American Kids Are Graduating From High School At R... - Page 13

Stray · ‎04-20-2013

@LTT1 wrote:
@Noel7 @SaRina @stevieb @italia8140 @Hayfield

Here is what I SAW happen in my state up to and including 2014-2015:

1) "The word" from colleges/universities was that incoming students were lacking in writing skills, critical thinking skills and study (homework) skills.
2) The term "lower caliber" was used to refer to incoming university classes.

So, of course, they were appealing to the elementary and high schools to concentrate on development of these.

3) Educational institutions were in a "catch 22" -- at first, $$ was thrown at satisfying "Annual Yearly Progress" (whatever that is)

4) "Students MUST pass the state assessment in order to graduate" (oops-- wait a minute-- too many did not pass) Now what?

5) Students who cannot pass the state assessment may participate in commencement activities and receive a "certificate of completion" (as opposed to diploma)

6) oops! This certificate idea has been determined to be unfair and illegal???

7)

Let's drop the state assessment.....what? Some have!

Stray · ‎04-20-2013

@60sgirl wrote:
an interesting article in the NY Times speaks about the "success" of graduation rates.

It does illustrate what some have talked about on this thread i.e. lowering standards and pushing students through who are neither educated nor ready for college or the working world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/us/as-graduation-rates-rise-experts-fear-standards-have-fallen.htm...

The higher graduation rates show no coorelation to success. Standards are being lowered and drop outs and students transferred to alternative schools are not counted in a school stats. i.e. In NJ our graduation rate is 88% but performance on SATs and performance in college very much lower. We also have some of the Country's worst schools...The purpose of high school is to prepare the child with skills to be successful in life be it a trade or college ready....graduation rates are manipulated as many studies are. It is not the children and I find today's young people to be very bright and extroidinary in some cases but they think in a different way and must be taught in a different way. The disparity for graduation rates among children with disabilities or poor communities is reported at 20% but I suspect it is higher.

60sgirl · ‎11-24-2014

@Stray wrote:
@60sgirl wrote:
an interesting article in the NY Times speaks about the "success" of graduation rates.

It does illustrate what some have talked about on this thread i.e. lowering standards and pushing students through who are neither educated nor ready for college or the working world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/us/as-graduation-rates-rise-experts-fear-standards-have-fallen.htm...
The higher graduation rates show no coorelation to success. Standards are being lowered and drop outs and students transferred to alternative schools are not counted in a school stats. i.e. In NJ our graduation rate is 88% but performance on SATs and performance in college very much lower. We also have some of the Country's worst schools...The purpose of high school is to prepare the child with skills to be successful in life be it a trade or college ready....graduation rates are manipulated as many studies are. It is not the children and I find today's young people to be very bright and extroidinary in some cases but they think in a different way and must be taught in a different way. The disparity for graduation rates among children with disabilities or poor communities is reported at 20% but I suspect it is higher.

I don't know what the issues are that can be fixed, but in many ways the advent of social media must have some blame in this. Instead of students learning to spell, perform math equations with pen to paper, they now have auto fix on computers, cell phones to look things up, seem to rarely be tested in reasoning skills and rely on "machines" to think for them. While technology in itself is not the devil in disguise, I do think that over the last 20-25 years we have seen critical thinking skills lacking on the job.

I took vet tech course after retiring and I was the only one who read all the textbook, put my practical skills to the test in clinical settings and graduated first in the class. Other than a few older people like me who actually were there to learn, the rest of the class spent most of their classtime texting people on their cellphones, never answered any questions in class and did very poorly on tests where they had to perform calculations like converting grams to milligrams, know how to properly fill syringes when required and did poorly when using math skills, all per the teacher who acted surprised, yet somehow must have been oblivious to so many of them texting during her class. And these are the people who are now working in vets offices attempting to give injections and draw blood on our pets. Except mine. I allow no one except the vet or his head tech who is trained and been doing this for 30 years to take care of my pets. I've seen some of those who "graduated" and would never trust them to properly calculate medicine or vaccines for my pets.

I'm done with P.C. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. It's easier.

wildcat fan · ‎03-23-2010

IMO the OP's stats are a sad statement of the times. This state has parted ways with Common Core to bring back low expectations. This state has done away with the high school exit exam (which was easier than exit exams given in neighboring states), so no wonder more students are graduating. Local grading policies and bully principals have ensured no one fails. A kid could do absolutely nothing and still receive 60% on the report card per school policy. In essence, a kid just has to do mediocre work 1/4 of the year and still be able to pass due to grading policies, and most students have figured that out. May as well post stats about how behavior has improved too, but in reality we know it's because the local teachers aren't sending disruptive kids out of the classroom because they've been told they are the ones with the problems if they can't handle difficult students.

hckynutjohn · ‎06-15-2015

@60sgirl wrote:
I will add that my son is a well respected journalist and often tells me that the articles on a lot of sites are not even written by "real" journalists but often are opinion pieces biased by the author,

A true journalist collects facts and prints the facts and quotes from the who and where with no bias. This article seems to be more facts and less bias so I enjoyed reading it.

True journalism, in my opinion, is dying with each passing of true journalists. Nowadays it's being the FIRST to get a story out. Some times the facts get in the way of being FIRST!

hckynut(john)

Stray · ‎04-20-2013

@hckynutjohn wrote:
@60sgirl wrote:
I will add that my son is a well respected journalist and often tells me that the articles on a lot of sites are not even written by "real" journalists but often are opinion pieces biased by the author,

A true journalist collects facts and prints the facts and quotes from the who and where with no bias. This article seems to be more facts and less bias so I enjoyed reading it.

True journalism, in my opinion, is dying with each passing of true journalists. Nowadays it's being the FIRST to get a story out. Some times the facts get in the way of being FIRST!

hckynut(john)

There is little integrity in journalism today.