Posted on 08/26/2008 6:15:13 PM PDT by shrinkermd
High-school students' performance on SAT college-entrance exams stalled, and the gap widened between low-scoring minority groups and the overall population, raising questions about the quality of teaching in U.S. schools.
Average scores for the class of 2008 were 502 for the critical-reading section, 515 for mathematics and 494 for writing. Each of the three numbers was identical to the averages in 2007, meaning combined scores remain at the lowest level so far in the current decade. The reading scores of the past two years were the lowest since 1994. Math represented the worst showing since 2001. Each section is judged on a 200- to 800-point scale.
African-American students received an average critical reading score of 430, 72 points below the general population and three points beneath their 2007 level. Math scores showed a similar pattern. Hispanic students' scores also lagged behind, though the gap was smaller.
...No boost in overall scores and persistent minority shortfalls suggested to some experts that the improvement shown on many state exams mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind law may be illusory. The law, which took effect in 2002, mandates that all students be proficient in reading and math by 2014 and requires that school systems show steady progress toward meeting that goal or face sanctions. In particular, NCLB is supposed to lift the results of lagging student groups, including minorities.
...Asian-Americans continue to post stellar results. On the math section, the group achieved an average score of 581, 66 points better than the average. Asian-Americans also outperformed in critical-reading and writing, though by less.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
You cannot teach those who WILL NOT LEARN. A generation of Bart Simpson. Two generations of working moms. 1.5 generations of day care kids, kept by others from 6 am to 6 pm. The whole too cool for school thing. Rap.
Get rich or die tryin, but learn something? Riiiiiiiiight.
Mr JOHN HECHINGER of the WSJ must have just arrived in the USA via a flying saucer from deep space....or he hasn't been paying any attention for the last 40 years. Scores have been trending down at least since the "Great Society", and I would argue a whole lot longer...perhaps since the "New Deal".
There's nothing at all questionable about the quality of teaching in U.S. schools - it's in the gutter and everyone knows it.
I wonder how home schooled kids did this year...
Dare dey go agin, dissin minorities. Gonna lower dare self-esteems.
The test is mainly for the college bound, but they have increased the % of kids taking the test..so it is no wonder the numbers are dropping. They did re-center the test a few years back..so the scores are higher now by decree.
Most of the kids that we need to worry about can’t even read the test or sit still for the hours needed.
Given all that..all kids can be educated to a much higher level than today. All kids can learn to perform on a 12th grade level with the proper enviroment and schooling. The shame is that we now have so many non-parents with kids that have not the faintest clue as to what they are supposed to do. We may be the first species to forgot how to raise their young.
They used wrong subjects for testing. They need to test more important subjects such as ethnic studies, gender studies, American imperialism, American racism, and so on. Guaranteed, the scores would be very high compared to 30-40 years ago.
My 13 year old started classes at the university today. She scored in the 89% on the ACT. High School seemed pointless.
They were the last “old-school” decent teachers I knew that actually cared about education instead of “diversity” and “self esteem”. Unfortunately, they all recently retired because they couldn't handle the insanity. No replacements to be seen. I would teach but don't think I could handle the school environment today and I'd barely survive on the scraps they'd give me.
We're in deep sh**
Yes, we are in “deep....” The schools are so bad here, a relative related that her high school class valedictorian was pregnant and on drugs. It makes me glad I was able to do some homeschooling so my daughter can completely skip high school.
High school is pointless. The day I "graduated" felt like I was being released from a four year prison sentence.
I don’t know but my homeschooled kids got scores like that when they were in junior high.
A few years ago they dumbed down the test. One of the changes they made was to remove the vocabulary section. I guess it gave too many kids too much trouble or some such thing.
When scores drop, they generally just ‘re-norm’ the test, and inflate the scores to the former level.
What they dumped was the analogy section......this is to this, as this is to this.
OK, I remember that now.
Well, I didn’t take the recent tests. I thought it was the vocab.
SOme 14 year old Communist Chinese chick is going, “Whee!” Of course, she hasn’t seen her parents in over a year and takes no vacations, but she rocks at whatever.........
Because it was.
My homeschooled kids were in college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13.
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