COLLEGE BOUND
In January, I read an article titled “New Education Data shows thousands of Pennsylvania High School Graduates Head to College Unprepared.” It states that “One in three Pennsylvania high school graduates who enrolls in a state-owned university or community college cannot pass a first-year college math or English course ….” http://www.pdenewsroom.state.pa.us/newsroom/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=148018
The State suggests adopting statewide graduation requirements. Our students already have so many assessment/tests throughout the school year. Maybe that is the problem, to many assessments/tests and not enough uninterrupted daily instruction. What should be done to help our graduates?
The State suggests adopting statewide graduation requirements. Our students already have so many assessment/tests throughout the school year. Maybe that is the problem, to many assessments/tests and not enough uninterrupted daily instruction. What should be done to help our graduates?
Labels: ASSESSMENTS, COLLEGE, GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS
posted by Nikki Wells at
4:00 PM
6 Comments:
My question is why are they unprepared? Do colleges and schools need to do a better job of communicating about what the expectations are? Or is it possible that some kids are going to college because it's "expected" instead of because they want to. If that's the case, maybe we need to do a better job of helping them figure out what they want to do and how they can do that.
My son was top in his class and excelled in whatever subject he was addressing. However, although he passed the English and foreign language placement tests in his private, liberal arts college, he could not pass the math. He feels it was because the high school instructor was not able to cover all the college-needed aspects due to the time involved covering the PSSA-needed aspects. On the other hand, the PSSA English related aspects probably helped him pass that test. Go figure.
Most of the standardized tests students are given provide schools with very detailed breakdowns of the results. It is possible to track very closely what specific topics caused problems. Results can be tracked to classes, sub-groups of student, etc. and tracked from year to year. In theory, this is intended to make review or tutoring more focused and to allow schools to adapt curriculum to the expected content & standards. In the long run it should lead to adaptations in the course material covered, the time spent on certain topics, and even the teaching methods. However, the administration of a school must "own" the process and a District has to be able to provide training to teachers in how to interpret and use the data to improve classroom teaching. When everyone, from School Board and Superintendent to students and parents, is committed to using test results to drive better instruction, change happens. When we all just give a sigh of relief that "that test is over" we will face the same problems year after year.
I don't have a unique and specific anecdotal reason to push this idea... but I would love for schools to focus more on teaching kids HOW to learn... as opposed to placing a limited scope of facts into their brains...
Teach them how to assimilate and interpret information... how to read critically... how to envision how math works... and then put that skill to practice in learning something specific...
There isn't a magic mix of information that kids absolutely have to know... You all are aware of that old refrain "I'm never going to use this in REAL life..." That is true... you probably won't need to be able to figure out 13% of what number is 82... but having the correct mental infrastructure to make the connections between abstract ideas and tangible measures of quantity ARE useful...
It's not so much about knowing what the square root of 8714 is... but more "do you know what a square root is?" "Do you understand the concept of a square root?" "Can you interpret what I want from you, even if you cannot mentally acquire the answer?"
With those bases covered, the person can utilize the technology that we have available to find out what the square root of 8714 is. And they will know that the answer has to be substantially smaller than 8714 because the answer multiplied by itself will equal 8714... therefore, if they square 8714 and end up with 75,933,796... they will know that they did something wrong... and not just report that answer because it's what the calculator said.
Ah Ha! As suspected 75,933,796 is 8714 squared! (the square root btw is 93.3488) Apparently, I was paying attention in school.
I sure as heck hope you didn't do that in your head :-)
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