SAT Reading and Math Scores Show Decline 4374
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Anne & Lynn Wheeler,
Whereas I think the problem is much simpler. I was educated in school. I was also educated at home. My...
Presuming for a moment that the results have been "normalized" to the new test (no simple matter, and no indication that they have actually done this), and that they have adjusted for the many kids who are not now taking them because they raised the prices, then, the next question you must ask yourself is "Is this a bad thing"?!
Oh no, I did not simply mean book learning. I meant ALL learning. I grew up in Brooklyn, where I met...
There are now tens of thousands of children who are being "unschooled" where they engage in independent study and research with NO CURRICULUM! These kids consistently do better later on in life because they are prepared in their areas of interest. However, they often test lower on standardized tests which test to a particular long-obsolete curriculum.
Reading: Kids are taught to read a particular reduced vocabulary throughout school - their text books must all be restricted to that vocabulary. Other words they guess at, often wrongly. Many good students are nearly unable to read a newspaper!
Math: Here, you can still get a college *MATH* degree without ever learning that 1.0-3.0 is NOT 0.33333333 like your calculator says, or how to add numbers by using their logarithms! I got a perfect 800 on the College Entrance Examination Board's advanced math test, yet my SAT math score was less than stellar! Why? I still did arithmetic on my fingers!
Anne & Lynn Wheeler IMHO the "dumbing down" and educational declines were worst in the 1970s as a result of various social factors*. In the 1980s standards began to rise back...
I homeschooled my kids, who are now WAY more capable than anyone else they know. My daughter got a tech job, quickly rose up through the ranks, and is now in the process of transferring to the national corporate office to manage several offices like the one she hired into. She is now 21 years old! In so doing she has pbutted literally thousands of other people, many with degrees, and some with advanced degrees. THAT is the sort of test that REALLY counts, not a curriculum-specific test like the SAT. Fortunately she found an employer who promoted based on ability rather than degrees.
so in the original post referenced several previous posts mentioning some aspects of the subject. a few of the previously mentioned posts...
BTW, we used the SAT study guide as part of our unschooling, but she has yet to actually take the SAT. Why bother?!
Steve Richfie1d