I have a (6th grade) student who simply cannot divide. He also still thinks that you just add across the top and bottom when adding fractions (i.e., he thinks 1/2 + 1/3 is 2/5).
He got a level 3 on the state test. Mid-range at that. So, he (and many others) get to go home and show their parents their level 3, whereupon the family will wonder why they failed math for the year.
My school had less than ten level 1s in ELA, this despite rampant functional illiteracy. Out of 81 students, I had one level 1 in math, this despite rampant innumeracy.
The school, of course, can claim a resounding "success" and attract students based upon this "success". To sit and listen to this garbage is insulting.
It's so obvious that this is the State and politicians creating hard tests and then creating rubrics and scoring systems that guarantee high scores with little knowledge or ability....
Heck of a job, Brownie!
I believe the State went to far in dumbing down the test. How can all school districts report significant gains? Double-digits in poor urban areas. The answer came from a seventh grade teacher who said it looked like a fourth grade test.
Only the federal test seems to have any significance to the real academic ability of the nation's students.
I know what you mean about the 7th-grade teacher who said it looked like a 4th-gr. test.
About five years ago when I was still teaching in a mid-Manhattan MS, they ripped the classics out of the library and installed shelves and shelves of juvenile literature in their place. These found their way into classrooms as well.
It took about 10 seconds for the 8th-grade girls in my classes to put their noses in the air and announce they'd read them all before, in elementary school.
I can't wait for the immoral people in charge of our school system to hightail it outa here.
Commenting by HaloScan
