Interesting Survey results on College Prep

[MarkT]

see www.achieve.org    then rising challenge powerpoint

 

(once again lost ability to paste links in IE for this site,

so somebody else can add the direct link)

 

  How about student responsibility?   In 2014 more students want to be spoon fed??

 

  This is one most important issue I push on my current 9th grader.   It is not my HW, papers, etc to do and it is for his future not mine.

 

update with link using Chrome:

http://www.achieve.org/rising-challenge-powerpoint

 

 

[MarkT]

Ime, it is very difficult for students to take their study skills and use them wisely. There are a host of minor difficulties, but the major issue is that there is no classwork, and so much homework that there is no time left for study. Aside from math, the gen ed hw is arts and crafts projects designed to give the included the feeling that they are on par with their classmates. There is little reading. So, instead of studying for ex.,foreign language vocab, that time will be filled with making a menu or some such time consuming project that leaves no time to study. In my day, one could finish classwork and do hw in study hall, then use the evening for actual study.

 

 

Lastly, its the parents. They know the government job they have picked out for jr doesnt require anything more than the basics.

 

Let me just quote the gen ed student response to NHS invitations...'x, you dont need to work that hard. Thats dumb.' It doesnt get any better.

I don't disagree with your statements about busy work - arts and crafts etc that can be fixed - but I believe the assignments for academic subjects should be the directed study of the material, do math and science problems,  research and write papers, etc (some high schools don't have even have study hall periods) 

 

What do you mean by "actual study"?  My 9th grader (somewhat immature - typical 14 y.o boy) will only study for his tests outside of the assigned HW.  He will read other texts etc to help do the HW if his school text is unclear.

[TechWife]

I had a big long response written out, but my computer logged me out of the site and I lost it. I'll try to summarize, because I don't think I can do that again! 

 

My observations: 

This is an extremely small sample size given the number of people who graduated from high school during the applicable years. 

 

There are no definitions - what is a "gap?" What does "better" mean? What is "higher level?" There are more, but you get the idea.

 

The students reported significant "gaps," yet didn't think their high schools should have done a "better" job preparing them for the future. Interesting.

Does that mean they recognize that they didn't apply themselves in high school? 

 

One interesting statistic is that these students reported gaps, but they reported a smaller gap in their ability to read and apply complicated material. I think those things go hand-in-hand. Reading comprehension is the basis of all learning. I wonder if they are over-estimating their ability in this area? 

 

Overall, edu-crats talk a good game. Unless they are willing to reconsider their budgets and get rid of the superfluous, then they won't have either the funds or the justification to raise taxes in order to carry out their proposed solutions. Money isn't the answer to everything, but without sound financial principles, proposed solutions are just talk. To me, this presentation is the equivalent of saying "Let's go on a cruise together" and expecting everyone to just be able to show up. 

 

 

First of all, if an intelligent person has an important point to make, an essay or opinion article is a much better medium than a powerpoint slide show.  I must confess that I'm rolling in the irony of a complaint about the dumbing-down of schools formatted as bullet points, superfluously 3-d graphs, sentence fragments and other chart junk. 

 

What really strikes me about my local Lake Wobegon "everyone is above average" schools is the lack of individual textbooks and reading books.  I was chatting with a friend of mine who has a public high school senior, and she was running out to the bookstore to buy  a copy of Orwell's 1984, which her daughter was reading in English.  The daughter wanted to read ahead, but they only had enough copies of the book to stay in the classroom.  If you can't bring your assigned text home, how are you supposed to study from it, or write a decent essay?  How are you supposed to learn these study skills if you don't have much to study from?

[bettyandbob]

First of all, if an intelligent person has an important point to make, an essay or opinion article is a much better medium than a powerpoint slide show.  I must confess that I'm rolling in the irony of a complaint about the dumbing-down of schools formatted as bullet points, superfluously 3-d graphs, sentence fragments and other chart junk. 

 

What really strikes me about my local Lake Wobegon "everyone is above average" schools is the lack of individual textbooks and reading books.  I was chatting with a friend of mine who has a public high school senior, and she was running out to the bookstore to buy  a copy of Orwell's 1984, which her daughter was reading in English.  The daughter wanted to read ahead, but they only had enough copies of the book to stay in the classroom.  If you can't bring your assigned text home, how are you supposed to study from it, or write a decent essay?  How are you supposed to learn these study skills if you don't have much to study from

I'm going off topic here, because I frequently hear this excuse for students not learning proper study skills. 

 

My older dc have  been in public high school. 

 

For things like novels, students are encouraged to purchase their own copy. In part, so they can annotate it. Annotation is taught in 9th and 10th grades and teachers check the books periodically to see if it's done. If you do not have a copy and cannot purchase your own copy the school does have books you can check for the length of the unit. You will have to use post its to do your annotation. Very few students do not buy their own copy. The list of books with ISBNs to be used in the next year's English classes is published in the summer, so families have time to find books used. Students are encouraged to read as much as they can in the summer because doing so makes it easier to proceed at the class pace when it is time to read the novel for class unit. Some people buy all the books new, some people find them from various sources used (used book store, amazon used books, older siblings and neighbors). Sometimes teachers have managed to round up extra free copies. This is a school where over a third of the student qualify for free lunch, but everyone manages to have a book to bring home to study. 

 

In other classes textbooks are mostly online. The school library is open late for student computer use. The public library has computers. The school district has a program set up for students to get computer access at home. So, all students should have access to course textbooks through online sources afterschool hours.

 

This school is not rolling in money, but all students have access to study materials outside of classroom hours. It really bothers me that other districts cannot seem to figure out how to do that.  

 

Having students read a novel during class time is an incredibly inefficient use of class time. Perhaps read excerpts to highlight in class discussion, but to read a whole novel over the course of weeks is just a waste of time when there are so many skills that need to be taught in English class. 

[MarkT]

First of all, if an intelligent person has an important point to make, an essay or opinion article is a much better medium than a powerpoint slide show.  I must confess that I'm rolling in the irony of a complaint about the dumbing-down of schools formatted as bullet points, superfluously 3-d graphs, sentence fragments and other chart junk. 

 

 

Nobody reads any more that is so last century   :glare: