Have kids? Don't let them text all the time, and play stupid video games- make them read. What's one of the biggest differences between this generation and previous generations? Reading. What does the SAT primarily test, even in the math problems? Reading. Kids are simply not putting in the time reading that they once did- too many other distractions. I'm absolutely sure that this is the major problem. I'd wager our families net worth on it.
nea.gov
- Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier. Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from nine percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004.1
- On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading.2
Oh dear, oh dear, why oh why might our SAT scored be dropping" Have half a brain?- look at the data above. Duh
The school cannot educate a child who is not interested in eduction, and education begins with self education. As an English teacher I have students for 70 minutes a day- I try to fill every one of those 70 minutes with writing, reading, and technical exercises. I have to be incredibly creative to do that, and I'm on my feet the entire day, going from desk to desk, trying to redirect students who don't stay on task, and managing questions. It's not reasonable to expect that of every school employee- because no business, or agency, has employees that are 100% committed. I'm sure we all wish all workers were passionate, but they are not. Teachers seem to be more passionate, on average, than other workers I've met, but they are not magicians. After those 70 minutes are over, it's up to the kids to read, and increase their fluency, and vocabularies. If they don't do that, they will suck on the SAT- which is primarily a reading test. Folks whine, and politicize schooling- but imo, it's chiefly about the simple fact that the entertainment technology offers is making our kids stupid. Facebook? It's reading, but the vocabulary is so limited it's pretty much worthless. Video games? Pretty much worthless. Texting? Please. This is not only limited, and moronic, it's also bleeding over in to writing- and that's non-standard English. The way you communicate is the way you think- and teens are just not communicating at a high enough level. All the students I know, who read, kick ass on the SAT. My own children, who are, like most, captivated by technology, are at least readers (my son because I initially bribed him). All of us, from the past, from the present, in the future, learn more from reading than we can ever learn in a class for a few hours a day. What teachers CAN do is try ti inspire kids to read, and try to teach kids how to learn, if they want to learn. But as for the morons who see the public school system as broken? Get a grip. The school system is fine, for the most part (in general the teachers now seem more engaging than when I was in school, and the material is faster paced- what I learned in college, is now in high school)- the kids, and their "entertainment" have changed dramatically, and more declines are ahead if kids don't start reading again. I also think the NCLB is a red herring too. It's the reading, stupid. If we could get the kids' reading levels back to where they were 20 years ago, their test scores would probably be higher than ours were- because school, I think, is actually better. That's probably why there hasn't been more slippage than we are seeing here.
And guess what we do in AP English? Read read read. How many books? About 3 or 4 a month- required. My class had to read 3 books for summer reading (Poisonwood Bible, Dorian Gray, Scarlet Pimpernel). Now they are finishing Inferno for Friday, and starting 4 of Chaucer's tales for next Friday. After that we read Scarlet Letter and Pride and Prejudice. Then it's on to Catch 22 and the Oresteia. We will do all this in 3 1/2 months. Could your average high school student do this? No. Not in a million years. They just can't read. And I mean can't, not won't. Reading is a process that builds on itself, and if you don't start when you are supposed to, and if you don't somewhat educate yourself, you can't possibly come up to speed fast, without an incredible personal effort- which most teens just are not willing to make.
But for your own personal kids- you can solve this. It's as simple as books in their hands. Get them to read any way you can. Pay them. Give them "credits" for other activities if they read. Always have a book in the car for down time. Do they want to get out of chores? If they read- do their chores (just until they are "hooked"- however long that takes)
Average Scores Slip on SAT
By TAMAR LEWIN
NEW YORK TIMES
Average scores on the SAT fell across the nation this year, with the reading score for the high school class of 2011 falling three points to 497, the lowest on record, according to a report Wednesday by the College Board, which administers the exams.
The average writing score dropped two points, to 489, and the math score was down one point, to 514.
The College Board attributed the decline to the increasing diversity of the students taking the test. For example, about 27 percent of the nearly 1.65 million test-takers last year came from a home where English was not the only language, up from 19 percent a decade ago.
But Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, a nonprofit group critical of much standardized testing, said the declines were an indictment of the nation's increasing emphasis on high-stakes testing programs and of No Child Left Behind, the federal education law that has driven it.
"How many wake-up calls do policy makers need before they admit that their test-and-punish strategy is a failure?" Mr. Schaeffer said. "Policymakers need to embrace very different policies if they are committed to real education reform."
About 30 percent of those who took the SAT were black, Hispanic or American Indian, groups whose scores have stubbornly remained lower than those of whites and Asians.
"There are still consistent gaps, but that speaks more to access to quality education than to what's going on with the SAT," said Wayne Camara, the College Board's vice president for research and development, adding that, for example, white and Asian students were far more likely than black or Hispanic students to take precalculus and calculus in high school.
Each of the three SAT sections is scored from 200 to 800, with 2,400 the highest possible combined score. This year's combined average was 1,500, down from 1,506 last year.
Math scores have hovered between 520 and 514 for the past decade, while scores on the writing test have been dropping since it was introduced six years ago.
Reading scores, which averaged 508 in 2005, dropped in 2009 to 499, the previous low. Students with only three years of high school English had average SAT reading scores of 464, while those who took Advanced Placement or honors English averaged 556.
Even as average scores decline, the number of high scores is growing: in math, the number of students who scored at least 700 on the 800-point test has increased more than 20 percent since 2007.
In its report Wednesday, the College Board for the first time estimated the score — 1,550 — that students needed to have a 65 percent chance of averaging at least a B-minus as college freshmen. Forty-three percent of the Class of 2011 test-takers met that benchmark. |
