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The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released the grade 12 results recently. The results in Reading demonstrate a decline between 1992 and 2005. The results do not bode well for aspirations of higher academic readiness, college preparedness and college success.
[snip]
The results found that the reading skills of 12th graders tested in 2005 were significantly worse than those of students in 1992, the first time a comparable test was given, and essentially flat since students took the exam in 2002. The share of students lacking even basic high school reading skills -- meaning they could not, for example, extract data about train fares at different times of the day from a brochure -- rose to 27 from 20 percent in 1992. The share of those proficient in reading dropped to 35 from 40 percent in 1992.
Yet, high school graduates in 2005 had studied more than their counterparts in 1990, averaging 360 more hours of classroom instruction during their high school years, the transcript study showed. Their grade point average was a third of a letter grade higher than in 1990, and more students were taking foreign language and other courses aimed at preparing them for college.
[snip]
The bottom line is that high school students are taking harder courses and earning better grades yet reading at significantly lower levels than their peers did 13 years ago.
This decline comes on top of the twenty-year decline in SAT scores that took place between 1963 and 1980.
in a nutshell
- Average SAT verbal scores fell from a high of 478 on the verbal portion in 1963-1964 to a low of 424 in 1980, where they have essentially remained for 27 years.
- In 1995 the College Board recentered SAT scores, adding approximately 70 points to verbal scores. (SAT individual score equivalents here)
- The new NAEP 12th grade scores "demonstrate a decline between 1992 and 2005."
- Percent of students lacking basic high school reading skills rose from 20 percent in 1992 to 27 percent today.
- A high school student who lacks basic high school reading skill cannot "extract data about train fares at different times of the day from a brochure."
- The share of those proficient in reading dropped to 35 from 40 percent in 1992.
- smoking more and enjoying it less: "high school graduates in 2005 had studied more than their counterparts in 1990, averaging 360 more hours of classroom instruction during their high school years."
- grade inflation: GPA for 2005 12th graders "was a third of a letter grade higher than in 1990, and more students were taking foreign language and other courses aimed at preparing them for college."
- smoking more and enjoying it less, part 2: "number of students who took 4 years of English is up from 40% in 1990 to 68%"
This is alarming because many states, including California, have been making significant gains at elementary grades, and it doesn't show up here in 12th grade.
My sister-in-law, who is a superb elementary school teacher, told me on this trip that in her district the K-5 teachers "have it together."
She sees a problem with teachers and teaching in the upper grades, which, given her description of her high school child's experience, sounds right to me.
The bottom line is that high school students are taking harder courses and earning better grades yet reading at significantly lower levels than their peers did 13 years ago.
I'm thinking....SAT & ACT scores haven't declined significantly during these 13 years, have they?
5 comments:
more students were taking foreign language and other courses aimed at preparing them for college."
I seriously doubt that. What they are prepared for is ordering food at a Mexican restaurant or singing "De Colores". They are not even remotely prepared to read even a heavily glossed and annotated passage from Unamuno or Vargas Llosa. You get kids in college Span 101 who tell you they took Spanish throughout middle school and three years in high school but they have no idea what the "preterit" is. They surely can tell you about the one week project on Dia de los Muertos, or the hands on lesson on cooking paella. Five years of Spanish and they end up in 101 just like the kids that never took a day of Spanish in their life. The lucky ones don't have to study as hard for the first test.
It's not just grade inflation, it's course label inflation.
absolutely
the focus of foreign language courses now is "teaching the culture"
we've been told this directly
one of our administrators told us (paraphrasing) "Some schools teach 11 foreign languages in grade school! They teach the culture."
If they were to teach please, thank you, How much is that?, Where's the bathroom?, and Do you speak English? in eleven languages, that might be useful. Culture? Not so much.
When travelling through eastern Europe, all I really needed were "thank you" and "excuse me."
Turns out that the Bulgarian word for thank you is hard for English-speaking people to pronounce; fortunately, in Sofia they will also use "merci" for thank you.
Although I am fluent only in English, I have somehow managed to pick up "Yes", "No", "I'm sorry", and/or "I don't understand" in Japanese, German, Dutch, and Spanish, and of those languages, the only one I've studied formally was German. The Japanese phrases came from watching Shogun as a teenager and from listening to my dad, who traveled there frequently for business. The Dutch was because I was curious. The Spanish because it's the primary language of a third of the residents of my city, and you can't help picking up some of it. (Actually, I have picked up enough pidgin-Spanglish to communicate with the cleaning staff in my building.)
I agree with Doug; Do you speak English? or just English? with a questioning tone is one of the most useful phrases to learn in another language. I have found that with the exception of the French, most people whose primary language is not English are eager to practice their English.
And remember, when traveling in Europe, if you're from the U.S., pretend you're Canadian.
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