Halcyon Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) Thought others might be interested: the article discusses the slipping standards for graduating students, and gives sample writing from passing seniors. NY Times ETA: I love this quote from one of the readers in the comments section: I've been teaching for over twenty years, started in NYC. I have been horrified by the lack of rigor over time. Just the other day I found an old regents review book for geometry.....not a single one of my students could pass the test today. But if they get any grade lower than a B, parents come out of the woodwork and administration jumps down the teachers' backs about being "too hard". Parents and students expect good grades and seem genuinely confused when told that their child has to actually know something in order to pass....it's almost like they believe merely breathing is enough.[LOLOLOL] This country is in serious trouble. ETA2: Also, a commenter linked a fascinating resource: long-ago Regents exams for NYState, downloadable as pdfs for your perusal. Wow. They are...challenging! I can't imagine most students today could pass them. Here's the link if you're interested in looking at them. I perused the Mathematics tests and the American History tests.....amazing. Edited February 8, 2012 by Halcyon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Reason number 97.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 Reason number 97.... :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unicorn. Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Well, those of us in TX could have told you that "No Child Left Behind" really meant Every Child Left Behind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lang Syne Boardie Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 On the plus side, those of us homeschooling children older than age 8 or 9 can quit now. I'm not trying to raise Doogie Howser here. No need to push the kids to be so far ahead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted February 8, 2012 Author Share Posted February 8, 2012 On the plus side, those of us homeschooling children older than age 8 or 9 can quit now. That cracked me up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwoman Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 On the plus side, those of us homeschooling children older than age 8 or 9 can quit now. I'm not trying to raise Doogie Howser here. No need to push the kids to be so far ahead. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: It's so sad that such poor skills are considered acceptable these days, but it sure takes a lot of the stress off of us homeschool moms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildiris Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Oh my! I wouldn't accept that writing sample from my third grader much less a high school senior. I'm not surprised. I think these same declining standards maybe true of online schools. :confused: Is there any hope for public education? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 You know, this made me think of my years in NYC (84-94). I recall working in a deli and a rather insipid man (who was a HS grad and had English as a first language) was hired. He wanted to go to school and be an "executive secretary". After I worked with him a few days I mentioned to someone this was not feasible. He said "because he's a MAN?", ready to jump on my attitude. "No," I replied. "Because he still hasn't remembered that 'almond' starts with an A. He can't find it on an alphabetical list of nuts, because he keeps looking just before Pecan." I also recall (and pardon if I'd told this story before) going to a coffee shop near 59th and Broadway for a cup of tea in a snowstorm, dragging my tired self in wondering, wondering, wondering what to "do" with my life, the nagging question of the last several months. I ordered a cup of Earl Grey tea with milk. As I paid for it, it felt suspiciously hot, so I popped the lid and saw no milk. I told the woman (Am born, English as a first langauge, although it was a quacking Queens accent) I asked for it was milk. "You don't put milk in herbal tea." "Earl Grey isn't herbal." "Yes it is!" (NYC rudeness was coming in by now) "Earl Grey is a black tea flavored with oil of beramot" "I didn't ask for a lesson, I..." she swung around and angrily grabbed the box and held it up and pointed to the word "Earl" and barked: "SEE, HERBAL GREY!" She was poking the box vehemently with her fake nail. I decided we were deadlocked and I said, "Could I have some milk in my tea, please?" Which I got. I sat down, sipping and blowing and warming my fingers and a thought trickled into me like the warmth of the tea: all my life I was surrounded by professors and professor's kids: my family, my college (one class of 30 had 25 teacher's kids), my friends. I was one of the "dummies". Maybe, just maybe I wasn't so dumb after all. That night, lying in the dark with the snow muffling a VW beetle starting up and grinding out of the lot, I decided to listen to the words I'd heard so many times and try for med school. So, I thank the truculent pig-ignorance of a New YAWker for giving me that final push. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pqr Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Reason number 97.... No..... the disaster our schools have become is reason number 1 and 2. Not sure if it is the academic or the moral disaster that comes first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lang Syne Boardie Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 "he can't find Almonds on an alphabetical list of nuts" :smilielol5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 There's nothing new about this; it can't be blamed on recent initiatives. I think the biggest change is that when I was young, a lot of people weren't really expected to become literate and it wasn't considered a big problem. Now, we don't want to admit that some folks just aren't going to cut it. Maybe over time this new attitude will make a difference, but not in the short run. As a kid, I can remember cashiers who could not add a couple of small numbers or make change without putting in a lot of mental effort. In my 20s, I worked with a guy who shipped a case of stuffed chimps instead of cheetahs because his knowledge of the animal kingdom came from Tarzan. I could go on all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissad2 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 :svengo:Sad, just sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 On the plus side, those of us homeschooling children older than age 8 or 9 can quit now. I'm not trying to raise Doogie Howser here. No need to push the kids to be so far ahead. You know, I laughed out loud at this, but then I went to actually read the article and the writing sample linked. Then I was just really sad. Truly, my nine-year-old can write a better paragraph than that. DH graduated from high school in NYC and took the Regent's. I'll be very interested to see what he has to say about this in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 ETA2: Also, a commenter linked a fascinating resource: long-ago Regents exams for NYState, downloadable as pdfs for your perusal. Wow. They are...challenging! I can't imagine most students today could pass them. Here's the link if you're interested in looking at them. I perused the Mathematics tests and the American History tests.....amazing. Hey, I TOOK those! Let's see... I took Regents' exams in U.S. History (1989, and I still remember that I got a perfect score), "Course I-Course III" (required high school math sequence, 1986-1988, followed by precalc and calc which weren't Regents subjects), Earth Science (1986), Biology (1987), Chemistry (1988), and Physics (1989). Oh, and French (1990). So that means that the VERY EXAMS that I took are on this site?! Oh, wow. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Hey, I TOOK those! Me too! I found what must be my geometry exam, "10th gr" June 1983. I hadn't remembered them being labeled by grade level (I took it in 9th). I'm guessing the "11th" must be what we called Alg 2/Trig. I wish I could remember more :tongue_smilie: This is a great link, because while I have a link to some newer Regents exams, it hadn't occurred to me that they might not be as rigorous as the old ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: It's so sad that such poor skills are considered acceptable these days, but it sure takes a lot of the stress off of us homeschool moms. My thoughts exactly! Just getting through WWE will put our kids ahead of most of their peers. Not that I will be content stopping there, but it does give a certain push to keep on keeping on with my non-mainstream ways. I truly do wonder what the worth of a high school diploma (and even a bach degree) will be worth in the next 10-30 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chepyl Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I remember sitting next to a boy in forth grade, he could not read well and should have been held back, but they did not do that for self confidence in the kids. We took a quiz, for which he could not read or understand the questions or answers. Then we traded with out neighboors....he graded mine and I graded his. He missed every question, I got them all right. But he could not read the letters a-d for the multiple choice answers, so he did what I did and marked all of mine wrong! I took our papers to the teacher and showed her the papers....she fixed mine and we never graded each others papers in class again. He was promoted to the fifth grade with everyone else. That was over 20 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 No..... the disaster our schools have become is reason number 1 and 2. Not sure if it is the academic or the moral disaster that comes first. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleWMN Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Wow, I've been stressing about my 5th grader. I now see I have no need to stress. Good grief! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootsie Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I was in a meeting with university professors this week. One professor was talking about how much she challenged her students who are juniors and seniors in college. She said, "I give them an assignment the second week of class, and by the end of the semester they are writing an entire paragraph!" Of course, these same students were expected to write stories in kindergarten, before they even knew how to spell basic words (or even write all of their letters). Somehow it seems like a Benjamin Button experience... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlkmnsgrl Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 So what I'd like to know is the response in, say, 1950 to that year's Regents. Maybe just for gee-wiz factor, but did they think that was too easy/difficult? The changes in these exams is like a micro-history of education reform through the decades--I wonder how much our attitudes have changed. There's nothing new about this; it can't be blamed on recent initiatives. I think the biggest change is that when I was young, a lot of people weren't really expected to become literate and it wasn't considered a big problem. Now, we don't want to admit that some folks just aren't going to cut it. Maybe over time this new attitude will make a difference, but not in the short run. :iagree: Now we're in a culture of "everyone's special so noone is" and tend to genuinely believe that every kid sh/c/would go to college. I don't think every kid wants to go to college, let alone should try for an Ivy League (or something of that ilk). There are perfectly respectable and incredibly necessary careers that have nothing to do with "higher" education--how do all these white collar folks expect to live their upper-middle class lifestyle without construction workers, miners, truck drivers, farm laborers, etc? I graduated from a high school in TN and was one of the few from a family with parents who'd attended college. Many of my classmates were first time high school graduates but their parents probably make more money and have lived a more stable and less stressful life than have mine who are highly educated academically but not at all successful in the basics of money management, being content with your lot in life, and not-talking-back-to-the-boss. Sorry for the soap box, off topic, I guess, but instead of dumbing this whole educational system down for everyone, why can't we just accept that we're a diverse bunch of people in academic ways in addition to the oft-emphasized ethnic/racial/religious ways? Urgh. If my kid wants to be an engineer, great. If he wants to pour cement, great. What supports a family or otherwise brings him satisfaction is what will ultimately bring me peace...though I'll be the first to admit, I know I'll brag more if he's an engineer. That's the problem with today's attitudes (and I'm young so I'm a product of them). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 There could be some things not being said here. If we are talking about NYC we may very well be referring to someone who is ESL. Anyone above beginning ESL would be required to take that test, even if he/she had only been in the country for one year. I would be hard pressed to analyze a poem in Portuguese after only one year in the country. I taught high school ESL for years and I could easily see this type of writing coming from my 2nd year students. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 There's some test you have to take to qualify to graduate from California schools. I remember sitting for it my senior year (1995) and just being horrified because it seemed to consist of material from somewhere between 4th and 7th grade. And of course most of the other students in the hall were laboring heavily over it. I don't say this to toot my horn all, it just amazing to me that what seemed to be simple math and reading were all that was required! (Is the GED challenging? Just curious.) For that matter, I wasn't horribly prepared when I got to college, I had most of the basic skills down, but when I look back, I realize there was so much more that I should have and could have known going in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) That's pretty horrible. Is this strictly NYC, where the poorest of the poor and immigrants attend public school, or is it representative of the entire state? Is there a way to see how the private school students are doing? Or how the students of more affluent areas of NYC fair? NYC is a place of the richest and the poorest. There is not much middle ground in Manhattan, unless you include the homeschoolers, who would not be respresented in this testing. WHat is happening in the Brooklyn areas of Cobble Hill or Park Slope, for instance? Many of those children attend public schools. Many are hs'd. Which is not to say educational standards are not slipping. Edited February 8, 2012 by LibraryLover Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cindergretta Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I was petrified to read the link lest my dc didn't measure up. (I often feel like I am the worst hs'er on this board...) Wow, imagine (or is that imagen??????) my shock at how SMART my 3rd grader looks now. That was really scary. Or depressing. Or both. <sigh> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Well I think I just upgraded my 8th graders writing from 'remedial' to college professor. That is HORRIBLE! My 4th grader looked at that and said "You would make me do that over again, is that supposed to be a final copy??" How sad. SO glad I homeschool!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlkmnsgrl Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 There could be some things not being said here. If we are talking about NYC we may very well be referring to someone who is ESL. Anyone above beginning ESL would be required to take that test, even if he/she had only been in the country for one year. I would be hard pressed to analyze a poem in Portuguese after only one year in the country. I taught high school ESL for years and I could easily see this type of writing coming from my 2nd year students. I think this is exactly the point! How are they hoping to accomplish ANYTHING with an exam (and with teaching to an exam) that has to accommodate such a diversity of people?! I know nothing about NY or the local diplomas the article mentioned, but I'm guessing that the local diplomas would more easily accommodate situations like an ESL student so that the Regents could go on being whatever traditionally higher standard it seems to have been. But they probably decided that it was hurting people's feelings and that everybody's self esteem was more important than allowing our children to understand that situations differ and there's nothing wrong with that. This said, my dh the public health student is over here groaning because higher education is associated with better health--so how could I want to allow for all this diversity that adversely affects the population's health? But I'm an anthropologist--I say bring on the diversity! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caitilin Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Is the GED challenging? Just curious. No; I took the whole thing in two hours. Easy, and scored high. But, I was homeschooled too, so surely I had an advantage? ;):D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrappyhappymama Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Now we're in a culture of "everyone's special so noone is" and tend to genuinely believe that every kid sh/c/would go to college. I don't think every kid wants to go to college, let alone should try for an Ivy League (or something of that ilk). There are perfectly respectable and incredibly necessary careers that have nothing to do with "higher" education--how do all these white collar folks expect to live their upper-middle class lifestyle without construction workers, miners, truck drivers, farm laborers, etc? I graduated from a high school in TN and was one of the few from a family with parents who'd attended college. Many of my classmates were first time high school graduates but their parents probably make more money and have lived a more stable and less stressful life than have mine who are highly educated academically but not at all successful in the basics of money management, being content with your lot in life, and not-talking-back-to-the-boss. Sorry for the soap box, off topic, I guess, but instead of dumbing this whole educational system down for everyone, why can't we just accept that we're a diverse bunch of people in academic ways in addition to the oft-emphasized ethnic/racial/religious ways? Urgh. If my kid wants to be an engineer, great. If he wants to pour cement, great. What supports a family or otherwise brings him satisfaction is what will ultimately bring me peace...though I'll be the first to admit, I know I'll brag more if he's an engineer. That's the problem with today's attitudes (and I'm young so I'm a product of them). :iagree: This is why I genuinely believe there should be different tracks for different kids at the high school level. I know people generally hate this idea, because everyone should have the same opportunities to succeed. But are we really doing a service to anyone by dumbing down the standards so much that the tests are meaningless for college prep students and still too difficult for struggling students. I know there would still be a lot of issues to be worked out, but anything would be better than this middling carp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silliness7 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 (edited) Hey, I TOOK those! Let's see... I took Regents' exams in U.S. History (1989, and I still remember that I got a perfect score), "Course I-Course III" (required high school math sequence, 1986-1988, followed by precalc and calc which weren't Regents subjects), Earth Science (1986), Biology (1987), Chemistry (1988), and Physics (1989). Oh, and French (1990). So that means that the VERY EXAMS that I took are on this site?! Oh, wow. Thanks! I remember the Regent's exams. Not fondly. :tongue_smilie: I transferred into the NYS school system my junior year of highschool and took almost all of my regent's exams my junior year. (1989) It was absolutely hideous!!! Only thing I remember is that I got an A on all of them (shameless brag - although after reading the samples that might not be such an amazing thing to do :)) and got a cool sticker on my Regent's diploma which is hiding in a box somewhere. I remember feeling like the Chemistry test had kicked my butt but lucky for me someone had broken into the vault in Albany and stolen the exam or answers or something, disqualifying the test. Instead of making all of us retake it they just gave us the grade we got in the class. Otherwise I would have broken my winning streak with that one. Ugh!! Edited February 8, 2012 by silliness7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Oh my! I wouldn't accept that writing sample from my third grader much less a high school senior. I'm not surprised. I think these same declining standards maybe true of online schools. :confused: Is there any hope for public education? :iagree: Aack, I was reading some of those writing samples and thinking to myself, " My second grader could do that." Here I am worried that my reluctant writer is going to be very behind unless I really keep our feet to the flames. Go figure. Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 On the plus side, those of us homeschooling children older than age 8 or 9 can quit now. My DH is a high school teacher. The other day he was playing with the kids and he taught them the names of all the continents. After they repeated them back to him he said "There you go -now you are smarter then all my 8th graders because none of them can tell me that" :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirch Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 :iagree: This is why I genuinely believe there should be different tracks for different kids at the high school level. I know people generally hate this idea, because everyone should have the same opportunities to succeed. But are we really doing a service to anyone by dumbing down the standards so much that the tests are meaningless for college prep students and still too difficult for struggling students. I know there would still be a lot of issues to be worked out, but anything would be better than this middling carp. I think tracks totally make sense. And as long as the kids/parents are allowed to choose their own tracks (I think the schools should have prerequisites for some classes and offer guidance as to suggested tracks, but in the end it should be the student's/parent's choice), everyone would have the same opportunities. But aong with that would have to come the acceptance of the fact that it's sink or swim--and schools would have to buck up and be willing to let kids have the grades they actually earn. So if little Johnny's mom insists on putting him in college prep classes and he can't (or won't) hack it, he fails, even if they wail about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Honestly, I'm not a big fan of having to pass a rigorous test to graduate. For one thing, test anxiety means that some kids will never be able to test at the level of their actual day-to-day competence. Then you have the whole diversity thing - whether due to environment (e.g. ESL) or native ability, some people will have to work way harder than others to achieve a lesser result, and said result may be meaningless to them in substance. So frankly, I support having graduation tests be very basic (or not having them at all). I used to be a really good test-taker, never had test anxiety, everything came easy. It doesn't mean I deserved a diploma any more than the classmates who diligently studied every day just to have a chance at passing a basic course. You can't will a kid to be intelligent. Better to reward a diligent student's hard work than frustrate him in the name of high standards. Save the mastery testing for those who want to prove their superiority or follow intellectual tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 None of this surprises me. I've been working in our school district for 13 years now and have watched the decline along with the few teachers who are left who are eagerly awaiting the day they can retire due to the system. It's sad. I'm another who was in NY schools in the early 80's and took those regents tests. I never scored less than a 95 on any regents and often had 100s as did many of my more academically capable classmates (public school, rural county). Now, when we get a kid who tests "advanced" on our state tests (PA now), the teachers say, "Well, we don't have to worry about that one, let them do what they want while we work with the others." The Principal at our middle school back when my oldest was there flat out told us, "Public school isn't here for the talented academic student. They will succeed no matter what. Public school is here for the average academic student and around here the average student joins the military, goes to community college or works for _____." That was told to us the year before we started homeschooling. I wanted more for my guys. I don't regret it. And I'm getting really burned out with teaching - even subbing - myself. I'm actively looking for something else to do as my boys move on to college. I just don't like the current fads with teaching and I don't see where they are producing decent results - at least - not at our school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
delaney Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Can I just add this note about the Regents. Please don't be awed by them. They prep you so much that by the time you take them you have seen 75% of the questions on practice exams. I took them in the early 80's and clearly remember thinking, "Sweet! I did this essay in class already." They taught to the test back then as well. I don't think I missed more than 3 questions on an exam and that was Chemistry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unscripted Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Oh wow. That's all I can come up with. Just wow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 :iagree: This is why I genuinely believe there should be different tracks for different kids at the high school level. I know people generally hate this idea, because everyone should have the same opportunities to succeed. But are we really doing a service to anyone by dumbing down the standards so much that the tests are meaningless for college prep students and still too difficult for struggling students. I know there would still be a lot of issues to be worked out, but anything would be better than this middling carp. Well, I object to the term "track".... (In my head, the word might as well be "rut" :tongue_smilie:) BUT- the high school ds is supposed to be in next year has multiple levels for every academic class; remedial, academic, college prep, honors, and then AP. I do have issues with the grading aspect of their system, but I like that their set up is flexible enough to allow for, say, academic science with AP math or english (says the lady who was awful in science!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 The sad thing is the powers that be will not do anything to improve the system. A sadder thing is, if they do try to "improve" the system, it will make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theguptas Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Here is a very shocking article on how standardized tests are scored for the writing portions. http://www.citypages.com/2011-02-23/news/inside-the-multimillion-dollar-essay-scoring-business/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 ETA2: Also, a commenter linked a fascinating resource: long-ago Regents exams for NYState, downloadable as pdfs for your perusal. Wow. They are...challenging! I can't imagine most students today could pass them. Here's the link if you're interested in looking at them. I perused the Mathematics tests and the American History tests.....amazing. HOLY SMACKS! I downloaded the 1950 homemaking exam. This stuff is brilliant!!! Not to mention the first question is startling and prescient. I want my kids to ace this exam when they finish 9th grade -- it seems one would have so much common sense -- how to cook, how to organize, how to take care of themselves, how to remove stains! http://nysl.nysed.gov/Archimages/87584.PDF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 On the plus side, those of us homeschooling children older than age 8 or 9 can quit now. I'm not trying to raise Doogie Howser here. No need to push the kids to be so far ahead. :001_huh: :confused: If it wasn't true....It would be funny....sigh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 HOLY SMACKS! I downloaded the 1950 homemaking exam. This stuff is brilliant!!! Not to mention the first question is startling and prescient. I want my kids to ace this exam when they finish 9th grade -- it seems one would have so much common sense -- how to cook, how to organize, how to take care of themselves, how to remove stains! http://nysl.nysed.gov/Archimages/87584.PDF I think I am going to use this as a curriculum for ME!....lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I think I am going to use this as a curriculum for ME!....lol I wonder what books were used? Seriously, it's pretty impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 There's some test you have to take to qualify to graduate from California schools. I remember sitting for it my senior year (1995) and just being horrified because it seemed to consist of material from somewhere between 4th and 7th grade. And of course most of the other students in the hall were laboring heavily over it. ! I took that test in 1983 as an 8th grader, and passed. Then I moved to GA and took an easier test in the 9th grade, and passed. Then I moved to FL and took an even easier test in the 10th grade, and passed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 I am all for tracking. At my son's high school, students are tracked according to ability (testing, prior work) and recommendations (student, parents, teacher). The school places students but allows them to move up or down one track, but if they can't cut it, they move down. My son's English class began with 24 or so kids and was reduced to 12 by the end of first quarter. The removed students got their chance but were poorly placed -- and of those students all of them were there because of parental requests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Wow, this is just sad--not that this is what level of work some people are capable of, but that the diploma issued for this level of work is the same as for the AP student. No wonder college is a prerequisite to a good job these days. There will always be those on the higher and lower ends academically. IMO, where that becomes a problem is when we shoot to the middle instead of tailoring education for at least a few different levels. Here is a very shocking article on how standardized tests are scored for the writing portions. http://www.citypages.com/2011-02-23/news/inside-the-multimillion-dollar-essay-scoring-business/ This is just scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Now, when we get a kid who tests "advanced" on our state tests (PA now), the teachers say, "Well, we don't have to worry about that one, let them do what they want while we work with the others." The Principal at our middle school back when my oldest was there flat out told us, "Public school isn't here for the talented academic student. They will succeed no matter what. Public school is here for the average academic student and around here the average student joins the military, goes to community college or works for _____." That was told to us the year before we started homeschooling. I wanted more for my guys. I don't regret it. And now, there is research to prove them wrong... declining numbers of kids prepared for, let alone entering, STEM fields (among other things). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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