Report Raises Questions About High-School Courses
- on 02.28.07
- Funding Reform, General
- Comments Off
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
Are high schools inflating grades? Are advanced placement course being watered down to give the imporession educators are doing a great job? These are questions that are being raised by the following Wall Street Journal on Feb. 23rd. You have to be a subscriber to read the entire article, but you can read the excerpts below. This story was emailed to me, so I do not have the direct link.
|
American educators have complained about grade inflation for years. But new findings suggest that U.S. high schools may also suffer from another type of inflation — in the labeling of courses. Reflecting these efforts, a review of high-school transcripts by the staff of the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that high-school students are taking, and receiving higher grades in, more college-prep courses than ever. Yet just-released test results for 12th graders on the NAEP, a widely respected barometer of educational achievement known as the “nation’s report card,” indicated that students are graduating with mediocre math skills and reading abilities that have tumbled to their lowest level since the early 1990s. The 12th-grade tests are designed to measure the sorts of high-level thinking demanded in college work. The findings raise questions about whether college-prep courses are as tough as their titles indicate, and, if so, whether high schools and their instructors are adequately prepared to teach such courses to a rapidly changing mix of students. Other observers said the results suggest that some school districts are teaching watered-down versions of everything from history to trigonometry. “A course title alone does not make rigor,” said David Conley, a University of Oregon professor who studies high-school course content. The NAEP review of high school transcripts, released yesterday, found that 51% of the graduating class of 2005 completed at least a midlevel college-prep curriculum that included four years of English; three years of math, including geometry and algebra; and three years of science including at least two of biology, chemistry and physics. In 1990, only about 31% of seniors completed a similar curriculum. The NAEP review also found that the class of 2005 received about 360 more hours of instruction in high school than their 1990 counterparts and earned higher grades. On a zero-to-four point scale, the 2005 seniors had a cumulative grade point average of 2.98 points, or about a B, up from 2.68 points in 1990. But the benefits of such changes weren’t evident in the results of NAEP reading and math achievement tests for the class of 2005. On a zero-to-500 point scale, their average reading score was 286 points. That was down a point from 2002, the last time the test was given, and was the lowest average score since 1992, when the average was 292 points. About 40% of the test takers scored at or above the proficient range, down from 44% in 1992. On the math side, the average score was 150 on a zero-to-300 point scale and only 23% of the seniors were scored at or above the proficient range. NAEP officials said results of the 2005 math test aren’t comparable with those from previous years because of recent changes in the exam’s structure and content. The decline in reading abilities was not a complete surprise. A recent study by ACT Inc., the nonprofit testing concern based in Iowa City, Iowa, found that only about 51% of high school graduates who took the ACT test in 2005 were prepared to tackle college-level reading, down from 55% in 1999. ACT also found a decline in reading skills through the high-school years, with more eighth- and 10th-graders on track for college reading than seniors. “Reading just drops off the radar in high school,” said Jon Erickson, ACT’s vice president for educational services. And the NAEP results aren’t the only signs that college-prep courses may not be delivering all that they promise. The College Board, the New York nonprofit that gives the SAT admissions test, is in the midst of a nationwide audit of its high-school Advanced Placement Program courses, amid concerns that some districts aren’t offering college-level content. Meanwhile, a recent study by the state of Maryland found that 30% of its 2005 high-school graduates who completed a college-prep curriculum needed remedial math in college, up from 26% for the class of 2000. |
We continue to hear calls for funding reform, i.e. give the schools more money. In light of this and many other studies, it is apparent money is not improving the public government schools. Money is not the answer; reform is. We need to fund the child and stop funding the bureaucracy. More money only feeds only feeds the bureaucracy with allowing them to give exhorbitant pensions and salaries for both teachers and administrators.
Reform is the fastest way to force educators to actually care what and how they teach. They will be forced to compete for the money that would be controled by the parents and no by the state or themselves anymore. Funding the child will help remove the atrocious curricula that schools use like Everyday/Chicago/Terc Investigations Math and Whole Language.
Contact your legislator today. Tell them you want to fund each and every child equally no matter what school they attend.
