standards and circular logic

As a college composition professor and director of a large writing program, I can say that the out standards of “good writing” in college writing classes go far beyond what these ACT standards outline. Good writers know how to analyze their audience’s expectations, and the expectations of all college audiences start with content, not punctuation, synax, and structure. A perfectly punctuated and well organized paper that says nothing is not useful, after all.These standards are also clearly defined in the Council of Writing Program Administrators Outcomes for First-Year Writing (http://wpacouncil.org/positions/outcomes.html).

Applying the “critical thinking and reading” mentioned in the WPA Outcomes to the ACT report also reveals some glaring circular logic. How does ACT know that students aren’t prepared? Because the assessment measures which they design and market tell them so. How can students become more prepared? Ultimately, by purchasing their curriculum.

Linda Adler-Kassner, Director of First-Year Writing/Assoc. Prof at Eastern Michigan University, at 8:30 am EDT on May 8, 2006

ACT math

A big problem with ACT in math is that students are allowed the use of any calculator and are given a formula sheet that includes even the area of a rectangle. This was likely done for forstall cheating. But many (not all) high school math teachers tell their students that they do not have to know basic facts, like the area of a circle, and they allow high powered calculators on all of their tests. We get students who cannot do 1/(1/2) = 2. How does one teach them to understand the graph of y=1/x ? I routinely get students who do not know how to find the volume of a cube.

Well, I off to give my calculus final. There won’t be any formula sheets or graphing calculators!

Mike, at 10:40 am EDT on May 8, 2006

And, I continue to mention, HS GPA is still the best predictor of success in College. And, this continues to beg the question: Why have standardized tests continued to fail to adequately describe students’ performance in the schools?

As Jonathan Weisman noted “The scenario is almost laughable. A military and economic superpower is brought to its knees by a poorly educated work force.” 1993

Hmmm, any change? “The students being produced by our schools today are arguably smarter, more sophisticated in their knowledge, and better prepared for the new information age than in previous generations.” M Cecil Smith, 2000

Curious? One reviewer of the SAT in the Mental Measurements Yearbook observed “One fact in the [SAT] Handbook is noteworthy because of the furore about the ‘decline of SAT’ in self-selected samples: Norms for the preliminary SAT showed no downward trend from 1960 to 1983″.

Back to Weisman: ” Studies of the most sophisticated U.S. corporations have consistently failed to find a shortage of skilled labor. Instead, what has emerged is a picture of Corporate America hiding decades of mismanagement behind the presumed faults of the education system”

Steven Boone, at 12:45 pm EDT on May 8, 2006

Plea from a student

As a person that only graduated from high school only five years ago (2001), I have a have quite a lot to say about my education thus far. I attended an excellent school district in an upper-middle class neighborhood the mid-Atlantic region, so how would I say I feel about my educational experience? To but it simply, I feel cheated.

Why would I, as one of the U.S.’s privileged students, complain about my schooling? Because even though I was fortunate compared to my American peers, I still felt under whelmed with the level of content taught in both my elementary and secondary schools, especially in the areas of math, science, foreign languages and non-U.S. history and culture. I was, by no means, among the most academically gifted in my classes, but even still, I never felt challenged the curriculum.

In every encounter I have had to discuss educational standards with international students and scholars, I have been slapped with the reality that the U.S. is not asking enough of its youth. Our curriculum is not globally competitive, nor does it foster the potential of our youth. Children innately wish to learn, but it seems like along the way, something is hindering our youth’s academic success.

I am by no means blaming the schools because I think they are doing the well under the circumstances of having limited resources and time, but I believe everyone that thinks the status quo is working must put politics and personal opinions aside in order to reflect on how we can improve the education of our next generation. The degree of failure of our educational system is debatable, but if there is even a slight chance that it may jeopardize the next generation of Americans’ ability to be meet the standards of our workforce or institutions of higher education, then something must be done.

S. Raible, Graduate Student/Researcher at GSE, University of Pennsylvania, at 4:50 pm EDT on May 8, 2006