World History Final Exam

[creekland]

I posted this on the high school board here:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237109

 

But in light of some of the more recent threads and knowing that many don't get up to the high school board, I thought some here might want to know what may be going on in your local public school.

 

Here's some background cut and pasted from that thread:

 

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I'm subbing in the class. I normally only do math/science (my specialties), but since hubby's business is slow and we need the funds, I'm branching out on days when math/science is not needed. Today is one of those days.

 

This class is generally for high school sophomores, but can have 10th - 12th graders in it. It's for average academic students.

 

Just now I had to give a Driver's Ed final. These kids had to answer any 40 questions (their choice) out of 81 for their final.

 

Times have changed from my school days. Plus, I went to a much higher academic high school. Nonetheless, our school "scores" slightly under average for our state and our state is slightly above average for the country. What I'm seeing should be close to "average." It's not making my day.

 

(Science and math are no better in this school. I see that regularly.)

 

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And here's the final exam - typed exactly as it was on the paper:

 

1. What is Michelangelo famous for?

2. What did Columbus discover?

3. What did Johannes Gutenburg invent?

4. What did a conquistador do?

5. What is Martin Luther famous for?

6. What did Sir Isaac Newton discover?

7. Who was Napoleon?

8. What is the guillotine?

9. Who was Marie Antoinette?

10. Where did the industrial revolution begin?

11. What is Communism?

12. What event started WWI?

13. What countries were involved in WWI?

14. Who was Adolph Hitler?

15. What led to WWII?

16. What caused the Cold War to begin?

17. What was the significance of Sputnik?

18. What was the holocaust?

19. Who is the leader of Al-Qaeda?

20. What is a major obstacle to peace between Israeli's and the Palestinians?

 

That's it. If your World History student can answer those questions, they'd have done well on our ps final.

 

I flipped through some of the returned papers. I could cry. There are several who left numbers blank (including Hitler). Others have Michelangelo discovering new lands and Gutenberg discovering the telescope. These are supposed to be our "average" students in this class. Such is life.

 

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The morning after I still find myself in awe and worried for the future of our nation. At least roughly half the schools out there should be better than my school... but half ought to be worse too (with some of both halves the same).

 

ps If the final were the sole grade for the class, roughly 25% - 35% would have failed. However, kids were turning in extra credit that day too, so it's doubtful many will fail. Not a single kid in either class got 100% on that test. The majority missed at least 5.

Edited January 15, 2011 by creekland