Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Higher grades, lower scores
So much for "teaching to the test" as opposed to teaching the subject matter...
At SFgate.com, Debra J. Saunders discusses America's "improved" test scores:
"AFTER ALL those years of educators focusing on improving the basics in public schools, how is it possible that the National Assessment for Educational Progress just gave America's high school seniors their lowest score for reading since 1992?
Students in elementary school have improved their skills in reading, writing and math, but the improvement "stops in middle school and completely stops in high school," answered Jim Lanich, president of California Business for Educational Excellence in Sacramento and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, who called me from a NAGB meeting in Nashville.
The new NAEP report found that the percentage of high school seniors who read at or above basic levels decreased from 80 percent in 1992 to 73 percent in 2005. A mere 23 percent of seniors were rated as proficient in math, even though students were allowed to use calculators for one-third of the test."
