfounded that I offered to take the test myself. Made a 14.

Is there any chance that you could post the questions here? I'm always curious to see how I would stand up to kids who should be familiar with the material. I don't think that I've used "real" math since 1988.

I was shocked when I scored a 19 out of 20 on an American history sample test that a local TV station posted. I couldn't believe how easy it was. And most highschool seniors got fewer than 10 right.

Mark

[Herodotus]

How on earth were the kids allowed into the college then, if they were not able to pass the basic algebra requirements...presumably this university is a competitive one?