Educational Issues

» tinemarie - Fascinating

Your blog on college entrance trends was very interseting! Public schools are so test-oriented now, that this seems to be becoming our students' biggest asset! Loss of creativity is a bad thing for society.
Even though the focus was not test taking when I was in school, it was still about the GPA. I knew lots of smart kids who only took easy classes to have a good GPA. I liked to challenge myself. I ended up somewhere around 170 out of a class of about 1000. Not bad, but waaaay behind all my other "AP" and "advanced class" friends, who padded their schedules with blow-off classes. I even dropped out of National Honor Society because all anyone cared about was their transcripts and how good they looked with all their activities. I found an alternative group that really cared about doing good to take their place.
Anyways - great blog!

-- posted by tinemarie

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» Barbara Pytel - Fascinating

In response to Fascinating posted by tinemarie:

The wheels of education turn very slowly and many schools will cling to the past practices for a very long time. But, it does look like change is coming.

What is also changing is the number of students entering college. We are in a "boom" right now and colleges are being selective. However, in a few years, applications will level off and begin to decline. What then?

Locally, I see top students saying "No, thank you" to Physics, Chemistry, and Trig because they want to have honors at graduation. This produces a valedictorian with an ACT of 22 because the classes were not taken to boost the score higher. The g.p.a. was 4.0. Other students had scores of 26 and 28 but held lower grade point averages.

Students with inflated grades will soon experience reality in college and regret focusing on only grades.

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» Lynn1969 - Fascinating

In response to Fascinating posted by pytel:

Many states are moving to require students to take higher level maths and sciences in high school. Texas, where I live and work, will now require 4 years of math and science in order for a student to graduate. Students won't be able to "opt" into another program without cause as this will be the standard curriculum.

Will college applications decline? Maybe. But I doubt they'll decline significantly.

Will students not be able to meet entrance requirements? They'll have to if the U.S. Department of Ed. has its way--they're moving to force states to have college bound curriculums as the primary high school diploma program.

Grade inflation? It doesn't end in high school. Its just as bad in college.

This is why admissions offices look at much more than test scores and GPA, even those that DO count these things.

-- posted by Lynn1969

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» Irene Taylor - Testing!

Very interesting discussion on the importance of testing, GPA, and graduation honors! I agree that there has been a huge importance placed on testing and grades, and in many cases to the detriment of education.

In the last years before I retired, our state instituted standardized state-wide tests for 4th graders. We spent most of the year preparing for the test! Nothing more! We had a principal who was relentless and we had to devote what I considered to be an inordinate amount of time to that one test!

Any actual learning or fun was squeezed in when there was time - and these were only 4th graders! I can only imagine the pressures on older students, and I can understand why some, in a society that does put great weight on GPA and class rank, might opt to take an easier way out.

In our area, some schools do name the "top ten" students, but they also have a valedictorian, so it does seem that progress is going to be slow.

I think that it would be a good thing if some of this test-oriented-ness would go by the wayside, but I fear that as long as teachers are pressured by administration, who is pressured by school boards, who have state and federal guidelines to meet, we will continue to have this situation.

Irene

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